1 John 4:9 Commentary and Bible Study

If God is love, his love is perfect and to see it is to see what outshines all created glory. But if God is transcendent, dwelling in light which no man can approach unto, how can we ever gain access to him to observe instances of his love in action? That would certainly be impossible if he had not willingly sent his Son into the world to lay down his life for us. He has allowed a problem to develop in his creation which can only be solved by his love, and we are intimately involved in this drama. We do not watch as detached spectators, but as those who are central to the plot, for it is our eternal souls that are being delivered from death through the love of God. God’s love is so great because of the undeserving state of those who are the objects of his love; we are members of a fallen human race which has rebelled against his law and shut its ears to his message. It is love that cost the Father his only begotten Son: the cross was not one of many options open to God but was the only way to save sinners, for God would never have put his Son through such suffering unnecessarily. It involved the Son being willing to die at the hands of his creatures, and it was necessary for the Father to punish the Son with the full fury of his wrath, when there had never been any shadow between them in all eternity past. Through all this the Son continued to believe in his Father’s love towards him, and to bear his suffering with patience looking to what would be accomplished by it.