Verse of the Day 2/15

1 John 4:10-11   This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

¹¹ Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.    New Living Translation (NLT)

Yesterday we considered what true love is really like as described in 1 Corinthians 13, the "love chapter" in the Bible.  God's love is shown throughout the Bible and His attributes are clearly seen.  The greatest act of love, the greatest example of sacrificial love is described in today's verses, not only did God send His Son, but He sent Him as a "propitiation", a sacrifice to atone for our sins. 

I've heard it said before that you could look at the word "atonement" and break it up as "at- one-ment".  His sacrifice restored that relationship broken by sin.  God is a just God and sin cannot be glossed over.  Jesus shed blood satisfied the demands of God's justice for all of us.  John MacArthur notes that "God's sending His Son gives Christians not only salvation privilege, but obligation to follow His pattern of sacrificial love.  Christian love must be self-sacrificing like God's love".

It is a tall order and not one that we can achieve on our own, simply by our will or in our own strength.  It requires God's power His grace working in and through us.

These verses and thoughts brought me to another old but timeless hymn, And Can it Be:

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior's blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

He left His Father's throne above
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam's helpless race:
'Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!
'Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!

Has His mercy and grace found out you?  If so, may it be our desire to show sacrificial love to God and to others.

--   In Christ,  Mike    Folllow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com  Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,  in accordance with the riches of God's grace.  NIV    

1 John 4:10-12The Message (MSG)

God Is Love

^7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.

^11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!