I John 4:9-11 “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”
Recently, I was reading S.D. Gordon’s book, Quiet Talks about Jesus, written in about 1910. It is basically an overview of the life of Christ and His person. In the chapter concerning Christ’s death on Calvary, Gordon wrote these words; “Gethsemane is Calvary in anticipation. Calvary was the tragedy when love yielded to hate and, yielding, conquered. There love held hate’s climax, death, by the throat, extracted the sting, drew the fang tooth, and drained the poison sac underneath. Love’s surgery.” As I read those words, what I have always known, I experience! Love is heaven’s currency and God spent it on the likes of you and me! Oh to know the depths of all that He accomplished in our behalf when God spent the currency of heaven on earth.
While currency can be counted and computed; it has no real worth until it is spent. The means where by currency is spent is when it is given in exchange for something else. How much of the currency one is willing to spend reveals the worth of the object to the one willing to make the exchange. The currency of heaven was spent when heaven’s best was exchange for earth’s worst! John said, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son.” The word “manifested” means to render apparent and comes from a word that means apparent by shining publicly and externally. God made our worth to Him apparent when He sacrificed His Son on Calvary to redeem all that was lost in the fall; He emptied the treasure chest of heaven and never bothered to ask for change!
Having experienced being purchased with love’s currency, we are now encouraged to make similar purchases; “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” Like the Father, the exchange is to be manifested; “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth” (I John 3:18). Many are busy computing the currency of love; but few communicate its worth (see Luke 10:30-37).
It is one thing to have knowledge of love’s currency; it’s entirely different to have experienced it personally; both in being purchased as well as making a purchase!