Articles
God Sent His Son - 1 John 4:7-14
Love is major theme in John’s first epistle. He wrote about two aspects of love. One aspect of love is horizontal. This involves our love for one another. A second aspect of love is vertical. This includes our love for God. Both aspects of love are essential for those who are walking in the Light. John wrote, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also” (1 Jn. 4:20-21).
The vertical aspect of love also includes God’s love for us. How is His love made known to us? John wrote, “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” (1 Jn. 4:9). God declared His love for mankind by sending His Son into the world, and this loving action by God is emphasized by John in two other passages. John wrote, “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 Jn. 4:10) and “...we have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 Jn. 4:14). John wanted believers to connect God’s decisive action of sending His Son into the world with His love for them.
One lexicon defines the verb send as “to dispatch someone for the achievement of some objective.” What did the sending of God’s Son into the world achieve? John wrote, “...God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him” (1 Jn. 4:9). John’s use of the word live can mean “to be alive physically.” However, it is best understood here as “to live in the glory of the life to come; to have eternal life.” God sent His Son into the world that we may have eternal life. John also wrote, “...He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 Jn. 4:10). We cannot experience eternal life because of sin and its consequences, so God sent Jesus to be the sacrifice (propitiation) for our sins. Finally, John wrote, “...the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 Jn. 4:14). Eternal death is the penalty for sin (Rom. 6:23), but God sent His Son to liberate and deliver us from the consequences of sin. John emphasized God’s decisive action of sending His Son into the world to remind believers that something amazing has been achieved—our salvation!
God sent His Son into the world because of the amazing love that He has for us. We can have eternal life, be delivered from the consequences of sin, and be saved because of God’s loving action and the sacrifice of Jesus. Let’s remember God’s love for us and the reason He sent His Son into the world.
