THE PURPOSE AND LOVE OF GOD
[p. 94] THE PURPOSE AND LOVE OF GOD
Some scriptures seem to shine with such a brilliancy of grace that they arrest the attention even of the indifferent reader, delight the soul of the anxious one, and are a joy for ever to the believer’s heart. Such is the scripture we have read. These verses have been called “The Bible in miniature”, as long as the day of grace continues, and the Spirit of God enables evangelists of Christ to preach the gospel, these will be words whereby men shall be saved.
I wish to speak briefly of three things which are here presented very distinctly, the purpose of God for man’s blessing, the great necessity which came across the divine purpose and had to be met before that purpose could be carried out and the love which was behind all — which formed the purpose and met the necessity.
God has formed a purpose to have men in infinite blessing before Him. It is His purpose and pleasure that whosoever believes on His Son should not perish, but have everlasting life. Everything under the sun is of a perishable order. Death is stamped upon everything in the world, and on man himself. But it is God’s pleasure to make Himself known to men in the blessedness of His nature, and thus to bring them into the knowledge and joy of that which lies altogether outside the power of death. If our hearts find their object and their joy in things under the sun we shall prove in the end, like Solomon, that all is vanity. Those things will perish from us, or we shall perish from them; all will end in perdition and death. God is not in those things, and death must come in on all the things in which God is not. But by sending His Son into the world God has placed the [p. 95] knowledge of Himself within the reach of men, and this in pure grace and blessing. He has given His only begotten Son; He has not come as a creditor to claim what was due to Him, but as a giving God. All that God is in the blessedness of His nature is set forth in His Son, and all is brought near to men as a gift. Philosophers of many ages have spent long and fruitless years in the endeavour by searching to find out God. Religious men have sought to remove the distance between themselves and God by prayers, penances, and innumerable ceremonies and sacraments. But the thought that God should present Himself in all His infinite perfections to men, and that all should be a gift, confounds the human mind, while it is an endless joy and wonder to faith.
As the Son of God becomes our object and joy we pass outside the range of death. Death cannot touch or mar the blessedness of that which is set forth in Him. The revelation of God that subsists in Him is perfect and eternal, and in entering into it we enter into that which in its very nature is imperishable and eternal. We have everlasting life. And this is the great blessing which God has purposed for man. In the accomplishment of this great result divine love finds its satisfaction and rest.
But between this blessed purpose of God and its accomplishment there was a great divine necessity occasioned by the sinful state of men. Men were fallen, and lost, and under death and judgment. All this had to be taken into account. God’s purpose for man’s blessing could only be carried out on the ground that God undertook the settlement of every question in connection with man’s sinful state. Hence the “must ... be” of John 3:14, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up”. He who “came down out of heaven” and ever was even here “in heaven” as the home and atmosphere to which His moral perfections properly belonged, must be “lifted up”. God made the Son of man strong for Himself ([p. 96] Psalm 80:17) — strong to come into the place of sin and to discharge in death the penalties which were the consequence of sin and strong to bring to an end in holy judgment the very state of man to which sin attached.
The serpent of Moses had no poison in it, but it was made like the creatures who had, and so God has sent His own Son — holy, undefiled, and without sin — in the likeness of sinful flesh. That Holy One has been “lifted up” as a sacrifice for sin, and thus sin in the flesh has been condemned (Romans 8:3). He “must” be lifted up! The universe must know that God is glorious in holiness — that He will maintain his own righteousness, and vindicate at His own cost every attribute of His Being, while He acts according to His blessed nature that He may accomplish the purpose of His love.
Thus God stands revealed. It is not only blessings that are presented, but all the blessedness of God Himself. “He is in the light”. No clouds and thick darkness are round about Him now; His attributes are fully displayed, in all their perfection; His nature has disclosed itself. “God is love”. To know Him, and Jesus Christ His sent One, is life eternal.