Chapter 14—Atonement Result of Divine Love
The atonement of Christ was not made in order to induce God to
love those whom He otherwise hated; and it was not made to produce a
love that was not in existence; but it was made as a manifestation of the
love that was already in God’s heart, an exponent of the divine favor
in the sight of heavenly intelligences, in the sight of worlds unfallen,
and in the sight of a fallen race.... We are not to entertain the idea that
God loves us because Christ has died for us, but that He so loved us
that He gave His only-begotten Son to die for us.—
The Signs of the
Times, May 30, 1895
.
As the Saviour is lifted up before the people, they will see His
humiliation, His self-denial, His self-sacrifice, His goodness, His
tender compassion, His sufferings to save fallen man, and will realize
that the atonement of Christ was not the cause of God’s love, but the
result of that love. Jesus died because God loved the world.—
The
Review and Herald, September 2, 1890
.
The Father loves us, not because of the great propitiation, but He
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provided the propitiation because He loves us. Christ was the medium
through which He could pour out His infinite love upon a fallen world.
“God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.” God suffered
with His Son, in the agony of Gethsemane, the death of Calvary; the
heart of Infinite Love paid the price of our redemption—
The Home
Missionary, April, 1893
.
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