God Sent His Son

The love of God is not something we are left to define for ourselves. 1 JOHN 4:9 (ESV) says God's love was made manifest among us by this: God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. Love is shown in the sending of Christ. That matters because people use the word love in many ways. Sometimes love is reduced to approval. Sometimes it means sentiment. Sometimes it means never confronting sin. Sometimes it means giving people whatever they want. But Scripture shows us the love of God at the cross-shaped centre of the gospel.

The same passage shows that love is not first our movement toward God, but God's movement toward sinners in sending His Son as the propitiation for our sins. That word carries the seriousness of sin and the mercy of God. Christ satisfies the wrath our sin deserved. God's love is not shallow. It is holy love that provides atonement. This humbles us because God's love begins with Him, not with our loveliness. We did not move first toward God with pure hearts. He loved. He sent. He saved. This also corrects despair. If you measure God's love only by your feelings, you will rise and fall constantly. Feelings can be weak, tired, confused, or wounded. But the cross is not unstable. The sending of the Son is not imaginary.

JOHN 3:16 (ESV) says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son." That is love with proof. God did not merely speak love from a distance. He gave His Son. As Christmas draws close, do not let the word love become vague. Look at Christ. God sent His Son so that sinners might live through Him. That is love revealed by God Himself.