Herein IS LOVE
MAN by nature always holds a much higher opinion of himself than he should. By nature, not one unregenerate sinner can THINK or VIEW their standing before the true and living God “according to the Scriptures.” They don’t take the position King David took when he declared - “LORD, what [is] man, that thou takest knowledge of him! [or] the son of man, that thou makest account of him! Man is like to vanity: his days [are] as a shadow that passeth way.” (Ps.144:2,3) While justified, believing saints DO LOVE the Lord, it IS NOT their love to God, but God’s LOVE to them that is the hope and cause of their salvation, and THEY KNOW THAT TO BE THE CASE - “We LOVE Him, because HE FIRST LOVED US.”(I Jn.4:19) Josiah Condor wrote a wonderful, short hymn, and the words of that hymn are every true believer’s mantra:
1 'Tis not that I did choose thee,
for, Lord, that could not be;
this heart would still refuse thee,
hadst thou not chosen me.
Thou from the sin that stained me
hast cleansed and set me free;
of old thou hast ordained me,
that I should live to thee.
2 'Twas sov'reign mercy called me
and taught my op'ning mind;
the world had else enthralled me,
to heav'nly glories blind.
My heart owns none before thee,
for thy rich grace I thirst;
THIS KNOWING, THAT I LOVE THEE,
THOU MUST HAVE LOVED ME FIRST.
The Apostle John’s words in the I Jn.4:10 make this truth abundantly clear - “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins.” God’s “love” is not an emotional response like ours. God can only love those who are perfectly righteous and holy, those with whom He is perfectly satisfied. Seeing “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”, sinners are forever excluded from His fellowship and presence due to their sin. Yet the ONE TRUE GOD, having loved His own in Christ the Son, their Substitute and Surety, the One in Whom they were chosen, and the One to whom they were given, because of that “great love wherewith He loved us”, “SENT HIS SON THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS.” It wasn’t that God saw any sinner LOVING Him and the Son which moved God to in turn love them. This verse makes it clear that God’s ETERNAL LOVE for His chosen people PROVIDED what His infinite holiness and justice demanded - A “PROPITIATION”, which means ‘the MEANS of appeasing”. Kind of like what Abraham told Isaac when he inquired: “My father: and he said, Here [am] I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where [is] the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham responded with the faith of God’s elect - “And Abraham said, My son, GOD WILL PROVIDE HIMSELF A LAMB FOR A BURNT OFFERING: so they went both of them together.”(Gen.22:7,8) DO YOU SEE THE PROFOUND MEANING OF THESE WORDS - GOD WOULD SATISFY HIMSELF. Listen to Isaiah - “I, [even] I, [am] he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”(Isa.43:25) One more verse - “The LORD, he will joy over thee with thy God in the midst of thee [is] mighty; HE WILL SAVE, he will rejoice over thee with joy; HE WILL REST IN HIS LOVE, He will joy over thee with singing.”(Zeph.3:17) What is the “LOVE” JEHOVAH rests in? It certainly IS NOT and CANNOT be ours. What is the LOVE - “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son, THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS.” He rests IN HIS LOVE, which is Christ alone, “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
