\u201cBut God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet
\nsinners, Christ died for us.\u201d\u2014Romans v. 8.
\nIt is a very blessed heightening of divine mercies, when we behold them
\nas not only bestowed upon those that deserved them not, but upon those
\nthat deserved the reverse of them. It is not enough, in our account of
\nGod\u2019s love, to say that God was gracious when we had done nothing to
\nmerit his favour, but that God was gracious when we had done every thing
\nto merit his displeasure. This is among the sweet features of the
\ngospel. And the reason is very plain. God himself is an infinite Being,
\nand therefore his love must be an infinite love. All the properties of
\nit are infinite; it must be exercised to suit an infinite power; it must
\nbe such as corresponds to infinite wisdom; and its effects must be such
\nas shall be suited to infinite goodness. Hence, therefore, in the
\ndisplay of it, such manifestations must be given as shall set forth,
\nthat the love of God, as an infinite Being, totally differs from the
\nlove of man, who is but a finite creature. Our love is bounded, like
\nourselves, by circumstances of a finite, limited, perishing, dying
\nnature, such as ourselves, and all the creatures around us partake of.
\nBut in the love of God, there are \u201cbreadths and lengths, and depths and
\nheights, passing knowledge!\u201d Now God commendeth his love towards us by
\nthose properties; that is, he bids us take notice of it by those special
\nmarks and characters. And when the Lord surpriseth the souls of his
\npeople by the same astonishing instance of his grace, in those acts of
\ngoodness, he speaks as in these solemn words: \u201cIf it be marvellous in
\nthe eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be
\nmarvellous in mine eyes, saith the Lord of Hosts?\u201d Zech. viii. 6. How
\nsweetly is this shewn to us in the gift of his dear Son Jesus Christ!
\nWhen\u2019 was Christ given? When we were enemies. On what account was he
\ngiven? Purely on account of God\u2019s love. And to whom was he given? Not to
\nhis friends; not to those who had never offended him; not to those who,
\nby their affection, or by their services, could make some return of
\nacknowledgment for such blessings; but to poor, helpless, barren,
\nunprofitable sinners. So that the love of God in Christ is particularly
\nrecommended, sent home, pressed upon our hearts, by this rich display of
\nit. To have blessed us, or to have loved us, if we had never offended
\nGod, would have been a stream too shallow, too trifling, to shew forth
\ndivine love. No! \u201cGod commendeth his love towards us, in that while we
\nwere yet sinners, Christ died for us.\u201d Pause, my soul! mark these
\nproperties, admire divine, goodness, and learn how to put a proper value
\nupon the unparalleled love of God in Jesus Christ. So God commended his
\nlove towards us!
\nRobert Hawker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cBut God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.\u201d\u2014Romans v. 8. It is a very blessed heightening of divine mercies, when we behold them as not only bestowed upon those that deserved them not, but upon those that deserved the reverse of them. It is not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,131,34,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-robert-hawker","category-gods-justice","category-gods-love","category-total-depravity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4920","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=4920"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4922,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4920\/revisions\/4922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}