THE LOVE OF GOD | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 10, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 32.

THE LOVE OF GOD.

WOULD you know the evidence of God’s love?—“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” This is the evidence of God’s love to you, sinner. You may believe; you may therefore be saved. And notice, and let the thought give you hope, you are not saved because of your love to Him, but because of His love to you. Plead His eternal, boundless love.

“But,” says some doubtful soul, “If I begin to serve Him, I will not hold out to the end; I will not prove faithful.” And why? If you prove false, it will be because you prefer the false way. If you fail, it will be because you choose to fail. God “abideth faithful; He can not deny Himself.” So He speaks to every trusting soul: “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Having given the greatest gift to save a race of rebels, think you that He will withhold a lesser to uphold His child? No, a thousand times, no. He is the beginning of the way that He may be its end. He will save now and save ultimately every soul that trusts in Him. He will go with you all the way. “Having loved His own that were in the world, He loved them unto the end.”

Neither is the love of God a monopoly. It is not a characteristic of the Father and not the Son; nor is it the reverse of this. It is the essential nature of both Father and Son; and they desire to make it the essential nature of every responsible intelligence in the universe. God loved, and “He gave His only-begotten Son.” Christ loved, and He “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity.” Both are our Friends, both our Redeemers; for Christ and the Father are One. John 10:30. Both are pledged in our behalf. None others can condemn us if God is on our side, and He will not, if we trust Him. “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God,”—but the apostle does not stop there,—“It is God that justifieth.” Rom. 8:33, 34. He only who can make out a good case against us is the One who justifies. “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ,”—but not there does he pause. Truly the blameless life and spotless perfection of Christ condemn all, but this is not the thought. He only can condemn, “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, . . . who also maketh intercession for us.” O soul, there is all help in God! Come to Him just as you are; cast yourself all broken upon His measureless love, and trust Him. He will cleanse away the sin, and clothe you in His own royal robes of righteousness; He makes you His child, partaker and heir to the exceeding riches of His grace.