“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16). No doubt we can look around in nature, in human relationships, and in the marvels of the creation itself and get a view of God’s love, however much sin has damaged that creation as well as our ability to appreciate or even read it correctly. But at the cross, veils were torn off, and the world was given the starkest and sharpest revelation possible of that love—a love so great that it led to what Ellen G. White called “the sundering of the divine powers.”—The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p. 924.
The sundering of the divine powers?
So great was God’s love for us that the Godhead, whose members loved each other from eternity, endured this “sundering” in order to redeem us. “ ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ ” (Matt. 27:46) is the clearest and most powerful expression of that “sundering,” of what it cost to save us. Here, we can again see the pain and suffering the Lord has endured because of our sin.
No wonder, then, that “we love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19, NIV). Of course, as fallen humans we only imitate that love, and even that imitation is often warped by our own selfishness and sinful desires. God’s love transcends ours; we reflect God’s love the way an oily mud puddle reflects the sky.
Discussion Questions:
1- Though many of us today don’t worship animals or things in nature the way the ancients did, in what ways are we still in danger of making an idol or a god out of nature itself?
2- What is the role of repentance in the life of a Christian? That is, outside of one’s initial repentance in the course of first accepting Jesus, what role does repentance continue to have in the life of faith?
3- Try to wrap your mind around the idea of the “sundering of the divine powers.” How are we to understand this? If nothing else, what does this tell us about just how deadly and costly sin is?
Adventist Sabbath School Lesson for Adults
Q4 2015 «Jeremiah»
Lesson 7 – The Crisis Continues
