2. God in Christ is a promising God and does not this say that he is a God of love? God abstractly considered is a threatening God, a revenging God; but in Christ, a promising God; and we find, 2 Corinthians 1:20, that “all the promises of God are in Christ, and in him yea and amen.” Whenever you meet with any promise in the Bible, of grace or of glory, of peace or of pardon, or be what it will, you should still take it up as a promise of a God in Christ: Christ having fulfilled the condition of the promise of eternal life, by his obedience and death, the promises are given out to us, through him, as the immediate ground and foundation of our faith, with an intimation and advertisement, “The promise is unto you, and to your seed, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Sirs, if any man should present to you a bond, bill, or security, for a vast sum of money, which would enrich you for all your days, you would look upon it as a great and indisputable evidence of his love to you. Well, this is the very case between God and you; through Christ, he is a promising God; he comes in a gospel dispensation, saying, “I will put my Spirit within you; I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” These promises are presented to you as the ground of your faith; and that very moment you take hold of them in a way of believing, you come to be possessed of them, and all the benefits of his purchase, according to that, Isaiah 55:3: “Hear, and your soul shall live;” it is the hearing of faith that is intended; “and I will make” or establish “an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.” Oh, sirs! does not this say that God is love?
3. God in Christ is a God sitting upon a throne of grace: and does not this say, that God is love? God has a threefold throne, —a throne of glory, a throne of justice, and a throne of grace. The first of these, his throne of glory, is so bright, that it dazzles the eyes of angels, and they cover their faces with their wings when they approach it. The second, namely, his throne of justice, is clothed with red vengeance; and it is so terrible, that the most holy saints tremble when they behold it, “If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? In thy sight shall no man living be justified.” And because we were not able to stand here, he has erected another throne, namely, a throne of grace, from whence he issues out acts of grace and mercy to guilty sinners; and so soon as he is seen sitting upon his throne, he is taken up as a God of love; and upon this the poor sinner, that was trembling at the thoughts of being cited before the throne of justice, flees for his life to the throne of grace, saying with the apostle, Heb. 4:16: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
4. God in Christ is a God matching with us, and betrothing us unto himself in loving kindness; and does not this say, that he is a God of love? There is a twofold match that the great and infinite JEHOVAH has made with Adam’s family.
(1.) He espouses with our nature by a personal union in the person of his eternal Son: he marries our nature; and thus he becomes akin to the whole family of Adam, an honor that the angelic family was never dignified with; for “he takes not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham.” Oh, sirs! What shall I tell you? Strange and surprising news indeed, “God is manifested in the flesh!” The great God becomes related to us in Christ; for he is clothed with our nature; he is become “bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh;” and what is the language of this, but that of the angels at his birth, “glad tidings of great joy, good will and peace towards men upon earth?.”
(2.) Another espousal he makes with us, is, by taking us actually under the bond of a marriage relation. The espousal is proposed to all in the call and offer of the gospel: but you know the bare proposal of marriage does not make marriage, till once the consent of the bride be obtained; and the moment the soul gives its assent and consent to the proposal made in the gospel, he betroths that soul to himself in loving kindness and in mercy, in righteousness and in judgment; and the Lord rejoices over that soul, as a bridegroom rejoices over the bride, saying to it, “Thy Maker is thine husband, the Lord of hosts is his name,” Isaiah 54:5. And, oh, sirs! Does not this say that God is love? Because the distance between him and us was too great, (abstractly considered,) therefore, he first comes on a level with us, by taking on our nature, that so the inequality of the persons might be no barrier: he becomes our husband, and we his spouse and bride.
5. God in Christ is a God with us, on our side, our friend, and takes part with us against all evil or danger: and does not this say, that God is love, as he is in Christ? Oh, sirs! God out of Christ is a God against us: hence, he is said to be “angry with the wicked every day;” he “whets his glittering sword, and his hand takes hold on judgment,” to render vengeance to every transgressor of his holy law. But God in Christ is not a God against us, but a God with us, or a God for us; the name Immanuel imports, God with us. And every one that takes a God in Christ for their God, may say, upon warrantable grounds, with the church, Psalm 46:7: “The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.” And they may say it upon a covenant ground, for God in Christ has said, Isaiah 43:2: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”
6. God in Christ is a pardoning God, and does not this declare him to be a God of love? “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness.”
7. God in Christ is a pitying God. He pities Christless and unbelieving sinners, and is loath at his very heart to give up with them: Hosea 11:8: “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.” And how great is his pity to the soul that believes in him! His pity to them is like the pity of a father to his son: Psalm 103:13: “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.” It is like the pity of a fond mother to a sucking child: Isaiah 69:15: “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that he should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.”
8. God in Christ is a God of infinite bounty and liberality, and a prayer-hearing God; (I cast things together, that I may not be tiresome.) Oh, sirs! his heart is free, and his hand is full and open; open-hearted, open-handed: “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not.” Such is his bounty and liberality, that it is nothing but ask and have with him: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you,” Matthew 7:7. When we have asked great things of him, he chides us, as if we had asked nothing: he does not deal with a miserly or a sparing hand: no, no: “Ask, and ye shall receive,” says he, “that your joy may be full.” Yes, such is his bounty, that he is ready to do for us exceeding abundantly above what we can either ask or think; such is his bounty, that he presents us with the blessings of his goodness: his goodness and mercy are like the rain or dew, that does not wait for the sons of men: Isaiah 65:24: “And it shall come to pass, that, before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.”
9. God in Christ is an urging God, an entreating God, to sinners: and does not this say, that he is a God of love? He invites us to come to him for all needful grace: Isaiah 55:1: “Ho, every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money, and without price.” He is an entreating God in Christ: 2 Corinthians 5:20: “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” He complains of the backwardness of sinners to come to him: “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” He complains to them on this account: “O my people, what have I done unto thee, and wherein have I wearied thee? Testify against me.” He waits for an answer; he will not take a repulse. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.” And he stands knocking till his locks are wet. Oh! Does not all this say that God in Christ is love?
10. To crown all, God in Christ is our God. He makes a grant of himself in the covenant as such; “I will be their God:” and he allows us to claim him by faith as our God, upon this very grant he makes of himself to us in Christ, Zechariah 13:9:” I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God.” And, oh! happy that soul that is enabled to give faith’s echo to this covenant grant, and say, “This God is my God forever and ever; and he will be my Guide even unto death.” In a word, God in Christ is our Father; for it is only a God in Christ that says, “I will be unto them a Father, and they shall be unto me sons and daughters.” He has taught us to say, “Our Father which art in heaven.” And he is displeased with us, when we are shy with unbelief to call him by this endearing title: Jeremiah 3:4: “Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, and not turn away from me?” Oh! What but infinite feelings of sympathy and love could speak in such a style and dialect? Now, from all this I think the truth of the doctrine is abundantly evident, that God in Christ is a God of love.
Teaching Resources International 