“NOTHING BUT THE LOVE OF CHRIST”
MERRY MONDAY
“Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.” (John 13:1 KJV)
One of the most amazing scripture’s in the Bible is this one. The Interpreter Bible put’s Christ’s love this way: “Nothing in this astonishing world is more amazing than Christ’s faithfulness, than the persistence of that loyal, stubborn, obstinate love of His that will take no refusal, and accept no defeat, but in face of impossible treatment that would have sickened every other, and make them fling away in angry indignation, somehow He still loves on.”
The love of Christ to His body is serious business. It isn’t as easy as we think to be free or cut off from His love. His love is not only constant but everlasting. We will never comprehend His love toward us nor the angels understand it. Those whom Christ loves He loves to the end. Nothing can separate a believer from the love of Christ; He loves His own unto perfection, for He will perfect what concerns them, will bring them to that world where love is perfect. He assumed our nature and even undertakes our cause and takes charge over us by giving us the Holy Spirit as our counselor, comforter and teacher. He not only died for us but acts as our priest that “ever lives to intercede for us”. Then in the end he will introduce us into his kingdom and glory where we will rule and reign with Him.
I love what Samuel Rutherford said, “How often I play fast and loose with Christ! He bindeth, I loose, He buildeth, I cast down, He trimmeth up a salvation with me, and I mar it; I cast out with Christ, and He agreeth with me again twenty times a day, I forfeit my kingdom and heritage, I lose what I had, but Christ is at my back, and following on, to stoop and take-up what falleth from me”.
In Spurgeon sermons he says, “How many are in bondage thinking they are not yet saved, whereas if they read the Scriptures, and received their meaning, they would know that the moment the sinner believes in Christ he is saved in that very instant he has passed from death into life, and shall never come into condemnation. The people of his choice Jehovah cannot cast away. No members of Christ’s body shall be suffered to perish, or else the body of Christ would be mangled, and he himself would be the head of a dismembered frame. To have a clear understanding of the gospel, to know the covenant which like a mighty rock underlies all gospel blessings, to know Christ and our union with Him, to know His righteousness, His perfection and our perfection in Him, to know the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, these things must inevitably make us strong in the joy of the Lord. Half our doubts and fears would vanish if we had more acquaintance with the Lord’s statutes.”
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