Christ’s Love for His Own

“As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you:

continue ye in my love,”

(John 15:9)

The love of the Father to the Son was an ETERNAL love. “...for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:24) Here we are brought face to face with one of those truths that can never be grasped by the mind but only believed in the heart. Who can form a conception of what eternity is? Who can explain in language, the meaning of the word "everlasting?" There is something transcendent in the depth of past eternity. Go back as far as the mind can imagine — it is always infinitely before that. What ages have rolled their courses since the solid foundations of the world were laid — how far remote is that time when "...in the beginning, God created the Heaven and the earth."

Here, dear friends, you have the "as," and that was an eternal one.Now turn to the "SO." "So have I loved you." As eternal as the Father's love to the Son — is the Son's love to His people. Child of God, the love of Jesus to you is no love of yesterday. Listen to His word: “…I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” (Jeremiah 31:3) The "so" has ever run parallel with the "as." There never was a time when Jesus did not love you. O, what infinite value does this thought give to "the love of Christ to me!" I would abide under its influence. I would revel in its sweetness. The love I know and feel He has to me dates back with the love the Father ever had to Him!

"His love, from eternity fixed upon you,

Broke forth, and discovered its flame,

When each with the cords of His kindness He drew,

And brought you to love His great name."