IN the Law we see God demanding obedience in order to life. In Christianity we see God giving life as the only basis of obedience.
In the one we see man struggling for life, but never obtaining it. In the other we see man receiving life as a free gift, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23).)
Such is the contrast between the two systems, a contrast which cannot be too deeply pondered.
But let us mark the way in which this is unfolded in our text.
"God so loved the world." Here we have the wide aspect of the 'love of God. It is not confined to any particular nation, tribe, caste, or family.
It embraces the whole world. "God is love"; and, being so, it is not a question of the fitness or worthiness of the object of His love. It is what He is. He is love, and He cannot but always be so. It is the very energy and activity of His nature. The heart may have many a question, many an exercise, as to its state 'and condition before God; and quite right it should have them.
The Holy Spirit Himself may produce such exercises, and raise such questions; but, after all, the grand truth shines forth in all its luster,.
Whatever we are, whatever the world is, that is what God is; and we know that the truth as to God forms the deep and rich substratum which underlies the whole system of Christianity. The soul may pass through deep and sore conflict, under the sense of its own wretchedness; there may be many doubts and fears; many dark and heavy clouds; weeks, months, or years, may be spent under the law, in one's inward self-consciousness, and that, moreover, long after the mere intellect has yielded its assent to the principles and doctrines of evangelical religion. But, after all, we must be brought into direct personal contact with God Himself, with what He is, with His nature and character, as. He has revealed'
Himself in the gospel. We have to acquaint our-selves with Him, and He is love.
Observe, it does not say merely that God is loving, but that He Is LOVE. It is not only that love is an attribute of His character, but it is the very essence and activity of His nature. We do not read that God is justice, or holiness; He is just, and He is holy; but it would not express the full and blessed truth to say that God is loving. He is much more. He is love itself.
Hence, when the sinner ("whosoever" he be, it matters not) is brought to see his own total and absolute ruin, his hopeless wretchedness, his guilt and misery, the utter vanity and worthlessness of all within and around him; that there is nothing in the whole world that can satisfy his heart, and nothing in his heart that can satisfy God, or satisfy even his own conscience, when these things are opened in any measure to his view, then is he met by this grand, substantial truth that " God is love," and that He so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son.
Here are life and rest for the soul. Here is salvation, full, free, and everlasting, for the poor, needy, guilty, lost one; salvation, resting not upon anything in man, or of man; upon aught that he is or can be, aught that he has done, or can do, but simply upon what God is and has done.
God loves and gives, and the sinner believes and has. This is far beyond creation, government, or Jaw. In creation, God spake, and it was done.
He called worlds into existence by the word of His mouth. But we hear nothing, throughout the entire record of creation, of loving and giving.
So as to government, we see God ruling in unsearchable wisdom, amid the armies of heaven, and among the children of men; but we cannot comprehend Him. We can only, as to this subject, say, with the Christian poet, that
“God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.”
Finally, as to the law, it is, from beginning to end, a perfect system of command and prohibition, a system perfect in its action as testing man, and making manifest his entire alienation from God. "The law worketh wrath." And again, "By the law is the knowledge of sin." But what could such a system do in a world of sinners? Could it give life? Impossible. Why? Because man could not fulfill its holy requirements. “If there had been a law given which could have given life, then verily righteousness should have been by the law." But no; the law was a ministration of death and condemnation.
(2 Cor. 3) The 'only effect of the law, to any one who is under it, is the pressure of death upon the soul, and of guilt and condemnation upon the conscience. It cannot possibly be otherwise with an honest soul under the law.
What, then, is needed? Simply this, the knowledge of the love of God, and of the precious gift which that love has bestowed. This is the eternal groundwork of all. Love and the gift of love. For, be it observed and ever remembered, that God's love could never have reached us but through the medium of that gift. God is holy, and we are sinful. How could we come near Him?
How could we dwell in His holy presence? How could sin and holiness, ever abide in company?
Impossible. Justice demands the condemnation of sin; and if love will save the sinner, it must do so at no less a cost than the gift of the only begotten Son.
Darius loved Daniel, and labored hard to save him from the lions' den; but his love was powerless because of the unbending law of the Medes and Persians. He spent the night in sorrow and fasting. He could weep at the mouth of the den; but he could not save his friend. His love was not "mighty to save." If he had offered himself to the lions instead of his friend, it would have been morally glorious; but he did not. His love told itself forth in unavailing tears and lamentations. The law of the Persian, kingdom was more powerful than the love of the Persian king. The law, in its stern majesty, triumphed aver an impotent love which had nothing but fruitless tears to bestow upon its object.
But the love of God is not like this; eternal and universal praise to His Name! His love is “mighty to save." It reigns through righteousness How is this? Because " God so loved the world': that He gave His only begotten Son." The law had declared, in words of awful solemnity, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
Was this law less stern, less majestic, less stringent, than the law of the Medes and Persians? Surely not. How, then, was it to be disposed of? It was to magnified, and made honorable; vindicated and established. Not one jot or tittle of the law could ever be set aside.
How, then, was the difficulty to be solved? Three things had to be done: the law had to magnified; sin condemned; the sinner saved. How could these grand results be reached? We have the answer in two bold and vivid lines from one of our own poets,
“On Jesus' cross this record's graved,
Let sin be damned, and sinners saved.”
Precious record! May many an anxious sinner read and believe it! Such was the amazing love of God that He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. His love cost Him nothing less than the Son of His bosom. When it was a question of creating worlds, it cost Him but the word of His mouth; but when it was a question of loving a world of sinners, it cost His only begotten Son. The love of God is a holy love, a righteous love, a love acting in harmony with all the attributes of His nature, and the claims of His throne. Grace reigns through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord. The soul can never be set at liberty till this truth is fully laid hold of. There may be a certain vague hope in the mercy of God, and a measure of confidence in, the atoning work of Christ, which is all true and real so far as it goes; but true liberty of heart cannot possibly be enjoyed until we see and understand that God has glorified Himself in the manner of His love toward us.
Conscience could never be tranquillized, nor Satan silenced, if sin had not been perfectly judged and put away. But " God so loved the: world that He gave His only begotten. Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
It may here be needful to meet a difficulty which often occurs to anxious souls in reference to the question of appropriation. Thousands have been harassed and perplexed by this question, at some stage or other of their spiritual history; and it is not improbable that many who shall read these pages may be glad of a few words on the subject.
Many may feel disposed to ask, “How am I to know that this love, and the gift of love, are intended for me? What warrant have I for believing that everlasting life ' is for me? I know the plan of salvation; I believe in the all sufficiency of the atonement of Christ for the forgiveness and justification of all who truly believe. I am convinced of the truth of all that the Bible declares. I believe we are all sinners, and, moreover, that we can do nothing to save ourselves, that we need to be washed in the blood of Jesus, and to be taught and led by the Holy Ghost, before we can please God here, and dwell with Him hereafter. All this I fully believe, and yet I have no assurance that I am saved, and I want to know on what authority I am to believe that my sins are forgiven, and that I have everlasting life.”
If the foregoing is in any measure the language of the reader, if it is at all the expression of his difficulty, we would in the first place call his attention to two words which occur in out precious text, namely, "world" and "whosoever." It seems utterly impossible for anyone to refuse the application of these two words. For what, let us ask, is the meaning of the term "world? What does it embrace? or, rather, What does it not embrace? When our Lord declares that" God so loved the world," on what ground can the reader exclude himself from the range, scope, and application of this divine love? On no ground whatever, unless he can show that he alone belongs not to the world, but to some other sphere of being. If it were declared that" the world “is hopelessly condemned, could any one making a part of that world avoid the application of the sentence? Could he exclude himself from it? Impossible. How then can he, why should he, exclude: himself, when it is a question of God's free love, and of salvation by Christ Jesus?
But, further, we would ask, what is the meaning, what the force of the familiar word, “whosoever "? Assuredly, it means anybody; and if anybody, why not the reader? It is infinitely better, infinitely surer, and more satisfactory to find the word" whosoever "in the gospel than to find my own name there, inasmuch as there may be a thousand persons in the world of the same name; hut" whosoever " applies' to me as distinctly as though I were the only sinner on the face of the earth.
Thus, then, the very words of the gospel message, the very terms used to set forth the glad tidings, are such as leave no possible ground for a difficulty as to their application. If we listen to our Lord, in the days of His flesh, we hear such words as these, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Again, if we listen to' Him after His resurrection, we hear these words, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."(Mark 16) And, lastly, if we listen to the voice of the Holy Ghost sent from a risen, ascended, and glorified Lord, we hear such words as these," The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Rom. 10:12, 1312For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:12‑13).)
In all the above cited passages, we have two terms used, one general, the other particular, and both together so presenting the message of salvation, as to leave no room whatever for any one to refuse its application.
May you, dear reader, believe this message in all its fullness and freeness.
The guilty murderers of the Son of God were the very first to hear the sweet tale of pardoning love, so that all men might see in them a pattern of what the grace of God and the blood of Christ can do. Truly the grace that could pardon Jerusalem sinners “can pardon any one. The blood that could cleanse the betrayers and murderers “of the Christ of God can cleanse any sinner outside the confines of hell.