HIS LOVE, HIS MERCIES, HIS FAITHFULNESS - PART 3

FRIDAY 12 APRIL 2024

God's eternal love toward us is the fountain through which all His goodness and mercies flow to us. More below!

Reference: Lamentations 3:22-23 English Standard Version (ESV)

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

The steadfast love of God encouraged Jeremiah to hope in His love and mercy. Before our referenced Scripture, he said, "But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases..." (Lamentations 3:21-23 ESV). He called the versified statement to mind, and then, a door of hope opened up within him.

Jeremiah cried out to God on behalf of His people saying, "Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return; renew our days as of old" (Lamentations 5:21 NIV). Although Israel was punished, he was restored because of His steadfast love. In Hosea 2:23, God said, "I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called 'Not my loved one.' I will say to those called 'Not my people, "You are my people"; and they will say, "You are my God"' (NIV).

This steadfast love is also the goodness of God in converting and saving sinners from eternal damnation. To that effect, Romans 2:4 reads, "Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?" (NKJV). It is the steadfast love that introduced the doctrinal and theological terms such as expiation, propitiation, justification and sanctification by reason of the cross. A saved person now becomes a living spirit and he begins to live a changed life, which is a righteous life, having been born again.

John 3:16 described the demonstration of steadfast love in this manner: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (ESV). The love that saves is the free, undeserved goodness and favour of God; and it saves, not by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus. And now, both Jews and Gentiles are saved by faith in Christ Jesus because when the love was demonstrated on the cross, it powerfully broke down the wall of partition between both, in accordance with the passage below:

"For Christ Himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in His own body on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in Himself one new people from the two groups" (Ephesians 2:14-15 NLT).

Christ reconciled both groups to God together as one body, by means of His death on the cross, and the hostility toward each other was put to death. That was steadfast love at work. Psalm 36:5 reads, "Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds" (ESV); this is the same as Psalm 57:10 (ESV), both in which the height of divine love is described, denoting one of the dimensions stated in Paul's prayer for the saints in Ephesus.

The finished work of Christ is the work of sacrificial love and has nothing to do with anything done by us; it was the steadfast love at work (Ephesians 2:4-5 NIV). Therefore all human boasting is shut out. This is why salvation is the free gift of God, and the effect of being quickened by the power of His love.

Indeed, it was this love that inspired His purpose, to which He called us and blessed us with the knowledge of His will, thereby granting us His Holy Spirit who produces such a tremendous change in us, conforming us to the image of His Son. This is part of the reasons apostle Paul concluded that nothing shall separate us from His love, in his epistolary expressions numbered as Romans 8 verses 35, 38, 39, and stated below:

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword...For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (NIV). Stay tuned for part 4. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - Jeremiah 31:3; Isaiah 54:10; Psalm 86:15; John 3:16; Romans 5:8; John 15:13.

Exuberant Declaration:

The steadfast love of the Lord is boundless in my life and it establishes spiritual peace with every flow of divine blessing it brings to my life. Praise God!