We are called upon to come with our little vessels to measure the
contents of the great ocean, to plumb with our short lines the infinite
abyss, and not only to estimate the quantity but the quality of that
love, which, in both respects, surpasses all our means of comparison and
conception.
Properly speaking, we can do neither the one nor the other, for we have
no line long enough to sound its depths, and no experience which will
give us a standard with which to compare its quality. But all that we
can do, John would have us do--that is, look and ever look at the
working of that love till we form some not wholly inadequate idea of it.
We can no more 'behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on
us' than we can look with undimmed eyes right into the middle of the
sun. But we can in some measure imagine the tremendous and beneficent
forces that ride forth horsed on his beams to distances which the
imagination faints in trying to grasp, and reach their journey's end
unwearied and ready for their task as when it began. Here are we, ninety
odd millions of miles from the centre of the system, yet warmed by its
heat, lighted by its beams, and touched for good by its power in a
thousand ways. All that has been going on for no one knows how many
æons. How mighty the Power which produces these effects! In like manner,
who can gaze into the fiery depths of that infinite Godhead, into the
ardours of that immeasurable, incomparable, inconceivable love? But we
can look at and measure its activities. We can see what it does, and so
can, in some degree, understand it, and feel that after all we have a
measure for the Immeasurable, a comparison for the Incomparable, and can
_thus_ 'behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us.'
So we have to turn to the work of Christ, and especially to His death,
if we would estimate the love of God. According to John's constant
teaching, that is the great proof that God loves us. The most wonderful
revelation to every heart of man of the depths of that Divine heart lies
in the gift of Jesus Christ. The Apostle bids me 'behold what manner of
love.' I turn to the Cross, and I see there a love which shrinks from no
sacrifice, but gives 'Him up to death for us all.' I turn to the Cross,
and I see there a love which is evoked by no lovableness on my part,
but comes from the depth of His own Infinite Being, who loves because He
must, and who must because He is God. I turn to the Cross, and I see
there manifested a love which sighs for recognition, which desires
nothing of me but the repayment of my poor affection, and longs to see
its own likeness in me. And I see there a love that will not be put away
by sinfulness, and shortcomings, and evil, but pours its treasures on
the unworthy, like sunshine on a dunghill. So, streaming through the
darkness of eclipse, and speaking to me even in the awful silence in
which the Son of Man died there for sin, I 'behold,' and I hear, the
'manner of love that the Father hath bestowed upon us,' stronger than
death and sin, armed with all power, gentler than the fall of the dew,
boundless and endless, in its measure measureless, in its quality
transcendent--the love of God to me in Jesus Christ my Saviour.
In like manner we have to think, if we would estimate the 'manner of
this love,' that through and in the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ
there comes to us the gift of a divine life like His own. Perhaps it may
be too great a refinement of interpretation; but it certainly does seem
to me that that expression 'to bestow His love upon' us, is not
altogether the same as 'to love us,' but that there is a greater depth
in it. There may be some idea of that love itself being as it were
infused into us, and not merely of its consequences or tokens being
given to us; as Paul speaks of 'the love of God shed abroad in our
hearts' by the spirit which is given to us. At all events this
communication of divine life, which is at bottom divine love--for God's
life is God's love--is His great gift to men.
Be that as it may, these two are the great tokens, consequences, and
measures of God's love to us--the gift of Christ, and that which is the
sequel and outcome thereof, the gift of the Spirit which is breathed
into Christian spirits. These two gifts, which are one gift, embrace all
that the world needs. Christ for us and Christ in us must both be taken
into account if you would estimate the manner of the love that God has
bestowed upon us.
We may gain another measure of the greatness of this love if we put an
emphasis--which I dare say the writer did not intend--on one word of
this text, and think of the love given to '_us_,' such creatures as we
are. Out of the depths we cry to Him. Not only by the voice of our
supplications, but even when we raise no call of entreaty, our misery
pleads with His merciful heart, and from the heights there comes upon
our wretchedness and sin the rush of this great love, like a cataract,
which sweeps away all our sins, and floods us with its own blessedness
and joy. The more we know ourselves, the more wonderingly and thankfully
shall we bow down our hearts before Him, as we measure His mercy by our
unworthiness.
From all His works the same summons echoes. They all call us to see
mirrored in them His loving care. But the Cross of Christ and the gift
of a Divine Spirit cry aloud to every ear in tones of more beseeching
entreaty and of more imperative command to 'behold what manner of love
the Father hath bestowed upon us.'