A PORTION FOR ALL

(No. 82)

Grand Rapids, Michigan

February 8, 1949

Beloved Congregation:

WITH the help of the Lord I wish to resume my subject of a previous letter. May the Lord Himself enlighten us.

The love of God is shed abroad in the hearts of those who fear Him. This love is prevalent from the very instant that He calls them from death unto life, and it is obvious that it incites to mutual or reflex acts of love. In nature a child loves its parents i.e. if they are situated toward each other as they ought to be. This is also true spiritually. Love is from God. In Him it has its origin and fountain. The love of God is sovereign. Love is manifested in the hearts of those who are enemies by nature; by the sovereignty of the eternal good-pleasure of God, and He sheds it abroad in whomsoever’s heart He chooses to do so. It is an eternal love which has neither beginning nor end.

In Jeremiah 31:2 the faithful—Jehovah says to His people: “I have loved thee with an everlasting love,” and the Lord Jesus assured His disciples in John 13 that “having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” It is a love which never diminishes, never abates and can never be shattered by anyone. “Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still,” Jer. 31:19.

It is a love which is great: “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God,” 1 John 3:1. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” John 3:16. God cannot give anything more. He gave all that He had, for He spared not His own Son, Rom. 8:32.

It is a life which has Christ as its object. God could not display His love except through Christ the Surety of the Covenant Who has completely satisfled the Divine justice. The wrath of God is silenced and His indignation quenched in Christ, on account of which He is now enabled to communicate Himself to His elect people and church. We may say reverently that Christ is the channel through which God exhibits his love in the hearts of the elect. Now that his justice is satisfled through Christ his love is manifested. It is a love which the Father has toward his people and revealed in us. God’s Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are the children of God.

If we imagine that we may attain to happiness by reading or by a process of reasoning it will be an eternal disappointment to us. Nor will it be of any benefit to us if others, even some of God’s people, should include us, but it will prove to be of no value at the time of death. Only the witness of the Spirit is of any account, and it is also this same Spirit which causes them to cry “Abba, Father” when all problems are settled for their souls, so that God is not their Judge anymore thereafter, but their Father by virtue of the imputation of the perfect righteousness and holiness of Christ.

It is for Christ’s sake. He it was who engaged His heart to approach unto God, Jer. 30:21. He has trodden the winepress alone. He has finished the work which the Father had given Him to do.

Now this people which is comprehended in Christ, being united with Him by faith, says with David: “I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength,” Ps. 18:1. The Lord Jesus spoke to the church at Ephesus also concerning their first love, namely, this cordial intimate, genuine, sincere love. It is regrettable that later on they very often resemble the church of Laodicea to which Christ said: “I would that thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth,” Rev. 3:15, 16. With God there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. This holds true in regard to His love for His people, but they on the other hand are so changeable. O how lukewarm and indifferent they can be. They know of and live through times in which the thoughts of heaven do not refresh them nor do those of hell distress them. How often they wander through this world in self-condem-nation on account of a sense of their lack of love and sincerity. God only knows how often they accuse and blame themselves. But this, nevertheless is by virtue of the fact that the love of God has been shed in their hearts by the Holy Ghost.

The world is not sensible of these things and the “almost christian” does not lie awake nights about them and will never shed a tear in this respect. It is quite different with God’s children.

Peter denied the Lord Jesus as much as three times, but not deliberately. From the bottom of his heart he could say: “Lord Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee.” After David had numbered the people, and the prophet had come to him in the name of the Lord requesting him to make a choice of one of the three judgments, the man after God’s own heart declared: “let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great.” Yes, though the justice of God should cast them away forever into the place of the damned, they would still not wish to ever curse God, but would eternally desire to testify that God is just in all His ways and acts. Would a graceless person ever speak in such a manner? O no, let us never imagine it.

God’s people, when constrained by love, subject themselves to God, bow in submission to Him and ascribe justice and righteousness to Him. By love they embrace and exalt it, and by it their horns shall also be exalted, Ps. 89. Impelled by this ardent love they follow hard after the Lord in the wilderness, in a land not sown, Jer. 2:2 and their will is then not opposed to God’s will, and the utterance from their hearts is—”Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against Thee?” Ps. 139:21, 22.

Is this also the situation of your hearts?

Hearty greetings to all,

Your minister,

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