Verse 9: By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.
John begins by declaring by this, the evidence he is about to present, that it is an undeniable and indispensable divine truth. The fact being, that the love of God was made clearly evident in us; but not inside us, but instead “in connection with us,” as it involves us as the recipients of God’s love.1 This must have been a revolutionary idea for the Jews of the 1st Century, as Van Ryn explains:
Once, in the Old Testament times, the message of the law was, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,” but when Christ came this was reversed and in the gospel we hear the wondrous words, “The Lord they God loves thee.”2
It’s not as if God’s lovingkindness had never been poured out upon the Jewish people. For it is a certainty that in the past, God established prophets, priests and kings as His earthly representatives. But now, He sent into the world His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. For never had a member of deity been sent to them as Christ had, coming “from the glory which He had with the Father into the world, by way of the Incarnation”3 (cf. John 1:1; John 17:5; 1 Peter 1:20).
His Commission
John uses this word sent only 3 times in this epistle, here and in 4:10 and 4:14. It is derived from the Greek word for apostle, meaning one sent with a commission. John’s usage of this word here holds great significance, for the Greek tense asserts that Our Lord was intentionally sent by the Father for a particular commission and that His mission remains in effect permanently.4 Kenneth Wuest defined this word sent as follows:
To send on a commission as an envoy, with credentials (the miracles), to perform certain duties, here, to die for sinners, providing a salvation to be offered on the basis of justice satisfied to the one who places his faith in Him as Savior...He [God] has sent off the Son with the result that a salvation has been provided for sinful man.5
The credentials that substantiated Our Lord’s deity are the 7 miracles that John cataloged in his gospel account: ①Turning water to wine (John 2:1-11); ②Healing the royal official's son (John 4:46-54); ③Healing the invalid at Bethesda (John 5:1-9); ④The feeding of the 5,000 (John 6:1-14); ⑤Walking on the sea (John 6:15-21); ⑥Sight restored (John 9:1-41); ⑦Raising of Lazarus (John 11:1-44).6
His commission while on earth included His miraculous works and the securing and provision of eternal life. And presently, His commission continues as “Advocate with the Father” (1 John 2:1) on our behalf. He is our High Priest forever (Hebrews 5:6; 6:20; 7:17), for “He always lives to make intercession” for those He has saved (Hebrews 7:25).
His Only Begotten Son
The phrase only begotten is one word in the Greek monogenes, meaning “what is unique in the sense of being the only one of the same kind or class—‘unique, only.’”7 It appears 9 times in the New Testament, and in 5 of those instances John uses the word with reference to the Son of God (John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9) as an unmistakable indicator of His distinctiveness above all earthly and heavenly beings.8
As previously discussed in verse 2 of this chapter, the nature of the person of Jesus Christ is His hypostatic union, being both deity and human making Him the “one of a kind”9 unique person of the universe. The truth of His complex essence is substantiated by the Apostle Paul: “being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man” (Philippians 2:7b-8a), “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9; cf. 2 Corinthians 5:19).
That We Might Live
By being both deity and man, He is qualified to be the exclusive mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5) in order to fulfill His Divine commission in the world for a specific purpose: “that we might live through Him” (cf. 1 Corinthians 8:6). The idea being, that since we were dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1) we might now begin to live, by entering into a life that is eternal. Zodhiates explains that this implies “to live and prosper, be blessed…to be admitted to the bliss and privileges of the Redeemer’s kingdom.”10 This is what the Apostle Paul proclaimed:
For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son (Colossians 1:13)
We receive this eternal life at the moment of faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior. It is to be enjoyed now; it begins immediately and continues after we pass from this physical life. John emphasizes that this is made possible through Him, that is, through the agency of His empowerment. Scripture maintains that this “life in the full sense comes to us through him alone.”11 As the Apostle Peter rightly stated:
“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
Regardless of what the unbelieving culture might falsely profess, all the various belief systems in the world will not provide eternal life—only belief in Jesus Christ can save a person (Acts 16:31). For Our Lord Himself is the embodiment of life and He alone can provide eternal life (John 3:36; 5:24). He affirmed this during His Upper Room Discourse (John 14-17) while answering Thomas’ question, “How do we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6)
Not only is Jesus Christ the one and only unique person of the universe, but He is the only one God has provided through Whom we might live and exist eternally.
[1] Lenski, R.C.H. (2001). Commentary on the New Testament, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 11.500.
[2] Van Ryn, August (1948). The Epistles of John, New York, NY: Loizeaux Brothers, p. 133.
[3] Vine, W. E., Unger, M. F., & White, W., Jr. (1996). In Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 2.560.
[4] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament. Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1 John 4:9.
[5] Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 13.164.
[6] Ryrie, C. C. (1995). Ryrie Study Bible: New American Standard Bible, 1995 update. Chicago: Moody Press, p. 1678 chart.
[7] Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd ed.). New York: United Bible Societies, 1.590.
[8] Beetham, Christopher A. (Ed.) (2021). The Concise New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, p. 586.
[9] Grudem, Wayne (1999). Bible Doctrine (Jeff Purswell, Ed.), Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, p. 113.
[10] Zodhiates, S. (2000). The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, G2198.
[11] Morris, L. L. (1994). 1 John. In New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition (4th ed.,) (D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham, Eds.). Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, p. 1406.
© 2025 David M. Rossi
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