Divine
Love, Integrity; Propitiation; 1 John 4:9-11
1
John 4:8 NASB “The one who does not love does not know God, for God
is love.” Notice he does not say, “He who does not love is not born of God and
does not know God,” he simply says, “He who does not love does not know God.”
He is still born of God but he doesn’t know God yet, he hasn’t advanced to any
stage of spiritual maturity. What we understand from this is that personal love
for God must precede impersonal love for believers. Before we can love one
another we have to first come to know God and to love God. That is what that is
built on because we can’t love one another until we understand some profound
things about the cross. Regeneration is the only basis for reaching a state
where we can love God, practice righteousness, or not sin; but just because one
is born again it doesn’t mean these things are also true.
There
is a profound statement related to the essence of God at the end of verse 8:
“for,” and then the causal statement, an explanation, “because God is love.”
Earlier in the epistle John makes another statement: “God is light.” Now in 1
John 4:8 he says, “God is love.” Light relates to the perfect holiness or
integrity of God. His integrity emphasises first His righteousness, the
standard of His character. God’s justice is the application of that standard,
so that what the righteousness of God approves the justice of God blesses; what
the righteousness of God rejects the justice of God condemns. All of this I
motivated by the love of God expressed through the grace of God. But the
Scripture link one other attribute of God with His righteousness and justice in
terms of integrity, and we see that in:
Psalm
85:10ff NASB “Lovingkindness [chesed]
and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” Chesed
always relates to grace. [11] Truth springs from the earth, And righteousness
looks down from heaven. [12] Indeed, the LORD will give what is good [grace], And
our land will yield its produce [blessing]. [13] Righteousness will go before
Him And will make His footsteps into a way [our pathway].”
Psalm
89:14 NASB “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your
throne; Lovingkindness [chesed]
and truth go before You.”
So
the one other attribute that we have that the Scriptures connect with
righteousness, justice and love is God’s truth, His veracity. So if we were to
diagram this under the category of integrity we see that in all of the
attributes of God there seem to be four that are under the spotlight here: His
standard, the righteousness of God; His justice, the application of that; His
love which motivates; and truth which is the absolute of His thinking. This is
always expressed through His grace which is unmerited favour towards His
creatures. Grace itself is not an attribute of God but is an expression of the
integrity of God.
1
John 4:8: The person who does not love. The believer who has not advanced to
spiritual maturity has not understood his own personal sense of destiny yet,
has not grown to the stage where he can really love God or love mankind because
he doesn’t know enough doctrine yet and hasn’t developed a personal
relationship with God through abiding in Christ and walking by means of the
Holy Spirit.
1
John 4:9 NASB “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.” We have to decide what the “By this” refers to. Is it something in verse
8 or is it the second half of verse 9. The second half of verse 9 is a causal
clause, an explanation. That cannot stand as an independent sentence. “Was
manifested” is a familiar word in the Greek, it is the aorist passive
indicative of phaneroo, a word
that has become a key word in this section of 1 John. It was first used in 2:28
NASB “Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears,
we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.”
Again and gain John uses this word to bring us back to his main theme. He is
continuing to talk about the same subject.
Now
he says: “By this the love of God was manifested in us…” agape tou
theou, genitive case. The noun “love” is what is called a noun of
action. When there is a noun of action (love), that love can be from God or
toward God. In the first case, love from God, it could also be translated as
“God’s love.” It is divine love. If it is love for God it is human love
directed toward God or personal love for God the Father. “By this God’s love
was manifested (or revealed) in us.” Then we have the understanding of it:
“that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live
through Him.” This is the same kind of statement that was made back in 3:16:
“We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay
down our lives for the brethren.” So God’s love is revealed in us by what took
place on the cross. The word translated “begotten” in the Greek is monogenes. mono means one; genes
comes from the word in the Greek that we transliterate genus, indicating kind.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God eternally, the phrase Son of God doesn’t refer
to being born. He didn’t acquire His sonship at His birth, He is eternally the
Son of God; Son of God has to do with deity. “…that we might live through Him”
is not talking about eternal life in terms of the acquisition of life without
end in heaven. Remember that Jesus said: “I came that they may have life, and have
{it} abundantly.” There He was talking about the quality of the believer’s
life, capacity to love, capacity for blessing. 1 John 4:9 is in the context on
sanctification in phase two, so the emphasis here then must be on the quality
of life.
1
John 4:10 NASB “In [By] this is love, not that we loved God, but
that He loved us and sent His Son {to be} the propitiation for our sins.” The
concept that John is making here is one he continues to make when he uses this
phrase, en touto. It is that he is
showing how we know something—by this, or in this. This is demonstrated
love, an example of love: “not that we loved God [human initiation] but that He
loved us and sent His Son {to be} the propitiation for our sins.” Notice how he
ties this together. He has been talking about love; he says that God is love;
back on 1:4 he talks about light; when we combine the light and love of God we
are dealing with the integrity of God. The integrity of God is a problem for
the salvation of the human race. His integrity, specifically His righteousness
and justice has to be satisfied, and so he comes back once again to the
doctrine of propitiation which he introduced in 1 John 2:2 NASB “He
Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for
{those of} the whole world.”
The doctrine of
propitiation
1.
Propitiation is the Godward side
of salvation. Redemption is manward; we are purchased from the slave market of
sin. Expiation is manward, our dept is paid. Justification is manward, we are
justified, we receive the imputation of God’s righteousness and so he can
declare us to be just. But propitiation is toward God; it is God’s character
that is the problem. His righteousness will not allow Him to have fellowship
with the unbeliever. So propitiation is the Godward
side of salvation whereby God’s holiness [righteousness and justice] is
satisfied by Jesus Christ’s payment for our sins on the cross. Propitiation
means satisfaction. The word “propitiation” is a translation of the Greek word hilasterion, which was used in the lxx to translate the name for the mercy seat on the ark of the
covenant. It is used that way in Romans 3:25 and in Hebrews 9:5.
2.
The Ark of the Covenant provides the Old Testament picture
of the doctrine of propitiation.
3.
The Day of Atonement in the Old Testament was the portrayal
of the entire picture of salvation from the standpoint of propitiation. When
the animal blood was placed on the ark it represented the spiritual death of
Christ who bore our sins on the cross and the acceptance of that work by the
integrity of God.
4.
The resulting principle is that at the moment of salvation
or the moment of Christ’s death on the cross the justice of God the Father is
satisfied. But it is not until one trusts in Christ as saviour that that is
implied individually to each believer. Because the justice of God and His
righteousness are satisfied it frees the love of God to then bless the
believer.
5.
Propitiation, therefore, is related to the work of Christ on
the cross. His death covered our sins and provides cleansing for sin. The blood
represents purification, and because purification has taken place God’s
righteousness and justice are satisfied.
6.
Propitiation is appropriated by faith alone in Christ alone
and is then the basis for imputation of divine righteousness.
7.
Propitiation resolves the problem for every member of the
human race, 1 John 2:2.
1
John 4:11 NASB “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love
one another.” The model, the standard for understanding what it is to love one
another is once again emphasised by John as being what Christ did on the cross.
Only by concentrating and understanding what Christ did on the cross are we
going to be able to understand what it means to love one another.