pression--not merely 'sent,' but
'gave.' Paul strengthens the word when he says, 'gave _up_ for us all.'
It is not for us to speculate about these deep things, but I would
remind you of what I dare say I have had occasion often to point out,
that Paul seems to intend to suggest to us a mysterious parallel, when
he further says, 'He that _spared_ not His own Son, but freely gave Him
up to death for us all.' For that emphatic word 'spared' is a distinct
allusion to, and quotation of, the story of Abraham's sacrifice of
Isaac: 'Seeing thou hast not _withheld_ from Me thine only son.' And so,
mysterious as it is, we may venture to say that He not only sent, but He
gave, and not only gave, but gave up. His love, like ours, delights to
lavish its most precious gifts on its objects.

Now there arises from this consideration a thought which I only mention,
and it is this. Christian teaching about Christ's work has often, both
by its friends and its foes, been so presented as to lead to the
conception that it was the work of Christ which made God love men. The
enemies of evangelical truth are never tired of talking in that sense;
and some of its unwise friends have given reason for the caricature. But
the true Christian teaching is, 'God so loved ... that He gave.' The
love is the cause of the mission, and not the mission that which evokes
the love. So let us be sure that, not because Christ died does God love
us sinful creatures, but that, because God loves us, Christ died for us.

The third thing which the mission of Christ teaches us about the love of
God is that it is a love which takes note of and overcomes man's sin. I
have said, as plainly as I can, that I reject the travesty of
Christianity which implies that it was Christ's mission which originated
God's love to men. But a love that does not in the slightest degree care
whether its object is good or bad--what sort of a love do you call that?
What do you name it when a father shows it to his children? Moral
indifference; culpable and weak and fatal. And is it anything nobler, if
you transfer it to God, and say that it is all the same to Him whether a
man is living the life of a hog, and forgetting all that is high and
noble, or whether he is pressing with all his strength towards light
and truth and goodness? Surely, surely they who, in the name of their
reverence for the supreme love of God, cover over the fact of His
righteousness, are mutilating and killing the very a