What a wonderful thing it is that the Son of God should love us! I do not wonder so much that He should have any love for you, but I am lost in wonder at the fact that He has any love for me, even for me! Does not each believer feel that the wonder of wonders must ever be that the Lord Jesus Christ loves him?
He was in glory, needing nothing; He was in His Father’s bosom, enjoying indescribable heavenly delight. If He wanted to cast His eyes of love on any of His creatures, there were myriads of bright spirits before the throne. But, no, He must look down, down, down, to earth’s dunghills and find us who were utterly unworthy of His regard! Then He might have pitied us and left us in our lost estate, but it could not be so with One who has such a heart as our dear Savior has; He must love us!
What it is for God to love, God only knows. We faintly guess, by the love that burns in our bosom towards the objects of our affection, what the love of God must be. The love of God must be a mighty passion! I use the word because I know no better; I am conscious that it is not the right one, for language is too feeble to describe divine love…Oh, the love of Christ! It must always be the wonder of wonders that Jesus Christ, the darling of the heavens, should have set the eyes of His affection upon men of mortal mold, on sinful men, on me! That, to me, is the climax.
We will remember the fact of Christ’s love. But we will remember, also, the character of Christ’s love. What a love it was! He loved us before the foundation of the world! With the telescope of His foreknowledge, He foresaw our existence, and He loved us when we had no being! Then He struck hands with the great Father, and entered into covenant on our behalf, and prepared to stand in for us and redeem us from the ruin of our sin. Oh, the love, the love, the everlasting love of Christ! He has never left off loving us from the very first. All through the ages before the world was, and through the centuries in which the world has existed, He has loved His chosen every moment, and loved them to the fullest. Can you drink in the sweetness of that thought? Oh, I pray you remember the antiquity and the constancy of the love of Christ to His people! “We will remember Your love.”
It was unmerited love which had no reason in us for it to light upon…He loved us because He would love us. It was the sovereignty of His love that made Him love those whom He chose to love. He loved them freely, without anything in them, or that would ever be done by them, to deserve His love. But He loved fully as well as freely. He loved intensely, divinely, immeasurably.
You know your love to your child, it is but a feeble spark compared to the great sun of Christ’s love to you! You know your love to your husband, it is a tiny rill compared with the ocean of Christ’s love to His people! Beloved, turn over the wondrous qualities of the love of Christ to you, and say…:“We will remember Your love, for we cannot forget it….”
We will also remember the deeds of Christ’s love. It is a grand story. I cannot stay to tell it to you tonight. You know how, in the fullness of time, the Son of God came out of glory and alighted on a stall where the horned oxen fed. He who had made all worlds was hanging at a woman’s breast, for He was made flesh that He might save us from our sins. “Herein is love!”
See Him living a laborious life, going about doing good, despised, maligned, yet always ready to give still greater grace and mercy to the unworthy. You know His life, the wondrous life of Christ. “Herein is love.”
At last, He gave Himself up in agony even to a bloody sweat. He gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. He hid not His face from shame and spitting. And then He gave Himself; His hands to the nails; His feet to the cross and the cruel iron; His side to the lance; His body to the tomb, and His soul to depart to His Father. “Herein is love.”
I wish I could preach upon this theme as it deserves to be proclaimed. Oh, that I knew how to speak of the dying love of Christ! The angels desire to look into the mystery of the love of Jesus, but even they cannot compass its immeasurable height, and depth, and length, and breadth…!
But Jesus rose from the grave. He rose with the same love. He ascended with the same love. He lives with the same love, pleading for us! He loves us now, and He will come for us in love…Christ will rest in His love…! He will also give [His people] to share His glory, and to sit upon His throne, and to reign with Him forever and ever…!
I would like you, brothers and sisters, tonight, to remember the proofs of Christ’s love. You were far off, but He sought you and brought you back; you were deaf, but He called you and opened your ears to hear His loving call; you came trembling and afraid, but He cheered you; and in a moment He took your burden from you and set you free…! Did Jesus come to you? Did He forgive your sins? Did He comfort you with His love? Then remember it tonight…remember His love!
Charles H. Spurgeon
Taken from http://www.spurgeongems.org/vols37-39/chs2294.pdf pages 3-4
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