Slideshow image
10 “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
 
1 John 4:10
When the idea of love is brought up, what comes to your mind? Is it a set of emotions? Is it about give-and-take? Is it something motivated by chemicals in our bodies? Or is there something more profound about love?
 
Yesterday, we learned that love finds its roots in God sending Jesus into the world.
 
Let’s carry on.
 
In Hellenistic culture, especially for the false teachers of John’t time, love is a mystical craving for union with the eternal. They believed that love for God was an exercise of self-gratification. Also, it was supposed that God was unmoved and indifferent, so He could not love.
 
Against this backdrop, John refutes their claim. He now describes God’s agape (self-sacrificing) love. It is not that “we loved God” but that “He loved us.” John’s spiritual enemies claimed to have loved God, not the other way around.
 
Again, the writer mentions God’s means of demonstrating His love: by sending His Son. But this time, he adds that the Son is “the propitiation for our sins.” The Greek term “hilasmos” means “an appeasing.” This word only appears twice in the NT, and only in 1 John. It describes the atoning (or covering) of sins.
 
How is Jesus the propitiation for sins?
 
Jesus Himself is the sacrifice that atones for sin. Our sins have ruined our relationship with God, but Jesus cleanses us from all the impurities of sins, satisfies God’s righteous anger toward sin, and brings us back to a right relationship with God. This reconciliation is rooted in God’s love, which is shown in His sending of Jesus Christ to be our atoning Sacrifice.
 
We are the ones who sinned against God, but it was God who made a way for us to be washed from the contamination of our evil, and He did so by sending Jesus to pay the price of our sins. This, my friend, is the absolute meaning of love.
 
Pursue the Savior today!
Ministries
Bible Studies