Now, to go back to my metaphor, the lake makes a river. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.'
So then, it was not Christ's death that turned God from hating and being angry, but it was God's love that appointed Christ's death. If you will only remember that, a great many of the shallow and popular objections to the great doctrine of the Atonement disappear at once. God so loved, that He gave.' But some people say that when we preach that Jesus Christ died for our sins, that God's wrath might not fall upon men, our teaching is immoral, because it means Christ came, and so God loved.' It is the other way about, friend. God so loved, that He gave.'
But now let me carry you back to the Old Testament. Do you remember the story of the father taking his boy who carried the bundle of wood and the fire, and tramping over the mountains till they reached the place where the sacrifice was to be offered? Do you remember the boy's question that brings tears quickly to the reader's eyes: Here is the wood, and here is the fire, where is the lamb'? Do you not think it would be hard for the father to steady his voice and say, My son, God will provide the lamb'? And do you remember the end of that story? The Angel of the Lord said unto Abraham, Because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me, therefore blessing I will bless thee,' etc. Remember that one of the Apostles said, using the very same word that is used in Genesis as to Abraham's giving up his son to God, He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up to the death for us all,' Does not that point to a mysterious parallel? Somehow or other--we have no right to attempt to say how--somehow or other, God not only sent His Son, as it is said in the next verse to my text, but far more tenderly, wonderfully, pathetically, God gave--gave up His Son, and the sacrifice was enhanced, because it was His only begotten Son.
Ah! dear brethren, do not let us be afraid of following out all that is included in that great word,' God, loved the world.' For there is no love which does not delight in giving, and there is no love that does not delight in depriving itself, in some fashion, of what it gives. And I, for my part, believe that Paul's words are to be taken in all their blessed depth and wonderfulness of meaning when he says, He gave up'--as well as gave--Him to the death for us all.'
And now, do you not think that we are able in some measure to estimate the greatness of that little word so'? God so loved '--so deeply, so holily, so perfectly, that He gave His only begotten Son'; and the gift of that Son is, as it were, the river by which the love of God comes to every soul in the world.
Now there are a great many people who would like to put the middle part of this great text of ours into a parenthesis. They say that we should bring the first words and the last words of this text together, and never mind all that lies between. People who do not like the doctrine of the Cross would say, God so loved the world that He gave … everlasting life'; and there an end. If there is a God, and if He loves the world, why cannot He save the world without more ado? There is no need for these interposed clauses. God so loved the world that everybody will go to heaven'--that is the gospel of a great many of you; and it is the gospel of a great many wise and learned people. But it is not John's Gospel, and it is not Christ's Gospel. The beginning and the end of the text cannot be buckled up together in that rough-and-ready fashion. They have to be linked by a chain; and there are two links in the chain: God forges the one, and we have to forge the other. God so loved the world that He gave'--then He has done His work. That whosoever believeth'--that is your work And it is in vain that God forges His link, unless you will forge yours and link it up to His. God so loved the world,' that is step number one in the process; that He gave,' that is step number two; and then there comes another that '--that whosoever believeth,' that is step number three; and they are all needed before you come to number four, which is the landing-place and not a step--should not perish, but have everlasting life.'
