The pen of fiction never produced such a story as the Story of the Love of God. The pen of fact, the divinely inspired pen, yields us the wonderful narrative. And it is God Himself who is commending to us, sinners as we are, this tale of His surpassing grace. Thus we read,

"God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8).

He would have us know and delight in the revelation of Himself.

Now there is no part of the Word of God where the truth connected with the love of God is so fully presented as in 1 John 4:7-5:3. It is the passage which speaks of the love of God as viewed from many standpoints. His love towards us, His love to us, His love in us, His love through us, finding at last an echo in the hearts of believers upon His beloved Son, in that "We love Him," and then love one another.

Let us look for a little, first of all, at verses 7 and 8. There we find the

SOURCE OF LOVE

This is in God Himself. "Love is of God," "GOD IS LOVE."

How little this great truth is believed. There are those who think and teach that God was against the sinner, and that the Lord Jesus came and died upon the cross in order to turn God's heart toward us. This is far from the truth of the gospel. The Lord Jesus did not die to make God love us BUT because God loved us. It was God who sent His Son to be our Saviour. So we read of the Son of Man being lifted up at Calvary "FOR God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son"-His only One, His delight-in order "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." God loved. God gave. His Son came. His Son died. This is the order. Then, believing in Him, everlasting life is ours.

All down the centuries the people of Egypt owed the fertility of their country to the overflowing of the River Nile. They rejoiced in what it did for them, but they did not know from whence the mighty waters came. It was left for modern exploration to discover the vast lakes where the river has its rise, and it is said that the travelers who had sought for weary months to discover the source of the great stream, wept for joy when at last their eyes beheld the expanses of water they had searched for amid much toil and travail.

The gospel which brings present and everlasting blessing comes to us by way of the cross of Calvary but it has its rise in, and flows from the heart of God Himself. There is its source. It was in the cross the love of God was declared. There it was that

THE MANIFESTATION OF THAT LOVE WAS GIVEN

But let us remember the order, God loved first, then His Son died. The great love of God found its expression at Calvary, but it was in the heart of God before. Thus in verses 9 and 10 we read, "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

Here then we find that

THE SUBJECTS OF THAT LOVE

WERE sinners, just such sinners as we know ourselves to be. As such we are viewed in two ways in our deep need. We are seen as dead in our sins, and also as guilty before God's holy throne.

As dead in our sins there was no movement whatever in our hearts towards God. We were morally, spiritually dead. We were alive enough to that which we judged to be to our advantage as we served divers lusts and pleasures, but God was shut out of all our thoughts. We read of such in 1 Timothy 5:6, "She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth." Or again, in the parable of the prodigal son, when he had come back, the father said of him, "This my son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found." He had been in the far country away from his father and had never given a word to his parent to show that he was alive. Thus it is with the sinner away from God. He wants nothing to do with God to whom he knows that he is accountable and so he lives in distance and darkness, saying in his heart, "No God for me." It was for such that God sent His Son so that we might live, live in the light of His life, and in the enjoyment of the knowledge of Himself now and for ever.

Then, as guilty sinners, we needed that the Lord Jesus should become the sacrifice of sin and sins and glorify should become the sacrifice of sin and sins and glorify God about them, meeting all the claims of His holy throne. "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures," tells of this, as also "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." God loved us in our guilt and need and knowing what was needed gave His own Son to meet that need.
Inglis Fleming

(Concluded in next number, D.V.)