“The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
(Deuteronomy 7:7-8)
Before the world existed, the love of God was already set upon His people in His eternal purpose. So the mercies and graces a child of God receives throughout life are not random circumstantial events but rather intentional expressions of His everlasting love.
God’s love is also entirely free and undeserved. As this verse in Deuteronomy 7 tells us, Israel was not chosen because of their greatness, strength, number, or worth. Instead, the explanation given is simply, “because the LORD loved you.” Not even one ounce of human merit exists in the foundation of this love. Those whom God embraces are not only undeserving, but ill-deserving sinners on whom He chooses to place His love.
From this eternal and free love flows a continual abundance of mercy. God daily showers His people with benefits. Every bodily preservation, every spiritual gift, every providential supply, every strengthening grace, and every saving blessing flows from this inexhaustible fountain. If the mercies of a single day exceed easy reckoning, the accumulated mercies of an entire life should overwhelm the heart with adoration.[1]
This love is also distinguishing. God brings His chosen people into a special relation of grace and manifests Himself to them in a manner not granted to the world. This distinction should not cause us to be proud, for the only basis on which this is so is simply because the Lord chose to love us.
Human affection may endure much, sacrifice much, and speak with great tenderness, but the love of Christ moves in an infinitely higher sphere. He willingly gave His life for those He loves. He poured out His blood for their redemption. No amount of human affection can compare with such love.
Finally, God’s love is everlasting and unchangeable. Nothing can shake it. Affliction does not mean that His love has waned, and our disobedience or doubts cannot affect it. Peter denied Christ, yet Christ reassured Peter three times that He still loved him and would use him. Divine love corrects, chastens, restores, and preserves, but it does not cease to be what it eternally was.
So let us worship and adore our God for His free, bountiful, distinguishing, transcendent, everlasting, and unchangeable love toward us. Its root lies in eternity, its manifestations fill the present, its supreme expression shines in Christ, and its continuance reaches into everlasting glory.
Contemplations:
- You Loved Before I Had Any Being. I adore You because Your love did not begin when I became conscious of it. Before I existed, before I could act, choose, obey, or respond, Your gracious purpose was already established. The mercies I receive now are fruits from a root older than the world. My salvation rests on a love born in eternity.
- There Was Nothing in Me Worthy of Your Love. You did not love me because of my worth, strength, or merit. You loved because You loved. I adore the freedom of that grace. Let me rejoice that the foundation of Your love for me is not my loveliness but Your sovereign goodness.
- Your Love Has Filled My Life with Mercies. The benefits I receive from Your hand are innumerable. In fact, Your daily mercies have become so familiar that I often fail to see them. Open my eyes to the abundance that surrounds me. Let every preservation, provision, spiritual blessing, answered prayer, and strengthening grace become another reason to adore the fountain from which they came.
- Your Love Does Not Change When You Correct Me. When You afflict, You still love. When I grieve You, Your covenant love does not fail. I adore You because Your faithfulness is stronger than my inconsistency. Let Peter’s restoration remind me that Your discipline is not abandonment, so keep me from measuring Your love by ease or comfort.
Prayer (Adoration):
Eternal God, I adore You for the love You have set upon Your people in Christ.
Your love is ancient, reaching beyond time itself. Before the world was made, before Your people had any being, Your gracious purpose was already established. I worship You for a love whose root lies in eternity and whose fruits appear throughout the whole course of redemption.
I adore the freeness of Your love. You did not choose Your people because of our merit, strength, number, beauty, or worth. There was nothing in the creature that could purchase such favor. You loved because You loved, and therefore all boasting is silenced.
I praise You for the abundance that continually flows from this fountain. Day after day You load Your people with benefits. Mercies for body and soul, grace for duty, strength for trial, preservation in danger, and every saving blessing come from Your hand.
I adore You also for the distinguishing character of Your love. Where You grant special grace, You do so freely. Let this produce wonder rather than pride.
Above all, I worship You for the transcendent love displayed in Jesus Christ, who poured out His own blood for my redemption.
And I praise You that this love is everlasting and unchangeable. Affliction does not cancel it. Chastening does not reverse it. Even when Your people grieve You, Your gracious purpose does not fail.
Let me spend my life admiring what I can never fully measure.
In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Further Scripture References:
Deut. 4:37; Job 7:17; 1 John 3:1; Jer. 31:3
[1] John Flavel, Two Treatises, the First of Fear, from Isa. 8, v. 12, 13, and Part of the 14: The Second, The Righteous Man’s Refuge in the Evil Day, from Isaiah 26, Verse 20, (London: H.H. for Robert Boulter, 1682), 252-255.
