And the Pleading of Love.
ONE night we were suddenly awakened by the cry of “Fire!” When we reached the place a woman was standing with a blanket thrown around her―all she could grasp in leaving the burning building. As soon as she saw us she exclaimed, “Oh, sirs, the house is on fire, and my husband is in the flames!” She had just been saved from the fire, and her chief concern was about her husband; but he perished in the fire.
She was in earnest when she saw what she was delivered from. Jesus said to the man out of whom He had cast the devils, “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee” (Mark 5:9-20).
“I told you,” said one, “that I was a great Christian, a leader in all the religious meetings, yet all the time as far from God and heaven as any poor sinner on the face of the earth. Oh, the riches of God’s grace in giving His Son. Jesus to die for me, a poor hell-deserving sinner! Jesus, ere He went to the cross, was spat upon, buffeted, slandered, despised, and rejected by sinful, man; yet out of love to my soul He permitted Himself to be nailed to the cross, and as He hung there He cried, ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do’ (Luke 23:34). ‘He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all’” (Isa. 53:5:6).
No love can be compared to the love of God. See how, at the cross in the gift of His Son, His heart of love overflowed to sinful man. “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).
A mother stood at the gate of a large railway station, pleading with the gatekeeper to let her in to see her boy. Her heart was full as she said, “Do let me in; I want to see him.” Still he would not be persuaded to let her in. Then she cried, as only a fond mother can, “I must see my son.” The gateman said, “Your boy will come to you.” “No, no,” she exclaimed, “my boy won’t come to me; his coffin is coming on the train!” He wiped the tears from his eyes and let her in. A mother’s love for her son is great, but the love of Christ is greater.
Dear reader, take out your Bible and read these words: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Christ died for His enemies.
Christ died for the ungodly (Rom. 5:6-8). You cannot work yourself into the love of God, nor pray yourself into it. All you need is to see that you are lost, and then trust Jesus, and you will be saved from wrath to come (Matt. 3:7).
J. G.