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)
" . . . the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
"The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with AN EVERLASTING LOVE: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built" (Jer 31:3-4).
Having shown that the love of God is conditional, it is now in order to confirm that it is covenantal, or based upon a covenant. God's love for us, or more precisely the experience of His love, is not based upon our persons – like loving someone because they are attractive, or have comely virtues, or satisfy the longings of the heart. The love of God is founded on a more firm foundation, and has a more sure basis. From one point of view, that foundation is the Person of Christ: "the love of God IN Christ Jesus." From yet another vantage point, it is the New Covenant, which is embodied in Christ. It is said of the Savior, "I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give Thee FOR A COVENANT OF THE PEOPLE, for a light of the Gentiles" (Isa 42:6).
This is why "the-Lord-loves-you-the-way-you-are" mentality is so utterly wrong. Divine love is based upon God's Person, not ours. It is founded upon who He is, not who we are. In fact, His love changes us from what we were, precisely because God could not receive us in that state. Because of the nature of God's love, it never leaves the one who experiences that love in condition in which Christ found him.
The depth of the taint of sin requires a massive Divine work in order for men to be saved. This is where the matter of covenant comes it. In the sense in which I am using the word, "covenant" is linked with Divine determination, grace, and power. It involves the promise of God, and His commitment to fulfill that promise in strict accord with His own nature and purpose. The covenant will not allow God to compromise His nature or ignore man's sinful nature.
The text in this devotion affirms God has loved His people with an "everlasting love." Because of that, he has drawn them to Himself with "lovingkindness," as opposed to being coerced by awesome threats or moral requirements.
The thirty-first chapter of Jeremiah is the one in which the New Covenant is announced with unusual clarity (verses 31-34). That this is, in fact, the very covenant that is presently mediated by Jesus, is confirmed in Hebrews 8:8-13 and 10:10:16-17.
Notice how the affirmation of verse three ("I have loved thee with an everlasting love") is linked with the promised New Covenant. There is a stream of marvelous promises that refresh the soul.
1. "With lovingkindness have I drawn thee" (3b).
2. "I will build thee" (4a).
3. "Thou shalt again be adorned" (4b).
4. "I will bring them . . . gather them" (8).
5. "They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: (9a).
6. "I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way" (9b).
7. "He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock" (10).
8. "For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he" (11).
9. "Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD" (12).
10. "I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow" (13).
11. "And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and My people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD" (14).
12. "And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD" (28).
It is at this point that the promised New Covenant is declared. It also consists of a number of remarkable promises.
1. "After those days, saith the LORD, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts" (33a).
2. " . . . and will be their God, and they shall be My people" (33b).
3. "And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD" (34a).
4. " . . . for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (34b).
The "everlasting love" affirmed in the first part of this chapter is based upon the covenant declared in the latter part. That is why God can draw people with His lovingkindness, and build them into suitable habitations for Himself. This could never be accomplished upon the basis of mere personal attraction.
Note, the covenant involves a fundamental change in those included in it. The constituents of the covenant experience a change in both heart and mind that finds them in accord with God's Law: God puts His law into their inward parts, and writes it in their hearts. That is another view of becoming a new creation (2 Cor 5:17), or being born again (John 3:3,5).
There is a very real affinity between those in the covenant and the God of the covenant. This is not a mere token identity, but one of which God Himself declares, "I will be their God, and they shall be My people." He is not ashamed of them, and they are not ashamed of Him.
There is also a personal acquaintance with God, so that the people are no longer ignorant of Him, repulsed by Him, or out of harmony with Him: "They shall all know Me."
The accomplishments are so extensive, and the removal of transgression so effective that the Lord declares, "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
That is covenantal love! Remove that covenant, and there is no basis for the experience of Divine love! Without that covenant, men can only theorize about the love of God. Apart from that covenant, it is really pointless to even speak of the love of God – particularly His "everlasting love."
One further thing about this blessed covenant. It is not possible to be included in it while detached from Christ Jesus. Apart from Christ, the covenant has no basis whatsoever. This covenant was ratified by the blood of Christ, and is presently being mediated by Him. If there is no identity with Christ, there can be no experience of God's "everlasting love." That is the ultimate condition.
PRAYER POINT: Father, I thank You that Your love is not founded on Your attraction to my person. I also praise You through Jesus Christ that I am made acceptable in Him, and am thus qualified to enjoy Your "everlasting love."