Everlasting Love
“I have loved you, saith the Lord.” — Mal. i. 2.
This is only the old, old story; but it is written with the finger of God; graven with the diamond pen of His unchangeable truth on the rock of His everlasting purpose; traced in golden letters on records of the universe; printed in characters of living, shining, glowing light on hearts of believers; written by the Spirit of the living God, not with ink but blood, precious blood of Christ, blood shed on the cruel cross for us. Query, is it written on our hearts? If not, O blessed Saviour, write it now; write if it be but the first line of this glorious inscription on every heart here and now.
“1 have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast Thou loved us?”
I. “Herein” (1) “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John iv. 10). Sovereign love. “The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people; but because the Lord loved you” (Deut. vii. 7, 8).
“Not that we loved God.” Our heart echoes this “not.” “His thoughts are notour thoughts.” The natural heart says, “God can’t love me, because I don’t love Him.”
(2) “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world” (1 John iv. 9). Gift of God (John iii. 16). “Gave,” unto death. Love of the Son answering. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John xv. 13).
(3) In quickening: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ” (Eph. ii. 4, 5). Do we think enough of this further proof of His love; we who are not “dead in trespasses and sins,” but feel and live?
(4) In adopting: “Behold,” etc. (1 John iii. 11): Are any here feeling they have no part in
this; outside the home and Father’s love? say now, “I will arise and go to my Father” (Luke xv. 18).
(5) Bearing and carrying (Isa. lxiii. 9). Has He not “borne”? has He not carried? Even if we can’t feel (3) and (4), we must own this.
Query: “Wherein” has thus a fivefold answer. Turn from His book to the book of our own lives, and count up the proofs of this love. Include “chastening” (Heb. xii. 6).
II. How P Double answer (John xvii. 23, and John xv. 9). “As” (subject for study).
Perfect, love sis zeXoS (John xiii. 1).
Sacrificing love. Father (Rom. viii. 32), Son (John xv. 13); both combined in Rom. v. 8.
Everlasting love (Jer. xxxi. 3). This brings us to:
III. When He loved us. (1) Before the foundation of the world (compare John xvii. 23, 24, 26).
(2) When we were yet sinners (Rom. v. 8; compare Hos. iii. 1; Isa. xlviii. 8, 10). “I knew.”
(3) Before we recognized it (1 John iv. 19; Ezek. xvi 8). “When,” “then,” “time of love.”
(4) After backsliding (Hos. xiv. 4).
(5) In death as in life (Cant. viii. 7). “Cannot quench,” not those things in Rom. viii. 35, climaxing in violent death. For, Isa. xliii. 2 and Deut. xxxiii. 27.
(6) Through eternity: “Everlasting life Thou givest, Everlasting love to see.” All included in that wonderful sii riXoi (John xiii. 1)
IV. Results of this love.
(i) Believing. Love begets love, this is the condition of the manifestation of love.
(2) Outward mark, “For the love of Christ constraineth us” (2 Cor. v. 14, 15; John xiv. 21, 23; John xvi. 27).
(3) What if resultless? (Lam. i. 12.) Appeal and application [no notes recorded].
V. Great question, how may we know that everlasting love is ours? (compare John vi. 44 with Jer. xxxi. 3).
How we yearn over the title, “disciple whom Jesus loved”! It applies to us also: “O man greatly beloved.” May we all be able to say, “We have known and believed the love which God hath to us.”