Selected from: Robert M. M’Cheyne, Revival Truth (London, 1860).
“For I am persuaded, that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38–39.
The comforting and invigorating doctrine of this precious passage is, that a soul in Christ cannot be separated from the Love of God.
All Christless persons are by nature out of the Love of God.
God has no love of complacency towards unconverted souls. He sees nothing amiable in them—he sees nothing for which he can possibly love them. “What is man that he should be clean, and he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous? Behold he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight! How much more abominable and filthy is man who drinketh iniquity like water?” “The righteous God loveth righteousness.” It is his very nature to do so; he cannot but love it wherever he sees it. But there is no righteousness in Christless persons; there is not so much as one clean white spot in their whole garments. By nature “we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Therefore, it is impossible God can love the unconverted with the love of complacency. He must change his nature and become another God before he can cherish the least spark of esteem for an unconverted soul. But it may be objected, did not God so love the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, and did not Christ shew great tenderness to sinners when he was on earth? Oh yes! we readily admit it, for it is quite true God loves Christless persons with a love of infinite pity. If you saw a man lying wounded, bleeding, and dying, your heart would flow out with compassion all at once—the benevolence of your nature being appealed to, you would love him with the love of pity. But if you found out that he was a wicked, abandoned man, you could not esteem him; your love of pity would continue, yea, it would be greater than before, but you could not have any love of esteem for him. As a sinner, he would be an object of pity but not of complacency. Just so is it with God. He saw the whole world lying in wickedness, and every imagination of man’s heart only evil continually; and his gracious heart flowed out in pity towards the children of men;—“for God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son.” “He is not willing that any should perish.” “God willeth all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” “I have no pleasure,” says he, “in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” Ah, see what a large heart of pity God had! It embraced “all men.” It embraced “the whole world”; and, therefore, did he provide an infinite and all-sufficient ransom to which all are invited—to which all may come. Jesus, as the exponent of the Father’s heart, says, “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” But does God esteem Christless souls? Ah no! God would require to change his essential nature, and become a wicked God before he could love unconverted, Christless men with a love of esteem. If he were a wicked God, then he could love wicked men. But so long as he is “the pure-eyed God,” he cannot have a spark of esteem for sinners, however much they may esteem themselves, or be esteemed by their fellow-sinners in the world.
God not only does not see anything to love, but he sees much to hate in Christless persons. In the seventh Psalm it is written, that “God is angry with the wicked every day.” And again, in the eleventh Psalm, it is written, “The wicked, and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth.” And again, in Psalm thirty-fourth: “The face of the Lord is against them that do evil.” “He that hath not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” “Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.” It is a part of the nature of God to love holiness, and to hate wickedness wherever he sees it. In whatever heart he discovers it, he cannot but hate it. God must cease to be God, before he ceases to hate the wickedness of the wicked. But an objector may say—If God hates Christless persons on account of their sins, then he can have no pity for them. But why not? He is infinitely just, but he is infinite in compassion too. He must cease to be God before he can cease to be compassionate. “He delighteth in mercy.” Yea, the more he is angry with a soul, the more does he pity that soul, for its case is all the more deplorable, that it has rendered itself obnoxious to his holy displeasure. When Christ was on earth, it is said, “he looked round with anger” on some sinners, “being grieved at the hardness of their hearts.” Here is the very thing you say cannot be. Here is anger and pity in the same breast. The lightning of just anger, and the tear of compassion were in his eye at the same moment. This is the very “image of the invisible God.” Again: “When he came near and beheld the city (Jerusalem) he wept over it,” and yet said, “now they are hid from thine eyes.” Here the Saviour gave it over to perdition with the tears in his eyes, and the words of regret upon his lips. This was infinite compassion, and yet infinite indignation. This is “the express image of God’s person.” “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” If God were in human nature he would weep at the very time he pronounced the holy sentence of wrath.
Let me here speak affectionately and faithfully to all Christless persons. I would implore you from this to learn exactly where you stand with regard to God. Let it sink deep into your ears and hearts, that He has no love of esteem for you. He never had: and he never will have, until he sees you in Christ. You see many things in yourselves that you admire, and you foolishly think that God will also admire them. Perhaps you pray a little in secret, and read the Word. Perhaps you feel some glowing of affection in hearing the preaching of the Gospel, and you think all the time that God will look on that and approve it, and, as a necessary consequence, esteem you on account of it. But learn here, that God sees nothing good in it—nothing worthy of his love. If you are out of Christ, you are all loathsome in the sight of the Holy God, and even your very “righteousnesses are filthy rags.” Perhaps you are amiable, good-natured, kind, hospitable; your friends love and admire you, and you think God must also admire you. But learn plainly that God sees nothing to admire in you. He knows you are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” You do none of all your fancied meritorious deeds out of regard for him, and nothing will be regarded by him with complacency, unless done with an eye to his glory. And being out of his love, you are under his wrath. There is no other alternative. If you are out of his love, you must be under his wrath. You are the creature of his hand, and, as a moral agent, God cannot be indifferent to you or to your actions. God is angry with you every day. The wrath of God abides upon you at all times! If you go on a journey, the wrath of God hangs over you all the way! If you go out to work, the wrath of God is hanging round your neck! If you sit down to your daily meals, the wrath of God is close by you! If you sleep, it rests over you all the night long! At any moment it may crush you into hell; it may be today or tomorrow, or some day next week! The time is uncertain, but the thing is sure! Whenever God cuts the thread of life, the wrath that is upon you will do its office. Oh! dear souls, how can you remain in this fearful and perilous condition? Oh! be persuaded now to believe in Jesus, and thereby escape the “wrath to come.” Your case is a very melancholy one, but it is not hopeless. God has infinite pity for you. His pity is as infinite as his wrath. He has no pleasure in your dying; he would rather that you would turn and live. He has provided blood enough in Christ to blot out all your sins; and raiment enough to cover your nakedness.
The more he is angry with you on account of your sinfulness, the more does he pity you. Christ strives most after the salvation of Jerusalem sinners. The more you have provoked him, the more ready is he to cover you under his wings. Turn, sinner! turn! God will not always wait. He has said, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.” “Give glory to the Lord your God before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and when ye look for light he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.”
All who are in Christ are in the Love of God.
When any sinner is made willing to close with Jesus Christ as a Surety, then it is a righteous thing with God to love that soul with the love of esteem. He sees nothing now to hate in that soul. “He sees no iniquity in Jacob, and no perverseness in Israel.” When any sinner is persuaded to embrace the Lord Jesus as his Surety, the sufferings of Christ are counted his, and so in him he has suffered for all his sins already. When the sinner stood before God in himself, God could not but loathe him; but when the sinner stands before God not in himself, but in Christ, “the Son of his love,” then God sees no iniquity in him; his sins have been carried away into “a land of forgetfulness, and cast into the depths of the sea.” They were once “like scarlet,” they are now “white as snow”; and the sinner begins to sing, “O God, I will praise thee; though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away and thou comfortedst me.” “As far as the east is distant from the west, so far hast thou removed our transgressions from us.” Anxious sinner, close quickly with Christ. Come out of darkness into “marvelous light.” God is angry with you every day, so long as you remain out of Christ; but His anger will be all turned away the moment you consent to be found in the Lord Jesus.
God sees something to love in the soul that is in Christ. When a sinner accepts of Christ as his Surety, he accepts not only of his sufferings but of his obedience too—his infinitely pure and lovely obedience. This is all put upon the believing sinner. This is the “clothing of wrought gold,” this is “the raiment of needle-work.” Where God sees that upon the soul of the sinner, he cannot but love him with a love of infinite esteem and divine complacency. “This is my Beloved Son,” he says, “in whom I am well pleased.” Just as the sweet-smelling garments of Esau, when put upon Jacob, drew out all the affection of the heart of Isaac, and he said, “The smell of my son’s garments is like the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed”; so do the sweet-smelling garments of Christ (for “all his garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces”) draw out the infinite affection of the heart of God toward the sinner who is “accepted in the Beloved.” Then comes to pass the saying which is written, “He will be silent over thee in his love—he will rejoice over thee with singing”; and again, “The Father himself loveth you.” Anxious sinner, close with the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be in the love of God. There is nothing happier for the soul than to be loved. To be loved even by an affectionate dog is pleasant. To be loved by a little child is sweeter. To be loved by wise and good men, that is sweeter still. But oh! to be loved with the infinite heart of God, that is best of all. Oh, to feel that “God is love!” Sinner, you have seen the midday sun pouring its rays into the bosom of a calm sea—an unceasing shower of golden rays—till the sea becomes a sheet of living gold, till its darkest caves were illumined, and every gem sparkled with heaven’s light. Such is the love of God to the soul of a sinner in Christ—an unceasing, infinite shower of love! Oh! taste and see that the Lord is gracious. Only close with Christ and you will cry out, God is love! God is Love!
And nothing can separate the soul in Christ from the Love of God.
“Once Christ’s, aye Christ’s”: whom he loveth, he loveth unto the end. None can ever be separated from the love of God who once come into it. There is no quality more precious than permanence. The most of the joys in the world do not last. The flowering of the apple tree is pleasant and lovely when, in early summer, it comes out with its ten thousand blushing promises; but its blossoms soon fade, are separated, and fall off the tree. The gourd of Jonah was pleasant while it lasted, but he was soon separated from it. It came up in a night, and perished in a night. The sweetest friends are united only to be separated. One may almost see the shroud beneath the wedding garment. The love of the creature is not “an enduring substance.” Sometimes the kindest change, and cease to love us, or at the longest, they die—and we are separated. But oh! how different the love of God! It is an enduring good. It is a flame that is never extinguished—the “good part” that cannot be taken away. “For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This sublime chapter having opened with a strong declaration of no condemnation in Christ Jesus, it is meet that it should close with a declaration equally strong, of no separation from Christ Jesus. It is a delightful and animating theme with which the chapter terminates. The last object it presents to the eye is Jesus. The last accents that linger on the ear are the love of Jesus.
