THE MEASURE OF LOVE<\/p>\n
\u201cRemember the words of the Lord Jesus<\/em>, how He said,\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs the Father has loved Me \u2014 so have I loved you.\u201d<\/em> \u2014 John 15:9<\/p>\n This is the most amazing verse in the Bible! Who can fathom the unimagined depths <\/em>of that love which dwelt in the bosom of the Father from all eternity towards His Son? \u2014 and yet, here is the Savior\u2019s own measure of His love towards His people!<\/p>\n There is no subject more profoundly mysterious than those mystic inter-communings between the first and second persons in the adorable Trinity before the world was. Scripture gives us only some dim and shadowy revelations regarding them \u2014 distant gleams of light, and no more. Let one suffice. \u201cThen<\/em> I was by Him, as one brought up with Him, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.\u201d<\/p>\n We know that earthly affection is deepened and intensified by increased familiarity with its object. The friendship that began only yesterday is not the sacred, hallowed thing which years of growing communion have matured. If we may with reverence apply this test to the highest type of holy affection, what must have been that interchange of love <\/em>which the measureless span of Eternity had fostered \u2014 a love, moreover, not fitful, transient, vacillating, subject to altered tones and estranged looks \u2014 but pure, constant, untainted, without one shadow of turning! And yet, listen to the words of Jesus, \u201cAs<\/em> the Father has loved Me \u2014 so<\/em> have I loved you!\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n It would have been infinitely more than we had reason to expect, if He had said, \u201cAs My Father has loved angels<\/em> \u2014 so have I loved you.\u201d But the love borne to no finite beings is an appropriate symbol. Long before the birth of time or of worlds \u2014 that love existed. It was together with Eternity itself. Hear how the two themes of the Savior\u2019s eternal rejoicing \u2014 the love of His Father<\/em>, and His love for sinners<\/em> \u2014 are grouped together, \u201cRejoicing always before Him<\/em>, and in the habitable part of His earth!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n To complete the picture, we must take in a counterpart description of the Father\u2019s love to us, \u201cTherefore does My Father love Me,\u201d says Jesus in another place, \u201cbecause I lay down My life!\u201d God had an all-sufficiency in His love \u2014 He needed not the wearisome love of creatures to add to His glory or happiness; but He seems to say, that so intense is His love for us \u2014 that He loves even His beloved Son more (if infinite love be capable of increase), because He laid down His life for the guilty! It is regarding the Redeemed it is said, \u201cHe shall rest<\/em> in His love \u2014 He shall rejoice over them with singing.\u201d<\/p>\n In the assertion, \u201cGod is love,\u201d we are left truly with no mere unproved affirmation regarding the existence of some abstract quality in the divine nature. \u201cHerein,\u201d says the apostle, \u201cperceive we THE LOVE of God,\u201d but, as it has been remarked, (\u201cOur translators need not have added whose<\/em> love, for there is but one such specimen\u201d), \u201cbecause <\/em>He laid down His life for us.\u201d No expression of love can be wondered at, after this<\/em>. Ah, how miserable are our best expressions, compared with His! \u201cOur<\/em> love is but the reflection \u2014 as cold as the moon<\/em>; His<\/em> is as the sun<\/em>.\u201d Shall we refuse to love HIM more in return, who has first<\/em> loved, and SO loved us?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 John MacDuff,1858.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE MEASURE OF LOVE \u201cRemember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said,\u201d \u201cAs the Father has loved Me \u2014 so have I loved you.\u201d \u2014 John 15:9 This is the most amazing verse in the Bible! Who can fathom the unimagined depths of that love which dwelt in the bosom of the Father […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-john-macduff","category-gods-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2531,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530\/revisions\/2531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}