How much can one write about, “For God so loved?” The inspired writers wrote twenty-seven books; some very short and others much longer, but all of them reveal the love of God. A preacher friend of mine of years gone by was asked to preach on love and he preached over a hundred sermons. If memory serves me correctly, he was finally asked to preach on another subject. You can rest assured I will not write a hundred articles on the subject, “For God so loved.”
Can you write about “redemption” and not write about “For God so loved?” Not if you have “redemption” as it is revealed in the New Testament in mind. The very words which follow our subject spell “redemption:” “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.” Just what does the word “redemption” mean? When Peter writes of our “redemption,” he says it was “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Pet. 1:18-19). The Greek word used here is “lutroo” and it means: “to release on receipt of ransom.” The “ransom” paid was “the precious blood of Christ.” We were held captive to sin, in that we were in bondage to sin; we were a servant to sin as we had yielded ourselves freely to obey it. Of course, to get the full picture, we must understand that we came into the world as an innocent baby, having no sin, and we stayed this way until we reached a time in life when we understood the difference between right and wrong and we chose sin. Then, we were separated from God; thus, we were in need of “redemption!” We needed to be brought back; a “ransom” needed to be paid so we could be released from the wages of our sins, and what are the wages of our sins? Let Paul answer this question: “For the wages of sin is death; … “ (Rom. 3:26) and that is eternal death! Eternal death is eternal separation from God! Hear Paul once more: “In whom (Christ, frw) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Eph. 1:7). However, the Greek word Paul used here is not the one Peter used. Paul used the Greek, “apolutrosis,” which means: “a releasing effected by payment of ransom.” However, if you look closely you can see the word used by Peter within the word used by Paul. “Redemption” is the releasing effected by the payment of ransom and the ransom paid is the Son given in the words: “For God so loved!”
When we think of the cross, the death of Jesus upon the cross, we must see “For God so loved, that he gave his only begotten Son.” The death of Jesus is proof of God’s love! It is proof of God’s love while we were yet sinners, enemies of God; without hope and separated from God. The only thing in front of us was eternal death! If we were able to look here, there, and everywhere, we would have seen no answer for our state of being lost! There was nothing, there was no one; there was no ransom to be paid no matter where we looked. But thanks to God, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” There is our redemption; there is the ransom which affected our release from the bondage of sin.
How many times have you read Philippians chapter two? However many times it is, it is not enough! “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (2:6-8). It is doubtful that we fully understand these words, but here is God’s love revealed in its greatest, in its most powerful words! How do we understand God in human flesh? Yet, in that human fleshly body flowed that “precious blood,” which was “as of a lamb without blemish and without spot!” Yes, our redemption is seen in the one who was “in the form of God… but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross!”
What is our answer to such love? Is it indifference? Is it luke-warmness? Is it half-heartedness? Do these words sound like: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10)?
— Frank R. Williams