GET REAL
Part 9
Chapter 11: God’s Love
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”—1 John 4:7-8 ESV
When John calls his listeners “beloved,” he uses a word that means “divinely loved ones, loved by God.” As before, love is agape, which is the love produced by the Holy Spirit in the heart of the yielded saint, the love seen in action at the cross, defined for us in 1 Corinthians 13.
The phrase “has been born of God” is in the perfect verb tense, meaning the person “has been begotten in the past with the present result that the person is a child of God.” As we’ve already discussed, this new birth is a permanent thing. A child of God remains a child of God forever.
Then the phrase “Does not know God” is in the verb tense meaning “he never knew.” Another version translates this as, “did not get to know by becoming born again.”
When John says that “God is love,” he means that God, as to His nature, is love. God is a loving God, and it is His very nature to be loving.
So, we have been permanently born of God through Christ Jesus and, as a result, the fruit of agape love should be manifesting and growing in us.
“In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”—1 John 4:9
“Only begotten” is from a word meaning, “single of its kind, unique.” Used elsewhere of Christ Jesus, the word means the only Son of God, or one who has no brethren, and none like Him. He is utterly unique.
The word “Sent” means “to send on a commission as an envoy, with credentials [which, in Jesus’ case, were his miracles], to perform certain duties.” Jesus’ mission was to die for sinners, thus satisfying the requirements of a holy God. Sin had to be punished and justice had to be satisfied. On the cross, Jesus took the judgment for our sins on Himself and God’s need for justice was satisfied. The price was paid through his blood.
To help us understand, here is a real-life example:
A man recently paid a friend’s debt. This was a debt that the friend legally owed and justice required that the debt be paid. Mercy came into play when he (the debtor) called and asked for help. “I owe,” he said, “but I don’t have the money. Can you help me with this debt?” Mercy moved the man to want to help, but grace, or undeserved favor, came into play when he agreed to settle the debt on his friend’s behalf and satisfy justice.
It was mercy that moved God’s heart for humanity:
“For God so loved the world with a pitying love (mercy) that He gave His unique Son.”—John 3:16, NLT
Mercy moved God’s heart, but grace caused him to give of himself to satisfy his need for justice. Because of mercy, God’s heart was grieved over our heavy debt load of guilt and shame, but grace produced his gift of forgiveness, which took our guilt away.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the ages to come He might show the boundless riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”—Ephesians 2:4-7
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”—1 John 4:10
The English dictionary defines propitiation as “to appease,” but that is the pagan meaning. The pagan worshiper of false gods brought gifts to his god to appease the god’s wrath and earn a favorable outcome.
The God of Christianity requires no gifts to appease his wrath.
In fact, we learned from Cain that in our own strength we can never hope to satisfy God’s righteous requirements. God’s wrath against sin cannot be placated by good works. Only the infliction of the penalty of sin, which is death, will satisfy the just demands of his holy law grievously violated by the human race. “The soul that sins, it shall die.”—Ezekiel 18:20, NKJV
The New Testament meaning of propitiation is that Christ’s death on the cross satisfied the justice God needed to placate His wrath against sin on our behalf, once for all and for all time!
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”—1 John 4:11
When John says “God so loved us,” he refers to the incredible, infinite love that was manifested on God’s part when he sent his Son to die on a cross of shame to pay the sinful debt that we owed but could not pay. The heart of the Father was pierced when sin was laid on the Son at the cross and his holiness demanded that he turn his face away from his Son.
In the same manner, says John, the saints have a moral obligation to love one another constantly and earnestly!
“No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.”—1 John 4:12, NASB
When John refers to God, he means deity in his essence. The wording here is stressing God’s character, essence, or nature. The word “seen” means, “to behold, look upon, view attentively, contemplate.”
No one has ever yet beheld God in his essence, nor does anyone have the capacity to behold him.
Then when John says “his love is perfected in us,” he means that if we love one another, the nature of God, which is love, has accomplished its purpose in our lives by making us loving and self-sacrificial in our characters.