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The Love of God

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 17, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 42.

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The Love of God

By L. N. MUCK

L. N. MUCK
“God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
PEN can not portray nor language express the love of God. It is beyond human comprehension. It is only when we seek to come in touch with the divine Redeemer and give him full control of our lives and all that we have, that we can enter in a measure into the fulness of God’s love. Think of the great sacrifice that was made for sinful man. When we were aliens from God, he sought us, and gave heaven’s richest gift to ransom us from the cruel hands of the enemy. What love! what goodness!
We can not measure God’s love by the human standard. We can not understand the suffering on Calvary. The same love that constrained Jesus to suffer for sinful man, should constrain us to a life of unselfishness. The standard for Christian living is a life of sacrifice. The standard that Christ holds out to us is a sinless life. If our lives are free from sin, we shall be able to influence others to follow Christ.
He that hungers and thirsts after righteousness shall be filled. We shall be satisfied only by drinking at the fountain of God’s love. We shall be satisfied when we awake in his likeness. We can not get away from God. “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” He is with us in darkness and in light. When we sorrow, he is there to dry our tears. He understands our suffering. All that is good and beautiful in man comes by the love of God working in the heart.
No man can live to himself. He is living either for truth and righteousness or against it. We are called of God to live out his truth in this world of sin and sorrow, and to exercise the same kind of love that he exercises; for it is love that constrains men and women to forsake sin. Pure, unadulterated love comes from God. Look to Calvary and behold the Lamb of God paying the penalty for sin. He was led to the slaughter as a sheep to its shearers, and yet he opened not his mouth. In the midst of the storm, his gentle, loving voice stills the waves. When the ship at sea is tossed about, he says, “Peace, be still.”
This same love that constrained Jesus to die that the world might be redeemed, is the kind of love that each of us should have in order that we may accomplish that for which we are called. Jesus is able to still the stormy sea of our lives, and to speak peace to our troubled souls. To be partakers of this love is to share the reward of the saints. We must lay aside the sin that doth so easily beset us, and run with patience the race that is set before us. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.”
College View, Nebr.