Galatians 2:20-21 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me… The presentation of this thought stirs up a great many doubts in those who have been exercised thereby. Men think that Paul probably was beloved, that Peter was beloved, and that many others were beloved. Men look around, and think that their mother was beloved, and that others, with superior natures and symmetrical parts, and full of moral excellences, were beloved. They can well conceive how those who draw upon their amiable feelings, might likewise excite in the Divine mind personal affection. But they say, "When men love single persons, it does not follow that they love all persons. And God loves men, doubtless; but does He love every one?" "God so loved the world," is the comprehensive answer to that question. God loved the world, and the whole world. And the word, "world," for its definition and boundaries, runs through all time and among all races. It included in it all individuals, from age to age. Everywhere God loved "the whole world." "Yes," men say, "But God loves men after He has made them loveable." But the apostle says, "God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Love, which death tested but could not measure, was shed abroad toward each man and the whole world, without moral conditions. That is the import of what the apostle says. God's disinterestedness is made plain, in that He loves each man, not on condition of repentance, but whether he repents or not. He loves men, not because there is that in them which has a tendency to excite complacency, but though they are sinful. He loves unlovely men. Yea, men that we could not love, God loves. And His love is not generic. It is not a part of the governmental benevolence: It is individualized both ways — in the heart of God, and in the heart of the recipients. It is God's nature to love what His eye looks upon. Every human being, whether good or bad, God loves. I do not say that it makes no difference to God whether men are good, or whether they are bad, but I do say that the great crowning fact of Divine love has no respect of character — that it precedes character, and is not founded upon it. To be sure, the benefit of that love to us depends very largely upon our faith, and upon our repentance, but the existence of the Divine personal love does not depend on us in anywise. It is — if I may apply to God language which belongs to men — the constitutional nature of God. It is the tendency of His attributes. Love is the test of Divinity. It carries with it a great many other things. It carries with it in God the conception of purity, and of uprightness, and of integrity of disposition, and of justice, and of truth. It carries with it, also, the full idea of instrumentality — both penalty and reward, pleasure and pain. And back of all these, as the root-ground out of which they spring, as the source from which they come, as the animating influence which runs through them all, is love. And that love is personal to us. It is Divine, infinite; and yet it touches each one by name throughout the whole realm. 1. The love of God is the one truth which nature, as it is developed by matter alone, cannot teach us. It is one of the most profound pieces of speculation, how there can be a moral government, and yet so much suffering and power of evil in this world. The world has been the stumbling-block of thoughtful men from the beginning. 2. This truth of the Divine love is the one truth through which nature looks, beyond all others in our apprehension, in our systems of theology, and in our preaching. Though men speak of the love of God, there are comparatively few who have that crowning knowledge of it which indicates that it is genuine, deep, certain, abiding. We think that if we fix ourselves up a little, God will perhaps love us. A man is in deep distress, and there is a great heart in the neighbourhood, and he is told that if he will go and tell that great heart what his mistakes have been, and what his misfortunes are, that great heart will certainly relieve him. And instantly he begins to think of himself, and to fix himself to go to that great heart, covering up his rags the best way he can, and hiding his elbows so that they shall not be seen, and putting a little touch on his shoes that are clouted and ruptured; and then goes in. But do you suppose it makes any difference to that great heart to whom he goes, that his clothes are a little less dirty, or that they have a few less patches on them, or that his shoes are a little less soiled or torn? It is the man behind the clothes that the benevolent heart thinks of. It is not what the needy man is, but what the benefactor is, that determines what he will do. Why does he take that man into his compassion, and say to him, "Come again?" Does he do it because of what he sees in the man? or because of what he feels in himself? Why does a bird sing? because he thinks you would like to hear him? No; but because there is that in him which tickles him and fires him till he has to sing. He sings to bring joy out of himself. He sings because it is his nature to sing. A music-box does not play because you say, "Do play"; nor because you say, "It is exquisite and charming." It does not care for your compliments and comments. And so it is with the Divine nature. That is the way God is made — if I may use human language in application to the Divine nature. That is being God. And yet how few there are who think of God as generously as He thinks of them! We have attempted to build a theology which shall prevent men from going wrong. But God Himself never prevented a man's going wrong; and you will never do it. What we want in that direction is to get an influential conception of God; and our theology must bring God out in such lines, in such lineaments, and in such universal attractiveness, that men shall follow their yearnings and drawings, rather than their cold reasonings and intellections. One would think to hear theologians reasoning about God and the methods of salvation, and the motives of Divine procedure, that He was a fourth-proof lawyer judge, and that He sat surrounded by infinite volumes of statutes and laws, running back to eternity, and running forward to eternity; and that in every case of mercy He said, "Let Me consider first. Does it agree with the statute?" When a poor sinner comes to Him, undone, wretched, miserable, has He to consult His books to see whether he can be saved so as not to injure the law, saying, "Let us examine the law, to see if it will do to save him"? Oh I away with this pedantic judge. Such a judge is bad enough in the necessities of a weak earthly government, and is infinitely shameful when brought to the centre of the universe, and deified, There I behold God, flaming with love, backward and forward, either way, filling infinite space with the magnitude and blessedness of His love; and, if some questioning angel asks, "How shalt Thou save and keep the law?" I hear Him saying in reply, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, My own will, My own impulse, My own desire, My own heart — that shall guide Me. What are laws, and what are governments, and what is anything compared with a sentient Being? I am law, and I will govern." In our preaching I think we fall just as much behind as we do in our personal experience and our theology. The influence of Divine love has not been the real central working power of the ministry. It is that which melts the heart, it is that which encourages hope, it is that which inspires courage, it is that which cleanses, that is needed. Fear does but very little. Fear may start a man on the road to conversion; but fear never converted a man. Truth does something. It shows the way, it opens a man's eyes; but simple truth, mere intellection, never converted a man. No man's heart ever grew rich, no man's heart ever had a God-touch in it, until he had learned to see God as one whom he loves. (H. W. Beecher.) Parallel Verses KJV: I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. |
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