GOD'S WONDERFUL LOVE by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA · Jan 9, 1907

GOD'S WONDERFUL LOVE.

By Editor

THIS is the story God has told us thru all human ages—His wonderful love. This is the story He has endeavored to make poor humanity understand. He has told of His love in the warming, shining sun, and in the glowing, guiding stars of night; in the falling, fertile rain, and in the pure whiteness of the protecting snow; in the sheltering forest tree, and in the perfumed blossoms of the flower; in the constantly varying seasons, and in the unvarying recurrence of day and night; in all the blessings of bounteous nature; in all her beauties, despite the curse of sin, God has said and is saying to the children of humanity, "I love you."

JEHOVAH has said to the children of men in His written word, "I love you." He has not left them to surmise it, or think that perhaps it may be so; He has plainly told it. By His chosen ambassador He declares: "Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee." Jer. 31:3. He has verified that love by His messages of warning and reproof, of mercy and pardon, of instruction and revelation, of promise and assurance.

AND "when the fulness of time came," God gave an object-lesson of His love which has amazed the universe. He not only said, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love," but He tried to tell us how much He loved us. "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." John 3:16. The Gift of God in the beginning became before men an actual fact. All that was manifest in the life of Jesus of Nazareth was saying to the world, "God hates sin, but He loves the sinner." His personal character was the second member of the spiritual equation of which God's law of love was the first. He was the Incarnate Word, saying to men, from the manger to the cross, from the cross to His exaltation in glory, "See how much God loves you." For the sacrifice of the Son of God was an infinite one. From the time He left the courts of transcendent glory with the infinite Father, and came down thru the ranks of angels to become partaker of sinful flesh, even to all eternity, He will bear the marks of His humiliation, the everlasting evidence of the inseparable love of Father and Son for a race of rebels.

How HE has endeavored to set forth His tenderness and mercy by similitudes and examples! There is no tenderer, more touching love on earth than that of the mother. But God declares that tho a mother should forget her nursing child, "yet will I not forget thee." Isa. 49:15. There is no occupation on earth which draws out the sympathy of the human heart like that of a shepherd for the feeble sheep and the helpless lambs. The Lord declares: "He will feed His flock like a shepherd, He will gather the lambs in His arms, and carry them in His bosom, and will gently lead those that have their young." Isa. 40:11. Even so God loves with a tender, solicitous love.

BUT it has been the chief purpose of the enemy of all righteousness to deny all this, and lead poor, human souls to believe, "God hates you. You have offended Him, and He despises you. Your only hope of His favor is to purchase His love and mercy." And so in all the false religions of earth, God is a purchasable being. By penance, by sacrifice, by pilgrimage, by the intercession of a sacerdotal class, or of persons who have earned great "holiness" by self-inflicted suffering, poor mortals may obtain the mercy of God.

MEN have been taught that God must be reconciled to us as well as we to God; that the everlasting, infinite proof of God's love was not God's offering, but the offering of another to win God's favor. The Father has been set over against the Son, giving the lie to the words of the Son, "I and My Father are one." John 10:30. Men have set the law of God against the mercy of the Son, giving the lie to the words of the Son: "I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart." Ps. 40:8. "I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love." John 15:10. Men have made God as changeable as the ages in His dealings with men, and have given the lie to His own words, "I, Jehovah, change not." Mal. 3:6. "Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning." James 1:17.

O FRIENDS, God loves you. Let not a cordon

of priests, or a collocation of saints, or the prejudice of a creed separate you from the love of God. “God is love.” Does your heart respond to His love? Does it respond in mere words, or in deeds? God loved, and so loved that He withheld not Heaven’s Choicest Gift to save you. In that Gift He pledged all things. God loved in deeds. Do you so love God? If you do, you will meet the test of love in your life—“This is the love of God that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3. “Ye are My friends, if ye do the things I command you.” John 15:14. May God’s love appeal to the heart of all our readers, and may it awaken obedient love in return.