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By
this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only
begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 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. Beloved, if God so loved
us, we also ought to love one another.
-1 John 4:9-11
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A few months ago I was listening to a Christian talk radio
station and they were interviewing a very well-known pastor, speaker,
and evangelist. Much of the interview focused on the pastor’s
career and experiences while traveling around the world preaching to
hundreds of thousands of people throughout his lifetime. He was
now well into 70’s, had been sharing the gospel for over 50 years, and
was nearing the end of his ministry. Toward the conclusion of this
interview, the host of the show asked this well-traveled, revered pastor
if there was anything that he would have done differently during his 50
years of outstanding ministry. There was a pause before he
answered…the question had somehow struck a chord in the heart of this
man. As he began to answer, you could hear a trembling in his
voice and a humility in his tone of voice that had not really
surfaced previously in the interview. |
You could almost see
through the radio and behold the now tear-filled eyes and quivering chin
of this typically stoic man. He replied softly, “If there was one
thing that I could do over again it would be to go back to every church,
every meeting, every crusade, every individual…and instead of preaching
the wrath and judgment of God, I would share His message of love and
grace. That is what I failed to do and therefore regret most of
all about my years of ministry.”
What a profoundly vulnerable and remarkable confession! I got
teary eyed too and my heart began to race and my spirit leapt as I heard
his words. Why? Because it was a confirmation from the Holy
Spirit to me to press on with the calling that He had given Marcy and me to
proclaim the love and grace of God to all who will listen. I
don’t ever want to look back, whether its 50 years from now or 50
minutes from now, and know that I passed up an opportunity to share the
love and grace of God with anyone.
You see there is nothing more powerful than love. The love of God,
in fact, is relentless. Francis Thompson calls God, who is love,
“The Hound of Heaven.” His love is a love that never stops pursuing
and giving, pursuing and giving until the object of His
love…y-o-u…is loved into submission!
Consider the following from 1 John
4:9-11.
The purpose of God's love is to give Life to the dead (1 John 4:9).
The love
of God is a unique, proprietary love. It is a love that has only
One source…God Himself. We cannot find this kind of love (agape
love) in anyone or anything but God. He is agape love. This
is a love that seeks to sacrificially meet the greatest need of the
other, regardless of the worth, performance, or responsiveness of the
other.
Man is born dead (spiritually separated) from God. It’s not that
he does not have a spirit. It is rather that his spirit is alive
to Satan and dead to, separated from, God. When Adam ate of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he died that day spiritually
(Gen. 2:16-17) as did all of future mankind (1 Cor. 15:22a; Rom.
5:12). Comedian and film-maker, Woody Allen, once said, “I
am not afraid to die. I just don’t want to be there when
it happens.” Well, the biblical truth of the matter is that we
were there, in Adam, when death came in and death spread to A-L-L men.
Herein lies man’s greatest need…the solution to death.
Man has a much bigger problem than just sin. He has a
“consequences of sin” problem (Rom. 6:23)…he’s spiritually dead!
Jesus, on the other hand, has the market cornered on Life, eternal life.
Jesus' ultimate, bottom-line purpose in loving us was not just to die
for us (as essential as that is to our salvation)…but
to give Life to
us. This unique kind of life is
called eternal life. It is, in fact, His life. He IS
eternal life! Eternal Life is not a thing. Eternal life is
found in a person…the person of Jesus Christ (John 5:4; 10:10; 14:6; 1 Jn 5:11-13). He is the solution to man's greatest need and
He provides that solution, L-I-F-E, because He loves us.
The proof of
God's love for us is the Cross (v. 10).
Here is
agape love (seeking to sacrificially meet the greatest need of the
other, regardless of the worth, performance, or responsiveness of the
other) in action. Here is the proof…not that we loved God, but
that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (satisfaction)
for our sins. God walks the talk! What He says He has
done, He has
done. And what He says He will do, He will do…100% of the time.
When we
didn’t even love Him, He loved us. Without any form of
reciprocation on our part, no response from us, He has loved us.
You owed a debt you could not pay, and He paid a debt He did not owe.
Not only did He pay your debt, He paid it by crucifying His Son.
From God’s perspective, each of you was and is worth His only Son.
Think about that…He could have chosen to redeem you with a tree, a
rock, a frog…but He chose His Son. Wow! None of us could
ever clean up our act, improve our performance, or make ourselves
acceptable to God. In Adam, we had more than a behavior problem,
we had an identity problem. There wasn’t just something wrong with my
actions, there was something wrong with me. Did that stop God from
loving us? But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8)…For God so
loved the world…(John 3:16)…and He Himself is the propitiation for
our sins; and
not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world (1 John 2:2)
The
perpetuation of God's love is the goal (v.11).
Beloved...hey,
that’s you! You are loved by God. He is in love with you!
The word "ought" in this verse does not mean “must, should, have to,
better, etc”… but rather a “longing to, yearning to” love one
another. It describes what would be the logical sequence of events
after coming to know and believe the love that God has for you…. And
we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for
us…We love, because He first loved us (1 John 4:16a, 19). If you
put gas in your car, it ought to run. If you stub your toe on the
furniture, you ought to scream! If God loves you unconditionally
(and you know it and believe it), you too ought to love others. And He
will insure that, to some degree, you will love others. After all, love
is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) and so He is
the only One who can produce love!
George Elliot once admitted, “I not only want to be loved, I want to
be told that I’m loved.” Do you need to be told that you are
loved as well? I know I do…and, glory to God, He has given us
the longest book ever written declaring the love of its Author for you.
Page after page, line after line, word after word, proclaims the love of
God for you. Some of you may be at a point in your life where you
just don’t feel like God loves you. Some of you may
not even believe He loves you. The Bible is God’s love
letter to the world telling you that you are loved…and not by just
anyone, but by the only One who can love you, as His unique,
one-of-a-kind creation, needs to be loved. God IS love. In
fact, God is perfect love. He loves you perfectly…which
means that He loves you the most beneficial way that you need to be
loved at any moment in time. All that God has initiated and
declares in His word, which is truth, calls out to you and me for one
thing…a response of faith…to take Him at His word. God is more
concerned with our acceptance of His faithfulness than the demonstration
of our own!
So, how do you know God loves you? Because He has met your
greatest need by giving you Life. He has proven His love for you, and
the entire world, by the Cross. Rejoice in the fact that each and every day
God allows you the honor of being an extension
of that same love to others. None of us deserve this perfect love,
yet all mankind has and will benefit from it, whether we all realize it yet or not.
Maybe that’s why it’s called grace!
-- John Moneypenny
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