The Love Of God To Us # 1

 The Love Of God To Us # 1

By "us" we mean His people. Although we read of the love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39), Holy Writ knows nothing of a love of God outside of Christ. "The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works" (Psalm 145:9), so that He provides the ravens with food. "He is kind unto the unthankful and to the  evil" (Luke 6:35), and His providence ministers unto the just and the unjust" (Matthew 5:45).

But His love is reserved for His elect. That is unequivocally established by its characteristics, for the attributes of His love are identical with Himself. Necessarily so, for "God is love." In making that postulate it is but another way to say God's love is like Himself, from everlasting to everlasting - immutable.

Nothing is more absurd to imagine that anyone beloved of God can eternally perish or shall ever experience His everlasting vengeance. Since the love of God is "in Christ Jesus," it was attracted by nothing in its objects, nor can it be repelled by anything in, of, or by them. "Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them unto the end" (John 13:1). The "world" in John 3:16 is a general term used in contrast with the Jews, and the verse must be interpreted so as not to contradict Psalm 5:5, 6:7; John 3"36; or Romans 9:13).

The chief design of God is to commend the love of God in Christ, for Heis the sole channel through which it flows. The Son has not induced the Father to love His people, but rather was it His love for them which moved Him to give His Son for them.

Ralph Erskine said: "God has taken a marvelous way to manifest His love. When He would show His power, He makes a world. When He would display His wisdom, He puts it in a frame and form that reveals its vastness. When He would manifest the grandeur and glory of His name, He makes a Heaven, and puts angels and archangels, principalities and powers therein. And when He would manifest His love, what will He not do? God has taken a great and marvelous way of manifesting it in Christ; His person, His blood, His death, His righteousness."

"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ" (2 Colossians 3:3) - so we are beloved in Him, "the love of God which is in Christ Jesus" - in Him as our Head and Husband, which is why nothing can separate us therefrom, for that union is indissoluble.

Nothing so warms the heart of the saint as a spiritual contemplation of God's love for him. As he is occupied with it, he is lifted outside of and above his wretched self. A believing apprehension fills the renewed soul with holy satisfaction, and makes him as happy as it is possible for one to be this side of Heaven. To know and believe the love which God has toward me, is both a pledge and a foretaste of Heaven itself.

Since God love His people in Christ, it is not for any amiableness in or attraction about them: "Jacob have I loved." Yes, the naturally unattractive, yes, despicable, Jacob, "worm Jacob." Since God loves His people in Christ, it is not regulated by their fruitfulness, but is the same at all times. Because He loves them in Christ, the Father loves them as Christ. The time will come when His prayer will be answered, "that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me" (John 17:23). Only faith can grasp those marvelous things, for neither reasoning nor feelings can do so. God loves us in Christ. What infinite delight the Father has as He beholds His people in His dear Son! All our blessings flow from that precious fountain.

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10). It is clear from those words that God loved His people while they were in a state of nature, destitute of all grace, without a particle of love towards Him or faith in Him; yes, while they were His enemies (Romans 5:8-10).

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 2)