The fact that God loves us tells us more about God in his grace than it tells us about ourselves. We are certainly not desrving of his love.
Tony Reinke quotes Thomas Manton:
In a sermon on John 3:16 (“God so loved, that he gave…”), Puritan Thomas Manton makes the following point on God’s indescribable love towards sinners in sending His Son:
“Love is at the bottom of all. We may give a reason of other things, but we cannot give a reason of his love, God showed his wisdom, power, justice, and holiness in our redemption by Christ. If you ask, Why he made so much ado about a worthless creature, raised out of the dust of the ground at first, and had now disordered himself, and could be of no use to him? We have an answer at hand, Because he loved us. If you continue to ask, But why did he love us? We have no other answer but because he loved us; for beyond the first rise of things we cannot go. And the same reason is given by Moses, Deuteronomy 7:7-8: ‘The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all people; but because the Lord loved you…’ That is, in short, he loved you because he loved you. All came from his free and undeserved mercy; higher we cannot go in seeking after the causes of what is done for our salvation.”
-Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, 2:340-341.
Filed under: Attributes of God, Doctrine, Evangelical, God's Glory, God's Love, God's mercy, Grace, Jesus Christ, Substitutionary Atonement, The Bible, The Cross, The Gospel, The word of God, Truth
Have you seen the electronic edition of Manton’s Works?
Check it out here:
The Complete Works of Thomas Manton (22 Vols.)