The Matchless Love

It's Valentine's Day! Isn't it nice to have a special day for the express purpose of telling those who are dear to you that you love them?

As our thoughts are fixed on love, it's a fine time to contemplate God's love for mankind and how much greater it is than what mankind's love for one another will ever be. In light of that, I would like to share with you a hymn written with the vastness of God's matchless love for us in mind.

The Love of God

The love of God is greater far

Than tongue or pen can ever tell;

It goes beyond the highest star,

And reaches to the lowest hell;

The guilty pair, bowed down with care,

God gave His Son to win;

His erring child He reconciled,

And pardoned from his sin.

O love of God, how rich and pure!

How measureless and strong!

It shall forevermore endure,

The saints’ and angels’ song.

When years of time shall pass away,

And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,

When men, who here refuse to pray,

On rocks and hills and mountains call;

God’s love, so sure, shall still endure,

All measureless and strong;

Redeeming grace to Adam’s race-

The saints’ and angels’ song.

O love of God, how rich and pure!

How measureless and strong!

It shall forevermore endure,

The saints’ and angels’ song.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,

And were the skies of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quill,

And every man a scribe by trade;

To write the love of God above,

Would drain the ocean dry;

Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

Though stretched from sky to sky.

O love of God, how rich and pure!

How measureless and strong!

It shall forevermore endure,

The saints’ and angels’ song.

The song reminds me of some verses of Scripture. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that 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 creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35, 37-39)

It really is an awesome thought that a love of such magnitude is bestowed upon us. "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (I John 4:9-10)

My prayer will be that you will discover even more of God's great love for you.

Like New-Fallen Snow

Some people move away from Minnesota because they don't care for our winter weather, but I really enjoy it. I love watching the snow fall whether it is gently floating to the ground or swirling around during a blizzard. And I love looking out the window to see the ground covered with white, glistening snow So clean, so pure, so beautiful!

Snow is more than just pretty to me, though. It is also a reminder of how God cleanses our lives when we trust His Son to be our Saviour. Isaiah 1:18 says, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Because of our sin, our lives are unclean and soiled. "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." (Isaiah 64:6)

When we confess our sinful state and ask Him to save us, He makes our lives pure and clean. "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." (Romans 5:8-10)

When a person accepts Jesus' finished work on the cross as full payment of the penalty for their sin, they take on Christ's righteousness. This means that all past, present, and future sins are forgiven. In eternity, those of us who are saved will not be judged for our sins because we have been "justified by His blood." Yet in the meanwhile, none of us are sinless because we still have our sinful nature. When we give in to temptation, we choose wrong thoughts, words, and deeds. So, on this side of heaven, we keep our relationship with our Lord pure by following his instructions in I John 1:9. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Pure and clean like new-fallen snow.