Let me call your attention to some characteristics of the love of God: First, it is a causeless love. There is nothing in us to call forth God’s love. There is, on the other hand, every reason why He should not love us. We have sinned against Him, acted in enmity towards Him, and shut Him out of our thoughts. From head to foot we are a mass of moral petrifaction (Isa. 1:66From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. (Isaiah 1:6)). To say the least, we are most unlovable beings. What a heart must that be, that can love us with a boundless love in spite of all we are, and all that we have done! Such a heart is God’s.
Second, it is a universal love. As we have noticed before, it extends to all. It flows out in all its breadth and fullness alike to the cultured and the savage, to the religious church-goer and the open blasphemer. “God so loved the world.”
Third, it is a proved love, and the great, grand proof of it is that God spared not His own Son, that we might be saved. In John 3:1616For 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) we find both the love of God, and the gift of God; and the gift is a proof of the love.
Do you doubt God’s love to you? Then turn in spirit to Calvary, and see His Son crucified between two thieves. Inquire why He is there. The answer is: “Because God so loved the world.”
Fourth it is a present love, a love which not only has provided salvation, but which in present activity, seeks to bless. The Father longs for the return of the prodigal. Why? Because He loves him.
Fifth, it is a holy love, a love which cannot tolerate sin; though it can bless the sinner; a love which could not flow out to the guilty, unless the claims of justice were satisfied. But this has been done. God smote His Son on the cross, that we might never be smitten; and now we who believe on Him can say, “With His stripes we are healed.” Mercy and truth have united; grace reigns through righteousness; perfect love shines in an atmosphere of perfect love.
Reader, what is the love of God to you? Are you in the enjoyment of the blessing which it brings? Have you ever seen that the hand of Justice restrained the outflow of love until the cross of Christ set it free? Has that love dispelled all fear from your mind, as the sun disperses the darkness? In short, do you know that love to you?
“Could we with ink the ocean fill,
Or were the sky of parchment made;
Were every blade of grass a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade:
To write the love
Of God above,
‘Twould drain the ocean dry;
Nor would the scroll
Contain the whole,
Though stretched from earth to sky!”