(Revised extract of an address.)
It gives us true delight and joy to hear the blessed Son of God say in John 10:17, "Therefore doth my Father love me." Here there is a special motive for the Father's love to the Son. Earlier, in John 3:35 it is written, "The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hand"; and in John 5:20 it is also written, "For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth." In chapter 10 the Son is in the deep consciousness of the love which the Father has for Him, and He gives the reason for it, "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again."
His going into death was a voluntary act, for He can say, "I have power to lay it down." None but the blessed Son of God could use these words. But He could also take His life again; for He would manifest Himself in resurrection as the Son of God with power. Yet having shown His power or authority over life and death. He can add, "This commandment have I received from my Father." Having come into Manhood, He had entered into the place of obedience as Man to God, and He ever acted as subject to the will of His God and Father. He could not, and would not, act independently of the Father, ever delighting in the accomplishing of His will, even if it meant His going into death. And this voluntary surrender of Himself in love to the Father, drew out this special affection of the Father towards Him.
Then in John 16:27 the Lord Jesus makes known to His own, "For the Father Himself has affection for you, because ye have had affection for me." How precious it is beloved, to know that there has been wrought in your heart and mine an affection for this blessed One who has come to make known to us the Father. The Son, who lay from eternity in the bosom of the Father is the only One competent to tell out the secrets of the Father's heart. He has revealed the counsels of the Father's love, telling out the depths of that infinite and boundless, eternal love, that we might know it, and be able to respond to it.
What else could we do but love the Son knowing through Him the secrets of the Father's heart. And yet this very response from our poor hearts to the love made known in Jesus draws out the affection of the Father for us. We might therefore say that we have given the Father a reason for loving us, because we love His Son. This is quite a different aspect of divine love from that in 1 John 4:9-10. There it is the sovereign love of God, even as it is written, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son the propitiation for our sins."
R. Duncanson.