The Heart Of The Gospel; Part 1 - God So Loved The World
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life." - John 3:16
"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son."
There are two of the
persons of the Godhead. Many people are troubled about the relation of the
Father to the Son, and of the Son to the Father. They cannot exactly see how
Jesus Christ can be equal with God if He is God's Son; and they cannot see how
He can be as glorious as the Father, and how He can be entitled to the same
honor and homage and worship as the Father if He proceeds forth from the Father,
and comes into the world.
But let us seek a simple illustration. It is said, in the introduction of this
Gospel according to John, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God." [John 1:1] What is a word? It is the expression of a
thought that lies in the mind. The thought is not visible, the thought is not
audible; but, when it takes the form of a spoken word or a written word, that
thought that was invisible in the mind, that you could not see, or hear, or know
about in any other way, comes to your eye on the printed page, or to your ear
through the voice of the speaker. And so my invisible thoughts are coming to you
now through these audible words. The word is so connected with the thought that
it is the expression of the thought. The thought is the word invisible: the word
is the thought visible.
Now Jesus Christ was the
invisible thought of God put into a form in which you could see it and hear it;
and just as the word and the thought are so connected that if you understand the
word you understand the thought, and if you understand the thought you
understand the word; and as the word would have no meaning without the thought,
and the thought no expression without the word, so Jesus Christ helps us to
understand the Father, and the Father could not make Himself perfectly known to
us except through the Son. But, again, we are told that Christ is "the Light of
the world." [John 8:12] Suppose I should say, "In the beginning" was the light,
and the light was with the sun, and the light was the sun. The sun sends forth
the light, and the light proceeds from the sun; yet the light and the sun are
the same in nature and the same in essence, and the glory of the sun is the
glory of the light, and the glory of the light is the glory of the sun; and
although the light goes forth from the sun, it is equal with the sun, shares the
same glory, and is entitled to the same valuation. We cannot think of the one
without the other.
In this text not a word is said about the love of the Son for sinners, nor a
word about the Son's offering of Himself for the Salvation of men. What is the
common, old-fashioned notion that we sometimes find cropping up even in the
conceptions of Christian people as well as unbelievers, in these days? Many
think of the Father as representing justice and of the Son as representing
mercy. They imagine the Son as coming between the wrath of the Father and the
guilty sinner.
It is very much like the story of Pocahontas, the daughter of an Indian chief,
who came between the executioner and Captain Smith, when the executioner was
standing with his club uplifted, ready to strike the fatal blow on the head of
his victim.
The notion of a great many people is that God the Father is all wrath, and that
we can never look at God or think of God, and that God never can look at us or
think of us, except with a kind of hatred and hostility; and that so Jesus
Christ incarnates the principle of love, and comes in between the angry God and
the sinner. That is a very shallow notion indeed. Have you never got hold of the
idea that the Father is just as much interested in you as the Son is, and that
the Father loves you just as much as the Son does? Look at this verse. It puts
all the glory of the love and the sacrifice upon the Father: "God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son." He puts it thus that you and I may
understand that our notion of the Son is our notion of the Father. When Philip
said, "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficient us," Jesus answered, "Have I
been so long time with you, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He that has
seen Me has seen the Father; how then, do you say ‘Show us the Father?’" [John
14:8-9]
Do you not understand my thought if you understand my word? And if my word is
the right expression of my thought, how absurd it would be for somebody to say,
"I understand his word well enough, but I wish that I could understand his
thought." My word, being human, may not always properly express my thought; but
with God the Word is the perfect expression of the thought; and so if you have
understood the word you have understood the thought: and if you have understood
the thought you have understood the word. If you have seen the Son, you have
seen the Father. If the love of the Son has touched you, the love of the Father
has touched you. If you worship the Son, you worship the Father. If you obey the
Son, you obey the Father; so that you need not be troubled about your feelings
toward the Father, and say, as many a person has said to me, "I wish that I
could feel towards God the Father as I feel towards Jesus. I wish that I could
have those views of God the Father that I have of Jesus. I wish that I could
have the freedom with the Father that I have with the Son."
Now, dismiss all that kind of trouble and perplexity from your mind; for as you
think of the Son you think of the Father; as you love the Son, you love the
Father; as you pray to the Son, you pray to the Father; and as you obey and
serve the Son, you obey and serve the Father. The Son thinks of you just as the
Father does, and the Father thinks of you just as the Son does.
"So near, so very near to
God,
Nearer I cannot be;
For in the person of His Son
I am as near as He.
So dear, so very dear to God,
Dearer I cannot be;
For the love where with He loves the Son
Is the love He bears to me."