“The Chicken Or The Egg”

“Digging Deeper”
An opportunity for you to continue your study of God’s Word throughout the week.

WEDNESDAY
“The Chicken Or The Egg”

1 John 4:10
“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? This is an age-old question that makes you think about the order in which things happen. This verse makes it clear that God initiates the loving relationship with us through His Son. God’s loving activity is clearly proactive and not reactive. In other words, God doesn’t wait around for us to try to make our way to Him. We could never do enough good things to get to God on our own anyway. Instead, God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). This love was not a response to man’s love, but an initiative on God’s part to love man.

When John says that God sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins, he means that Christ’s death on the cross adequately satisfied the wrath of God toward sin. Jesus’ body became the site where God unleashed His wrath against sin. Earlier in this same Epistle, John makes the point that Christ was the propitiation for “the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).

These passages provide healthy support for the idea that Jesus satisfactorily paid the price for the sins of both the believer and the non-believer. This means that sin is no longer the issue between any person and God. Despite this, the byproduct and penalty of sin (death) is still a real problem. Before faith in Christ, people are spiritually dead and in need of new life.

QUESTION: Have you placed your faith in Christ and received eternal life?