"Blessed Jesus! Your love, like Your agonies, is an unknown and unfathomable depth! It passes knowledge. Let it rise and expand before me, until it fills the entire scope of my soul's vision; occupies every niche of my heart; and bears me onward by its all commanding, all constraining influence, in the path of a holy loving obedience and surrender."
Oh! wonderful thought, everlasting love! Who can comprehend the import of these words– everlasting love? Christ loves us, and His love is everlasting. Yes, dear believer, Christ loved you before the world was created; before you had an existence. From all eternity He thought upon your lost condition by nature; and oh! how willingly, how gladly, He left the throne of glory to bring salvation to you.
His love never had a beginning. "This river of love began to flow before the world was; from everlasting, from the beginning, before ever the earth was. Christ's love to us is as old as the Father's love to the Son. This river of light began to stream from Jesus towards us, before the beams poured from the sun; before the rivers flowed to the ocean; before angel loved angel, or man loved man: before creatures were, Christ loved us. This is a great mystery; who can fathom it? This love passes knowledge." (McCheyne)
Such is the deep, the vast, the boundless ocean of Christ's love! The soul muses in silent awe as it gazes upon this fathomless, limitless sea!
Nothing short of a divine love could or would have borne our sins, and the punishment of our sins. The weight of the one, and the terribleness of the other, would have crushed and annihilated a mere 'created' affection. There existed no love but the love of Jesus equal to the work of salvation.
Who was willing, who was able, to bear that heavy load, to endure that overwhelming curse, but Jesus?
Oh, think, beloved reader, what the love of Christ has done and suffered for you....
the burden it bore,
the sorrow it felt,
the humiliation it underwent,
the insults,
the ignominy,
the privation through which it traveled;
its groans,
its sighs,
its tears,
its darkness,
how inconceivably it agonized,
how freely it bled,
how voluntarily it died,
the sins it has pardoned,
the guilt it has cleansed,
the declensions it has restored,
the backslidings it has healed,
the sorrows it has soothed,
the patience it has exercised,
the gentleness it has exhibited,
Such is the love of Christ!
Oh! wonderful thought, everlasting love! Who can comprehend the import of these words– everlasting love? Christ loves us, and His love is everlasting. Yes, dear believer, Christ loved you before the world was created; before you had an existence. From all eternity He thought upon your lost condition by nature; and oh! how willingly, how gladly, He left the throne of glory to bring salvation to you.
His love never had a beginning. "This river of love began to flow before the world was; from everlasting, from the beginning, before ever the earth was. Christ's love to us is as old as the Father's love to the Son. This river of light began to stream from Jesus towards us, before the beams poured from the sun; before the rivers flowed to the ocean; before angel loved angel, or man loved man: before creatures were, Christ loved us. This is a great mystery; who can fathom it? This love passes knowledge." (McCheyne)
Such is the deep, the vast, the boundless ocean of Christ's love! The soul muses in silent awe as it gazes upon this fathomless, limitless sea!
Nothing short of a divine love could or would have borne our sins, and the punishment of our sins. The weight of the one, and the terribleness of the other, would have crushed and annihilated a mere 'created' affection. There existed no love but the love of Jesus equal to the work of salvation.
Who was willing, who was able, to bear that heavy load, to endure that overwhelming curse, but Jesus?
Oh, think, beloved reader, what the love of Christ has done and suffered for you....
the burden it bore,
the sorrow it felt,
the humiliation it underwent,
the insults,
the ignominy,
the privation through which it traveled;
its groans,
its sighs,
its tears,
its darkness,
how inconceivably it agonized,
how freely it bled,
how voluntarily it died,
the sins it has pardoned,
the guilt it has cleansed,
the declensions it has restored,
the backslidings it has healed,
the sorrows it has soothed,
the patience it has exercised,
the gentleness it has exhibited,
Such is the love of Christ!
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