“The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying, ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” Jeremiah 31:3
It was Adoniram Judson, missionary to Burma, who said, “The love of God, what a study for eternity.” It was M. Shekelton who wrote: “It passeth knowledge, that dear love of Thine, My Saviour, Jesus; yet this soul of mine, Would of Thy love, in all its breadth and length, Its height and depth, its everlasting strength, Know more and more.” Many have been the hymns, books written, and sermons preached on the love of God, yet, many who have preceded us have only touched the surface of this love of God in Christ. Though we see something of the goodness and love of God in creation, its beauty and majesty, there is no sight so terrible, and yet, overwhelmingly moving, as the ultimate demonstration of such love, Christ suffering and dying on the cross. It was Charles Wesley who wrote of this love, revealed on Calvary: “O Love divine, what has Thou done! Th’incarnate God hath died for me! The Father’s co-eternal Son Bore all my sins upon the tree! The Son of God for me hath died: My Lord, My Love, is crucified.” For Wesley, and those who have like him written of this love of God, there was not just a knowledge of the truth of it, but the experience of the presence of the Son of God, the power of such love. There was also the matter of its ever-lasting strength, and overcoming endurance. But how is one to know such love, and then communicate it to the world?
It begins with the vision of Christ, and the knowledge of why He died on the cross. Wesley would continue in his hymn: “Behold Him, all ye that pass by, The bleeding Prince of life and peace! Come, sinners, see your Saviour die, And Say, ‘Was ever grief like His?’ Come, feel with me His blood applied: My Lord, my Love, is crucified.” It is marvelously true that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” but at what price to the Father, and ultimately to the Son? Can the measure of suffering for sin, and its consequences, even begin to be grasped? Thus, the call is to “look and live,” to “behold the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world.” Faith in Christ begins with a glimpse of Him dying in my place, enduring the judgement of the wrath of God for me because of my sin. It is for this reason that Wesley continues to write: “Believe, believe the record true, Ye all are bought with Jesus’ blood: Pardon for all flows from His side: My Lord, My Love, is crucified”
What then is to be the response to such a sight, and a knowledge of this love of God for the individual, demonstrated for all the world to see and know, for time and eternity? It is two-fold. First, as Shekleton wrote: “I am an empty vessel – not one thought, Or look of love, I ever to Thee brought; Yet I may come, and come again to Thee, with this, the empty sinner’s plea, Thou lovest me.” Secondly, the prayer: “Oh, fill me Jesus, Saviour, with Thy love! Lead, lead me to the living fount above; Thither may I in simple faith, draw nigh, And never to another fountain fly, But unto Thee.”
It is one thing to behold the Lord Jesus dying on the cross, the ultimate testimony of the love of God for fallen man. It is quite another to know this love which passes understanding, for it is a love revealed to the heart in an ever-increasing measure, and power, by the Spirit of God. To the one who has been drawn to Christ, then convicted of his need of Him as Saviour from sin and death, and then who lift’s the “vessel” of his life up to Him by surrendering faith, is given pardon and ever-lasting life.
Dear Father, Fill us with Christ. In Jesus’ name, Amen.