“The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” So runs the witness of Romans 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 was nothing in us to call it forth. He loved us when we were sinners and gave His Son to die for us. Never can we doubt that love as we gaze upon the cross. Love emptied itself there. It gave its all for us — for you, for me.
Unbelief in God’s Love
What an answer is this to Satan’s lie in the Garden of Eden! There he succeeded in persuading Eve that God withheld something that would be for her good 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 withal holy, for He has taken cognizance 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 4:1010Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. (John 4:10)).
We would not wish 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 accents solemn and yet clear and sweet it tells us God is light and God is love.
Ample Provision
But has that love which thought of our deep spiritual need and made such ample provision for it in Christ withdrawn its eyes from us, not caring to behold us more till we are seen in glory? Oh, no! The very hairs of our head are all numbered. And 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 they 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
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. And the knowledge of God’s power is the very door by which Satan often seeks to insinuate 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?”
Ah, it is not because God does not love you that the answer to prayer is sometimes slow in coming, and sometimes the answer is not what you wished for. God has lessons to teach, which would never be learned if our will 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! And what a loss for Paul if the thorn in the flesh had been taken away in answer to his thrice-repeated prayer!
There are many things that may remain a mystery to us on earth. How often the life, which to our view seemed so necessary, is taken away, while one that might have been more easily spared, is left to linger on year after year. God does not explain all this to us. He does not tell us His reasons, but He asks us to confide in His wisdom and His love. Let us have patience. The night will soon be gone, and in the morning light of that endless day we will see what is now hidden from our eyes.
And if the past could be blotted out and we could begin life’s journey afresh and God were to ask us whether we would choose our own path and fill it up as it seemed best to us or whether He would choose for us, would we not put it into His hand for Him to choose and lead?
The Patience of God
This is the time of His patience. He is seated on His Father’s throne, but He does not yet have His bride. He waits in patience to see the fruit of the travail of His soul. Nor does He have the world kingdom now, but He who said, “Sit Thou on My right hand,” also said, “Till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool” (Psalm 110:11<<A Psalm of David.>> The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. (Psalm 110:1)). Hence He waits in patience now; this is now the “kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:99I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. (Revelation 1:9)). Soon it will be the kingdom and glory of Jesus Christ. And before then we shall be ushered into His presence in bodies of glory like unto His. What a scene of unutterable joy and delight!
Then from those cloudless heights we shall look back and remember “all the way the Lord thy God hath led thee.” Then thou shalt see that the hand that ordered everything was a Father’s hand and that His way was better than thy way. Rest in His love, lean on His bosom, till the day break and the shadows flee away.
Christian Truth, 13:326, adapted