Herein is Love — E.A. Johnston

The Origin and Meaning of Red-Letter Bibles

Some time ago, I read the story of how our Bibles came to have red lettering for the words of Jesus. There was a man named Louis Klopps who was good friends with D .L. Moody. He was also the editor of the Christian Herald magazine.

One day, while he was reading Jesus' words, this cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you. He thought of printing all of Jesus' words in red, the color of his blood, to remind people of that sacrifice.

That is how we came to have our red-lettered Bibles. In Revelation 1 -5 we read,. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, Jesus, leaving heaven to come to earth to suffer and die for sinful man, was motivated by the love of God.

God’s Love as the Motive of the Gospel

Love. The love of God is behind the gospel. It is the primary and motivating force. Love. The love of Christ for me is what sent him to Calvary. Galatians 2 -20 declares, Who loved me and gave himself for me.

Love. Amazing love. The word of God declares, Herein is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. When I was in high school, a girl sent me a love letter.

It was written in purple ink and it was perfumed. But back then, I was more interested in sports than I was girls, so I put that letter in the back of my sock drawer and forgot about it. A few years later, when I was in college, I came across that forgotten letter, and as I held it in my hand, I could still smell the perfume on it.

I always wondered what happened to that girl in the love letter. I am reminded of a story about an Englishman who traveled frequently to India for business. His main commerce took place in the city of Calcutta, and it was there, while shopping in an Indian bazaar, that he purchased a necklace for his little girl.

He would often bring his 8-year-old daughter trinkets back from his travels. On this particular trip to Calcutta, he bought his daughter a pretty jade necklace at an inexpensive market bazaar. After she wore it a few days, the metal clasp broke, so this Englishman took it to a London jeweler to be repaired.

The next week, the man returned to the jeweler to pick up the necklace for his little girl. The jeweler emerged from a back room with the necklace and with an excited look on his face. The jeweler asked, May I ask you, sir, how much you paid for this jade necklace?

The man replied, I believe I paid 20 pounds for it and nothing more. The jeweler smiled and said, Look into this magnifying glass. Notice the letters that are carved on the back of each piece of jade.

It is French lettering. When you lay these 78 pieces of jade side by side, they form a love letter written from Napoleon to Josephine. This jade necklace is worth over 500 ,000 pounds. Well, friends, can you imagine a love letter like that?

The Gospel as God’s Love Letter

The gospel is about a holy God and his broken law, sinful man and a future judgment, the penalty of sin in a burning hell, and salvation in a bleeding and dying Christ who hung on a bloody cross so we could have forgiveness of sin.

But the gospel is also God's love letter to sinful man. In Luke's gospel, we find a somber, solemn scene of Christ's agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. In Luke 22, 41, we read,. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast and kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. Let me pause here, friends, to say it must have been a great wonder and startlement to the angels in heaven to look down from their portals on high and see the Son of God prostrate on the ground in agony of soul so much that God the Father turned to one of them and said, Get down there and go help my son.

Christ the Man of Sorrows

In Isaiah, Christ is prophesied to be the man of sorrows. And there, in Gethsemane, lying on that ground and sweating so profusely and furiously that his very sweat looks like drops of blood which would indeed soon be the case when he is captured and arrested and falsely tried and crucified at Calvary, where there his blood will splatter the very earth that he created.

Oh, wonders of wonders! Christ's agony and love for sinful man. There was agony in that garden because years ago there was anarchy in another garden when man rebelled against God and through that disobedience tainted an entire human race with sin.

Christ’s Sacrifice and John 3:16

Yet some ask, Why is he there? Why is he suffering so? Because way back yonder in the eons of eternity God sat down in heaven one day and took out his pen, if I may so speak, to write a love letter to fallen man and he wrote the following words.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Then he handed that love letter to his dear son and Christ took that love letter to Calvary and signed it in his very own blood.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is God's own love letter to a world of fallen sinners. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool.

The Invitation to Receive God’s Mercy

Will you spurn the love of Christ? Will you reject God's love letter to you in his pleas of the gospel? Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon.

O great God! I have delivered your gospel message this day O blessed Lord with your attending spirit and calm and disturb folks let some sinner here see a bleeding and dying Christ nailed up on that bloody cross at Calvary let them sense Christ's love in dying there giving his all that the very drops of his blood were the drops of love for such a sinner as me save someone here today, Lord I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus Amen.