1 John
God Wants to Forgive You
God knew what we'd done when He sent Jesus for us. He wanted us back.
A guy's at work, and he knows his wife's mad at him. He's done something wrong, and he's not looking forward to going home. Maybe he'll stop and buy flowers. He hopes she'll accept them and forgive him.
There's a word in the Bible for that sort of thing: propitiation. It means giving someone you've wronged something he'll accept, so he won't be angry with you anymore. The flowers are an ordinary example of an idea that sounds complicated when a preacher says it.
But the apostle John uses that word in a surprising way. He writes, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as the propitiation for our sins" (). God is the one we wronged, and God is the one who provided the gift.
For the flowers story to fit what John says, the wife would have to arrange it herself. Her husband's still at work, worried and clueless. She's angry with him, but she wants things right between them. So she calls a friend and has him meet her husband outside work with flowers to bring home to her. She supplies the very gift she's going to accept.
That's what God did for us. We sinned against Him. He had every right to be angry. And He loved us so much that He sent Jesus Christ to deal with our sins and put us right with Him. We didn't figure out how to do that. We didn't bring the gift or buy it. As I put it in the sermon, we were just dopey, sitting around sucking our thumbs. He wanted us, and He provided what we needed.
If you've been trying to work up the nerve to come to God, you might think you've got to persuade Him to forgive you, as though Jesus came to help you talk a reluctant God into it. But sending Jesus was God's idea. He knew what we'd done, and He wanted us back.
John goes on to say that since God loved us this way, we ought to love one another (). He doesn't say, "I love you, so love me back." He says, "I love you, so love each other." Pay it forward. People who know God made the first move with them can make the first move with each other.
God put His money where His mouth is. He always acts first. He wants to forgive you.
— tobe