How can we have already been judged and already passed from death to life? The answer is love. Think of John 3:16. God’s love in Christ is manifested against the backdrop of our perishing in judgment for our sins. Our confidence on the day of judgment is found in the love of God that gave His Son for us, a love that satisfied God’s justice, a love that will not let us go (cf. Rom. 8:37-39). 

that we may have boldness in the day of judgment (1 John 4:17, NKJV)

John again highlights the love God has for us. “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). Hearing these words, we cannot help but rejoice in so great a salvation. We borrow from John’s own earlier astonishment and exclamation of how great is the Father’s love for us (see 3:1).

Throughout John’s epistle he has gone on to describe that love that is beyond our comprehension. God is love and somehow through the Spirit in our union with Christ we find ourselves immersed in this love, in eternal communion with the triune God. Though we give ourselves over to a lifetime of study, meditation, and pursuit we will never fully grasp the love of God for us in Jesus.

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