The Motive of Love in Redemption

The Son’s motive for redeeming sinners was complex and can be described in a variety of ways. But one of the most well-known words Scripture uses to describe the Son’s motive in redemption is “love” — love for God, love for creation and love for human beings. And this love wasn’t limited to the Son; all three persons of the Trinity shared it.

There is no doubt that God chose to redeem humanity because he loved us. But one of the details we sometimes forget is that God’s inter-Trinitarian love is the ultimate motive for our redemption. Listen to the way Paul described the Father’s decision to save us in Ephesians 1:4-6:

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

Three times in this short passage Paul mentioned that God chose to redeem us “in him”, “through Jesus Christ”, and “in the One he loves.” And one of his points was that God’s love for us results from the Father’s love for the Son.

And this love includes a desire for the members of the Trinity to be honored and obeyed — for God’s glory to be magnified and exhibited, for his purposes to be fulfilled, for his kingship over all creation to be acknowledged and praised. And because humanity is central to God’s purposes for creation, our redemption is a natural result of the love within the Trinity.

God’s love for creation also motivated the Son’s role in redemption. We see it in his care as creator for everything he has made — and especially in his love for human beings, who are created in his image. Probably the best-known example of this is John 3:16-18, where we read these words:

God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

The basic idea in John 3:16-18 is that God’s love motivated him to save the world. By saving believers, God would create a new humanity. And then he would renew the heavens and the earth as his glorious kingdom, and as the home for his newly redeemed humanity.

God’s love for believers also motivated the Son’s role in redemption. In many parts of Scripture, God is said to have a special love for believers. He wants to be in close fellowship with us and to bless us. And he wants us to love him in return and to enjoy our relationship with him forever. In fact, God’s love for believers is so special that the Bible actually says God knew and loved us before we were even born.

And Scripture also makes it clear that God’s love for believers was an important part of the Father’s motive in sending the Son to accomplish redemption, as well as in the Son’s desire to do the Father’s will.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that everything God does is motivated, at least in part, by his love for his people. And God’s love is most perfectly and completely displayed in his Son. We all go through struggles in life, and sometimes we even doubt that God loves us. But God doesn’t love us any less when we struggle or doubt. The reality is that he knows all our sins and struggles, and he loves us anyway. Even before we had faith in him, or ever wanted to escape our sin, God loved us so much that he appointed his Son to redeem us. And that was a huge price to pay — Jesus had to suffer and die under the weight of our sin. But he did it for love. And now, in his resurrection, Jesus has become the living testimony to God’s redeeming love for his people.