The Marks of Sonship - Part One

Posted 7/22/14 by Donald Barnhouse
SCRIPTURE
John 1:11-14
 
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
LESSON
 
The fact that we can call ourselves sons of God is a miracle of God's great love to us. Love that goes upward, from the heart of man to God, is adoration. Love that goes outward, from one heart to another, is affection. But love that stoops is grace, and God stooped to us. This is the most stupendous fact of the universe. It reveals to us that our God is love.
 
You cannot find love in the forces of nature. There may be plan and determination, order and intelligence, but nothing in the movements of the millions of suns that fleck the universe, nothing that can come within the vision of telescope or microscope, will indicate love. You cannot put love in a test tube. You cannot measure it with a micrometer. You cannot synthesize it or analyze it. Love is not to be found in nature.
 
Perhaps you think you see love in a calm scene of natural beauty. You stand in the pine forest and listen to the softness of the wind in the branches, a sound broken only by the whir of a bird's wing. Or the smell of the sea comes up on the breeze to swell your heart. But then the wind changes. Clouds drive forward. The thunder roars. Lightning strikes the trees. Hail beats down the flowers. The roaring waves of the sea beat against the shore again and again. Where is the love?
 
Or maybe you pass down the street and your eye catches the warm light coming from a window. You glance into the room. What a scene of comfort! A father sits in a big chair reading. Children play on the rug before the fire. The mother sits nearby sewing. What a scene of love! Then suddenly the mother rises and touches the cheek of one of the little ones. She glances quickly at the father and speaks to him, with a tone of urgency in her voice. He looks at the child, puts his hand on the feverish forehead and then telephones for a doctor. The doctor comes. . . , and then the undertaker. Where is the love in the forces with which we must contend in the world?
 
If the universe around us were our only source or hope of love, we would never know that God is love. Even if God altered the stars in their courses, so that instead of forming Orion or the Big Dipper, they spelled out the words "God Loves You" in fiery letters across the sky, still we would have a right to conclude that we were the unfortunate playthings of some fortuitous hazard, the victims of grim impersonal chance. 
 
But God has demonstrated His love. When we were dead in trespasses and sins, He came. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14).
STUDY QUESTIONS
  • Do you agree with Dr. Barnhouse that, “you cannot find love in the forces of nature”? Why or why not?
  • Why do we need to know God so that we might know what love is?
  • Is there are greater expression of God’s love than the Incarnation, as referenced in John 1:14? Explain your answer.