“The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, ‘Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.'” Jeremiah 31:3
It was G. Matheson who wrote, “O Love, that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in Thee, I give Thee back the life I owe, That in Thine ocean depths its flow May richer, fuller be.” What is it that Matheson is seeking to declare and communicate to us? There is no doubt that he is addressing the unchanging character, and nature of God. This is one of the bedrock truths of Scripture concerning God. But he goes further in his personal application of that which he has discovered and seeking to live by. He writes specifically of a love that is personal, not only as revealed in the love of God for all mankind, but that specific, individual love that God gives, and reveals to the heart. It is, as the Lord Himself puts it, an “everlasting love.” The revelation of the love of God to the heart of the Apostle Paul certainly had a dominating influence, and power on his life, for he wrote of this personal love of the Son of God towards him, when he declared, “…He (Christ) loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20) Matheson, in an effort to communicate something of the vastness and depth of this love would speak it flowing (in abundance), even in the ocean depths, its endless and depthless worth and power. And then he turns to the designed purpose of the revelation of that love to the heart, that it be in him richer, and fuller. God reveals His love, not that we should only bask in the wonder, beauty, and unchangeableness of it, but in the appropriation of it in the life towards God, and towards others.
In the book of Jeremiah, there is the revelation of the love of God towards His people Israel. And though, with stark clarity, the Lord reveals to Israel His righteousness and justice, he also unveils to her the greatest motivating reason for which she should believe, trust, and obey Him with regard to all that he reveals to her of the truth. He speaks of His everlasting love, one that has been from “of old.” It is a love as great, unchanging, and unceasing power to save and to bless abundantly then as now. It is a love which God desires and wills to reveal to all men, that men, being moved and constrained by its untainted beauty and distinctiveness, should say, as Matheson wrote: “…I rest my weary soul in Thee, I give Thee back the life I owe…”
Love is perhaps the greatest concept and revelation of the nature and character of God apart from the matter of His Holiness. The love of God sets Him apart in man’s consideration of all that is good and right, compassionate and merciful, protecting and providing, because it is absolute in its nature. Christ was totally selfless, there being nothing in Him that was less than the truth of what love is. Indeed, John the Apostle tells us in his first epistle that “God IS love.” He has forever been love, and forever will be. The one who knows Christ best is the one who lives most consistently dwelling in the reality and power of the love of God.
One of the great characteristics of love, which has a direct relationship with the matter of the saving of men’s souls, is that of what it does, or rather, what God does because of HIs love. So, Jeremiah writes the words of the Lord when He said, “…therefore, with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” The Lord Jesus, during His ministry said, “…No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” (Jn. 6:44) Here is love divine, that God should come to individual men and put within their hearts a hungering and thirsting after righteousness, then drawing out the heart, directs the lost soul to Christ the Savior.
Dear Father, Grant us Thy love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.