Love One Another

Text: 1 John 4:7-13

June 30, 2013

Introduction:

“For the gospel to be the gospel, for the Bible to be the Bible, and for reality to be what it is, Jesus has to be both truth God and true human, and God must be both one and three,” (Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture, p. 66).

Lesson:

“Jesus exhausted the wrath of God. It was not merely deflected and prevented from reaching us; it was exhausted. Jesus bore the full, unmitigated brunt of it…During those awful hours when Jesus hung on the cross, the cup of God’s wrath was completely turned upside down. Christ exhausted the cup of God’s wrath. For all who trust in Him there is nothing more in the cup. It is empty,"" (Jerry Bridges, The Gospel For Real Life, p. 57).

The immediate result of the love of the Father is the saving mission of the Son (in this case propitiation).

The compelling cause of Jesus' saving, propitiating mission was the Father's love.

“The Father Sent His Son to make Himself known—meaning not that He wanted to simply download some information about Himself, but that the love the Father eternally had for the Son might be in those who believe in Him, and that we might enjoy the Son as the Father always has. Here, then, is a salvation no single-person God [e.g., Allah-J.F.] could offer even if they wanted to: the Father so delights in His eternal love for the Son that He desires to share it with all who will believe. Ultimately, the Father sent the Son because the Father so loved the Son—and wanted to share that love and fellowship. His love for the world (you and me-J.F.!) is the overflow of His almighty love for His Son,” (Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity, p. 70).

For what purpose did the Father send His Son to be the propitiation for our sins?

Reflection:

“Through the giving of the Spirit, God shares with us—and catches us up into—the life that is His…At the heart of our transformation into the likeness of the Son, then, is our sharing of His deep delight in the Father. In our love and enjoyment of the Son we are like the Father; in our love and enjoyment of the Father we are like the Son. That is the happy life the Spirit calls us to…

Like the oil flowing down onto the body of the high priest, He [the Holy Spirit-J.F.] imparts the blessings of Christ the Head to His Body, the church. He takes what is Christ’s and makes it ours (Jn 16:14) so that in the Beloved Son we might be the beloved children of God. How great and lovely, then, is the work of the Spirit! He unites us to the Son so that the Father’s love for the Son also encompasses us; He draws us to share the Father’s own enjoyment of the Son; and He causes us to share the Son’s delight in the Father. What could be more delicious than to keep in step with a Spirit whose purpose is that,” (Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity, pp. 94-96)?

© John Fonville

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