(John 3: 35), and that Christ said, "He that loveth Me, shall be loved of My Father also"

(John 14: 21), but God's love to the world was manifested once and for all in the gift of

His Son. It is vain to look for the love of God apart from Christ. God may still make His

sun to shine upon the just and the unjust, He may still defer the long-threatened day of

vengeance, He may feed and clothe and sustain in life those who deny Him; but His love

is manifested and exhausted in Christ. To be outside of Christ, is to be outside the pale of

the love of God.

This bring us to the Gift: "He gave His only begotten Son." Not simply that "He gave

His Son", but His "only begotten Son". Isaac is called "the only begotten son" of

Abraham (Heb. 11: 17). (It is impossible to miss the meaning of the word "beget" in

Matt. 1: 1-16). Christ is called "the only begotten Son" for the first time in John 1: 14, in

immediate connection with the words: "The Word was made flesh."

Antichrist denies that Jesus Christ came in the flesh (I John 4: 2, 3), but the truth of

this great fact is vital to our faith. In the flesh Christ could be our Kinsman-Redeemer

(Heb. 2: 14, 15). In the flesh He could be a great High Priest (Heb. 5: 1), and could offer

the one great Sacrifice (Heb. 10: 5-10). As Man, He is the one Mediator between God and

men (I Tim. 2: 5), and, as Man, shall yet be Judge of quick and dead (John 5: 22-27). All

this and more is involved in the gift of the only begotten Son. There is no gospel,

no salvation, no life, no peace, no hope, apart from God.

The love of God, apart from Christ as the only begotten Son, could never have saved

sinful men. God so loved the world that He spared not His only begotten Son, and we

can be sure that if salvation could have been provided by any other means, or the love of

God have save apart from righteousness, Christ would not have suffered the death of the

cross. With John 3: 16 before us, we cannot but believe that it is vain to look to the

"uncovenanted love of God" for those who have loved darkness rather than light. Such

will die in the presence of the gift of life; they will starve within reach of the true bread

of heaven; they will be lost in darkness, though the true light shines:--