Gleanings from Martyn Lloyd-Jones on 1 John.

“I can say it with reverence that before I begin to think and consider the love of God and the mercy and compassion of God, I must start with the holiness of God. I go further; unless I start with the holiness of God my whole conception of the love of God is going to be false ….” (Fellowship with God, 1993, 107).

The love of God is a wonderful truth and one that we depend upon for our redemption. But considering the love of God apart from his holiness is to sin against that love and it is to insult the essential nature of God. The holiness of God must never be separated from God’s Person as some embarassing anomaly in his character that needs apology instead of worship. No. You cannot understand God or redemption or his love apart from his holiness. The holiness of God is essential to who God is, his Person, and all his attributes.

Our modern day offer of the love of God to sinners is sweet and often faithful, but to say that God loves the sinner and to say nothing else, leaves aside the matters of how God loves and to what cost did he love us, and in protection of what qualities in himself does he love those that are to be saved. The holiness of God is where we must begin if we are to understand his redeeming love.

Lloyd-Jones speaks to this:

“I suggest that if you do not start with the holiness of God you will never understand God’s plan of salvation, which is that salvation is only possible to us through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary’s hill. …  If God is only love and compassion and mercy, then the cross is surely meaningless, for if God is love alone, then all he needs to do when man sins is to forgive him. But the whole message is that the cross is at the center, and without that death, God, I say with reverence, cannot forgive. … but if I start with the holiness of God I see that the incarnation must take place; the cross is absolutely essential, and the resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit and every other part of the great plan as well.” (p. 108)

It is commonplace to use the cross as the symbol of God’s love. God’s redeeming love is certainly there (John 3:16); but in order to redeem people first the holiness of God must be satisfied. If sinful humans are to be made righteous (holy, pure, acceptable to God) then it is holiness that must be protected and appeased.

When we come to God for his love and forget how his holiness was working throughout our redemption, his glory is robbed. God’s love is wonderful and we should celebrate it, but we find God’s love much richer and more sublime, deeper and more substantive when we consider the holiness of the God who loves us.

The focus on the love of God divorced from holiness gives us great news about a small God who just wants some friends. Focus on the holiness of God in redemption and we have an incredible God who went to extraordinary lengths to save his people while first defending and then exalting his holiness. Salvation not only makes God new friends, it makes his friends holy, like he is holy. When God acts in defense of his holiness first, and in love of men second, he is most glorious and worthy of all praise. When the holy God loves, people who trust him are most loved. 

To recover the glory of God we must begin with his holiness. If God never loved anyone he would still be holy. The miracle of redemption is that sinful people can be reconciled with a holy God. Start with holiness. Then go to love.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Fellowship with God; Studies in 1 John, Vol. 1, Wheaton, Crossway Books, 1993, 107-108.