Calvary Road Baptist Church
“AS THE FATHER”
John 15.9
In John 15.1-8, our Lord Jesus Christ makes use of the vivid imagery of the vineyard to paint a picture with words that illustrates the relationship that exists between God the Father (the husbandman), the Lord Jesus Christ (the True Vine), the believer in Jesus Christ (the fruitful branch), and what is produced by that relationship in the believer’s life when it is healthy and vibrant. Beginning with John 15.9, the Lord Jesus Christ steps away from the word picture of the husbandman’s allegory, the true vine, the branches, and the fruit, to spiritual truths that are only partly understood from illustrations. Thus, being the Master teacher, the Lord Jesus Christ does what all effective teachers do with those they impart knowledge and understanding.
First, you proceed from the learner’s known to the learner’s unknown what you would have him to learn, what you desire that he comes to know. Learning can only occur when the truth to be taught by the teacher and learned by the learner is built upon already understood truth.
Second, the Lord Jesus Christ made use of imagery, mental pictures, vine, branches, and fruit known to His eleven men. Close to this is the use of storytelling, which our Lord did very frequently. Good teachers build pictures in the minds of their learners and work diligently to develop their storytelling skills.
As an aside, during my lifetime, the best preachers in the United States have usually been Southerners because of a feature found in Southern culture in the United States of America. All through the 20th century, the South was a cultural setting in which storytelling was prominent as a means of communication. Thus, a Southern Christian boy or young man who was called to preach already had built into him the practice of the South’s yarn-spinning culture, which enhanced his ability to preach the Word of God. A prominent example of that in the second half of the 20th century was S. M. Lockridge, who led the Calvary Baptist Church of National City, near the city of San Diego. If you have never heard that man preach, you need to send me an email, and I will send you a link to some of the most excellent sermons preached in the 20th century.
I seem to recall reading from something Jay Adams wrote that C. H. Spurgeon was masterful in his use of illustrations that allowed his listeners to imagine their senses being stimulated, so they could smell what he spoke of, see what he spoke of, hear what he spoke of, and feel what he spoke of in his sermons. Picture the sun shining on a meadow during a morning stroll, the sounds of birds chirping, the fragrance of flower blossoms, and the tickling of your feet by the morning dew on the grass as you walk barefooted.
However, there comes a time when seeking to impart spiritual truth that the effectiveness of word pictures and stories told reaches its limit. The allegory of the vine and branches has reached that point. Beginning with John 15.9, the Savior dramatically elevates His disciples’ thinking and apprehension by speaking to them about love. In verse 11, He will move on to joy and then to peace.
Consider the three phrases of John 15.9, beginning with the first. The Savior says to His men,
“As the Father hath loved me.”
Notice that first word, “as.” It translates the Greek adverb kaqá½¼V. Of course, adverbs modify verbs, action words, and this adverb modifies the Greek verb translated “hath loved me.” It describes something about the love God, the Father, the degree or extent to which God, the Father, loves the Lord Jesus Christ.[1]
But what do we already know about the Father’s love for His Son? If God’s love for His Son is the basis by which this adverb describes another activity, we need to rehearse for a moment or two what we already know about God’s love for His Son. What can you tell me from God’s Word about the Father’s love for His Son? Can we agree that the Father’s love for His Son is eternal, that He has loved His Son since before time began? How about uninterrupted love, that He has never not loved His Son? How about perfect love? Could anyone do love more perfectly than God? Who is love?[2]
We could probably immerse ourselves in a rewarding study of God’s love for His Son, but you recognize that such love as God has for His Son is unsurpassed. As human beings, you and I cannot scratch the surface of this issue of God’s love for His Son. Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ is, here, addressing a matter of unsurpassed majesty and glory that we can never with our minds understand entirely.
Notice, next, the second phrase:
“so have I loved you”
This is where we see how the use of the adverb is expressed. Using the love God has for the Lord Jesus Christ as the standard, the bar, the Lord Jesus Christ declares to His eleven men, “so have I loved you.” The word “so” translating the Greek word ká¼€gá½¼, meaning also or in like manner. His men might have questioned His love for them after telling them only minutes before that He was leaving them,[3] that they could not follow Him, but that eventually where He was, they would be also.[4] With this statement, however, our Lord provides unparalleled comfort and assurance for them by comparing His love for them to God’s love for Him.
Therefore, what does that mean concerning Christ’s love for His apostles and Christ’s love for all of His disciples, both then and now? Keep in mind that Christ’s love for us is, “As the Father hath loved me, so I have loved you.” What, then, can be said about Christ’s love for His own in light of God’s love for Christ? Does Christ love you? For how long has Christ loved you? Since when has Christ loved you? If Christ’s love for His own is like the Father’s love for Him, would not His love for us also be eternal, uninterrupted, and perfect?
When do you think God’s love for Christ began? Was there a beginning to His love for His Son? When do you believe Christ’s love for His own began? It certainly wasn’t when we became lovely or lovable because that has never been true of us. We have never been lovely or lovable. If Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, Revelation 13.8, and if Christ purposed to die for those He loved, does it not stand to reason that He loved us from eternity past, with perfect love, with an uninterrupted love, and with an eternal love?
That is why He said to His men in the third phrase, “continue ye in my love.” See that word “continue?” It translates the same Greek word that is used in John 15.4, 5, 6, and 7, our word “abide.” The Savior says, to paraphrase, “You men, stay in my love.” Thus, the Lord Jesus Christ is here encouraging His men (and us), directing His men (and us), and modeling for His men (and us), to love with the kind of love that is characteristic of His Father’s love for Him and His love for us.
Our love for Christ should not waver, though it often does. Our love for Christ should not decrease in intensity or faithfulness, though it often does. Were our love for Christ unwavering and always constant, this directive would not be needed. But it is needed. And it is provided for us to enjoy the fulness of Christ’s blessings and fruitfulness in our lives.
These things recognized, let us once more acknowledge that God’s love is a vast topic that is quite beyond our ability to understand fully. That God’s love is incomprehensible does not mean nothing about God’s love can be understood, only that everything about God’s love cannot be completely understood.
Because many people think they know what they clearly do not know, and because other people think they cannot know what the Bible reveals they can know, I will set before you four statements about the love of God that some of you perhaps do not know, but that all of you can know and act upon.
First, GOD DOES NOT LOVE EVERYONE
This may shock you, surprise you, infuriate you, and turn you against me for saying. However, it is true that God does not love everyone, and the Bible most definitely shows this to be true.
The initial reaction of some to what I have just said likely supposes that I do not believe John 3.16. However, I do believe John 3.16. In John 3.16, we read,
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
The Greek word translated “world” in this verse is ká½¹smoV, a word used in no less than 152 verses in the New Testament, and referring variously to the universe as a whole, the world as a planet, the evil world system, the entire human race, humanity minus believers, Gentiles in contrast to Jews, or believers only. Context is so important to the discovery of precisely how this word is used in the passages where it is found.
ká½¹smos = universe as a whole, Acts 17.24
ká½¹smos = earth, John 13.1; Ephesians 1.4
ká½¹smos = world system, Matthew 4.8; John 12.31; First John 5.19
ká½¹smos = human race, Romans 3.19
ká½¹smos = humanity minus believers, John 15.18; Romans 3.6
ká½¹smos = Gentiles in contrast to Jews, Romans 11.12
ká½¹smos = believers only, John 1.29; 3.16-17; 6.33; 12.47; First Corinthians 4.9; Second Corinthians 5.19
I am persuaded that as the word is used in John 3.16 and 17, the entire human race is in view. However, this does not mean that God loves every human being without exceptions. In no way is the meaning and thrust of John 3.16–17 at all distorted or abused by exceptions to this general principle that God loves humanity, that God loves every human being in general.
The question is, does God love every individual? We know that God is love, but does that require that He be indiscriminate with His love? For instance, does God love Satan? Does God love fallen angels, demons, foul spirits? And, most importantly, does God love every human being while generally loving mankind? Did God love Adolph Hitler? Josef Stalin?
That God is capable of hate, though He is love, cannot be denied. How about God’s people? Are God’s people capable of hatred, reflecting His nature to some degree?
Ps 97:10
Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.
Ps 101:3
I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.
Ps 119:104
Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.
Ps 119:113
I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.
Ps 119:163
I hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love.
Ps 139:21
Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
Ps 139:22
I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.
Pr 8:13
The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.
We know God hates, therefore to hate is not contrary to His nature of love. We also know that God’s people are capable of hatred, with the Lord Jesus Christ providing direction in the Gospels for the proper focus of His follower’s hatred.[5]
The question before us is whether God’s love for the world excludes the possibility of not loving every last human being. This is a serious matter. To answer the question I direct your attention to Proverbs 6.16-19:
16 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
Notice, carefully, verse 16. The LORD hates six things, described in verses 17-19 as expressions and actions. The seventh listed is not a thing, an expression, or a deed, but an individual engaged in a despicable pattern of conduct. Thus, unless you have such a convinced and unalterable view of God that your understanding of God is not informed by the Bible, it cannot be denied that there are some individuals God hates. This reveals that while God generally and wonderfully loves all mankind, there are some individuals God does not love.
Ponder this sobering truth for a moment, and revisit the matter when you get home. Does God not have the absolute right as a free moral agent to decide who He loves? He loves most, perhaps even loving almost all. But He does not love all. He does not love every individual.
Next, GOD DOES NOT LOVE THOSE HE LOVES EQUALLY
Let us set aside any consideration of those few individuals God does not love, having already proved that God does not love equally, to focus our attention upon the vast majority of mankind who are loved by God. Do you think God loves everyone who He loves equally? Are you of the opinion that God does not sovereignly reserve to Himself the personal discretion to love one person above another person, that God is the original socialist?
Are you of the opinion that God’s love for Abraham and God’s love for Lot was the same, equal in intensity and effect as well as equal in essence? How about God’s love for Sarah and Hagar? How about God’s love for Moses and Pharaoh? How about God’s love for Esther and the other young Jewish women in the Babylonian captivity? How about Daniel and his three friends compared to God’s love of the other young Jewish men in Babylonian captivity? How about God’s love for Mordecai versus Haman? Would you say God’s love for each of them, those named as well as those unnamed, those prominent as well as those not prominent, is the same?
We know that our love for God is reciprocal, that we love Him because He first loved us, First John 4.19. However, are you not willing to admit that your love for God is never the same as someone else’s love for God? You know people who love God more than you do. You know people who love God less than you do. How do you explain those differences, especially if they suggest differing degrees of God’s love for different individuals?
Recollect the Lord Jesus Christ’s conversation with Simon the Pharisee in Luke chapter 7, when He asked which of two debtors would love most the man who forgave their debt.[6] The Pharisee indicated the one whose debt was greater would love more, owing to his greater appreciation. If our love for God truly is a love that is reciprocal to our appreciation and perception of God’s love for us, are not the differences of our love for God at least partly explained by God’s love for each of us not being identical in intensity or degree?
How important it is, therefore, that we practice contentment and that we avoid the temptation of comparing our situation with another person’s situation? Notice Paul’s warning to the Corinthians in Second Corinthians 10.12:
“For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”
Notice, also, how the Lord dealt with one of His apostles involved in such a comparison after His crucifixion, John 21.21-23:
20 Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?
21 Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?
22 Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.
23 Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
Does his identification four different times as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” suggest the Lord Jesus loved him differently, more intensely than the other apostles?[7]
What is the lesson for us in this? There are many lessons, but perhaps the most important for us now is to discover how you should respond to God’s love for you with gratitude and appreciation. After all, He did not have to love you as much as He does. And if you are here, He certainly loves you very much.
Third, GOD DOES NOT LOVE DESERVEDLY
The fact that God loves most people, but not everyone, serves to illustrate the sovereign exercise of God’s love. He loves who He chooses to love and is accountable to no one for His selection of those chosen to be the objects of His love. After all, His creation of this physical universe was His choice to make. Throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity, He had chosen not to create this universe, and all that herein is. Then He did. And if He had chosen not to create this universe and all that herein is, there would not be anyone for Him to love, other than the other two Persons of the Triune Godhead.
Add to that the sinfulness of the human race. We are born into this world dead in trespasses and sins, yet God loves us. But why does God love us? Is it because we are lovable? Is it because we are lovely? Is it because we are adorable? Is it because we love Him? The answers to those questions are, “No.” God loves us even though we are not lovable; we are not lovely, we are not adorable, and we do not love Him. Quite the contrary. We are obstinate and rebellious. We were each conceived in sin and came into this world shaking our fists at God.[8] Yet He chose to love us and to demonstrate that love in many different ways.
What is one to call this undeserved love? How does one describe being the recipient of God’s love, even though we do not deserve His love, any expressions of His love, or the ultimate demonstration of the love of God, which is the free offer of His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior?
In a word, it is grace. God does not love deservedly. You do not deserve God’s love. I do not deserve God’s love. Neither do you, nor I deserve the free offer of Jesus Christ to be our Savior, which is the ultimate expression of God’s undeserved love. An undeserved love prompted God to offer an undeserved Savior, to provide an undeserved salvation, to undeserving sinners.
Finally, GOD DOES NOT LOVE PASSIVELY
Though the Greek word found in our text is found in both the verb and the noun forms of the word, let us take special care to consider the implications of the verb form of the word found in our text and in John 3.16–17. I say that to point out this. God’s love is not a feeling. Instead, it is the active implementation of a decision. God chose to love you, just as He chose to create the universe, and also chose to send His Son to die on the cross of Calvary for your sins.
Many people demonstrate their confusion about the concept of love that is found in the Bible, entangling it with the concept of love that is found in the world. The biblical concept of love and the world’s concept of love is not the same. God’s love is not a feeling, not a sentiment, and not an emotion. It is the demonstration of God’s sovereign choice to bless you, to meet your profound need, even though you do not deserve to be so blessed.
Thus, God loves actively. How actively does God love? He chose to dispatch His Son from the throne room of heaven to be born of a virgin so that He might live a sinless life on this earth and die a sacrificial death for your sins and mine. On the third day, He raised His Son.[9] And then He exalted and enthroned His Son at His right hand on high.[10] He is presently making His Son’s enemies His footstool.[11]
It is beyond dispute that God does not love passively but actively. It is also beyond dispute that God insists that His creatures respond to His active love actively. That means permission has not been given to you by God to do nothing in response to His acts of love for you. He does not permit you to imagine yourself to be a neutral observer in this great drama of redemption. God’s will is for you to be active in your response, as He has been active with His love.
We have considered several aspects of God’s love that many people seem to be unaware of, judging by their awareness of it and their responses to it. Do you become aware from our brief consideration of God’s love with an awareness that God’s love is active rather than passive and that His love is the consequence of a sovereign choice that He made?
Consider this, as well, when you consider God’s love for His Son and His Son’s love for you. Although the Lord Jesus Christ, unlike you and me, deserves His Father’s love, make no mistake about the Father’s love for His Son not being active in the sense that it is a challenging love.
God’s love for His Son is a love that challenges the Son to glorify His heavenly Father. And so, He left heaven’s glory to become a man, lived a sinless life, died a sacrificial death, arose in victorious resurrection, and returned to the throne room in heaven having glorified His Father.
Do you not realize that Christ’s love for you is also challenging? You are loved by God, with the challenge to live your life to honor Him. You encounter God’s precious Word, with the challenge that you will consider the claims of Jesus Christ to address your profound spiritual needs.
The Spirit of God presses home the Gospel claims of Christ with the challenge to turn from your sins to trust Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. All of this is an expression of God’s love for you that is accompanied by the challenges that always accompany genuine love.
God wants what is best for you because He loves you. He challenges you to turn from your sins to trust Christ as your Savior because He loves you. Real love always features the challenge to respond. My prayer is that you will respond to God’s love with love and will respond to His call to action with action.
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[1] Bauer, Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2000), pages 493-494.
[2] 1 John 4.8, 16
[3] John 13.33
[4] John 13.36
[5] Matthew 5.43
[6] Luke 7.42
[7] John 13.23; 20.2; 21.7; 21.20
[8] Psalm 51.5
[9] Acts 2.24, 32; 3.15, 26; 4.10; 5.30; 10.40; 13.23, 30, 33, 34, 37; 17.31; Romans 4.24, 25; 6.4, 9; 7.4; 8.11; 10.9; 1 Corinthians 6.14; 15.15, 16, 17; 2 Corinthians 4.14; Galatians 1.1; Ephesians 1.20; Colossians 2.12; 1 Thessalonians 1.10; 2 Timothy 2.8; 1 Peter 1.21
[10] Psalm 16.11; 110.1; Matthew 26.64; Mark 12.36; 14.62; 16.19; Luke 20.42; 22.69; John 3.13; 13.1; 14.2-4; Acts 1.9-11; 2.33, 34-35; 7.56; Romans 8.34; Ephesians 1.20; 6.9; Colossians 3.1; Second Thessalonians 1.7; Hebrews 1.3, 13; 8.1; 9.24; 10.12-13; 12.2; 1 Peter 3.22; Revelation 19.11
[11] Psalm 99.5; 110.1; 132.7; Matthew 22.44; Mark 12.36; Luke 20.43; Acts 2.35; Hebrews 1.13; 10.13
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Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church