Love of God

[DMcKay]

THE LOVE OF GOD IS IMMUTABLE.
“His love no end nor measure knows,
No change can turn its course;
Eternally the same it flows,
From one eternal source!”

Like God himself, with His love there is “no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:18). His love does not change. It never increases. It ever decreases. It never ends.

Poor, shifting Jacob is an illustration of God’s immutable love (Mal. 3:6). Jacob’s great uncle, Lot, is another example of the immutability of God’s love (Gen. 19:16). Our Lord’s disciples were all examples of God’s immutable love (John 13:1). Philip said, “Show us the Father.” Peter denied Him with an oath. All forsook him. Thomas doubted His word of promise and His resurrection. Nevertheless, “having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end!” The love of God is immutable, indestructible love. Above all, the man writing these lines is an example of the immutability of God’s love. I have proved that His love is as stronger than death (Son of Sol. 8:6-7). Let every believer, knowing the love of God in Christ, give praise to Him that nothing can separate us from it (Rom. 8:34-39).

THE LOVE OF GOD IS SAVING. The love of God cannot be separated from the grace of God. And the grace of God cannot be separated from the salvation of God’s elect. That love of God from which we cannot be separated is clearly set forth in Romans 8:28-39. The love of God is the commitment of His holy Being to the salvation of those sinners who are loved by Him. And that commitment is seen in these four things.
1. His sovereign providence (v. 28).
2. His saving purpose (vv. 29-30).
3. His substitutionary provision (vv. 32-34).
4. His steadfast preservation (vv. 35-39).

“If God be for us, who can be against us?” God is for the people whom He loves! And every sinner loved of God has been predestinated to eternal salvation, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, and shall be born again by the irresistible grace of the Holy Spirit, be preserved blameless to the end, and be saved at last (Jude 24-25)!

THE LOVE OF GOD IS FRUITFUL (1 John 4:7-20). The love of God produces the fruit of grace in all who know it and believe it. What does it produce? It produces faith in Christ (vv. 9-16), brotherly love (vv. 8-20), confidence in the promise of God (vv. 17-18), and love for God himself (v. 19).

“We have known and believed the love that God hath to us” (v. 16). We know it and believe it by the revelation of His love in the sacrifice of Christ (vv. 9-10) and by the revelation of Christ in our hearts by the Spirit (vv. 13-14).