"Jesus Loves Us So"

By Cornelius R. Stam

There is much in the Holy Scriptures that the best and wisest among us do not yet understand. In fact, the best and wisest of us have only begun to grasp the truths contained in that blessed Book.

Among these, bless God! are those which we cannot understand because they are too wonderful for us mortals to comprehend.

It was concerning such truths that David exclaimed:

"Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain unto it" (Psa. 139:6).

Far more has been revealed to us than David ever dreamed of, and we have graciously been given divine help to understand truths then unknown. But still God has kept far ahead of us with His revelations of blessing, and there are precious passages, especially in the Pauline epistles, which we will never fully grasp in this life, simply because they are "too wonderful" and "high" for us to fully comprehend. We can believe them, however, and rejoice in them.

Thus we believe and rejoice in the glorious revelation of our position in Christ in the heavenlies, though we are only beginning to understand this precious "mystery." Thus, too, we rejoice in "the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge" (Eph. 3:19) and "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding" (Phil. 4:7).

One such passage which has always gripped this writer, yet has left him ever again overcome with wonder, is II Corinthians 5:21:

"For He [God] hath made Him [Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."

Again and again, as the writer has pondered over this verse, he has responded: "Can it be! He made sin that I might be made, not merely righteous, but `the righteousness of God in Him'! Lord, I cannot take this in. It is too wonderful for this poor sinful heart to fully grasp. Yet I do believe it and rejoice over it `with joy unspeakable and full of glory.'"

But there is another kind of passage which in another way is equally hard, for this writer at least, to grasp in its fulness. One example of this kind of passage is Ephesians 4:30:

"And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption."

Again I ask: "Can it be! GOD grieved!" How it can be that eternal and almighty God can be grieved over anything that I, a poor speck of sinful dust, might do, is more than I can grasp. It overwhelms me that He is so deeply concerned about me.

Yet I know that it is so, for as far back as Genesis 6:5,6 I read a striking statement about our sovereign God:

"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

"And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart."

If, then, a sovereign God was grieved over the wickedness of the ante-deluvian race, how He must be grieved when I, His son in Christ, fail Him!

While as yet we are unable to comprehend all this, such passages as Ephesians 4:30 can bring us untold blessing if we simply believe them.

Surely this passage teaches us that God loves us deeply. Indeed, He has scarcely besought us not to grieve His Holy Spirit when, almost in the same breath, He assures us that the Holy Spirit has sealed and does seal us unto the day of redemption.

And is not this the reason for the exhortation? He says, as it were: "Do not grieve the Spirit, who loves you; who loves you so that regardless of your faithfulness or failure He continues to keep you safe in His care."

It is well that so many children's songs emphasize the fact that Jesus loves them, for it is this that is most apt to draw from them a response of faith and love while they are still young.

Perhaps the greatest hymn ever written was that wonderful children's hymn:

"Jesus loves me, this I know,
For the Bible tells me so."

We, their elders who have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, should sing these words with greater joy and deeper gratitude than they. There it is again! Let us not grieve Him—for He loves us so.