THE LOVE OF GOD
What a triumph for God is this, that He should take advantage of our deep need to display His own nature! Our sin and wretchedness serve but to bring out in all its noontide splendour the love of God. “God is love”, 1 John 4: 8.
In the Old Testament we seek in vain for this. Those long years of man's history of which it treats were but the testing-time for man, in which his condition was fully made manifest. It closed with the final test, the sending of God's Son. As it is written, “But last of all Hhe sent unto them his Son, saying, they will reverence my son”. In the rejection of God's Son man proved how irremediably bad he was. The Old Testament times were characterised by the words which ended the solemn events connected with the giving of the law at Sinai - “the thick darkness where God was”, Exod 20: 21; Ps 18: 11. What a contrast to John 1: 18, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. We get gleams of light in such expressions as these, “Thy loving-kindness is better than life” (Ps 63: 3), “Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies” (Ps 103: 4), and kindred passages. Both light and love are rather prospective here. As in the eastern sky at early morn the horns of light do but herald the rising of the sun, “which is as a bridegroom going out of his chamber” (Ps 19: 5-7), so we must wait for the advent of the Son of God into this world before we can get such blessed words as these, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”, John 3: 16. Familiar words, yet so beyond us; for here the depths of God's heart are told out. And in this Scripture we find the Son of God calling attention to that which is before Him - the lifting up of the Son of man, His own death as a sacrifice - this a proof of God's love. Mark that little word “for”. If we look at the lifting up of the Son of man as man’s act (see Acts 2: 23), his hatred to God was shown thereby. But God's love was shown also; for what brought out the sin and hatred of man's nature proved the light and love of God's. The Son of man must be lifted up. Our sins and God's holiness demand it. But love provided what the holiness demanded.
It may be helpful to the reader if we turn to some passages which speak of this wonderful love of God.
We shall look at it in five different ways or connections - its Manifestation, Commendation, Perfection, Manner, and Measure -
I. THE MANIFESTATION OF THE LOVE.
We will turn to 1 John 4: 9, 10. I quote the passage in full. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins”. Now mark, in verses 7, 8 the apostle exhorts the children of God to “love one another”. It has been said by another, ‘God never needed to be exhorted to love; we do’. But in order to produce the manifestation of love towards each other, he calls their attention to the manifestation of God's love towards them. So before God's love can be manifested in us it must be manifested towards us. Now see how the love is manifested toward us in the sending of His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. As children of Adam we needed a new life. “ye must be born again” (John 3: 7), were the words of Jesus to one of the fairest specimens of the children of men. You, Nicodemus, need a new life. The love of God is manifested in connection with this need. He gave the Son that we may have life. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life”, 1 John 5: 12.
But not only do we need a new life, but we need, as guilty sinners, the remission of our sins. This too the love of God has provided. “He sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins”. So in these two precious verses we find the manifestation of God's love is connected with our twofold need. We need a new life, and we need the remission of our sins. Thank God, we have both in Him who is God's love gift.
II. THE COMMENDATION OF THE LOVE.
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”, Rom 5: 8. Note here too, in verse 5, where the love of God is spoken of as shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us, that we are immediately directed to when and how the love was displayed. We are turned from the realisation of the love in us to the display of the love toward us. How many are looking for the love of God in their own hearts, instead of looking away to when and how the love was displayed. It was when we were “without strength”, “ungodly”, “yet sinners”, and “enemies” (vv 6-10), Christ died for us; and herein does God commend His love. It was when we had nothing of good to commend us to His love that God, by that very fact, commends His love towards us.
Inscribed upon the cross we see,
In shining letters, “God is love”,
The Lamb who died upon the tree ;
Has brought us mercy from above.
It was when the high tide of our evil rose at that cross that the love of God, in overwhelming volume, rose to its greatest height. That love is written legibly there in the fathomless sorrows of Him who came to make it known.
III. THE PERFECTION OF THE LOVE.
If we again turn to 1 John 4: 17, 1 we read, “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love”9. Now mark again, in this passage there is no thought of our love. No, it is God's love with us made perfect. It is a love that has given us the same place that Christ has. I beg your attention to that precious sentence at the end of verse 17. Linger over it. Remember Who it is that says it. Turn not to your poor wretched self, but let your thoughts rest on Christ, where He is, and what He is. A Man in the glory of God, let the eye of faith rest upon Him; and while you gaze, let these words, the words of God, sweep out of your poor trembling heart every cobweb of fear. “Boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world”. Who is the He? It is Christ. Who are the we? All believers in Him. So that even the weakest may say, ‘As Christ is, so are we’.
So the perfection of the love is seen in giving us the same place Christ has, “that we may have boldness in the day of judgment”. It is this perfect love that casts out fear. There can be no fear if we remember that the love of God has given us the same place Christ has.
Where He is and what He is is the answer to where He was and what He was for us.
We were under our sins; so was He. He is clear from our sins; so are we. We were sin; He was made it. He is God's righteousness; so are we in Him, 2 Cor 5: 22. We deserved the judgment of God. He bore it, and is clear from it; so are we. We were in death; so was He. He is now in life; so are we.
May you, dear reader, thus know what it is to be without fear. “Perfect love casteth out fear”. We can now say, as in verse 19, “We love him, because He first loved us”.
We now come to -
IV. THE MANNER OF THE LOVE.
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us”, that we should be called the children of God: “therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not”, 1 John 3: 1. Here we find the manner of God's love is to have us in His family as children. It is children here as (note verse 29 of previous chapter) “born of God”. It is thus we are children. This is the blessed relationship in which we stand to God. He is our Father; we are His children, as begotten of Him. (Chap 5: 1.) The consequence of this blessed relationship is, that the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Who is the Him here? It is Christ, that blessed One who could say, “O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee: but I have known thee”, John 17: 25.
So that the manner of the love is, that God has given us the same relationship and place that Christ had when here on this earth. May it be ours to enjoy this relationship more, and thus be found in separation from all that is not of the Father, remembering what is said in the previous chapter, verse 15, “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him”.
We come now to our last point -
V. THE MEASURE OF THE LOVE.
For this we must turn to John 17: 23. In this marvellous chapter we get the outpourings and tender solicitude of that heart which “having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them to the end”, John 13: 1. His desires for us as to the present and the future are here expressed. And in this verse 23 He is looking forward to that bright and blessed day when the whole family will be seen in its perfection in that glory. “I in them, and thou in me … that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me”. Oh, precious sentence! Let us hang upon it, beloved child of God. It fell from His blessed lips in this world, and is here in God's unchanging Word for our present comfort and blessing. If we can measure that love, the love of the Father for Him, then we can measure His love for us. And remember this is true now.
Oh, what a thought, our Father loves us as He loves the Son! And not better shall we be loved in that glory than now. We shall be in its sphere - the Father's house without a cloud - and shall enjoy it to the full, and in the glory of it the world shall know it; but it will not be more true then than now.
So here in these precious words, “hast loved them, as Thou hast loved me”, we see the measure of the Father's love.
I have thus endeavoured to bring before you the love of God in its Manifestation, Commendation, Perfection, Manner, and Measure.
May you, dear reader, knowing and believing this love, be enabled to say in holy triumph, “I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”, Rom 8: 38.
___________________________
From ‘The Simple Testimony’, 1890