By David Clayton
God always loves us
whether or not it is evident, but sometimes when He is silent we begin
to question that love. We sometimes say, “Lord I need some money, I am
having this problem and you are not solving it. This person is sick, and
I prayed for You to heal him, but I haven’t heard anything from You.”
But whether silent or speaking, demonstrating or quiet, God always loves
us.
How long did God have to think about whether He should
save me, or whether Jesus should die for me? how long did He have to
think about it? My mind cannot grasp the time, distance or the ages. God
had eternity to think about the death of Christ for me, about my
ungratefulness, and His Son bleeding on that tree, suffering for an
ungrateful, unaware, unconscionable, degraded vile people. He had to
think about How they would beat Him, and spit in His face, or even how
I, who say I am a Christian, would disobey Him day after day. He had all
the time in the universe to change His mind, but He never did, because
His love for me never changed.
I can never do something today that is so evil that it
surprises Him. He contemplated these things from eternity, and still
thought it was worthwhile to give His son to die for me. Therefore don’t
you ever question the love of God. You cannot do something so bad that
it cuts you off from that love. It might cut you off from the
manifestation of that love, He might not be able to show it to you,
because you have shut the door in His face, but you cannot stop Him from
loving you. Never let the question come into your mind again. When you
pray and don’t seem to get an answer, Remember that God in love and
wisdom is working out something better for you.
More than conquerors
Romans 8:28 says, “All things work together for good to them that love
God.” Now if you follow that argument, reading on down in the chapter
you will see where Paul asks, “who shall separate us from the love of
God? Now separation means that some obstacle has come between you both.
Something prevents one from reaching the other. “Who shall separate us
from the love of God?” He mentions principalities, powers, distresses,
persecutions, things present, things to come, life and death. He even
mentions angels! What kind of angels is he talking about? Apparently
Satan and His angels.
One of the phrases I sometimes hear
being used by Christians, is, “Boy Satan is really working.” I really
hope I do not hear anybody using that phrase again, as though Satan is
separating you from the love of God, as though Satan has power over God.
Now here is a phrase that comes a little later on. He says: “Nay, in
all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
Let me ask a question: Who is a conqueror and how do you
conquer? You conquer by fighting and overcoming. isn’t that right? The
man who fights against another man and beats him, is a conqueror, but
who is, “more than a conqueror?”
You go to fight against
somebody, and the man you go to fight against starts fighting on your
side. You don’t have to fight. He starts fighting on your behalf, so you
are more than a conqueror. You don’t have to fight and you don’t have
to conquer him, because even your enemies fight for you. That’s what he
says! Who shall separate us from the love of God? tribulation, distress,
life, death, persecution, angels, principalities powers? Nothing can
come between you and the love of God! That love of God is like a wall
around you which is secure and safe, and nothing can come through that
wall without being measured and tested by God. If it is good for you, He
lets it through, but if it is not, it cannot pass. So when Satan
attacks you, what is it? It’s a gift of love from a loving Father. It is
a gift of love when your brethren speak badly about you, It is God at
work in your life. Why do you complain? How can you complain when your
Father allows it to come at you? The love that surrounds you cannot be
broken. Nothing can separate you from that love. That is the beauty of
that passage. That’s why it says, all things work together for good to
those who love God. Nothing can touch you or penetrate that love, except
what that loving Heart allows to come through. Not life nor death, nor
principalities or powers, nor angels nor things present, nor things to
come. Nothing! And because of that, come rain or sunshine, come sickness
or health, come life or death. praise be to that Father of love!
A necessary education
God made a statement through His son Jesus Christ. A statement so great
and so comprehensive, so all pervasive, so all embracing that never
again need we question the love of God. God gave us a demonstration that
is not like the fickle expressions of emotion. A man says to a woman
today, “I love you,” and tomorrow he cannot bother with her. Even your
own brethren sometimes deal with you the same way. “I care for you, I
will always be around to support you,” but when you are in need, you do
not see that demonstration of love. God knew that there were times when
He would have to be silent. God knows that for our own good, and for our
education, He would have to allow hard things to happen to us, not
because He can’t help us, or because His store house has run dry, but
for our education.
Why does a man send his son to lay blocks,
or to dig on the hillside? Is it because he cannot pay somebody to do
it? No, but because his son must be educated. Why do I allow my children
to wash dishes, instead of getting somebody to do it? Why do I send
them to school, to spend dreary hours sitting on hard benches, and have
lessons drilled into their heads every day, when they would much rather
be outside playing? Is it because I don’t want them to be happy? No, it
is because I know they must be educated. My Father also knows that I
must be educated, and He uses Satan to educate me. Praise the Lord! When
Satan attacks me, the Lord uses him to chisel me down, and brings me to
be what He wants me to be, But I say “Satan is really at work,” and I
am depressed, and I am gloomy. Poor foolish me.
Nothing can
touch me, but what comes through my Father. Even Satan’s attacks are
blessings for me! So praise God. That’s why the apostle Paul saw things
so beautifully. That’s why he could say, “…I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in
distresses ….” (2 Cor 12:10)
He mentions all the things we
are so fearful of, and says: “I am glad. I rejoice in these things.” In
all these things, we are more than conquerors Through the One that loved
us.
An eight–cow wife
I read a story sometime ago in the Reader’s Digest. It was entitled,
“Johnny Lingo’s eight cow wife.” I don’t know if it was a true story,
but there is a moral in it that I want to bring across to you.
Johnny Lingo was a man who lived on one of those south sea Islands. He
was noted for being a very wise person, and a very careful and astute
bargainer.
The person who wrote the story said that one day he
heard about something that Johnny Lingo had done, which made him wonder
if he was really very smart after all.
Johnny Lingo had
gotten married. Now on that Island, if you wanted a wife, you had to pay
a dowry of one or two cows for her. That’s how you obtained your wife
in that country. You paid one cow normally, but if she was very
beautiful, you paid two cows. The story was that Johnny Lingo had bought
a wife for eight cows! But the fellow was even more astonished, when he
found out who the girl was. She was a mousy type, who always walked
around with her head hanging down, and to whom nobody paid much
attention. He probably could have bought her for a little calf! But he
had paid eight cows for this wife.
When this man heard the
story, he said, “something is wrong somewhere.” So he went to Johnny
Lingo to find out what had really happened. As they were talking, the
wife suddenly came into the room. The visitor gasped in disbelief, for
he could not understand how this beautiful creature standing before him,
could be the same person he had often seen looking so drab and
unattractive. She had a regal bearing, and her head was held high. There
was a light in her eyes, and her whole demeanor was transformed. “What
happened to her?” was his astonished question. Johnny Lingo only smiled.
“I can clearly see now that she is worth even more than eight cows,”
the man continued, “but you know you could have had her for much less?
Why did you pay so much?” Johnny Lingo simply said, “Yes, that is true,
but I wanted an eight cow wife.”
The moral in this story, is
what I am trying to get across to you. Because he had paid this high
price for the woman, she began to feel worthwhile. She realized that
somebody valued her. Her father had asked for one cow, but Johnny Lingo
insisted that he was paying eight cows. The father of course, did not
hesitate to accept. When she found out that somebody valued her enough
to pay eight cows for her, that, according to the story, transformed
her, because she felt more valuable than any other woman on the Island.
She started to hold her head up, and to dress herself better, her eyes
lit up and a feeling of beauty took her over. She had become somebody
worthwhile. Not only did she become valuable in Johnny Lingo’s eyes, but
because of what he had done, she became valuable in everybody else’s
eyes.
Well, God has done that for us in the universe. How much
are we worth? How much is the measure of my worth? Could you put me
against a mountain of gold? God could have provided that with a snap of
His fingers. What am I worth? I don’t know. Down on the scale of created
beings, I was low, I was filth, I was vile. But God paid a price for
me, that was unbelievably great. There is nothing that could have been
more valuable, and God paid it. “Who am I that a king should bleed and
die for?” I feel like I am worth something. I feel like a son of God.
God has exalted me to this place, and I ought to behave like a
worthwhile person. I ought to behave like royalty.
Turn the key
There is a picture in my mind of a great dark wall that blocked us off
from every thing that was good or worthwhile. A great dark wall, and on
the other side of the wall was God. His head was in His hands, and He
was thinking about what it would take to break through that wall. He
thought about it for a billion years, and His mind didn’t change. He
knew that it would take the death of His beloved Son to break through
that wall. He thought about the price that He would have to pay. On the
other side, huddling against the wall pitiful and wretched and down cast
was me; was us. God saw the pitiful objects, and He knew that He had to
pay the price to give us a chance. A price that caused Him more agony
than the universe can ever comprehend. Nobody will ever understand what
it took for God to give His Son to go through that. The Bible tries to
give us a hint, but nobody can succeed in bringing it adequately to our
minds.
There is an opening in that wall now. The key has been
turned on His side. This is what the scripture says: “He that spared not
His own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall He not with him
also freely give us all things? “ (Rom 8:32)
As I look at
that verse, I see God and His Son standing on His side of the door, and
behind Him, there is a mountain of riches unimaginable. Every glorious
good thing is mine, because God has already given me all of heaven in
one gift. The only reason I can ever ask God for something and not get
it, must be because it is not good for me. That is the only reason,
because everything else has already been given to me. All these riches
are waiting there behind the Father and He has turned the key on His
side.
But it’s a two way lock. We have to turn a key on this side as well,
and in this, I see a picture of us. We are huddled behind the door,
watching the key, fearful that the door is going to open. why? Because I
have a few toys here, and I have a little money, and some friends over
there. I have a little bad habit here, and something that I treasure,
and I am afraid that somebody is going to open that door and take away
these things from me. I am huddling and cuddling them. I am dressed in
these filthy dirty rags, and I am a little wretch. I am clinging, and
fearful of opening that door, because if I do, somebody is going to come
and take away my pleasure. But look at the Person I am afraid of! Look
at what is behind Him available to me, and look at what I am holding on
to! He is waiting and asking us to please open the door that we can
receive the abundance of His riches.
The only way through that
door is trust in Jesus Christ. If there were any other way, God would
not have paid such a price. It’s absolutely complete but its the only
way. God meditated on this thing for billions of years, and He never
came up with any other plan. That is why there is none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby men might be saved, but through Jesus
Christ. He is the only way.
What am I worth?
I want to make one more point. In the eyes of the King, I am worth more
than the whole material universe. The whole universe is not worth the
life of His Son, so there is not a world out there, or galaxy or
anything that is better than I am. God gave the life of His Son for me.
His love is the only scale on which we can get a true estimate of the
value of things. We can’t do it by checking the exchange rate at the
bank, or by checking something on a scale to see how much it weighs. We
should value things by putting them on the scale of God’s love. Where do
I rate on that scale? I rate at the top, because He gave the greatest
gift in the universe for me. The only thing I could ever put above me or
on an equality, is His Son. His only begotten Son. I put us on an
equality in terms of God’s love for us, because Jesus says: “As the
Father hath loved me, so have I loved you,” And Jesus; love for us is no
different from the Father’s love for us. Truly, no other being in the
universe has ever brought forth such a demonstration of love from God.
Our Duty
How terrible then the reality of billions of souls, purchased with this
ultimate price, objects of this high manifestation of God’s love, and
of infinite value, still wrapped in ignorance, sin, darkness and death.
Think of the person you feel most negative towards, or the person who
is most ungrateful. Think of the person that is most harassing and
disturbing to you and remember that God saw him when He gave His Son.
God saw that one, and God’s Son shed His blood for him. God valued him
more than He valued the sufferings of His Son. That one that you
despise, and dislike and can’t stand. Think of it!
They are
treading still the ways of the ordinary and the common place. They are
treading the ways of rebellion and insecurity, the ways of
uncertainty; the ways of death. How vital that we should somehow reach
them, and impart to them a knowledge of this love. That we should make
them aware of what they are worth and share the gift of salvation, not
because of their loss alone but moreso the loss to our Father, who gave
everything. Whose love, although unrequited and unfulfilled, still
yearns for His earthly children with a hunger that is stronger than
death. He is waiting for them and we don’t even begin to appreciate how
much the Father loves them, otherwise our hearts would go out to them.
We would love the worst and the most degraded because none of us was any
better at the time when Christ died for us.
A Gem
I found a gem in the writings of Ellen White and I marveled when I saw
how beautifully it expressed everything. It is from the Youth’s
Instructor Oct. 17 1895. It says:
“the Lord God of heaven
collected all the riches of the universe, and He laid them down in order
to purchase the pearl of lost humanity. The Father gave all His divine
resources into the hands of Christ, in order that the richest blessings
of heaven might be poured out upon a fallen race. God could not express
love greater than He expressed, in giving the son of His bosom to this
world.”
Settle that in your mind. If you want to fully
discover the love of God, you won’t find it in the trees, or in the
mountains or in meditation on His works. Where can we discern that love
of God fully revealed? We find it in the gift of His Son. That is a
great thing to hold on to. If you want to discover the love of God,
don’t look at what is happening in your life, because sometimes things
happen in our lives that seem to be very difficult and bitter. Instead
of looking at that, look at the gift of His Son. That is God’s once and
forever and for all statement. “I gave this much for you, can you ever
doubt My love?” Don’t doubt it because you are lying on death’s bed, and
you are suffering, and it seems like the forces of the enemy are
overcoming you. Don’t doubt God’s love for that. If your child lies
dying, and you are praying and nothing seems to be happening, or if you
are hungry, and deliverance doesn’t seem to be at hand, don’t doubt His
love, because when He gave His Son to die for you, He showed a love,
that can never ever after be questioned. That love has been stated
clearly once and for all and for ever. If you want to appreciate that
love, go and study what He did for us in Christ.
The quotation continues:
“this gift was given to man to convince him that God left nothing undone that He could do. There is nothing held in reserve.”
So don’t expect God to do something extra. He can’t do anything more. He didn’t hold back anything.
“All heaven has been poured out in one vast gift. The present and
eternal happiness of man consists in receiving God’s love and in keeping
Gods commandments. The universe of heaven the worlds unfallen, the
fallen world and the confederacy of evil, cannot say that God could do
more for the salvation of man than He has done. Never can this gift be
surpassed, never can He display a greater depth of love. Calvary
represents His crowning work. It is man’s part to respond to His great
love. We are to show our appreciation of the wonderful gift of God, by
becoming partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust.”
I have asked God to help
me, never to stop studying this subject as long as I live, and I hope I
can start us all on a project of the same nature. I have seen, and I am
determined that I am not going to stop studying it, because I know I
want to live above sin. But the key is not in fighting myself, or in
struggling against a carnal nature. It’s not in trying to make flesh
into something that it is not. It is beholding the love of God, and by
beholding being changed. “We all with open face beholding as in a glass
the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to
glory.” If you really want to change, or if you really want to become
what God wants you to be, then stop fighting against other people. Stop
fighting against your self. Start looking into the beauty of the love of
our Father, and I guarantee you as I have seen in my own experience,
things will begin to happen in your life. Mysteriously and strangely,
but surely they will happen, because that is the power that rules the
universe. It can surely rule your life.
