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NATURE
and revelation alike testify of God's love. Our Father in heaven
is the source of life, of wisdom, and of joy. Look at the wonderful
and beautiful things of nature. Think of their marvelous adaptation
to the needs and happiness, not only of man, but of all living creatures.
The sunshine and the rain, that gladden and refresh the earth, the
hills and seas and plains, all speak to us of the Creator's love.
It is God who supplies the daily needs of all His creatures. In
the beautiful words of the psalmist--
"The
eyes of all wait upon Thee;
And Thou givest them their meat in due season.
Thou openest Thine hand,
And satisfiest the desire of every living thing."
Psalm 145:15, 16.
God
made man perfectly holy and happy; and the fair earth, as it came
from the Creator's hand, bore no blight of decay or shadow of the
curse. It is transgression of God's law--the law of love--that has
brought woe and death. Yet even amid the suffering that results
from sin, God's love is revealed. It is written that God cursed
the ground for man's sake. Genesis 3:17. The thorn and the thistle--the
difficulties and trials that make his life one of toil and care--were
appointed for his good as a part of the training needful in God's
plan for his uplifting from the ruin and degradation that sin has
wrought. The world,
though fallen, is not all sorrow and misery. In nature itself are
messages of hope and comfort. There are flowers upon the thistles,
and the thorns are covered with roses.
"God
is love" is written upon every opening bud, upon every spire of
springing grass. The lovely birds making the air vocal with their
happy songs, the delicately tinted flowers in their perfection perfuming
the air, the lofty trees of the forest with their rich foliage of
living green -- all testify to the tender, fatherly care of our
God and to His desire to make His children happy.
The
word of God reveals His character. He Himself has declared His infinite
love and pity. When Moses prayed, "Show me Thy glory," the Lord
answered, "I will make all My goodness pass before thee." Exodus
33:18, 19. This is His glory. The Lord passed before Moses, and
proclaimed, "The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering,
and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." Exodus 34:6, 7. He
is "slow to anger, and of great kindness," "because He delighteth
in mercy." Jonah 4:2; Micah 7:18.
God
has bound our hearts to Him by unnumbered tokens in heaven and in
earth. Through the things of nature, and the deepest and tenderest
earthly ties that human hearts can know, He has sought to reveal
Himself to us. Yet these but imperfectly represent His love. Though
all these evidences have been given, the enemy of good blinded the
minds of men, so that they looked upon God with fear; they thought
of Him
as severe and unforgiving. Satan led men to conceive of God as a
being whose chief attribute is stern justice,--one who is a severe
judge, a harsh, exacting creditor. He pictured the Creator as a
being who is watching with jealous eye to discern the errors and
mistakes of men, that He may visit judgments upon them. It was to
remove this dark shadow, by revealing to the world the infinite
love of God, that Jesus came to live among men.
The
Son of God came from heaven to make manifest the Father. "No man
hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the
bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." John 1:18. "Neither
knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the
Son will reveal Him." Matthew 11:27. When one of the disciples made
the request, "Show us the Father," Jesus answered, "Have I been
so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He
that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then,
Show us the Father?" John 14:8, 9.
In
describing His earthly mission, Jesus said, The Lord "hath anointed
Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised."
Luke 4:18. This was His work. He went about doing good and healing
all that were oppressed by Satan. There were whole villages where
there was not a moan of sickness in any house, for He had passed
through them and healed all their sick. His work gave evidence of
His divine anointing. Love, mercy, and compassion were revealed
in every act of His
life; His heart went out in tender sympathy to the children of men.
He took man's nature, that He might reach man's wants. The poorest
and humblest were not afraid to approach Him. Even little children
were attracted to Him. They loved to climb upon His knees and gaze
into the pensive face, benignant with love.
Jesus
did not suppress one word of truth, but He uttered it always in
love. He exercised the greatest tact and thoughtful, kind attention
in His intercourse with the people. He was never rude, never needlessly
spoke a severe word, never gave needless pain to a sensitive soul.
He did not censure human weakness. He spoke the truth, but always
in love. He denounced hypocrisy, unbelief, and iniquity; but tears
were in His voice as He uttered His scathing rebukes. He wept over
Jerusalem, the city He loved, which refused to receive Him, the
way, the truth, and the life. They had rejected Him, the Saviour,
but He regarded them with pitying tenderness. His life was one of
self-denial and thoughtful care for others. Every soul was precious
in His eyes. While He ever bore Himself with divine dignity, He
bowed with the tenderest regard to every member of the family of
God. In all men He saw fallen souls whom it was His mission to save.
Such
is the character of Christ as revealed in His life. This is the
character of God. It is from the Father's heart that the streams
of divine compassion, manifest in Christ, flow out to the children
of men. Jesus, the tender, pitying Saviour, was God "manifest in
the flesh." 1 Timothy 3:16.
It
was to redeem us that Jesus lived and suffered and died. He became
"a Man of Sorrows," that we might be made partakers of everlasting
joy. God permitted His beloved Son, full of grace and truth, to
come from a world of indescribable glory, to a world marred and
blighted with sin, darkened with the shadow of death and the curse.
He permitted Him to leave the bosom of His love, the adoration of
the angels, to suffer shame, insult, humiliation, hatred, and death.
"The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes
we are healed." Isaiah 53:5. Behold Him in the wilderness, in Gethsemane,
upon the cross! The spotless Son of God took upon Himself the burden
of sin. He who had been one with God, felt in His soul the awful
separation that sin makes between God and man. This wrung from His
lips the anguished cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken
Me?" Matthew 27:46. It was the burden of sin, the sense of its terrible
enormity, of its separation of the soul from God--it was this that
broke the heart of the Son of God.
But
this great sacrifice was not made in order to create in the Father's
heart a love for man, not to make Him willing to save. No, no! "God
so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son." John 3:16.
The Father loves us, not because of the great propitiation, but
He provided the propitiation because He loves us. Christ was the
medium through which He could pour out His infinite love upon a
fallen world. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself."
2 Corinthians 5:19. God suffered with His Son. In the agony of Gethsemane,
the death of Calvary,
the heart of Infinite Love paid the price of our redemption.
Jesus
said, "Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life,
that I might take it again." John 10:17. That is, "My Father has
so loved you that He even loves Me more for giving My life to redeem
you. In becoming your Substitute and Surety, by surrendering My
life, by taking your liabilities, your transgressions, I am endeared
to My Father; for by My sacrifice, God can be just, and yet the
Justifier of him who believeth in Jesus."
None
but the Son of God could accomplish our redemption; for only He
who was in the bosom of the Father could declare Him. Only He who
knew the height and depth of the love of God could make it manifest.
Nothing less than the infinite sacrifice made by Christ in behalf
of fallen man could express the Father's love to lost humanity.
"God
so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son." He gave
Him not only to live among men, to bear their sins, and die their
sacrifice. He gave Him to the fallen race. Christ was to identify
Himself with the interests and needs of humanity. He who was one
with God has linked Himself with the children of men by ties that
are never to be broken. Jesus is "not ashamed to call them brethren"
(Hebrews 2:11); He is our Sacrifice, our Advocate, our Brother,
bearing our human form before the Father's throne, and through eternal
ages one with the race He has redeemed--the Son of man. And all
this that man might be uplifted from the ruin and degradation of
sin that he might reflect the love of God and share the joy of holiness.
The
price paid for our redemption, the infinite sacrifice of our heavenly
Father in giving His Son to die for us, should give us exalted conceptions
of what we may become through Christ. As the inspired apostle John
beheld the height, the depth, the breadth of the Father's love toward
the perishing race, he was filled with adoration and reverence;
and, failing to find suitable language in which to express the greatness
and tenderness of this love, he called upon the world to behold
it. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us,
that we should be called the sons of God." 1 John 3:1. What a value
this places upon man! Through transgression the sons of man become
subjects of Satan. Through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ
the sons of Adam may become the sons of God. By assuming human nature,
Christ elevates humanity. Fallen men are placed where, through connection
with Christ, they may indeed become worthy of the name "sons of
God."
Such
love is without a parallel. Children of the heavenly King! Precious
promise! Theme for the most profound meditation! The matchless love
of God for a world that did not love Him! The thought has a subduing
power upon the soul and brings the mind into captivity to the will
of God. The more we study the divine character in the light of the
cross, the more we see mercy, tenderness, and forgiveness blended
with equity and justice, and the more clearly we discern innumerable
evidences of a love that is infinite and a tender pity surpassing
a mother's yearning sympathy for her wayward child.
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