Hello Friends!
Welcome back to part two of “We love Him because He first loved Us.”
Let’s continue our study with the third lesson: THE PARTICULARITY OF HIS SAVING WORK…
Welcome back to part two of “We love Him because He first loved Us.”
Let’s continue our study with the third lesson: THE PARTICULARITY OF HIS SAVING WORK…
We love Him because He
first loved Us (Part 3 of 5)
We’ve reached lesson
three. Our verse “We love Him, because He first loved us.” not only highlights the perverseness of our fallen state
and teaches us about the priority of God’s electing choice; thirdly, it shows
us His saving work.
What do I mean by
that? Look at the verse again: “We love Him, because He first loved
us.” Those words express John’s
conviction that God has done something special for us. “We love Him… ” but
not everyone loves Him. God has done something on our behalf and in our hearts
that He does not do for everyone. He has demonstrated a particular love for us.
The apostle John was
always keenly aware of this fact. He gloried in the knowledge that Jesus’ love
for him was a special love. That is the implication of his favorite self
description:
…that
disciple whom Jesus loved – John 21:7
John used that phrase
again and again because he delighted in the knowledge that Christ loved him in
particular. God had redeemed him in particular. He was not merely the
beneficiary of a general goodwill that God has for all creation; he was
convinced that Christ’s love for him was personal and special. Jesus loved him
in particular.
You know what? Every
born-again person will say that. He loves me in particular. He loves me with a
special love. I’m not merely a dog, licking up the crumbs of God’s general love
for all mankind. I am one of the children He has seated at His table. Every
believer could refer to himself, as the apostle John did, as “That guy whom
Jesus loves.”
By the way, I do
believe with all my heart that God has a general love of God for everyone in
the human race:
The Lord
is good to all, and His tender mercies
are over all His works – Psalm 145:9
Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as
though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things – Acts
17:25
Those are tokens of a
genuine goodwill and loving kindness that extends to everyone who was ever
born. This is known as general grace. In fact, God even loves His
enemies:
that you may be sons of your Father in
heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain
on the just and on the unjust – Matthew 5:45
Yet God’s love for the
elect is a particular love. He loves them with the love of a Father for His own
children. He loves them each uniquely. He loves them in a special way. His love
for them is the highest and most sacred kind of love known to man. No greater
love can possibly be extended to any creature. And that great love is manifest
in a particular way. It is a sacrificial kind of love that will stop at nothing
to preserve its object. Jesus Christ’s love moved Him to give His life for His
friends:
Greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends – John 15:13
The proof of His
electing love—and the thing that lovingly guarantees the salvation of His
people—is the atoning work of Christ. Look back a few verses:
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. 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 4:9-10
God the Father gave
Christ the Son to die for them in order to be a propitiation for their sins.
That simply means He satisfied justice on their behalf. He satisfied the wrath
of God on their behalf. He bore their guilt and shame. He died in their place
and in their stead, so that they wouldn’t have to suffer the penalty for their
own sins. He bore the wrath of God on their behalf. He paid in full the penalty
of their sins. He was their substitute. He died for them in particular.
So let’s talk about “limited atonement.”
Some of you may be thinking, now there’s a doctrine not every Christian presupposes!
Actually, I think anyone who believes the atonement was substitutionary
presupposes this doctrine of the atonement. Jesus Christ suffered in my place
and in my stead. He wasn’t such a substitute for Judas’s punishment, because if
what Jesus said about Judas is true, Judas is in hell this very moment, bearing
the wrath of God for himself. I personally don’t like the expression “limited
atonement,” because it suggests that the atonement is limited in its sufficiency.
No true Christian
believes that. If you have the idea that there is a limit on the value or
sufficiency of the atonement, forget that idea. Anyone who denies that Christ’s
death was sufficient to atone for the sins of the whole world is not thinking
Biblically. Jesus Christ’s sacrifice was infinite in its sufficiency. The death
of Jesus Christ is infinitely sufficient and that one sacrifice could have
atoned for the sins of the whole world – if that had been God’s design.
But was that God’s
design? Or was the central and supreme object of His death the salvation of
those whom God had loved with a special love from before the foundation of the
world? I believe those questions are definitively settled forever by the
Apostle Paul:
We
trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, specially of those that
believe – 1
Timothy 4:10
In the design of God,
the atoning work of Christ has a special significance for the elect, because it
was the means by which He secured and guaranteed their salvation forever:
The
good shepherd gives his life for the sheep – John 10:11
And most believers
would affirm the basic gist of that truth – Jesus Christ’s atonement is
efficacious only for those who actually believe.
Notice: when John
writes, “We love Him, because He first loved us,” he is addressing those who were the particular objects of
Christ’s redemptive work. Look once again at verse 9:
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
This was the object of
God in the death of His Son: “that we might live through Him.” He
undertook this saving work for us in particular, because we are special objects
of His eternal love...
Thank you for reading! Don’t miss next week’s edition as we investigate lesson #4…
May the
Lord Jesus Christ continue to bless you with His perfect love, mercy and grace!
Keep looking up and sharing the Gospel while
there is still time… Hallelujah and Maranatha – come quickly Lord Jesus!
Blessings!
Shane <><