“NOTHING SHALL SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD”
Romans 8:31-39; Song of Songs 5:10-16;
I feel guided to speak about the holding power of divine love. How blessed is that perfect love that we sang of in our opening hymn (Hymn 111). This section in Romans surely appeals to every true lover of the Lord Jesus, making us think of the way that we are held without any possibility of separation from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. You may be conscious, as I certainly am, of much weakness and frequent failings on our part, but I rejoice in the inseparable power of the holy love of God. Nothing will ever, ever separate me from that love. I was in God’s mind before time began. Many of us can say that – those who are conscious of having been called into divine favour through the wondrous grace of God. Think of God having this in His heart of love before time began, and in divine counsel finding a way whereby the purpose of His love should be worked out according to His wisdom and glorious power, to operate everything in view of His final glory.
Great sacrifice has been involved. It is touched on in the section we read – “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him grant us all things?”. How could there ever have been knowledge of the love of God imparted to us, had it not been for the way that God has come out in wondrous love in Christ, His own beloved Son, who has gone by way of the sufferings of the cross to fully bring into expression the wonderful power of that inseparable love that now holds us? May we rejoice in it! It is intended to stir up the affections of our hearts. I love to read this section and to reflect on it. Think of the apostle Paul considering a whole range of thoughts, and finally coming to this conclusion: “For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God”. These things that Paul mentions are by no means insignificant things. Some are mighty powers – think of the power of death, holding men in bondage and fear through the whole of their lives. What a mighty power, the power of death: Christ has overcome that power. He has gone down into death, and vanquished the power of death and him who wielded it. There are other very great powers that the apostle Paul refers to here, but his considered persuasion was that nothing will separate us from “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.
That means that no single power amongst the range spoken of, nor any other power that might be known, nor the combination of them all – nothing, can separate us from “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus”. I trust that the hearts of all here are filled with fresh joy and fresh confidence in our God who has so marked us out for blessing according to the purpose of His love and taken us into favour through the blessed operations of His grace. We owe everything to our God who has so operated in Christ towards us. We are not the source of anything to do with our eternal blessing. Indeed, we have done everything that might have prevented us from having a glimmer of hope or any prospect in relation to eternal happiness and blessing. All has found its blessed source in God Himself who has come near to us in Christ.
Now I have this additional thought which I seek to bring before the hearts of each and all of us, that Christ is the Centre of it all. That is according to the wisdom of God, that everything should be headed up in the Christ, and that He should be established as the Centre of a universe of bliss for God. That is a very wonderful thing. We have been brought within the marvellous range of the enjoyment of divine love. I trust that everyone here who has trusted the Saviour, and has come to know the Lord in that wonderful way, has come to value and appreciate the sufferings of Jesus that have been necessary in order that the love of God might be fully told forth. The righteous basis is established on which everything for God’s satisfaction and pleasure has been founded. I trust that each of us appreciates and values the gift of the Holy Spirit by whom “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts”, Rom.5:5. If you are not keenly conscious of that blessing, and the enjoyment of it, ask God that He might give you the consciousness of having received the gift of the Holy Spirit. What a blessing, and what a power! What a service is rendered by the Holy Spirit who would hold our minds and affections in the consciousness of the love of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is here at the present time to serve in relation to the whole range of divine interests. How immensely great is all that has come out towards us in wondrous blessing through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now, everything is established there in a Centre. We are not wanderers. We are not led in some strange range of conceptions. God’s things have been made known in light and glory, and have their fixed Centre in a blessed Man in heaven. May our hearts be held in firm attachment to Him. Through the outgoing of the glad tidings, we – and I speak now to believers – are made conscious of being attracted towards Him, towards the Lord Jesus. Then as trusting in Him, and coming to prove the blessedness of the divine love that has been expressed through Him, there is a bond of attachment that follows from attraction. There is a bond of attachment whereby we are held; and according to this passage nothing ever shall break that bond.
Flowing out of that is the thought of response, of answering affection to divine Persons who have so operated. There is a wonderful bond of attachment. I was noticing a remark that the apostle Paul made when writing to the Galatians: “Ye are deprived of all profit from the Christ as separated from him”, Gal.5:4. What profit, or gain, or blessing will you ever find as separated from the Christ? Mr Darby has an interesting translator’s footnote to that verse. It suggests to me that we are not liable to be separated from the love that has brought us into eternal blessing through the forgiveness of our sins, on account of the work of our Lord Jesus: that stands in all its blessedness. But I might be deprived of the present profit of all that flows from Christ if I do not abide with fixity in relation to Him as the Centre, and my heart and interests are held there. I feel that that is an important subject. Others much wiser than me who have looked into divine things have given us to understand that Christianity can be viewed as built up in a series of concentric circles. And we know that if there is a circle, it must have a centre. In Christianity, the Centre is Christ. These circles range out from Him, in all their appeal and attractiveness.
Maybe firstly, I am concerned with my own personal link with Jesus. Well and good, and may it be firmly established and consciously maintained. But then these circles of interest range out. I may be helped to appreciate the sphere or circle of interest I have been brought into among the saints locally where the Lord would have me to walk. Then I find there is a great circle, in wider scope still, of the whole assembly, each local assembly forming part in that wondrous entity, and then the whole assembly, many of the personnel we do not know but with Christ its Centre and its Head, everything flowing out in living resource from Himself. Then, as we have already noted, God has appointed Him to fill the entire universe of which He will be the Centre. What a circle, the entire universe held for God! I suppose we could say that everything, whether we know the extent intelligently of the scope of divine activities and range of interests or not, everything must be centred in Christ, that blessed Man by whom God has come out in declaration. How wonderful that God would engage our hearts with such a range of concentric circles, one after the other, of expanding interests, to fill and flood our hearts. Why should we ever turn aside to the trivialities and passing things of the world? How sad if we become engrossed with our own things to the exclusion of the heavenly things. But how wonderful that God has brought us into such things through the marvellous operations of His grace, filling our hearts with the blessed knowledge of Himself and of His wondrous love, shedding it abroad in our affections by the Holy Spirit, seeking that we might be held in attachment to Christ as the Centre!
I then read in the Song of Songs. I did not have in mind to attempt to expound on these many glories, typically expressing the glories of Christ. I would not be able to, in any case. Nor does time permit us to go into the fulness of the detail. But there was one aspect of the passage that I would seek help to enlarge a little upon, and that is: “His hands gold rings, set with the chrysolite”. “His hands”: those hands like rings, by which we are held in this inseparable bond of divine love. Will Christ ever let us go? Never! You may grow cold in your affections; so may I. May the Lord grant that we should be preserved from such decline. But in any case, no one can seize us from the hand of the Father (John 10:29) and no one and nothing can take me out of the hand of Christ (v.28). I am held by the power of an inseparable love, and I give the Lord thanks for that. Many a time I have thanked Him, and I still do. Where would I be without that grip that holds me? Hands like rings: not only do they hold me, but they are the hands that hold the assembly in such a bond of attachment to Himself.
His hands are referred to earlier in the book: “His left hand is under my head, And his right hand doth embrace me”, Song of Songs 2:6. Think of those hands like rings, never letting go in any sense His abiding love for the assembly. “His left hand is under my head”: think of the Lord supporting us to give intelligence in regard of the knowledge of Himself and His many glories set out in the passage we have read, and of the abiding character of His love. “His left hand under my head” seems to suggest how the Lord would support the assembly, so that she might be sustained for ever in the conscious knowledge of His wondrous, abiding love. “And his right hand doth embrace me”: that is the intimate enjoyment of that precious love that would hold us so close to Himself, in the embrace of His love. The ring is a symbol of a bond in the context used in chapter 5. “His hands gold rings”: a symbol of a bond, unbroken, complete in its holding power. The chrysolite is not exactly a symbol of the bond. Why mention the chrysolite? I think the chrysolite is mentioned to show that that bond is held in all the wondrous attractiveness that the love of Christ portrays. It is not only that there is a bond that cannot be broken, by which we are held, and will be for ever, to our blessed Saviour, but that bond is so attractive. Does it mean much to you? His hands are like rings set with the chrysolite, in all its sparkling attractiveness to fill and flood our affections and to give us the consciousness of a love that is so blessed in every aspect whereby we are held.
Referring now to John 15, the Lord is recorded as saying, “As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you: abide in my love”. How has the Father loved Christ? How could I ever attempt to evaluate and set forth the blessedness of that wondrous love, the perfect love with which the Father has loved the Son? A love that the Lord was conscious of throughout the whole of His pathway here, ever held in the enjoyment of it, ever sustained by it, that wondrous love. There came of course the solemnity of the three hours on the cross, and we can never forget that, when the Lord, in love for His Father, was prepared to go that way. I would add that God, though loving the Son, did not spare Him from the wrath of the terrible judgment of those three hours, during which the Lord was forsaken. That was so necessary on account of God’s holiness so that the love of God should be enjoyed eternally by rescued persons such as ourselves, and should be fully expressed in the wonder of all that was accomplished there. That is the blessed love of the Father.
That is the character of the love with which the Lord says that He loved His own: “As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you”. What a love! Are we not immensely favoured, beloved brethren, by extension? I admit these words were spoken directly by the Lord to the apostles who were in such close association with the Lord Jesus, but John wrote so that the things that had been enjoyed by them might be revealed and made known to others, so that by extension we might come into the enjoyment of these precious things as well. We are loved with that very same love. Then the Lord says, “abide in my love”. Why should the Lord say that when we have been reading, with such appeal and attractiveness, of the apostle’s persuasion in Romans 8 that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is Christ Jesus? Why the exhortation to abide in it? These two things run together. We are never exempt from the need for exercise on our part, and commitment to seek to pursue what is according to the Lord’s commandments and His interests, if we are to abide in the enjoyment of that love. It is as abiding in it that we are given to prove continually the consciousness of the enjoyment and the intimacy and beautiful character of that love. I touch again on the rings set with the chrysolite: the wonderful appeal of that love. Why should I ever wish to be away from it, and grow cold? May the Lord grant it to us all to be freshly stirred up in our hearts to abide in that love, to know its wondrous living character, its abiding value, its power to hold us and preserve us.
“If ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love” – a practical word of exhortation. Let us seek to adhere to what is due in faithfulness and love for the Lord Jesus in this scene that is characterised by so much adversity against our blessed Lord, and out of keeping with the desire of God in love for men. God will deal with these things in due time. Meanwhile, the dispensation of grace is still running its course; for how long none of us here knows. Thank God, there is opportunity for blessing still available. But God will not allow these things to go on and on for ever. He is going to intervene and bring in judgment on evil – necessarily so, for He is a righteous God. The actions of His holiness require that. Love lies behind it. God could not permit the continuance of what would be offensive to His love, and would in any way disrupt its enjoyment. He must deal with it and He will do, so that ultimately He will abide and dwell in the blessedness of all that His love has made available. I think that is a very wonderful thing. You may say, ‘Is the lake of fire, then, a witness to the love of God?’. It is evidence of the necessary judgment of God to confine disruptive evil, everything that in any way might raise opposition, to that awful place so that God’s love might pervade all through Christ, the very Centre of God’s universe.
“If ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” We are reminded of the way we have the perfect example in Christ Himself. How He kept His Father’s commandments; how He abode in the Father’s love! May we do the same; may we hearken to the exhortation to keep the Lord’s commandments, and abide in His love. The Lord has in mind that as we take heed to His word, His joy might be in us, and our joy might be full. May our joy be fuller and fuller. This world does not contribute to the satisfied joy of souls. The enemy has no intention that we should find our lasting and abiding enjoyment in the love of Christ; He is set to do everything he can to oppose and disrupt it. May we be guarded in our activities, and seek to be preserved under the authority of the Lord Jesus, and be observant of His commandments. May we seek to prove His love and walk according to the power of the Holy Spirit in all that is pleasing to the Lord.
“This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.” What a circle of affection to be among the saints. Let us not be marked by pride of heart, thinking that we are some exclusive, special company; we form part of the vast company secured amongst the host of the redeemed. Let us walk wisely, as privileged to be among some with whom, at the present time, we are granted that wonderful opportunity to be in a circle of affection indeed. Let us love one another. To what extent am I to love my brother? The Lord says, “as I have loved you”. We sang in our opening hymn of perfect love – ‘With a perfect love He loves us’. Let us love one another without any admixture or complexity being added to it. How things will proceed in a happy and continual way as that is fully observed and maintained among us.
I come back to my first thought of an inseparable love that will hold us for all eternity. Let our hearts abide in it and enjoy it, beloved brother or sister; and dear young ones here, the world can offer nothing to compare with that love, it is such a wonderful, blessed thing. Nobody can say of anything in this world that it is in any way comparable with the love of God: it stands out supreme in its blessedness. May you enjoy it too, and seek after it and the things that belong to Christ, the Centre of it, for His glory and for our blessing.
For His name’s sake.
Address at Glasgow
20 April 2024
John Laurie