GOD'S EVERLASTING LOVE – Tomorrow:
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: 'For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.' Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35-39, NKJV)
" . . . through Him that loved us."
Note, the text does NOT say "Him that loveS us," but "Him that loveD us." The word "love" is used in the PAST tense, not the present tense. Every major translation reads the same way: "LOVED us."
This is a vital distinction, for it takes us back to the Gospel of Christ, wherein the love of God was demonstrated. As it is written, "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us" (1 John 3:16). Our perception of God's love for us must not rest upon our feelings, or the assessment of our circumstances. It must firmly rest on the revelation of His love in Christ, not the experience of it during difficulties!
This does not mean God's love is not experienced. It DOES mean that circumstances sometime make it appear as though He does not love us. Flesh will reason, "If God really loves us, He would not allow us to go through such grief." But FAITH REASONS UPON THE BASIS OF CHRIST'S ATONING DEATH, not present circumstances. Christ's love is proved in what He did to redeem us, NOT how He responds to our trials.
The love that is mentioned is God's love, as is confirmed elsewhere. It is ALWAYS referred to in the past tense. Thus it is written, "But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He LOVED us . . . Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath LOVED us . . . But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He LOVED us . . . Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he LOVED us . . . Beloved, if God so LOVED us, we ought also to love one another" (Eph 2:4; 2 Thess 2:16; 1 John 4:10-11). This love is ALWAYS traced back to Christ's vicarious atonement – His redemptive role. Therefore the above texts are related to the following: "hath quickened us together with Christ . . . our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God . . . sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Another well known expression of this perspective is found in John 3:16. "For God so LOVED the world, that he gave his only begotten Son . . . "
The love of Christ for His people is also expressed in the past tense. "Christ also LOVED the church, and gave himself for it" (Eph 5:2), and " . . . the Son of God, who LOVED me, and gave himself for me" (Gal 2:20). Again, note this love is related to the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus.
When Divine love is said to be active toward the individual, it is because that person believes on God's Son. Jesus said, "for the Father Himself LOVES you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God" (John 16:27, NKJV). Another text affirms that "God LOVES a cheerful giver" (2 Cor 9:7). In both cases, the love is conditional. Twice Jesus spoke of God loving a person based upon certain conditions. "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me WILL BE LOVED by My Father," and "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father WILL LOVE HIM, and We will come to him and make Our home with him" (John 14:21,23). That love is certainly not unconditional!
I realize it has become fashionable to speak of God's "unconditional love." It is now so common to use such terminology that some have concluded it comes from Scripture. It does not! The "God loveS everybody" view is never articulated in the Word of God. When it comes to God's love for the world, it is ALWAYS in the past tense. That is, it is related to His provision in Christ Jesus for the salvation of the world. That is where His love is, so to speak, localized. Nowhere, in any version of Scripture, is it affirmed that God LOVES the world, or everyone in the world. Nowhere does the Holy Spirit declare God loves everyone just as they are, or no matter what they do. Allow me to emphasize it again, NOWHERE is such a representation made in Scripture. It IS affirmed, "the Lord loves the righteous" (Psa 146:8). However, in Christ Jesus, He "LOVED the world."
Why bring up such a point? Is this just a technicality? A sort of bantering around about semantics? Indeed, it is not. The truth of the matter is that the love from which nothing can separate us is not based upon the Lord's personal attraction toward, and affection for, us. It is a loftier love than that! When the love of Jesus for the church was declared, it was the giving of Himself for it in death than was affirmed: i.e., "Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it" (Eph 5:2). That is the love that cannot be quenched. It is the love that sustains, lifts, empowers, and causes us to be "more than conquerors."
The further we get from Christ's death, the further we get from His love, and the love of the Father as well. It is mere folly to talk about the love of God without immediate reference to the death of His Son, when He laid down His life a ransom for many. The perception of that love has sufficient impact upon the human spirit to provoke diligence, faithfulness, and a triumphant spirit.
This indefatigable love is always sufficient and effective to "cause us to triumph in Christ" (2 Cor 2:14). We are "more than conquerors" to the precise degree Christ's willing sacrifice dominates our minds. Those who relegate "the atonement" (Rom 5:11) to the background of their thinking begin at that very moment to lose the battle. That loss is NOT owing to the power of circumstance to drive a wedge between the individual and the love of God. Rather, IT IS BECAUSE THE PERSON HAS STEPPED OUT OF THE ARENA IN WHICH SUSTAINING LOVE IS OPERATIVE.
It is true, bless the Lord, that nothing can change the fact that God "loved" us, sending His Son, who gave Himself for us. That is what one might call provisional love. For that love to be personally experienced, however, it is necessary to come into the realm where that can happen. That realm is the Lord Jesus Himself. It is entered by faith in Christ. It does no good to speak of God's love if it is not personally experienced. It is said of that rich young ruler who asked what he might do inherit eternal life, "Then Jesus beholding him loved him." But it did him no good, for when Jesus told him to sell all that he had, give to the poor, and follow him, "he was sad, and went away grieved" (Mark 10:21).
The point of our text is that those living by faith experience adversaries. They are, because of their faith, subjected to harsh and trying circumstances. But not a one of those circumstances has separating power – i.e., the power to drive a wedge between them and the love of Christ. Instead, the love of Christ, working through their faith, causes them to rise to the surface of the waters that appear capable of drowning them. They sail victoriously on the turbulent sea of trouble like Noah sailed on the tumultuous deep of the flood. Blessed is the person who can see these things.
The love of Christ is not something to theorize about. It is not something to be held out as disassociated from conditions, as though the Lord had no reaction to sin, defilement, unrighteousness and the likes. The experience of Divine love is reserved for those who receive the Son and depend upon Him. It simply cannot be experienced by anyone else.
PRAYER POINT: Father, through Jesus Christ I thank You for making Your love accessible. I could not survive without Your love, and now I know it. I also sense it is not enough to simply talk about Your love. It must be poured into my heart, and I thank You that is precisely what the Holy Spirit does. Grant me grace never to quench or grieve Your Spirit.