“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” Romans 88:37
It is a wonderful thing that our victory in Christ is based on, and founded in, the love of God. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he underscores this truth and reality by writing, “…I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” (2:20) Here is a man, as we find also in John the Apostle, who is dominated by the simple, and yet, all-inclusive fact of the love of God for him.
When the Lord Jesus confronted Peter, after the resurrection, He asked him three times, “…do you love Me?” (Jn. 21) Of course, Peter felt very keenly the penetrating conviction of these words because he had denied the Lord three times. However, with the conviction comes great comfort to the heart, because that which Peter discovered was the difference between his love for Christ, and the love of God for him, that unrelenting and unchanging love which would never let him go, in spite of his failings. Also, since Peter was on the cusp of knowing the baptism of the Spirit, when he would, with all believers at that time, be put into Jesus Christ by the Spirit, he was about to discover that this love of God was given to him by the Spirit to live. It would be that same love of Christ that overcame every obstacle and point of resistance to save all men everywhere. How then does this love of Christ work?
First of all, if this love would not only be an academic knowledge of the truth, but an experiential element of God’s power, the believer must see that it is his only in the measure that he can trust God for it. It is in the total surrender of oneself to Christ, no longer to live for oneself, and according to the ways of the world, that the believer will be able to open his mouth, and trust the Lord to fill it. One may know about this fulness, and never experience it, and this because of unbelief, or hesitancy. Solomon, in his book the Song of Solomon, wrote the following to illustrate this. “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned (rejected).” (8:7) This was the love of Christ, a love that was total, having left all in heaven and limited itself to an experience of the love of the Father on earth, only to be rejected by the ones whom He came to save. But what are the great qualities of this love?
Secondly, the belever needs to see and grasp the great qualities of this love of God. It is first and foremonst “unquenchable.” In other words, it cannot, and will not be put out. It will every shine brightly and powerfully, ever reaching out, seeking lost man that he should be saved. No amount of water dashed upon it, nor floods, can put it out, nor drown it. Why? The answer is very simple and powerfully true. This love is of God, the Almighty Lord and King, Creator and Redeemer of men. Only such love from heaven can overcome every obstacle and form of oppostion to doing the will of God, of honoring and loving the Father.
Thirdly, if one is to know this love, he or she must come God’s way, grasping His way of salvation. To follow Christ is to lose one’s life, for the great preference and devotion of life is towards Christ. As we discover throughout the Bible, whether in the Old Testament, or the New, the great call of God is to faith and devotion to Him, for out of Him, i.e. Christ, will come the experience of this love, a love that will never let us go. To appropriate such love is derive it by faith from the Lord Jesus Christ, the soul’s source and life.
Dear Father, Give us to live by Tny life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.