"LOVE NEVER FAILS"

“LOVE NEVER FAILS” (1 Co. 13:8)

Sunday, January 11, 2015, the Year of Our Lord

Pastor Carolyn Sissom

“God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8)

During prayer on New Year’s Day, I believe I received a visitation and fresh infilling from the Holy Spirit of “love”.  I don’t know what this is going to “look like” or perhaps be “revealed”.  But one message rang clear: “Love never fails”.

Well, we know that certainly is not true of human love, because we know that human love will fail us.  Whether it is the unknowing mistakes of loving, earthly parents; siblings, family, friends and ultimately our life-long mate, human love will fail us.

Because Jesus Christ is God, his love is eternal.  Christ is eternal.  Christ’s love has no beginning and no end.  He is the Alpha and Omega, the first, and the last who is and was and who is to come, the Almighty” (Rev. 1:8; 11).

Because Jesus Christ is God, his love is unchangeable.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever. 

Mal. 3:6: “”For I am the Lord, I change not…”

If the love of Christ to us was the love a mere man--- though in Christ, the man was excellent, innocent and glorious--- it must have a beginning and an end and could not possibly be infallible.

The love of Christ in his human nature toward his people is intense, kind, precious, compassionate, and heightened by an overwhelming sense of our sorrows, needs and temptations.

Christ’s love flows from that rich stock of grace, pity, and compassion and supplies us with all of our needs.  Yet the love of Jesus’ human nature alone cannot be infinite, or eternal, nor is it infallibly effective.

As mere man, He could not have said, “As the Father has loved me, even so have I loved you.”  His love, if merely human, could not be compared with and made equal to the divine love of the Father.  The Father’s love is eternally productive and unchangeable.  The Father’s love is in the realm of the eternal Spirit.  “For God is a Spirit. Those that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth.” (Jn. 4:24)

Jesus Christ is full of grace and truth. (Jn. 1:14) 

The love of Christ, being the love of God, is infallibly effectual.  It produces all the good things Christ desires to produce in his people.  Christ loves life, grace and holiness into us.  Christ loves us into a covenant of love with himself.  Christ loves us into heaven.  Love in Christ is his will to do good to the one he loves.  Whatever good Christ by his love wills to do to anyone is infallibly done to that person.

These characteristics make Christ’s love exceedingly wonderful and himself exceedingly desirable.  How many millions of sins in every one of the elect, every sin sufficient to condemn us,  has Christ's love  overcome?

What mountains of unbelief has Christ’s love removed?  Look at the behavior of any one saint.  Consider your heart.  See the many sinful stains and spots, the defilement and the weaknesses with which our lives are contaminated.  “There is none righteous, no not one” (Ro. 3:10).

Christ’s love bears the millions of sins of mankind every day.

From the moment of his conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary, Christ was sanctified and set apart for the sacred work of saving sinners.  By this sanctification of the Spirit, Christ is “holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners’.  Peter tells us that he committed no sin, nor was guile found in his mouth (1 Pet. 2:22).  Jesus fulfilled all righteousness (Mt. 3:15). 

Jesus’ humanity was full of grace from the womb (Lk. 1:35).  He grew in the fullness of grace (Lk. 2:52). 

Christ received the Holy Spirit, the reservoir of all grace in full measure.  He received all the communications of grace from the Spirit, “for it pleased the Father that in him all fullness should dwell” (Col. 1:19), so that in all things Christ should have the pre-eminence.

Jesus, the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth is able to fulfill the purposes of grace:

1.     He was full of grace to be an example of obedience to God to both men and angels.

2.     He was full of grace to have uninterrupted communion with God.

3.     He is full of grace to supply all the needs of his people.  “Whatsoever you ask of the Father in my name, He may give it to you.” (Jn. 15:16)

4.     He is full of grace to show forth the glory of the divine nature through his human nature---“that he may bring forth many sons into glory”.

5.     He is full of grace to bring his people to perfect victory over every trial and temptation.

6.     He is full of grace to enable his people through the abundance of Grace to receive the gift of righteousness by faith; and the fruits of righteousness. (Rom. 5:7)

7.     He is full of grace to bring the fullest pleasure and delight to Father God.

8.     He is full grace as an everlasting monument of the glory of God in giving such inconceivable excellences to the Son of man.

That which made the man Christ Jesus was the union of soul and body.  From this union of the divine and human natures in the person of the Son of God arise the grace, peace, life and security of the Church.

Because Christ was God and man in one person, He was able to suffer and to bear whatever punishment was due to us.  1 Jn. 3:16: “Hereby, we perceive the love of God, because He laid down His life for us…”

On the Cross, Christ received the points of all the swords that were sharpened by the law against us.  There was strength enough in His shoulders to bear the burden of all the curses due us.  Because of the “love of God”, he was willing to undertake the work of our redemption.

If Christ had not been man, he could not have suffered for men.  If he had not been God, his suffering could not have satisfied infinite justice.

If our great and righteous God had gathered together all the sins which have been committed by his chosen people from the foundation of the world, and searched the hearts of those who were to come to the end of the world; and then taken them all and laid them on a mere holy, innocent creature, they would have overwhelmed him and buried him forever from the presence of God’s love.

So when the writer to the Hebrews talks of Christ purging our sin, he first describes his glorious powers in chapters 1-3.  Christ and Christ alone is able to purge our sins.

Because Jesus was both God and man in one person, he is an endless, bottomless reservoir and source of grace to all those who believe.  It pleased the Father to commit to Christ all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.   He is therefore the great treasury and storehouse of the church of God.

He is able to communicate grace to his church because he satisfied divine justice for our sins, merited all grace for us and purchased all grace for us.  All grace first became his.  All the mercy, love, grace and glory promised first became his by the New Covenant so that He may give these to his people as he thinks best.

The communication of grace is by Christ sending the Holy Spirit to fill us and regenerate us; to create all habits of grace in us; and to supply us daily with grace in our hearts.

The Holy Spirit is sent by Christ as Mediator.  Christ the Alpha and Omega, the A and the Z of the church is the beginner and the finisher of our faith.  Because of the great price Christ paid for our sins, and infinite justice, all grace became His to give to his people as he pleases.

Jesus bestows grace on, or works it in, the hearts of his people by the Holy Spirit.  In his infinite wisdom, he sees where it is most needed.  All that we need is to be found in Christ.  In that place of His perfect love, He will give us grace for our life journey.   He is the life of our souls and the joy of our hearts because he is our Savior from sin and our deliverer from the wrath to come. 

(As I was studying for this teaching, I happened on another verse of scripture which I knew was in the Bible, but had forgotten chapter and verse.

Isa. 57:1: “The righteous perish, and no man lays it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none consider that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.”

This is saying the Lord will take home a righteous person to protect them from an evil which they could not bear.)

Jesus is one with God and one with us and one in himself in the unity of his person.  As Mediator, Christ is the “power of God and the wisdom of God”.  Through Christ the infinitely glorious wisdom of God shines forth.  Unbelief alone can hold us back from this great salvation.

This is the hidden mystery, great without controversy, the admiration and wonder of all believers to all eternity. 

Jesus Christ is alive.  He lives forever and ever.  He has the keys of hell and death.  He is made Lord and Ruler.  God has set him as king on his holy hill of Zion.  All things are put in subjection under his feet.  He has been given all power in heaven and on earth.  He has been given power over all flesh to give eternal life to those God has given him.  He rules his elect in the power of God.  He fills his enemies with fear, terror and horror.  Christ will gather all the enemies of the cross together: the beast, false prophet, dragon, and all nations; ---He will cast them into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone.

Christ is gloriously exalted above angels, whether good or evil.  He is at the right hand of God in the highest position possible.  He is in full possession of a Kingdom over the whole creation.  He has received a name that is above every name.  He is glorious on his throne.

Christ is glorious in His name, a name above every name, that of Lord of lords and King of kings.  Christ is glorious in his scepter: A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of his Kingdom.  His chariots are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels.  Among them he rides on the heavens and sends out the voice of his strength, attended with ten thousand even thousands of his holy ones.

All creatures in heaven and on ear are in subjection to him.  He rules his Kingdom with sweet effectiveness and with serene power.  He rules in righteousness, holiness and grace in and to his elect.

His great grace and love does not fail to His elect.  What are the conditions?  Receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, receive His Word as His Way and follow after Him through the Love of Christ that draws us.  Meet the conditions, step up and claim the promises.

Carolyn Sissom, Pastor

Eastgate Ministries Church

Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of “Communion with God” by John Owen.  Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of Brother Owen who went to be with Jesus in August 1683.