GOD has been pleased to reveal Himself to man, and to declare His nature to us, so that we may understand what He is. There is, therefore, no excuse for any one, with the word of God before him, to plead ignorance of God, or to say, Since we know not what God is like we cannot know in this life what we shall receive from Him in the next! To say, No one can tell what God is, and how He will deal with man, is but declaring the Bible to be a fable, and God’s revelation of Himself a myth.
Now God has been pleased to describe to us what He is in His nature, and He has done so in six short words:—
GOD IS LIGHT. GOD is LOVE.
Not all light, not all love, but both light and love. Were He all light, there would be no hope for sinful man; were He all love, there would not be hatred in Him of sin.
The infidelity of our day, which prevails among professing Protestant Christians, attacks God’s very nature, for it practically denies that He is light. It refuses the scripture truth, “In Him is no darkness at all,” and asserts that though a man live a bad life and die in his sins, yet he may hope for mercy in God in the future, because of God’s love. Since God is love, says the gospel of the wider hope, we may all hope to be saved, simply because God is love.
The wrong against the nature of God which prevailed in former days, practically denied that God is love. It pictured Him as an angry Being, whose severity had to be overcome by the tenderness of the heart of His Son. In Roman Catholic teachings this wrong is intensified, for God is portrayed as being moved towards men not only by the tenderness of the Son of Man, but also by that of a woman—the Virgin Mary!
The truth is, God is both light and love. He will in no way pass by sin, or allow sin in His presence, but in love He has made a way consistent with His holiness for men not only to abide in His presence, but for their being there to His glory— “holy and without blame before Him in love.” (Eph. 1:44According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: (Ephesians 1:4)).
In God, says the Scripture, is no darkness at all; therefore to say we have fellowship with God, and yet to walk in darkness, is but to lie against God’s very being. God never has tolerated sin, and never will tolerate it. Nevertheless, He loves sinners in their sins, and He loves us because He is love. The motive is His own heart. A man’s good works do not induce God to love him, neither do our prayers nor our goodness incline God’s heart towards us, for His heart is towards us, sinners though we be, because He is love.
The Scripture which shows us what God is, also shows that in the cross of Christ God has manifested Himself for man as both light and as love.
In the cross of Christ both the light and the love meet,
and thence flow out towards guilty man in divine perfection. In the sufferings, the blood-shedding, and the wrath-bearing of Christ, we behold the light which God is; in the giving up of the Son, in the sending Him to the earth, we behold the love.
“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:1010Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)). Both the love and the light appear! The love in the sending of His Son, because God is love; the light, in the propitiation of His Son, because He is light. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,” witnesses the love; “Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” proves the light.
In the cross of Christ God manifests what He is for man; there He reveals Himself for us in our sins and distance from Himself.
There He has vindicated His own holiness and manifested His own love on the behalf of sinful men! There He has glorified Himself in order unto our salvation as both light and love. Yet men tell us this day they want no suffering Saviour, no dying of God’s Son for them, no putting away of their sins by His sacrifice, but instead they are content to dare to face God as they are, sinners though they own themselves to be, since God is love! His love is and must be like Himself: He is Light, and He is Love.
In the propitiation of His Son God has glorified Himself in relation to sin, and He now sets forth His Son as the object of our faith, so that we may come to Him in our sins, and find everlasting forgiveness through the blood of the cross. He asks no great thing of man; He has done the great things Himself. He asks of us our trust in Himself, our trust now, in this life, while Christ is unseen and hidden in the heavens, and before the unseen world becomes seen to us, before we behold the judgment throne, or heaven and hell.
Have we proved God for ourselves in the cross of His Son? Have we found in God perfect love, loving us even in our sins; perfect light, meeting our sins according to His own view and estimate of sin? Happy, then, is our portion. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment.” (1 John 4:1818There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)). God’s perfect love has cast out our fear! Let us not doubt, or hesitate, for “he that feareth is not made perfect in love” —he does not stand firm and strong in God’s love.
In the coming glory, God’s people will rejoice in Him Himself. He who is Light and Love will be their everlasting reward and joy. They will be at home in His light, and in His love. They will delight, perfectly in the nature of God, of which even now all of them are partakers. There will be no hindrance to their fullness of joy, as is the case with them now, for no sin will be either in them or on them. They will find their delight in the things which delight God; they will be before God in the sunshine of His love, and they will be themselves before Him, according to His light, holy and without blame.