THE TESTIMONY TO DIVINE LOVE IN DEATH

D. R. Freeman

John in his gospel presents what is of God from the divine side, over against all the ruin and darkness of man. Thus we have the witness to men of His love in redemption in the gift of His Son. It was this that the Saviour presented as risen from the dead to His disciples in showing to them His hands and His side (John 20: 20). His hands told plainly where He had been as crucified, made sin and lifted up to die, thus associated with the totality of our ruin and sin. His side as pierced by the soldier but evinced the fullest possible testimony to divine love in the blood and water which flowed, the answer both judicial and moral to man’s guilt and need. So His word in John 20 was, “Peace”. The very fullest expression of divine love is towards us and this could not be gainsaid. What else could the disciples do but rejoice, or we, as we discern the love of God in all its fulness towards us, and, indeed, also for all, commended to us as it is and shed abroad through the service of the Holy Spirit in our hearts?

Kingston, Ont.