1 John 4:9-10 are among my favorite verses for Christmas.

If you want to know what true love is, just look to Christmas and Good Friday. Recently, I posted about the supremacy of Christ and how he humbled himself for our sake that we might have life and not death. 1 John 4 tells us that God’s motivation for the incarnation was love.

You may not love God, but he has already loved you – when you didn’t love him, when you were distant from him, when you had exhibited no loving response towards him. This is the definition of true, sacrificial love. In Christ’s advent and his death on the cross, he also made a way for us to truly love. Propitiation is a big theological term that just means “a sacrifice that takes God’s wrath and turns it into favor.” Sin brings divine wrath. God’s wrath towards those who trust him was satisfied fully in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Now, God looks upon those who trust him with favor and not wrath. If you are distant from the Savior I pray that you will receive the love of Christ this Christmas.

Published by Greg Wilson