PAGE 113

John 3:16 shows that the impelling cause which moved God to give up His Son to death is His love towards men. This is the root and source, from which this divine decision started. Paul

PAGE 114

emphasizes this also when he says: "But God commendeth His own love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). And John says "Herein was the love of God manifested to us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:9, 10). But that it is not ordinary, but immense love which impelled God to do this is proved by almost every word of Christ here in John 3:16. First he says: "God so loved the world" where the word "so" does not simply signify what God's love has worked for our good, but how great and measureless his love has been, as if he were saying "So immensely and profusely God loved the world". Which love of God Paul expresses vividly when he terms it "His very great love" and "the exceeding riches of His grace" (Ephesians 2:4, 7).

Secondly, he says "God loved the world", that is men -- who are vile, wretched creatures and burdened with the heaviest sins, and are thus His enemies (Rom. 5:8, 10). Thirdly, God loved the world, that is, not just the Jewish people with whom He had made the covenant, but the whole human race -- subject to eternal condemnation on account of sins. See Ephesians 2:1 and following. Fourthly Jesus says that God gave His Son, and indeed not any ordinary one, but "His only begotten Son, most beloved of all and closest to Himself. Fifthly, God did not simply give His Son, but gave him that he might be raised up as was the serpent in the wilderness, that is, that he might be crucified.

So we can say that everything that Christ says here about the great love of God is totally opposed to what is believed today by most Christians -- and is ordered to be believed -- that the immense anger of God was the cause of Christ's death, anger which could not have been appeased or placated otherwise than by the death of His innocent Son.

In this verse Jesus also seems to have alluded to that story of Abraham when he offered up his only-begotten son, whom he loved greatly (Genesis 21:12). In this matter Isaac was a type and figure of Christ.

So God gave up His Son to death. But if the Son of God is God Himself, it will follow that He gave up Himself to death, which is impossible, since God cannot die. Neither do these people understand with what strong love God embraces all His sons who love Him and obey Him. (288)