Until You’ve Known the Love of God

Until You’ve Known the Love of God

  By Stephen E. Smith, General Overseer of The Church of God

 The title to this message is the title of a beautiful Christian song that has my heart rejoicing as I write. The chorus to the song says:

Until you’ve known the loving hand that reaches down to a fallen man
And lifts him up from out of sin where he has trod;
Until you’ve known just how it feels to know that God is really real;
Then you’ve known nothing until you’ve known the love of God.

The verses of the song say that if you could own all the world and its money, build castles tall enough to reach the sky; if you could in your life­time know everyone and call them all by name—if you’ve not come face to face with Jesus and His saving grace, then you’ve known nothing until you’ve known the love of God.

The love of God is supreme, far above the greatest love exhibited by mortal man, and this love is seen throughout the Bible, page after page from cover to cover. We find its greatest expression in the New Testa­ment, as Emmanuel (God with us) is manifested in the flesh through Jesus Christ. He came to teach the pure doctrine of God, set His Church in order, and die on the cross as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” that our sins could be forgiven and our hearts could be delivered from the sinful nature that we were all born with. God’s love changes our eternal destiny from torment in the flames of hell to that happy and holy place called heaven. How thankful we should be for the loving hand “that reaches down to fallen man and lifts him up from out of sin where he has trod.”

The commonly called “Easter” sea­son reminds us of the awful sufferings of our Savior on the Cross, and of His ultimate triumph over the grave. We know Christ’s sufferings brought about our salvation and for this we are thankful beyond words. Still it is heart­breaking to imagine the cross, and see the Lamb of God there in anguish of soul and body, with his blood pouring forth from many wounds. What an enormous price was paid for our sins that day! We prefer to quickly move on to the empty grave and rejoice in knowing that because He lives, we who trust in Him shall also live forevermore.

 Christmas thoughts are much dif­ferent. They are the tender thoughts of the Christ-child lying in a manger; sweet thoughts of divine love and quiet peace. The proclamation of the angel of the Lord and the heavenly host on that sacred night still brings rejoicing to our hearts, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and say­ing, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:11-14).

 How joyful we should be when we contemplate the birth of the Savior of the World! We are told that “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). The whole universe was created by Jesus Christ, and miraculously “in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is...” (Ex. 20:11). In spite of His almighty power and maj­esty, on that first Christmas morning He did not come with pomp and pag­eantry. There in a manger (a feeding trough for animals), somewhere in the small town of Bethlehem in that tiny nation of Israel, on a star-filled night lay the King of kings and Lord of lords, wrapped in swaddling clothes.

 

Those who looked on that scene and knew who Jesus was must have been overwhelmed. This was the Son of God. Simeon, that devout man who looked for the consolation of Israel, would proclaim a few days later, “For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel” (Luke 2:30-32). The greatest gift ever given was given to all mankind on the day Jesus was born.

 We are now about two thousand years beyond that first Christmas day, yet the event often feels close at hand. We sometimes see paintings or living manger scenes depicting the shepherds and Joseph with his wife Mary as she holds her newborn child (or perhaps with Jesus lying in a manger)—all in a serine nighttime setting. We can almost feel like we are there with them beholding the Christ-child. A wonderful sense of love and peace prevails in that scene. Simeon said he saw the salvation of God, but we who are born again by the Spirit have actually experienced the salvation of God and we under­stand “just how it feels to know that God is really real.”

 In a world so full of violence, hatred, murder, and wars that bring sorrow upon sorrow to mankind, the message of this God-child in a manger is needed as much as it was on that day Christ was born. All who have repented of their sins and placed their faith in Jesus have experienced the salvation of the Lord, Who is that glorious light sent to lighten the Gentiles; and it is our privi­lege and joy to share the message with all the world.

Last year American Atheists placed their “Christmas” message on a bill­board in New York’s Times Square. It said, “Keep the Merry (with a picture of Santa Claus) and dump the myth (with a picture of a statue depicting Jesus).” Unbelievers have no reserva­tions about mocking Christ and Chris­tianity. Another billboard showed the manger scene and said, “You KNOW it’s a Myth. This Season, Celebrate Reason.” We pray that God will some­how reach many of these deceived peo­ple and awaken them to the fact that there is a God and that He did indeed send His Son into the world on a mis­sion to save their souls.

In the face of such bold attacks on the biblical message of Christmas, it behooves us to stand strong for the truth. It begins by making our own salvation sure, and then displaying the love of God to all men. Our verbal testimony is of no value without godly lives to support it. We have a great advantage in the battle against athe­ism. We have the truth of God’s Word and we have the Spirit of God working with us. He convicts sinners, even athe­ists, working in the inner man of the heart to convince them that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever­lasting life” (John 3:16).

 During the American Civil War, Henry W. Longfellow wrote the lyrics of “I heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” With heartfelt frankness he wrote,

For hate is strong and mocks the song,
of peace on earth,
good will to men.

Yet Jesus proclaimed to those who believe in Him, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you...” (John 14:27). Jesus is the Prince of Peace and gives a deep settled peace to those who love and serve Him.

One hundred fifty years have passed since Longfellow wrote the lyrics to his now famous song, and the truth of its lyrics still moves our hearts today. Longfellow wrote his poem during the American Civil War and his words mani­fest the sense of despair he felt as he witnessed the horrors of that war. Yet it seems that an unseen hand nudged him into another realm, the realm of God’s peace, and he wrote:

Then pealed the bells

more loud and deep:

God is not dead,

nor doth he sleep;

The wrong shall fail,

the right prevail,

With peace on earth, good will to men.”

The message in Longfellow’s song stands true today. Tragedies constantly bombard our doorsteps, yet there is an echo ringing through the air. Can you hear it, dear saint? It comes forth as strong today as it did when the holy angels proclaimed it on the night of Christ’s birth. The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, for the God we serve can­not be overthrown—not by the unbe­lief of the strongest atheists, not by the mightiest armies of the world, not by the rulers of the darkness of this world. No, when the dust has settled after the final hour of this last great conflict, that child born in the manger will rule the world in a 1,000 year reign of peace and love. We will then experience the fullness of “peace on earth, good will toward men.”

Since the day of Christ’s birth the love of God has been spreading to the ends of the earth, embracing many souls and guiding them from earth to heaven. Had not the love of God come into the world through His Son, the world would no doubt have self-destructed long ago. It is His love that stays the hand of evil and keeps it from unleashing its full destructive powers upon mankind. As Christmas approaches this year, the ungodly will continue to reject and mock both the holiday and the holy child we glorify and worship. To them we can only pro­claim, “You’ve known nothing until you’ve known the love of God.”