Abstract

In the history of salvation according to Johannine theology, it is the Father who takes the initiative, incited by love for the Son as well a for humans. The Father's love for Son, realised already before the constitution of the World, continues in his mission into the world that takes place in the Incarnation. This love for the incarnate Son manifests itself through the gifts that the Father gives the Son; the love for Jesus culminates in the definitive glorification of the Son, in his passion, resurrection and return to the Father. This history of the love of the Father for the Son expresses his love for humankind in the gift that he makes of the Son, and in the finality of salvation that the Father seeks. The same gifts of the Father to Jesus are likewise expressions of love for humans through the goods that these gifts bring to them. In this history of salvation there is the clearest manifestations of the presentation of the Father: «God is love»