A Daily Walk

Guest (Male): Pastor John Randall speaks of the motivation to love, next.

John Randall: We don't love others to earn God's love. We love others because we have received God's love. And now we have the opportunity, because this love has transformed our life, to be a channel, if you will, for the love of God to flow through us.

Guest (Male): It is good to be with you today. Open that Bible of yours to 1 John chapter 4 as we get ready for A Daily Walk with Pastor John Randall. If you've been with us in this series, you know there is a recurring theme, and that is the importance of love. First, we're to receive God's love and then show it to others.

Now, in case you haven't noticed, there are opportunities to do that all around us. Maybe it's a kind word spoken via text message, picking up some groceries for someone, helping someone stranded on the side of the freeway. Let's see how we could be an instrument of God's love in a world that needs to see it.

John Randall: Because God is love, those who claim to know God then demonstrate His love actively and visibly. Let me give you an example; perhaps this will help. When a hose is connected to a water supply, water flows through it. When a wire is connected to an electrical source, power flows through it.

If a branch of a tree is connected to the root and the trunk system, then the sap flows through the branch. And if we are connected to the Lord, His love flows through us. The Apostle John, following this exhortation to love, presents the demonstration of love in verse 9: "In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him."

Here is the example. Here is the greatest demonstration. We say God is love and you say, "Well, how do I know that God is love?" Let me describe it for you right here. Here is the demonstration. A divine rescue mission to save humanity was motivated by divine love. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever would believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

The love of God was manifested. Do you know what that means? It means that God's love was brought out into the open. It wasn't hidden. It wasn't concealed. It was manifested, demonstrated. In Romans chapter 5, verse 8, Paul said it this way: "For God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

When did God manifest His love? Listen, it wasn't when we were chasing after God. It wasn't when we were reading our Bibles. It wasn't when we were in fellowship with God's people. It wasn't when we were lifting our hands in worship or serving Him on some mission field.

God was loving us and manifested His love long before that ever happened, when we were dead in trespasses and sins. The love of God was manifested, disclosed, so that we could see it and understand it. This love manifested points to a definite historical event which took place at a given time in the past, specifically referring to Christ's incarnation, when the invisible God became visible and God's love became visible through Jesus.

It became visible through His words, through His deeds, and especially His loving us enough to die on the cross in our place. When you look at Jesus, there are several things that you can observe about God's love. First of all, it is a love that holds nothing back. The Bible says that Jesus, having loved His own, He loved them till the end. It holds nothing back.

God was willing to give His only Son and make a sacrifice greater than any other in His love for humanity. And the second thing you can consider concerning God's love is that it is a love that is completely undeserved. None could earn it, we couldn't be worthy of it, and yet He manifests it. He discloses it to us.

John provides us with the reasons why God's love was demonstrated in this way. He tells us that we might live through Him. The purpose of Christ's mission is the actual impartation of life that results in an ongoing possession of eternal life, age-abiding life. John is talking here about a new kind of life that we receive.

It's not just existing, folks. It's not just breathing physically. It's talking about a spiritual life. Humanity apart from Christ is spiritually dead. It's like you're flatline spiritually. But when you get saved, I don't know if it sounds like that, that was terrible, but you understand. You've seen it, right?

You know if you've got a pulse here this morning. You're alive spiritually. And through Jesus we receive eternal life; we are born again. This life is only found in Him. The phrase highlights the fact that it's in Him, highlights that true life is only available through Jesus. We don't just receive life from Him; we live through Him.

He becomes the continuous source of power, of purpose, and even the pattern for our lives. Jesus is the source of our spiritual life. How do I know that? Jesus told us in John chapter 14, verse 6. He said, "I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Me."

He's the source of our spiritual life. Jesus said in John 10:10, "The thief does not come except to steal, to kill, and to destroy. But I have come," Jesus said, "that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly." I wonder if you are walking in the abundant life that Jesus has provided for you. Is He your source of life?

For He's not only the source, but He's also the sustainer of our spiritual life. He's the one that sustains us, holds us together. Oh, I love what Paul said in Galatians 2:20 concerning the Lord being our sustainer. He said, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." Paul is saying the very life that I have spiritually, this abundant life, I am sustained as Christ is living through me. What a powerful passage that is, that we might live through Him. It means that God in His love demonstrated His love by sending Jesus.

We now experience real spiritual life; He is the source and He is the sustainer of both our spiritual life. But I think another compelling reason for the demonstration of God's love was that Jesus came to save us. We needed to be saved. We were lost. There was no way for us to be saved.

And so in verse 10, it says a second time, "In this is love." It's a way of saying, this is what love looks like. I'm going to describe for you in this, this is what it looks like, God's love. "Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be," it's a big word, "propitiation for our sins."

For a second time, John says, "In this is love," and he tells us we weren't the ones who were initiating. It's not like we were pursuing God or seeking after Him. The Bible says there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who seeks after God. So if we are not the initiator, who is? God is.

God was the one searching for us. Jesus said, "I have come to seek and to save those who were lost." He's the initiator. He's the one pursuing. He's the one coming after us because of His love for us. I wonder if you know that Christianity is unique among the world's religions.

In most religions, whether it's Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, or even traditional tribal beliefs, people try to reach God through enlightenment or the divine, through performing good works, through rituals, through certain prayers, meditation, moral living, or keeping religious laws. This is man's attempt to try to reach God.

In other religions, the approach to God is based on human effort. Whether you're good enough to make it, well, we don't know. Do your best and we'll find out in the end. Imagine a hiker who falls into a deep ravine. He's trapped. Religion throws down a rope and says, "Climb up!"

Christianity, Jesus comes down, lifts us on His shoulders, and carries us to safety. In Christianity, the approach to God is based on divine grace. It's God coming down to us in Christ, doing what we could never do for ourselves. Church, listen, religion says do; the gospel says done.

Christianity is God seeking fallen mankind when, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The underlying idea of religion is this: if I do enough, maybe I'll be accepted or reach the divine. And yet, folks, when you read this Bible from Genesis to Revelation, the Bible illustrates God pursuing fallen people.

Our first parents, Adam and Eve, they blew it big time in the garden. And what do they do? They hid themselves. They covered themselves with fig leaves. They tried to run from God. And do you remember what God said? He pursued them and He said to Adam, "Adam, where are you?"

Not only did God pursue Adam, but He also pursued idolatrous Abraham, called him out of idolatry. God sent His prophets to call His people to Himself. And ultimately, He sent His Son. He sought us when we were in our sin and our rebellion and our pride. Other faiths that are out there, they offer a system.

Christianity offers a person, Jesus Christ, and a relationship through Him. That is the difference. Other religions are man's attempt to reach God. Christianity is God's mission to reach man. And that is the beauty of the gospel. We don't climb our way to Him; He came all the way down for us.

But there was a problem, and the problem is we were sinners, separated from God, awaiting the wrath of God. And therefore, a sacrifice had to be made in order for us to be redeemed. John said here, Jesus became—and it's a rather large theological word, but it has great implication—our propitiation. Yeah. What is that?

It's one word you could just jump right over. Sure he was, I know, whatever that name is. It refers to a sacrifice that turns away and satisfies justice, making reconciliation possible. In pagan religions, people would offer sacrifices to try to appease the angry gods.

But in Christianity, God Himself provides the sacrifice, His own Son, out of love. It's not about appeasing some angry deity in the sky, but about God initiating peace with sinful people. Propitiation does not mean that we must do something to appease God, to pacify His anger.

No, propitiation is something God does to make it possible for us to be forgiven. The Bible says that God is light, and therefore, He must uphold His holy law. The Bible tells us that God is love, and therefore, He wants to forgive and save sinners.

Yet how can a righteous God forgive sinners and still be consistent in His holy nature concerning those who have broken His law? The answer: the cross. At the cross, Jesus, as our propitiation, bore the punishment for sin and met the just demands of the law.

Jesus said, "I came to fulfill the law." Propitiation means that Jesus absorbed in Himself God's righteous judgment against sin on our behalf in order that we could be accepted and restored into relationship with Him. The death of Jesus Christ—make note of this, some people misunderstand this—the death of Jesus Christ did not change the heart of the Father.

It's not as if the Father hated us, but now He says, "I love you because Jesus died and all, and I guess now I have to love you." No, this was God's idea! This was God's heart. God wanted to rescue us. It wasn't He hated us and now He changed because Jesus came.

No, He's part of the plan. He wanted the floodgates to be opened up so that love for sinners could flow freely from His throne of grace. The propitiation mentioned here, did you know that it was foreshadowed in the Old Testament? Once a year, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the high priest of Israel would enter the Holy of Holies.

This was the most sacred part of the Tabernacle or the temple, separated by a massive veil. And on that Day of Atonement, the high priest would approach the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant rested, which was a representation of the throne of God on the earth. Inside the Ark of the Covenant: God's demands, the law.

Who could keep it? We couldn't. The law was inside of the Ark. The lid on top of the Ark was called the Mercy Seat. And the high priest once a year would pass through that veil, and what he would have with him is the blood of a spotless lamb, a sacrifice.

And he would pass through that veil into the Holy of Holies and he would sprinkle the blood and pour it out on the Mercy Seat and the sins of the nation would be covered for one year. He would then step out from the Holy of Holies and not go back in till the next year to cover the sins of the nation.

The Mercy Seat was the place where God's justice and mercy met. The Lord said in the Old Testament, the blood when it's applied, "I'll speak to you from the Mercy Seat." The blood stood between a holy God and sinful people. That Old Testament ceremony pointed, looked toward the future to when Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, would shed His own blood, crucified.

It was so that our sins could not simply be covered but removed. And not just covered, again, removed. Once for all. The writer of Hebrews said it in Hebrews chapter 7, verse 27, concerning the sacrifice of Christ: "This He did once for all when He offered up Himself."

God, the Bible tells us in Romans 3:25, God presented Christ as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith. The price has been paid. The question is, has it been deposited into your account? It's already paid. It's already done.

The question is whether by faith you believe it and you've received Him. That propitiation has been made. John gave us an exhortation to love. We should love if we're children of God. He then pointed to the demonstration. Look at the demonstration of our Father. Look at the demonstration of Jesus.

But finally, we see here John presents in verse 11, motivation to love. For in verse 11: "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." Again, he refers to them as beloved, telling them, reminding them who they are. You are loved, beloved.

So because of who you are, because you are loved by God, it's logical. It makes sense that we ought to love one another. 1 John chapter 4, verse 11 teaches that God's sacrificial love for us in a sense obligates us to love others in the same way.

If we have been loved in the greatest way possible, how can we withhold that love from other people? It just, that would be inconsistent with the nature of God, with the children of God. It wouldn't make any sense. This makes sense.

God's act of love in sending His Son into the world to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins ought to motivate us as believers to love one another in a similar sacrificial way. It's not just that God loved us, but the way He did love us: sacrificially, unconditionally, and proactively.

And I want to make note of the fact, please mark this, this isn't a suggestion. It wasn't like John said, "Hey beloved, how you doing? Just want to say, I think you know, I'd like you to consider, just pray about it, whether you should love others." This is actually a command, not a suggestion.

We don't love others to earn God's love. We love others because we have received God's love. And now we have the opportunity because this love has transformed our life to be a channel, if you will, for the love of God to flow through us. Again, Jesus said it this way in John chapter 13, and listen carefully:

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another." That says it all. It's a command. It's from our King. You say, "How do I love like that? That is not my natural tendency." That's right, it's not. It's not mine either.

Then how can I love like this? Yielding to the work of the Spirit in my life. Because the fruit of the Spirit is love. You'll never lack opportunity to obey this command. There's always opportunity to love. Sometimes it's easier to love certain people than others. Don't look around.

But I've discovered and I'm still learning that whatever God commands me to do, He also provides the power to do it if I will yield to Him. Amen? And I can't think of a better way to put an exclamation point on what we just read than taking communion.

Can I just tell you something? You know, here at Calvary, we take communion the first Sunday typically of the month. And I just want you to know that I don't plan where we're going to be in Scripture in the sense of like, "Okay, when's communion again? Oh, it's July. Okay, so how do I get to 1 John chapter—" because that would correlate.

I don't; the Lord does it. And I love it when He does it. He brings the added point right here: communion. Here's the reminder to us of the love that we've received.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor John Randall on A Daily Walk. We've been in 1 John chapter 4, which really emphasizes God's love for us and the love we're to demonstrate to others. As we leave you today, we'd like to say how much it means to us each and every time we hear how God is at work in our listeners' lives.

It would be so encouraging to hear from you, so please write today while it's fresh on your mind. Our email address is adailywalk@gmail.com. You can also call us toll-free at 877-242-0828. Again, reach us at 877-242-0828. You can also visit our website to listen to today's message at adailywalk.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

We're also on oneplace.com. Our featured resource this month at A Daily Walk is The Other Side of Sunday by Pastor John Randall, hot off the press. This book explores the weight of leadership, the beauty of serving God's people, and the sustaining grace that carries pastors through seasons of doubt, fatigue, and quiet faithfulness.

Think of it as a testimony to God's faithfulness in the everyday realities of ministry. Pastor John shares what he has learned so far in The Other Side of Sunday. The cost is just $15. Call 877-242-0828 or go to adailywalk.org for easy online ordering.

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