Last week I made a statement in the newsletter that evidently needs a lot more explaining. I was talking with the “pope of Seneca” (Curtis Knapp) and he thought that this statement needed a lot of explaining. Therefore, I will try to explain that statement and why it is vital to the issue of faith and justification. The statement is this: “Man cannot know that God loves Him until he loves God (see I John 4:7-10).”
We must go back and remind ourselves of what is going on. Within the context of justification we are trying to study faith. Any study of justification should have a study of faith since it is faith that is God’s instrument that He uses to justify sinners. So the study of what faith is and how it operates sheds a lot of light on the doctrine of justification by faith without works (alone). It is also imperative to study the nature of sin and repentance in order to understand the nature of sin that man must be saved from and what it is that man must turn from in repentance. The very core of sin is that man is born into a state of self-centeredness and self-love. In that state man is full of pride and enmity with God.
When man in the fullness of His pride and self-love hears a message concerning the Gospel, he assumes that God is focused and centered upon him. He hears a message that tells him that God loves him so much that He cannot live without man and so God sent His Son to die for man. All that man has to do is to believe that God loves him and that Jesus died for him and he will be saved. What I am trying to show is that the above message is contrary to the truth that sinners need to hear. It is true that God so loved that He sent His only begotten Son. It is true that God sent Christ to die in the place of sinners. However, if you read the first few sentences in this paragraph you will notice that man has not really repented from his self-centeredness and self-love. In that situation man is still focused on himself and thinks that God is focused on him too.
The result of a person who hears that message and believes is deception about the Gospel. That person is also deceived about the character of God and what true repentance is. That person may have a reformation of life and become quite religious. However, the Pharisees were quire religious and did all that they did in their religion for self and from pride. If God is focused and centered upon people in the way that people think that He is, then there is nothing wrong with people being focused on themselves either. So we have self-centered and prideful people hearing a message that is called “the Gospel” and has pretty much the same content as the true Gospel. They never hear that their real problem is that they are self-centered and prideful. Their sinful acts are sinful because they are opposed to God. But what they hardly ever hear is that their righteous acts are also sinful because from pride and self-love they are opposed to God as well. The real problem is a failure to understand the God-centeredness of God and the real nature of sin. The intent of the message of the Gospel and what the sinner is changes the whole context and intent of the message.
Let us focus back on the statement (from above) in question. Is it really true that no man can know that God loves him until he loves God? Do you see how contrary that statement is from most “Gospel” presentations today? One very popular way of presenting a man-centered form of the Gospel starts with “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” So all a person really has to do is believe that God loves him and that Christ died for him and he is saved. But does Scripture really give us the authority to tell people that God loves them so much that Christ died for them? I don’t think that it does. Even without getting into many of the issues involved, we can see that there is a difference between a more general benevolence of God that He has for all and the specific love He has for those who are saved. Let us look at this in more detail.
I John 4:7-21 is the passage that we will work with. We do not have space for the whole passage, but we will look at it in a general way. First, let us look at two verses: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (I John 4:7-8). Why should believers love one another? The reason is that love from God as the only source and that is because He is love. Then we note that everyone (yes, everyone) who loves is born of God and knows God. What an earth shaking message. All who truly love are born of God and knows God. Let that ring in our ears! However, we must not take our definition of love from the world but from Scripture. All who do not love do not know God.
Let us tie this in with justification. All who are justified are born of God and know Him. Those who are justified are adopted and are the family of God. So those who are justified are those who are born of God and know God. People are justified in order that they will be the people of God and that they will be the temple and dwelling place of God who is love. The source of love is God and the love that is shown by God as the only source of love is seen in the children of God because they are born of God and know Him.
Let us look at the next two verses: “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:9-10). In v. 9 we see that the love of God was manifested. But notice that the love of God was manifested “in us.” But how was the love of God manifested in His children? Because He sent Christ (only begotten Son) into the world so that we might live through Him. So the love of God is manifested in His children because He sent His Son that they would live through Him. What did Christ do so that they might live (have eternal life)? He came to be the propitiation for their sins. Let me try to tie this together. Christ died as a propitiation (removal of wrath) so that the love of God (from vv. 7-8) would dwell in His people. Christ came in order to give life and no one can one have life apart from the love of God. Eternal life is to know God and His Son (John 17:3). Eternal life is Christ Himself (I John 5:20; John 14:6).
In light of the previous verses, let us look at a few more: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (I John 4:11-16). If God so loved us (v. 11), we ought to love one another. How did God love man? By putting His love (love for Himself) in them. This is seen from Romans 5:5 where the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit and our text in v. 12 where we see that if we love one another God is abiding in us. It is by this that we know that He abides in us which is His giving of the Spirit who is the One who gives the fruit of love (Galatians 5:22). When God gives His Spirit, His love is living in people as the Spirit pours out His love in those He dwells in.
The above is a very brief overview, but let us focus in on v. 16 for a moment. It is this text that speaks of man knowing and believing the love which God has for (in) us. But how does man know that he truly loves? How does a person know that he has the love of God in him? How does a person know that God savingly loves him and puts His love in him? It is when the person loves God and not self. True love is to love God for who He is and not just for His benefits. Many will have a form of love for God if they believe that God is focused on them and will give them what they want. However, to truly love God is to love Him when He brings trials and hard things into life as well. To really love God is to love Him even when it seems that He is tormenting the soul through trials. To really love God is to love His character and glory above all things. It is, then, to be like God who loves His own glory above all things. A person who loves God for who He is and the display of the beauty of His glory is a person that has had his sins propitiated and has the life and love of God in his soul. That person can know that God loves him because that person has been cleansed from sin, has the love of God in him, and therefore loves God in truth.
Can a person truly have evidence that he loves God apart from the only source of love which is God giving him a true love for God? No, there is simply no way. A person can only know that he is justified if he has the love of God in his soul. This means that when unbelievers are asked to believe that God loves them and sent His Son for them, they are being asked to believe something they cannot possibly answer “yes” in truth. Propitiation is part of justification (Romans 3:24-25) and is tied in with the indwelling love of God. One is justified by grace and part of that is through propitiation. But God sent Christ to be the propitiation so that man could have life (indwelling love and temple of Holy Spirit). Therefore, the person that is truly justified is also a person that has the life and love of God in him. No one can believe that God has propitiated His sins unless the love of God (for God) is in him. So no one can know that God loves him until he loves God.
God Loves... Himself 
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