5.5. JESUS DECLARED THE FATHER AS LOVE

Jesus declared to Nicodemus the Father's love, and Himself as God's love-gift.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Had Jesus said the Father loved us when we became His children, or now that we are His children, there would be some little understanding of that. But what Jesus is saying is beyond our knowledge of love. The Father is said to have "loved" us before we became His children. That love is the true origin or source of our salvation.

Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

There was nothing in us to evoke that love. The source of our salvation is God's own love. Salvation was not wrung from the Father by the Son. Far from it. The atoning death of Christ was the effect, not the cause of God's love. Because of His love, the Father is moved to communicate Himself to man no matter how great the cost to Himself. His love is unique, and in no way can it be compared with human love.

Lehman Strauss in His book on "First Person" says: "There is a love that has its basis in passion, seeking gratification, such as sex love. There is a love that has its basis in pleasurableness, a love that is called out of one heart to another, a sort of philanthropy, a communication which affords pleasure. But God's love has its basis in preciousness, a love flowing from God's heart because He prizes those whom He loves."

Man may hate God, curse Him, deny Him and defy Him; still man is pursued by God because the soul of man is so precious to Him. God's usable people are motivated by the Father's love to reach out unconditionally to rejecting and resisting people, because of the value His love places upon their immortal souls.

It has been rightly said that "None can define or measure that little word 'so'". There are dimensions to the breadth, length, depth, and height of His wondrous love that none can measure. The degree of the Father's free, unsolicited, sovereign love is referred to, not measured or determined, because it is only known in all its fullness to the divine mind, and is drawn to our worshipful attention, by the little word 'so'. Let it be said that eternity itself will be too limited to solve this word 'so' or to find out the vastness of its significance.

We worship Father, whose love is unfathomable, and inestimable and everlasting. Those who exercise themselves in worshipping, will find the demands made upon them to be channels of the expression of His love, to be reasonable service.

Pharisaic interpretation of the Old Testament had left the outside world in judgment, and had made Abrahamic descent and sacramental privilege the conditions of favour with God. Here, the Father is declared by Jesus to love without partiality and in an unlimited way. The world of fallen mankind is the object of His love. God's usable people in the Father's love, overcome all prejudices, differences and limitations in their relationship to those around them. They demonstrate His all-embracing love.

The Father's love always has at heart the highest interest of others. His is an outpouring of heart. "He gave." His real love is exceedingly practical, and totally unselfish - it gives. Father love in His people is far more than a just free giving of things, it is a poured-out life, without consideration for self-interests. Such people are unstoppable in willing service to others.

The love of the Father gives up sacrificially His very best. His love carried Him to the very extent of giving Himself in His Son for the exceedingly valued souls of men. When meditating on John 3:16, we should be mindful of a similar reference:

1 John 3:16 "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."

Unsparing love is required of the believer. This love of the Father will be seen in sacrificial giving of their substance, even the material necessities of life. John questions, "How does the love of God abide in him if a believer can shut up his heart when he sees a brother in need, and has the ability to meet those needs?" (1 John 3:17 ). Indwelt by the Father who spared not His Son, will make us unsparing in deeds of practical love.

Just as many died in the wilderness from the bites of the serpents, choosing not to look and live (Numbers 21:6-9 ), so many of Adam's race will suffer the second death in the lake of fire, because they do not repent of sin, and look to the uplifted Saviour in faith.

The word "perish" points not only to the peril of the unrepentant and unbelieving, it tells of the love of the Father that cannot compromise with the plague of sin that totally ruins the object of His love. None but He who made us can have an adequate sense of the ruin of our nature through sin. The unbelieving are condemned already (John 3:18 ). They will perish in the face of love's provision of redemption, because they reject the only remedy the Father's love has provided, in the sacrifice of His only begotten Son, complete cleansing from sin.

1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

The Father knows fully all the glory and perfection of which the redeemed are capable, outside of sin. Therefore, in uncompromising love, He rescues the perishing, in His Son. Those who know the uncompromising love of the Father in their lives, have turned from sin to the living God, and delight in being used to rescue the perishing souls of men.