Rev. Cornelius J. Van Schouwen of Sioux Center, Iowa served as professor of Bible at Dordt College from 1954 until his retirement in 1968. This is the second installment of his article on “God So Loved . . .”, the first of which appeared in the February issue.
The essence of God‘s love, as indicated in the Bible, is summarized in the words “He gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16). Many people have a perverted idea of love. Marital unfaithfulness, fornication, and adultery are all justified in the name of love. In the name of love some parents refuse to discipline their children. Is this true love?
What is the nature of God‘s love? John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son.” In studying the implications of these words in the light of Scripture, we can conclude that God’s love is expressed in self-preservation, self-impartation, and self–realization.
Self–preservation – In terms of self–preservation, God‘s love is first of all expressed in self–love. God is love and He loves Himself. In other words, He seeks His own honor and glory in all that He does. Insofar as human beings are concerned, self–love is the second law of life. This follows from the fact that the Lord has made us stewards of all that we are, physically and spiritually, and of all our possessions. Consequently, in relation to others, our greatest responsibility is to take care of our own bodies and also our souls. Self–love is the second law of life—for, of course, first we are to love God above all and then our neighbor as ourself.
This is also true of God. The Bible says that God is a jealous God. He is jealous of His honor and glory and maintains them against any violation by sinful man. Therefore, His love contains the elements of justice and righteousness. Every transgression of His commandments and every violation of His holy will must be punished everlastingly, unless blotted out by the blood of Christ. In much preaching today, the justice and the righteousness of God are relegated to the background, and a denuded love devoid of justice is placed on a pedestal.
A true love is a just love, a righteous love. These two cannot be separated. A love without justice is no real love at all, but a sickly sentiment. Parents who really love their children will certainly exercise discipline whenever it is necessary. And marital unfaithfulness or fornication can never be justified in the name of love. For real love is a just and righteous love. Because God‘s love is a just love, God gave His only begotten Son to suffer and die for the sins of His elect, and, thereby, to endure the punishment which they had merited.
Because God‘s love is a just love, there must be a day of judgment, in which all those who dishonored the Name of God, by refusing to accept the Lord Jesus as their Lord and Savior, are punished everlastingly. In the light of all this, John 3:16 means, and I paraphrase it; “God so loved Himself that He gave His only begotten Son, that through the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus, His offended honor might be maintained against every violation of it by His elect people.” Love is self-preservation.
Self-impartation – A second characteristic of true love is self–impartation. That means that love gives itself to the person who is loved. This is also true in natural life. During courtship, young people give presents to each other on various occasions. But when their love matures, they give themselves to each other in the bonds of holy wedlock. They no longer live for themselves, but for each other. Thus, love gives self to the person who is loved.
God does this too. John 3:16 says that Cod so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son. Through the Lord Jesus and the operation of the Holy Spirit, God gave Himself to the people He loved. It is utterly impossible for us to estimate to what extent God gave Himself to the people He loved.
Our Lord and Savior was hounded from one end of Palestine to the other. His whole life was a life of suffering. Finally, He was apprehended, nailed to the cursed tree to endure the very torments of hell in behalf of His elect people. In all this He gave Himself. But this is not the end.
Our Lord continued to give Himself in the resurrection, in the ascension, in sitting on the right hand of the Father, and in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He lives in us and we live in Him. He gives grace upon grace for every burden, for every trial, and for every tear. Thus God gave Himself through Jesus Christ to the people He loved. Love is self-impartation.
Self–realization – The third characteristic of love is self-realization. Every responsible person seeks to fulfill, to realize his talents and his potential. Actually, self-realization comes to its greatest development and glory through others who are loved.
In the bonds of holy marriage husband and wife live one life. His problems are her problems, and her problems are his. Her happiness is his, and his happiness is hers. They have common goals, purposes, and ideals (Ruth 1:16). It is precisely when a person begins to live for the life of the person who is loved that he comes to his greatest self-realization. For instance, in Christian marriage, the husband becomes the prophet, the priest, and the king of the home, and the wife comes to her greatest glory in the blessings of motherhood. Love is self-realization.
So it is also spiritually. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, in order that through the operation of the Holy Spirit, He might live forever in the Bride-Church He loved. The Bride Church, in keeping His commandments and precepts, magnifies and brings great glory and praise to His most wonderful Name. And in living for Him and unto Him the elect come to their greatest self-realization, in achieving the purpose for which they were created and redeemed. True love is self–realization.
In the light of self–preservation, self–impartation, and self–realization, what does John 3:16 mean? To paraphrase it, I would read it thus: “God so loved Himself that He gave His only begotten Son, who restored the offended love of God through suffering and death, that God, living in the Church He loved, might receive all the honor and glory that He had purposed to receive from the world He loved and created in the beginning.”
Everlasting life – The latter part of John 3:16 refers to the power of God‘s love and not to the free will of man. It reads, “that whosoever believeth in hUn should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Many evangelists in preaching on this text equate the word “world” in the first part of the text with “whosoever” in the latter part. Then it must follow that God loves every person in the world and every person has the free will to accept Christ any time. It is then entirely up to man. But this interpretation is contrary to the doctrine of election so strongly emphasized in many parts of the Bible (Rom. 8:29–30, Eph. 1:4–9, Acts 2:47, Acts 13:48, etc.).
The “whosoever believeth” in John 3:16 does not refer to every person in the world. We do not want to minimize the importance of faith in seeking salvation, nor the extent of God’s grace. However, all of John 3:16 is about the greatness and the wonderfulness and the power of God’s love. The latter part of this text means to say that God’s love is so powerful that it gives everlasting life to all those who believe.
This is very remarkable, indeed. Who can comprehend it? We are living in a world in which death reigns. This world is a valley of death. All suffering and every disease are forms of death. Hospitals throughout the world are filled with the sick and dying. Hatred, jealousy, greed, animosity, crime, immorality, and selfishness are forms of death. All the wars that have been waged and the death of millions of soldiers on the fields of battle are consequences of the fact that death is it terrible power.
Worries, cares, burdens, sorrows arc forms of death. The world is a valley of tears—a desert land where all the streams run dry. No one has ever escaped the power of death. The stench of death is everywhere about us. Apart from Christ, the world is a place where death reigns supreme.
Now then, the greatness and the wonderfulness and the power of God’s love are found in the fact that God through Christ brings not only life but eternal life into the world in which death reigns. This life is given to all those who accept the Lord Jesus as their Savior. For this present earthly life, it gives a peace, a joy, a blessedness that pass all understanding and knowledge. It promises grace upon grace to sustain us in all our earthly trials and burdens. It promises life beyond the grave that will endure throughout the endless ages of eternity, where God shall wipe away all tears and where there is no night.
This is the power of God’s love! This is the glorious Gospel! This is the meaning of “whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” It is given only to all those who believe. And since all unbelievers are in the grip of death, we would think that they too would eagerly accept the Gospel in the way of faith and repentance. But the Bible says, “And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil” John 3:19). But for the people of God who have that new life, we would think that they would desire to have it in far greater measure, by a walk worthy of the Gospel and worthy of the Kingdom. All our difficulties with John 3:16 have been resolved. May we see John 3:16 in all its beauty, its meaning, and its power.