10.02 The Power of God's Love

10 - God is Love; Section 2 THE POWER OF GOD’S LOVE

It is my deep conviction that this opening of Divine Love will melt more hearts for God than any other exercise. A mother may forget her child, but the Word says, "For God SO LOVED THE WORLD that He gave His Son" (John 3:16). How can God ever forget the world, or give up on the world with a love so fierce as that! The Scripture declares, "But God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). And again, "In this the love of God was made manifest, where we are concerned, in that God sent His Son, the only begotten or unique Son, into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that HE LOVED US and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours alone, but also for the sins of THE WHOLE WORLD" (1 John 4:9-10; 1 John 2:2, Amplified).

J. A. Dowie relates the following story: "I remember how touched I was to look upon a grave once which had only these words: ’MY BROTHER. HE LOVED ME AND GAVE HIMSELF INSTEAD OF ME.’ I turned to a person and said: ’Tell me the story of that grave.’ He told me that it was erected by a man in memory of his brother who was killed in war. The man was drafted as a conscript; but when this younger brother, who had no wife or family, heard of it, he went to him and said: ’John, you have a dear wife and a nice family, and I have none. Let me take your name and go for you.’ So he went under the name of his brother, John, and was killed in the battle. John went down to the battlefield and brought the body home and buried it. He erected a tombstone on which were only these words: ’My brother. He loved me and gave himself instead of me.’ " - end quote.

Christ loved us, and gave Himself instead of us. He died for us, when we were not like that man’s brother. We were not good. We were not worthy. The whole race was wicked and vile and hostile. When we were yet ungodly, the Word of God became the Son of man and died for us. So let us love Him and all mankind whom He loved, and for whom He died.

Here is love, vast as the ocean, Loving kindness as the flood, When the Prince of Life our ransom Shed for us His precious blood; Who His love will not remember? Who can cease to sing His praise?

He can never be forgotten Through Heaven’s everlasting days. On the Mount of Crucifixion Fountains opened deep and wide;

Through the floodgates of God’s mercy Flowed a vast and gracious tide;

Grace and love like mighty rivers, Poured incessant from above, And Heaven’s peace and perfect justice Kissed a guilty world in love! The story has been told of when John B. Gough, the great temperance orator, was entertained by some friends in an eastern city, the mother of the household called him aside and asked him to go to her son Edward and have a talk with him. She said that Edward had been a wayward son; in fact, had gone so far in disgracing them that the father forbade him to enter the house. She said that she had pleaded with the father and had prevailed, and that the father had consented to permit Edward to have a room where he would never have to see him. She said, "Mr. Gough, Edward came home intoxicated a couple days ago and is still in his room. I have been caring for him. Will you not go and have a little talk with him?" Mr. Gough said, "My dear mother, if you with all your love and patience can not do anything with him, I scarcely think that I can." With a mother’s persistency she finally persuaded Mr. Gough to talk with her son. He knocked at the door and entering found Edward. Mr. Gough said, "Edward, aren’t you tired of the kind of life that you are leading?" Edward said, "Yes, Mr. Gough, I am sick and tired of it." "Then why do you not quit it?" "Quit it? I can’t, Mr. Gough; I am bound hand and foot with an evil habit." "Then why do you not pray, Edward?" "Pray! I don’t believe in prayer; I don’t believe in God; I don’t believe in anything." "Oh, yes, you do, Edward," replied Mr. Gough. "You believe in something. You believe that your mother loves you." Edward replied, "I do not believe anything about it, I know she loves me." "Then, Edward," continued Mr. Gough, "you believe that there is such a good thing in this world as love, and I am going to leave you here and I want you to promise me that after I go out, you will get down on your knees and pray to love." "Pray to what?" said Edward. "Pray to love, for that is the only thing that you say you believe in." After much persuasion Edward promised. He afterward said that he felt very foolish when he knelt down to pray to love, but he had promised, and he tried to fulfill his promise. He kneeled and cried, "Oh love, love help me"; and straightway, as if through the cleft heaven, this text sounded as a voice in his heart, "God is Love"; and, still looking up, he said, "Oh God!" and there came to him the verse that he had learned years before, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And he cried, "Oh, Christ!" - and it was done. He rushed out of his room to find his mother, and, when he did, he threw his arms around her neck and said, "Mother, I have found the Christ!" Our poor, lisping, faltering tongues cannot proclaim the Gospel as we would like; but we have God’s Word that is true for the present time, and for all the times of all the ages. God IS LOVE! IS - unchangeably! IS - eternally! God is love in heaven, in earth, in hell! IS - everywhere! And the great practical consequence is for you and me to respond to that God and to that love, to become filled with that love, one with that love, the embodiment and manifestation of that love to all men in all realms. The best and most wonderful word in the universe is Love. For God is Love. And the best and most wonderful word in the inner chamber of our heart must be - Love. For the God who meets us there is Love. What is Love? The deep desire to give itself for the beloved. Love finds its joy in imparting all that it has, to make the loved one happy and fulfilled. And the heavenly Father, who offers to meet us in the inner chamber - let there be no doubt about this is in our minds has no other object than to flood our hearts with His love. But the spirit of love is not in you till it is the spirit of your life, till you live freely, willingly, universally according to it. It knows no difference of time, place, or person; but whether it gives or forgives, bears or forbears, it is equally doing its own delightful work. The spirit of love does not want to be rewarded or honored; its only desire is to become the blessing and happiness of everything that needs it. The wrath of an enemy, the treachery of a friend, only gives the spirit of love an opportunity to be more triumphant. The rebellion of Adam but opened up avenues for mankind to experience and know the incredible depths of the love of God! God IS LOVE! And His SONS are of His own nature. The Sons of Love! What a blessed title! Little wonder, then, that the whole vast creation, sold under slavery and bondage to sin, sorrow, and death GROANS for the manifestation of THE SONS OF LOVE! To know this is a wonderful help to faith. It teaches us that to love God, or the brethren, or our enemies, or the whole wretched race of men, is not a thing self-effort can attain. We can do it only because the divine love is dwelling in us; only as far as we yield ourselves to the divine love as a living power within, as a life that has been born into us, and that the Holy Spirit strengthens into action. Our part is first of all to rest, to cease from effort, to know that He is in us, and to give way to the love that dwells and works in us in a power that is from above. The love of God reigns. The Spirit of God still waits to take possession of hearts where He has hitherto had no room. Love is timeless, eternal. God so loved. He loves still. Though one hundred and sixty billions of men have lived and died and gone to Christless graves, HE LOVES THEM STILL. Oh, my dear friend, can you believe that? His mercy endures for ever, throughout all ages, and love will conquer, praise His name!

Hence it is that God, wanting to show us what love was, sent One who from the beginning was sinless; who was conceived without the aid of lust, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit of Infinite Love, and into whose being there entered no evil passion, since the virgin was sanctified in her spirit, her soul, and her body; so that the Holy Thing that was born of her was the Incarnation of Love in every part of His spirit, in every drop of His blood, and in every organ of His body. People have great difficulty relating to an abstraction or an invisible force. It must be personalized and that is why God has come in the person of Jesus Christ, so that we might see Him and see what God is like. God has been personalized. Love has been personified. God so loved this Son that He placed Him at the head of all the ages. God so loved Him that when He died the very heavens were darkened, and the earth trembled under the noonday sun veiling all nature, while silence in earth and heaven lasted until Love had finished His sacrifice upon the cross. That was Love so divine, so wonderful, so awful, that it could only have been possible for God in Christ to have revealed it at all. This Love is the Love which God imparts to us. This same Love that was in Him must be in us. The Sons of God must be the Sons of Love. Go and learn what that means and the hope of sonship will gleam brightly in your soul.

Some time ago, I read a story designed to illustrate the meaning of love. It touched me deeply and perhaps it will help you. It was a story of an incident that took place in mid-nineteenth century Russia. A Russian nobleman accompanied by his faithful servant of many years was making his way home across the frozen steppes of Russia in a dogsled. They had traveled many, many miles across the barren wastes and were now but twenty or so miles from home, when the servant spied something which, indeed, brought great terror to their hearts. About a mile or two behind them they could make out the form of a huge pack of wolves that had scented them and was now descending upon them. They gave the reins to the dogs, cracked their whips, and shouted whatever the Russian equivalent of "mush" is. The dogs strained their muscles and tried to go faster. Yet, irresistibly, the wolf pack closed the gap until finally there were only a hundred or so yards behind them ... then only fifty ... then only ten ... then five. Their red eyes glowed like coals out of hell and their large yellow fangs were visible. The growling deep within their throats and the panting noises of their breathing, could be heard as they drew closer and closer. There was no hope; there was no place of escape. Suddenly, unexpectedly, the servant threw himself off backward from the dogsled, with predictable results. The onrushing pack converged and stopped, tearing the servant to pieces while his master escaped. I thought to myself, "What a wonderful illustration of love!" But upon more mature reflection, I realized that it only vaguely glimpsed the real meaning of love. It hardly touched the fringe of its garment. Ah, it would have come much closer if the nobleman had thrown himself off for the servant. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10).

Think ye, sin nailed Him to that cross? For sin the hammer swung, Sin lifted up the cruel tree On whose broad arms He hung;

Sin triumphed, when from anguished lips His bitter cry was wrung? So seemed it. But not sin, nor men, Nor nails had held Him there;

Love was the nail that held Him up And made Him strong to bear For us that weary weight of woe - That tempest of despair. A brother in Christ has shared the following experience with us. "Shortly after I became a Christian, I recall a story that was in all of the news, including a picture on the front page of Life Magazine. It was the story about five young men from America that had gone to Equador to try to bring the Gospel to the Auca Indians - supposedly the most primitive people on the face of the earth. No one had ever made contact with them and lived. They killed everyone that came within their domain. They had no contact with the civilized world; they were a Stone Age type people. These five young men determined that they were going to bring to them the Gospel of Christ. They laid their plans carefully. They lowered presents into the midst of the villages from their circling planes. Finally, months later they landed their plane on the beach of a river that flowed nearby and there were some initial contacts. The people seemed remarkably friendly. Then, suddenly, unexpectedly, without warning, a group of these warriors burst out of the jungle with eight foot spears in their hands and plunged them through the bodies of these five young men, each of whom was armed, yet none of whom used his weapon.

"Some years later, the father of one of these men spoke at a local hotel. He was a great hulk of a man, about six-four, two hundred and forty or fifty pounds. He said that when he had heard what these savages had done to his son, he boarded a plane in Chicago and flew to Quito, Ecuador, where he got on a train and went back into the jungle as far as he could. With a group of guides he made his way into that jungle village. He found the particular Indian that had plunged the spear into the body of his son. He grasped this man in his arms and said to him, ’In the name of Jesus, I love you.’ I remember that I just about went out of my chair when he said that. I thought, ’Ah, this is love! ’ " - end quote. Truly this was a manifestation of the love of our heavenly Father. The Sons of God must be preeminently the Sons of Love. "For God so loved the world ..." And so will all who are called to sonship! Small wonder, then, that the glorious message of the reconciliation of all things is sweeping like a giant tidal wave through the ranks of those who treasure the beautiful hope of sonship to God. It could not be otherwise! Only those who are possessed with the spirit of Infinite and Omnipotent Love shall be able to minister on the level that will persevere through all obstacles and all ages until ALL CREATION is reconciled unto God and delivered from the realm of death. I do not hesitate to tell you that those who fight against the ultimate triumph of Jesus Christ, those who wage war against the salvation of all men for whom Christ died, those who set themselves up as a Prosecutor and plead before us and God and His Word for the eternal damnation of the billions of helpless souls who have lived and died like beasts upon this darkened planet are not the sons of God at all - they are the DEVIL’S ADVOCATE! They plead not for Calvary’s cause, but for Satan, demanding that he be allowed to keep and imprison and torture forever all those whom he has gained through subterfuge. These are not sons of the God who is Omnipotent Love; they are the offspring of a weird, distorted notion of justice; and they will never reign as sons of God in His glorious, redeeming Kingdom of life and light and love.