"The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." So runs the witness of Rom. 5:55And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Romans 5:5). It is God's own love to us, not our love to Him-love that towers high above all earthly love, however great. The love of friend for friend may be wonderful, as was the love of Jonathan for David; and the love of a mother for her child is tender and unwearying; but the love of God to us-His own love-is incomparably greater and is all the more beautiful in that there is nothing in us to call it forth. He loved us when we were sinners, and gave His Son to die for us.
We can never doubt that love as we gaze upon the cross. Love emptied itself there. It gave its all for us, for you and me.
What an answer this is to Satan's lie in the garden of Eden! There he succeeded in persuading Eve that God withheld something that would be good for her to have. Oh, what a harvest of sorrow and tears and anguish and death, has followed that disbelief of God's love! But that love, suspected and disbelieved in Eden, has displayed itself at Calvary. How? He spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. There we learn the mighty, measureless love of God.
And this perfect love casts out fear. It must of necessity do so, for how could we be afraid of One who loves us with perfect love? Now God's love is perfect and holy; for He has taken notice of our sins, and shown His love in the very thing that has put those sins away. "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 4:1010Herein 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 4:10).
We would not want God to think lightly of our sins, nor would He if such were our wish. God abhors sin, and it is our joy and rest to see that all that was due to us and to our sins has been borne by God's own Son. The cross has put our sins away forever, and in accounts solemn and yet clear and sweet it tells us God is light and God is love.
But has that love which thought of our deep spiritual need and made such ample provision for us in Christ withdrawn its eyes from us, not caring to behold us again till we are seen in glory? Oh, no! The very hairs of our head are all numbered. If not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father, are we not of more value than many sparrows?
It is into the present love of God-the love that cares for us today-that our hearts need to be directed, for it is there we may find rest, and nowhere else.
We know no yesterday but the cross, and no tomorrow but the glory; but then there is today- the wilderness and the things that surely come upon us there.
The power of God, like His love, is infinite. He is able to make the rough places smooth and never to suffer a thorn to pierce our foot. The knowledge of God's power is the very door by which Satan insinuates into the mind a doubt as to God's love. The soul reasons thus: If God loves me with a Father's love, why does He not do this or that for me? Why do my prayers remain so long unanswered? It is not because God does not love you that the answer to prayer is slow in coming. God has lessons to teach which would never be learned if our will or our timing guided His hand. How much the beloved family at Bethany would have missed if Lazarus had not been suffered to go down to the grave!