#16. The LOVE of God

Arthur Pink et al.

(You will find it helpful to LISTEN to the Audio, as you READ the text below.)

"God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us!" Romans 5:8

The love of God is not merely something He possesses--it is what He is in His very essence. Yet how rarely is this love rightly understood! It is not sentimental softness or passive approval.

God's love is holy--never at odds with His righteousness.

It is sovereign--freely bestowed upon whom He chooses.

It is unchanging--eternally fixed upon His elect, unshaken by their failures or fluctuations.

Before the foundation of the world, He set His love upon His chosen people. "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness!" Jeremiah 31:3. His love was not drawn out by any beauty or merit in us--for we were dead in trespasses, and enemies of God. Yet, from the depths of His own goodness and for the praise of His glorious grace, He loved us still.

The cross stands as the supreme demonstration of this divine love. "This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him!" 1 John 4:9. There, at Calvary, love and justice met in perfect harmony. The wrath we deserved, was poured upon Christ--that the love of God might be lavished upon us!

O the wonder of the love that chose us, redeemed us, and will never forsake us! Let the redeemed . . .
  rest in this eternal affection,
  rejoice in its security,
  and be constrained by it to holiness.

May we reflect such love to others--sacrificial, pure, and steadfast.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that . . .
  neither death nor life,
  neither angels nor demons,
  neither the present nor the future,
  nor any powers,
  neither height nor depth,
  nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!" Romans 8:35, 37–39