1 John 4:9

In this was manifested the love of God, &c.— All the blessings of Providence are effects of the divine love to man; but St. John has said, 1 John 4:8 that God is Love itself; and to illustrate that, he here pitches upon the most remarkable proof and instance of God's love to man. The love of God was the source and origin of the plan of our redemption: the eternal Son of God, by his patient suffering and perfect obedience unto death, purchased or obtained of his great Father, to be the person who should be honoured with carrying this glorious plan into execution, which in time he will finish in the most complete manner, for all his faithful saints. God's sending his Son into the world, includes his dying for us; see 1 John 4:10. He became the great vicarious Sacrifice, and, through the complete atonement which he has made, God the Father may now be just, and yet a Justifier of those that believe in Jesus. Those false prophets who denied Jesus to have a real body, and really to suffer and die, took away entirely the love which God manifested, in sending his only and dearly-beloved Son to die, that we might live through him. They not only invalidated the force of Christ's example, and the infinite merit of his atonement, but, of consequence, the greatness of his love, which appeared most illustriously in his willing sufferings and cheerful dying for us: and no wonder that they who thus enervated the love both of the Father and the Son, should not be moved by such infinitely amiable examples to love their Christian brethren.