Sent By His Father

 

1 John 4:14 

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 

 

This is one of the simplest verses in the Bible. It has no big words and can be understood by a child on its first reading. There are two people mentioned in this simple verse - a father and his son. The father gave his son a task to complete. He sent him somewhere, to do something. He sent him on a mission. 

As a son, I remember being sent on many tasks for my father.  I grew up in Mexico and sometimes after dinner, I remember being sent by my father to go out the door of our house on a corner, and cross a small street to a “tienda” - a little store. My mission? To buy “Pinguinos” - a pack of two, small, delicious cream-filled, chocolate cupcakes. 

I would buy these and run them back to my dad. I’m proud to say that I was successful in completing my mission every single time I was sent. But that’s because it was an easy task, an easy mission. It didn’t cost my dad anything more than some pocket change, and it didn’t cost me more than a couple minutes I was happy to spend. 

Maybe you remember some tasks that your father sent you on, too. But let’s look at this verse about the Father and his Son and the task in question. The apostle John tells us that he and others, “have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son … to be the Savior of the world.” 

And you thought your chores were bad. What a mission to be sent on! To be “the Savior of the world”! 

Here is what this simple sentence tells us: First, the Father was willing to send his only Son into the world, to die, so that we might live through him (that’s what verse 9 of this chapter says).  

And second, the Son was willing to be sent into the world. From the very beginning, his task - his mission - his Father’s directive - was for him to become the Savior of the world by being the propitiation for our sins (as verse 10 says). The sins of humanity - my sins and your sins - bring divine wrath. Jesus completed his Father’s mission on the cross, where he bore that wrath for our sins. For the sin you committed last night, the one I committed this morning. 

It was the Father’s perfect holiness that required such a mission, and the Son’s perfect holiness that made him capable to complete it. But the problem the Father was solving by sending the Son on his mission was that He was separated from the people that he loved.  He wanted closer relationship with us, and it was this love that compelled the Father to send the Son, and for the Son to complete his miraculous chore. John just keeps repeating it and repeating it in chapter 4; he has to keep trying to say it different ways! You are loved! I am loved! By God of all people! For love is from God, whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. God is love! And he offers his love to the whole world! To us! No discrimination! 

 

As the New Living Translation says it,  

1 John 4:9-10 

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.  

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