God’s Love Begins With Him, Not You

Welcome to the For the Gospel Podcast, where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kasti Hinn, and I want to thank you for subscribing on YouTube. And if you're watching this on our new Spotify version as well, we're really excited to feature video now on that platform. And if you're listening on Apple, hey, thank you.

We're glad to be with you wherever you are on the go. Before we jump into this episode today, I want to encourage you with a few resources that we have available. First, in Jesus' name I pray. It's a great book. As the holiday season approaches, it's about prayer and what it means to pray in Jesus' name.

If you've got kids like we do, one of the challenges is helping them understand how God loves them, hears them, and does answer their prayers. But putting in Jesus' name on the end of your prayers is not like a magic phrase that'll unlock what you want. And so this is what I would call a soft takedown or a kid-friendly takedown of the prosperity gospel and making sure your kids know, hey, God is there and he will move in power and listen to you.

But to pray in Jesus' name means praying for the right things, not just expecting God to do whatever you want. We have a few other resources as well. These are from our Fruit of the Spirit series: The Farmer Who Chose to Plant Kindness, The King Who Found His Self-Control. King Ira has a little bit of a problem with his uh controlling his emotions, we'll say.

And both root uh the solution in the gospel and not just like moral, moral little lessons and kind of like, ah, well, you just need to do better and and and behave yourself and follow the rules, but really rooting our actions in the gospel and our trust in the Lord to forgive our sins in the gospel. So uh my wife is a big, big gospel proponent and for a while was frustrated with kids' books being so just morality lessons and and it moralism, and that doesn't really get to the heart of the issue with our children.

And so we always try to make sure our kids' books are so are focused on the gospel and ministering to the heart of your children. Last but not least, if you have elementary age children in, you know, younger, like first grade to fourth and fifth grade, this is a Bible study we wrote for them. You can use this for homeschool, your church, you can use it for if you're in a Christian school setting or just as a family, but it's called Earth's Epic Start.

And it's a Bible study about God's creation, our fall, and God's promises. And we wanted kids to have a strong foundation on creation, but also understand the gospel is the solution to all of the things that are broken in this world. God did say, oh, it is very good. Sin entered, things are not good, but we have a greater hope in Christ.

And so I pray that those resources are blessing your home if you have them, or become a blessing to your home if you didn't know that we have these resources. You can get them at For the Gospel, or you can order them on Amazon, Target, anywhere that resources like that are available. Today we're continuing our series in the attributes of God with the love of God.

And I've got my Bible open to 1 John chapter 4, verses 7 to 12. One of the more popular or well-known passages about the love of God. And if you're newer to Christianity or to studying the Bible for real, maybe you know, I say, oh, one of the most popular or well-known, and you go, I didn't know that.

Well, I'm really excited that you've joined us because I think this will become one of your go-to passages for knowing the love of God. And it becomes familiar the more you read it, study it, and understand it. Now, John is writing, first John, of course, and he helps us understand who God is and what he's done for us through Jesus, and how that love is gonna change our lives.

And so here's the premise that I want you to keep in mind throughout this episode it's that God's love flows from his character, and you'll see why that's true, and it's revealed supremely in his son, meaning like the ultimate revelation of God's love is in Jesus Christ. You'll see why. And then this has got to go somewhere.

God's love, shown through the sun, transforms how we his people love others. And so I want us to keep that in mind as we walk through this. Now, most of us know what it's like to earn something. I'm a big proponent of you get out what you put in, right? That's athletics, that's sports, it's even ministry labors and things like that.

It doesn't mean that everything's gonna be the top, like, oh, if you work hard, you're gonna make it to the big leagues. Like, no, but you're gonna have success to a degree that you otherwise would not if you don't get after it. You know, you work hard, you're gonna get paid. You perform well, eventually you are gonna get promoted.

You produce results, you're gonna gain respect and trust, and you're gonna be a reliable employee or a reliable business owner for your investors, whatever that looks like. That's proper and right in life, because nothing is like is free in life, and you need to learn, right? We teach our kids this skin your own meat, like work hard for results.

Go get it, go get done what you ought to get done. And yet, we've got to be so careful because you know, we look at sports and think, yeah, you're not gonna get some participation trophy here. Like if you want to win, you gotta be the best. Okay, but we need to be careful that mindset doesn't follow us into our relationship with God because suddenly you have a good week, you're obedient, you're doing all the right things, and now you feel good enough and welcome enough to be in the presence of God.

Or you fall into sin, you have a rough week, and now you feel like God wants nothing to do with you. And we end up treating the Father's love like a paycheck, like you put in the hours and you did the work, well, now you can be loved. And you didn't, so you're not loved. And I am a Christian like you who understands that it's a relationship with Jesus.

And if you don't nurture that relationship and relish in that relationship and foster the relationship, you might feel distant from God at times, yes, but you're never like cut off from his love when you're a Christian. Now, other people make the mistake of thinking, you know, God loves me. So, look, I know I'm sinful, I know that I'm a mess, but like, you know, God loves me, God loves me.

And they abuse the grace and love of God and they end up living in sin and they're really under self-delusion. So by understanding this attribute of God and his love as fully as we can, we're gonna avoid both errors. We're not gonna go in the tank and think he doesn't love us when we've done wrong, and we're also not gonna abuse the grace of God and just presume on the love of God, meanwhile, we're living in unrepentant sin.

So I want to give you three truths here to meditate on in light of the love of God. The first is that God's love flows from who he is. God's love flows from who he is. If you're uh following along on screen, you'll see this on Spotify, you'll see it on YouTube. If you're on the fly right now, I'm just gonna read this to you.

First John 4, 7 and 8. John says, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, key phrase, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Verse 8 The one who does not love God does not know God, for God is love. So John begins with a command to let us love one another. That that's an imperative there.

That's commanded, let us love one another. And and it's not like, hey, let's let's try this out. Maybe you should think about this. And the reason that he gives is for love is from God. And so when we're thinking about this attribute right away, we're talking about a God who literally is love. For God is love, is what it ends with.

For God is love, verse eight. And that's not to say that God isn't spirit and that love is our God. You know, people will often turn this into, you know, see, look, God is love, Costi. Verse eight, he's he's love. And you so, so really, like, you know, we should just be loving because like God is love, like love is is is really God.

And you're going, okay, that's how you end up in some crazy leftist cult. It doesn't mean that God's not spirit, doesn't mean that love is our God. You're not reading it correctly. It means that God is the source, God is love, meaning God is the source of pure holy love, genuine pure holy love. He's the source of our genuine, pure, and holy love.

You can't understand Christian love without understanding the God who gives it. If you want to see love, look at God. That's what it means, that God is love. Look at him, and you'll see the definition of love. And that means that love belongs to his very nature. So he does not become loving when we're lovable.

He doesn't look and say, oh, you're doing such a good job. You know, now, now I can love you. It's it's part of his nature, it's always who he is. And so a basic definition of God's love is this: God's love is his holy affection and commitment to the good of those he loves, his holy, perfect affection, and his commitment to the good of those he loves.

The Bible says that before creation, you know, the Father loved the Son. That's John 17, 24. And so you'd see love even before we were ever here. God didn't create us and save us and do anything with us because he was lonely and he needed someone or something to make him complete. Love already existed.

God is love. And he eternally enjoyed relationship with his son and the spirit. The Trinity was in perfect union and unity. And so love precedes humanity, if you will. And everything God does agrees with who God is. So his love is governed by all of his other attributes and the ones that we've even studied.

His love is holy and it's wise and it's righteous and perfect. He doesn't love by approving evil. He's love. So his love is pure, it's never sinful. You even see his love expressed for us as humans and his people, like Hebrews 12.6 says he disciplines those he loves. And so his fatherly discipline is even a sign that he cares.

And and so God's love has a wide scope. It was before all things, before humanity, pre-creation, and and it also is expressed for creation and with creation and in discipline of his people and all these things, and of course in Christ. And then John says this line: He says, Whoever loves is born of God and knows God.

And you start seeing there, okay, there's this family resemblance that's produced by the new birth. So we don't earn salvation by being loving. That shatters works-based religion. It's actually God's saving work that produces love in us. If we're saved by God and God is love, then we're going to reflect the God who saved us.

That's why when you got saved, you started to change and you became more loving, because his love started to do a work in you. And that's why theological knowledge alone is not enough to change a person. You need God to change your heart. A lot of people have a lot of knowledge. They know about God, they even know theology, and there it doesn't mean they know God.

A lot of people do a lot of things. And Jesus says in Matthew 7 that, you know, many people on that day will say, Lord, Lord, I did this in your name, this in your name, this in your name. He'll say, Department from me, I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness. So we need God to change our hearts.

His love does that, and it does that through his truth. And so people can know a lot about God, they can wax eloquent with big doctrinal truth and still need to examine whether their life resembles the love of God or resembles actual salvation. Because Jesus said in John 13, 35, by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

And so the key truth here is knowing a lot about theology is no substitute for displaying the love of God. God's love flows from himself. And if you've experienced life in Christ or salvation, and God has encountered you and you're not loving, I'd be concerned about either your maturity and sanctification, or if you were ever even saved at all, or if you're just kind of a theological blowhard and you like to talk with big words, but you're really nasty and you're mean to people, and no one really likes you, not because you're not very likable.

It's because you are cantankerous. A lot of theological acumen with no love doesn't look like God. So have you really encountered God? Okay. Really important truth. Number two, God's love is revealed supremely in his son. That's the ultimate manifestation of the love of God. First John 4, verses 9 and 10 say this: By this, the love of God was manifested in us, that God sent his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him.

In this is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now, John moves from God's character to God's action. God sent his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him. I want you to think about this in light of the gospel.

Our greatest problem was spiritual death and guilt before God, and his love addressed our deepest need. And then in verse 10, you see the initiative of God. In this is love. Not that we loved God. No. But what? Well, that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. So our love for him was not the cause of his saving action.

It's his love for us. So God's the great initiator, man the humble responder. Then John calls Jesus the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation means the Lord's sacrifice, Jesus, his sacrifice, has satisfied God's righteous wrath against sin. He is the payment, the atonement. And at the cross, Jesus willingly bore the judgment that sinners rightly deserved.

And so to put this in logical order here, you have the Father who lovingly sent his son, and the Son who lovingly gave himself, and now God's justice is satisfied by Christ's sacrifice, and everyone who trusts in Christ receives the benefits of that loving, saving, atoning action on the cross. And it's a really beautiful picture of God's sovereignty in salvation, also God's initiating love in salvation.

And I think Romans chapter 5, verses 8 to 10 is really the perfect description of this. Paul writes, but God demonstrated his own love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And then he goes on to say, Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him, for while we were key word enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son.

Much more, having been reconciled, will be saved by his life. When does Paul locate this demonstration of God's love? It's in verse 8 of that passage. While we were still yet sinners. In other words, key aspect of God's love is that he didn't wait for us to clean ourselves up or to be more lovable. No, his love is an initiating love.

He provided our savior for us. This is why I teach God's sovereignty and salvation and that God acted first. And then in response to that, we repent, we believe, we love, we worship. It's God first, then man, theologically speaking. And I would argue that that is really clear in passages like 1 John 4, 7 through 12, and then Romans 5, 8 to 10, because the cross shows us how serious God takes our sin, but also how greatly he loves sinners.

I remember Vodivakum one time saying this phrase, now we all quote it. He would say, dead men don't grab, because you know, the picture of kind of the gospel, like it's the sacrifice of Jesus is just thrown out there, like, man, just swim over, grab the life preserver, and God will, you know, pull you in or pull yourself in or whatever.

And I remember him saying, like, listen, I understand what people are trying to communicate, but dead men don't grab. You're not like treading water on your own. And then, oh, there's a life preserver. There's Jesus. I'll take it. Like, dead men don't grab. You don't grab the life. God's love initiated all of it.

God's love reached into you. Your heart, your dead heart reached inside and brought it to life. God's love grabbed you. You are drowning. You're under the water, you're done, you're dead, you're damned, and you're doomed. And God reaches in, says, I love her, I love him, and reaches and pulls you out and then breathes life into your dead bones, into your dead heart.

And when the Bible paints the most gruesome picture of the cross, and the reason is sin is serious. We were dead in it. And so Christ had to die to bring us to life. And that is a lavish picture of grace towards sinners. And so the love of God is the trigger on all of that. God loved and therefore he gave.

And it is supremely seen through Christ. His love is shown through Jesus. That's why we say follow Jesus, worship Jesus, give your life to Jesus. And look, when suffering makes you question God's love, I want you to look at what he's given you through Christ. It doesn't mean that you have to be happy for every bad thing that happens to you.

But before you complain, before you wonder, does God even love me? Look at what he's doing, look at what he's allowed. Why isn't why isn't my life like hers or his? Why don't we have this? Consider what the Father and Son willingly accomplished to save you from sin. And so, yes, life is hard sometimes.

And yeah, the world is a tough place. But if you belong to Jesus Christ, you are forgiven, you are loved, you are called, you are chosen, you are secure in the midst of it all. And so a key truth here, when suffering makes you question God's love, look at what he has already given you. Number three, God's love transforms how we love others.

We can't just go and end it there. We got to talk about how his love changes the way we love others. Verse 11 of 1 John 4, Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he is in us because he has given us his spirit.

Verse 13, verse 19 to 21, go on to say, We love because he first loved us. If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar. For the one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, can't love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

If you hate somebody today in the family of God, you're in sin. You need to repent. The love of God is not in you. And I know we all have challenges with certain people. I got certain people that drive me crazy or that are challenging, or you have people who betray you or do wrong things to you or lie about you or slander or cause all kinds of issues.

Maybe you've got family that has just broken your trust, and the people you're supposed to be able to depend on are not there for you. We all have challenges, but to hate another Christian is anti-gospel, anti-God and anti-Christ. You can't freely receive the love of God while you're dishing out hate to your family in Christ.

Now we can hate sin and we can hate the things of this world. We're never to hate a brother or sister in Christ. John draws the conclusion that because God loved us in such a lavish way, we ought to love one another. And so being loved by God and really experiencing it creates this obligation to love others.

And I think there's a statement that's worth remembering here. A person cannot celebrate grace while continually refusing to extend it. And a person can't celebrate the love of God while continually refusing to extend it. Verse 12 says, No one has seen God. No one has seen God at any time. But if we love one another, God abides in us.

The idea there is when believers love one another, God abides in them, his love is perfected in them. You're seeing a glimpse of God, if you will, in that sense, a reflection of who he is. His love reaches its intended expression as it bears fruit in his people. And so your husband or wife, your children, those fellow church members, the people in the body of Christ should be experiencing the effects of God's love in your conduct.

And that means that patience is something we're gonna have even when we're tired or we're tired of people. It means that we're gonna be generous even though it's gonna cost us. It means we're gonna speak the truth for the good of another. Not out of resentment, not out of bitterness, but out of love for them.

It means that we're gonna forgive even when bitterness and resentment feel easier. I mean, those are like blankets that just make you feel warm, but they're they're ultimately lies. Bitterness and unforgiveness are just bottomless pits. You can never ever fill them. It's never enough. And love can require correction and it can require difficult conversations, but even then you're seeking the good of another with humility.

And I think it's helpful for us to ask this question in light of studying this attribute. Who receives your sharpest words? Who receives the least amount of patience from you? And what would loving that person in a more God-honoring way look like? See, God's love calls for a response. And it doesn't just call for a response to believe the gospel, it calls for a response after you have already trusted in Christ for salvation and believe the gospel.

Now, today, if you're outside of Christ and you found your way to this video, God's love is an invitation to repent of your sin and to respond to his love. The Bible says we love because he first loved us, and so you can love him because of what he's done. You can repent and turn from your sin and trust in Christ for salvation because of what he's done.

And for those of you who belong to Christ, rest in his love. You don't have to earn it. It's not a paycheck. It's something he freely gives to his children who have put their faith in Jesus Christ and then let it shape your life and the way that you treat others. You do not have to earn the love that moved God to send his son.

You are, and I am, as his people, called to live in light of it. And so let's do that. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Thanks for those of you who freely give and love for the gospel and act on that love with your partnership. We're so grateful. For those of you that act on your love for the gospel and this ministry by praying, I also want to say a huge thank you.

This ministry is reaching millions of people around the world every month because of faithful friends like you and our sovereign loving God who chooses to use our measly little effort to minister to his people wherever they are. So thank you for praying. Thank you for giving. Thank you for sharing and supporting.

If you're a new listener and you're wanting more free resources or you want to partner with us financially, you can access all of that information at forthegospel.org. And if you're not following us already on social media, there's daily encouragement and resources available to you there. I'll be back next Monday with another episode.

Keep on living for the gospel.

God’s Love Begins With Him, Not You

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