Morning By Morning #355

I have loved you with an everlasting love.

Jeremiah 31:3

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Jesus often expresses His love to His church. Ralph Erskine (Scottish preacher and hymn writer, 1685 – 1752) described it well in these words from one of his sermons:

Jesus does not think it is enough to express His love to His church behind her back, but in her very presence He says, “All beautiful you are, my darling” (Song 4:7). Although this is true, it is not His typical method, for He is a wise lover, knowing when to hold back the expression of His love and when to share it. Yet there are times when He makes no secret of it—times when He makes it plain beyond dispute to the souls of His people.

The Holy Spirit is often pleased in the most gracious way to witness to our spirit of the love of Jesus. He takes of the things of Christ and reveals them to us, and though we hear no voice from the clouds and see no vision in the night, we have a testimony more certain than either of these. Even if an angel flew from heaven to inform a saint personally of the Savior’s love for him, the evidence would not be one bit more satisfactory than that produced in the heart by the Holy Spirit. Ask the most spiritual of the Lord’s people, those who live closest to the very gates of heaven, and they will tell you they have experienced times in their life when the love of Christ toward them has been such a clear and certain fact that they could no more doubt His love for them than question their own existence.

Yes, beloved, both you and I have experienced times of refreshment in the presence of the Lord, times when our faith has soared to the utmost heights of assurance. We have had the loving confidence to lean our heads against our Lord, just as John was blessed to do, and have had no more reason to question our Master’s affection for us than John himself. In fact, we have even less cause to question His love, for even John asked, “Is it I [who will betray You]?” (Mark 14:19 KJV), and that dark question has been taken far from us. He has kissed us with His lips, and has put our doubts to death by the closeness of His embrace. Thus, Jesus’ love has been sweeter to our souls than wine.

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

Four times in his gospel John refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23, 20:2, 21:7, 21:20). This may lead us to pose the following question: Did Jesus love John more than the others? The obvious answer to this is: of course not! And Peter confirms this answer by telling us, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism” (Acts 10:34). In this verse Peter is referring to how the Lord “accepts men from every nation” (Acts 10:35) for salvation, but a strong case also can be made that Jesus loves everyone equally, “for God so loved the world” (John 3:16).

If Jesus loves everyone equally, then why did John refer to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”? Perhaps it is due to the personal way the Lord loves His own. He loves each of us deeply, intimately, and individually, meeting each of us at our own point of need. In light of this, as a believer in Him, each of us should feel as though we are “the disciple whom Jesus loved”!

Remember—Jesus also expressed great love for Lazarus after his friend’s death, for “the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’” (John 11:36).