The Riches of Love

And now He fully enjoys as before the Love of the Father. And the love wherewith He is loved of the Father is the love with which we are also loved. We are the sharers of the same love. This is why believers are addressed in the New Testament as "Beloved of God." We need to listen only to His high priestly prayer in John 17 to realize that this is so. He tells the Father all about Himself and His redemption work, and all about His own, who have been given to Him by the Father.
It is a wonderful thing that all the great facts of our salvation, our standing before God, our present responsibilities and privileges, our future glory, are all revealed by Him, the Author and Finisher of the faith, in this prayer. This prayer with its blessed depths may be called the germ of all the subsequent unfoldings of the Gospel of Grace. All the great salvation truths and revelations in the great Pauline epistles, are herein foretold. These teachings in the 17th chapter of John may be grouped around seven words: Salvation; Manifestation; Representation; Identification; Sanctification; Preservation and Glorification.
Here we hear Him say to the Father: "That the world may know that Thou host sent Me, and host loved them, as Thou host loved Me."John 17:23
And again: "That the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them."
John 17:26
It is truly so that the love wherewith the Father loves the Son, is the love wherewith He loves each who belong to Christ, and who by believing, are saved. God is Love and how He loves! It was love that gave the Only Begotten and the object in view was that He might be able to have us poor sinners saved, justified, sanctified as children of God, sharing that eternal love.
Take hold of it in faith, Beloved of God; in Christ Jesus, where Grace has put you, there is for you from God the Father nothing but love. In all reverence we say God can do nothing but love those who are His children by faith in Jesus Christ.
Learn to consider all, even the darkest and strangest conditions and experiences, in light of His love. Nothing, nothing at all can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

By nature and by practice, far,
How very far from God!
Yet now by grace brought nigh to Him,
Through faith in Jesus' blood.

So near, so very near to God,
I cannot nearer be;
For in the person of His Son,
lam as near as He.

So dear, so very dear to God,
More dear I cannot be;
The love wherewith He loves the Son,
Such is His love to me.
-Catesby Paget