A Love Story Infinitely True

By Lewis Sperry Chafer

Is it possible that I am addressing some person who feels that everything in life has been superficial and therefore unsatisfactory? Do you at times sense the depths of your own being and long to enter into its fathomless realities? Have you met with some person who baffled you because that one seemed to live in a world of true experience into which you are conscious you have never entered? Has it occurred to you that these and greater compensations would be your portion in life if you were brought into a living, vital, and unchangeable relation to God?

To this end, I am asking you to forget your present ideas of so-called religion, to forget prejudice, to forget arguments that unbelief may suggest, even to give no thought for the present as to your manner of daily life whether it might be or might not be well-pleasing to God. For once I ask you to dismiss the whole problem as to what one should or should not do. All these issues which are quite important in their place are unrelated in any direct way to the fundamental reality which must be considered first if any worth-while advance step is to be taken.

Perhaps the subject may be best approached by asking and answering three vital questions.

1. Why Will God Do Things for You?

It is evident that whatever is done in the changing of our lives must be done by God Himself, and it is reasonable to seek the answer to the direct question as to why God may be expected to do transforming things for us. This question comes first because in every respect it stands first. The next questions in order would concern what God has done and what He will do; but these, though of immeasurable import, will not be comprehended unless we get back to the reason why God acts. The fact of His motive is paramount. Fortunately for us, He has not left us with uncertainties at this point.

The answer is fully stated in four words—Because He loves you. As a truth, this is both stupendous and basic. It is direct information which if believed and acted upon engenders a wonderful consciousness of this great characteristic of God. To be told, as we are told repeatedly, that God loves us with an infinite, unchanging love, brings to the heart of the one who heeds the message a love story infinitely true. Life in all its features will be transformed when the heart responds to the love of God, especially as that love is disclosed to us in a redeeming grace of God toward us through Christ in His death and resurrection. That His love for us is infinite does not excuse a finite mind from attempting to respond to it; it means, rather, that eternity itself will be required to enter fully into the riches of that which is too glorious for our present comprehension. Though it will not be grasped in its fulness now, it nevertheless remains true that the love wherewith God now loves us is infinite. If to neglect the love of a friend is so reprehensible, how much more the neglect of the love of one’s Creator and Benefactor! He it is with whom, by the very nature of the case, we will have to do throughout all eternity. He warns against a disregard of His love and the results in eternity of that disregard. God’s love is like that of a friend. It is personal. It is a love which sustains ceaseless thoughts of devotion and prompts unwearied acts of tender care. God never ceases to follow each individual with His measureless solicitude. That He loves so many in the world should not be allowed to rob any individual of the assurance, so emphasized in the Bible, that God’s love is personal—such a love as He might manifest if that individual were the only creature and object of His love in all the universe.

One common fallacy respecting the love of God for us is that He loves us only when we are good: all of that is utterly untrue. God doubtless suffers, as infinite love alone can suffer, when the object of His love is injured by sin. He loves those who are evil. How else can it be explained that He so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son to save them from perishing under the judgment of their sin? It is written that God commendeth His love to us in that while we were yet sinners, and enemies, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). It is by means of the fact that Christ died for us that we perceive God’s love (1 John 3:16). His love is not withheld until we are forgiven, saved, and purified. That He loves the unlovely is the only hope they have.

Another fallacy is that God’s love ceases when we do wrong. It is true, again, that we may grieve Him by our manner of life, but God never ceases to love infinitely. Of Christ it is said, “Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them evermore” (John 13:1). His is an everlasting love.

The reason then why God will do His utmost for you is this fact, that to do so satisfies His love for you. It is not because you are worthy, or because you merit His gifts. His undertakings for you do not arise in you, but in Him. He does it simply because He wants to do it, and He wants to do it because He loves. Remember and count it to be true that He is not going to love you some time; He loves you now. With that in mind, cannot you commit yourself to Him and at least thank Him for such incomprehensible devotion to you?

Regardless of how serious the lost estate of men may be as it concerns them, or how much their salvation would mean to them throughout all eternity, it must be kept in mind that God’s primary motive in doing His marvelous work of transforming those who trust Him is to satisfy His own love for them. His love is such, we are told, that He gave His only begotten Son that by His death the hindrance to our salvation which our sins intruded might be removed. This removal meant as much more to Him than it does to us as His infinite love outmeasures our finite situation.

There is an immeasurable need for salvation present in every human being born into this world. Regardless of the opinion of men, even of educated men if they are spiritually blind and therefore unbelieving, respecting the things of God, the Bible testifies to that which is true, that which has been demonstrated to be true without exception for thousands of years; it is that men are born into a lost and fallen estate. No greater evidence for this would be needed than that God says so, but this truth is confirmed universally when we look into our own hearts and when we observe the condition of the world in which we live.

No person should be told that he is lost because of the sins he has committed, for it is true that no man has ever sinned as much as he might have done. When told that he is lost because of his sins, a man may easily reason that, due to the fact that he has not sinned all that he might, he is only partly lost, whereas each individual of our race is the possessor of a fallen sin nature and for that and kindred reasons is completely lost until he is saved. It becomes the height of folly to contend against this truth. Far better is it to acknowledge God’s estimation of us to be wholly true and then to be rescued from that estate by His redeeming grace. Man has never gained anything but ruin when contending against his Creator. Especially is this true when men contest the love of God which warns him of his peril and points the way of escape from it.

2. What Has God Done for You?

As the unaided human mind grasps but feebly the infinite love of God and therefore reacts toward it with shocking indifference, in like manner the human mind comprehends but little of that which God has already done for each individual and offers a corresponding minimum return to God for His benefits. At this point we are not concerned with those general blessings from God about which very much is easily said and for which we are under very great obligation to be grateful—existence itself with all its eternal possibilities, health, reason, opportunity, unceasing divine care, and earthly friends. God’s personal love should be observed in those things, but not with the greatest certainty; for God has not told out His love for us by means of variable benefits. He tells of His love for us by means of Christ dying for us on His cross. Christ, the King of Glory, the Creator of all things, descended from His home in heaven and became one of us in this human family—a Kinsman-Redeemer—that He might die, bearing Himself for us the judgment of our sins. This, again, is not something He will do for us when we are good enough to merit such ascendancy. His death is history and the Bible assigns, in the main, the one reason for His death, that is, substitution for the sinner. As certainly as this is true, there remains no obligation to persuade Him to die again for you. The infinite values are gained and there remains only the immeasurable privilege of entering understandingly into that which He has wrought.

Three honors which are rightfully estimated to be the greatest that could ever come to any person in the world, as strange as this may seem and as unappreciated as these three may be, are now completely conferred on each person in the world; therefore, these honors are conferred on you. These honors are, (1) God loves you with an infinite love, (2) the King of Glory died for you, and (3) all the riches of God’s eternal grace are now open to you through the death and resurrection of Christ for you.

The first of these honors has been considered earlier in these pages. The third is yet to be contemplated. It is the second, that is, that Christ has already died the death which was the just penalty for our sins, that we are to think of now. This stupendous undertaking on Christ’s part for you creates a situation which changes the whole relationship between God and sinful men. We are executed criminals in the sight of God’s holy demands. All that could be gained by our answering for the crime of our sin against God by execution has been wrought for us by our Substitute, who died in our place. That cruel death on the cross did not belong to the Substitute. He bore no judgment due Himself. His death was to the last degree of infinite reckoning a death in behalf of you and me. “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself” (2 Cor 5:19). This does not mean that the cross of Christ of itself saves anyone, else all would be saved. There were two great hindrances in God’s way as He contemplated the satisfying of His love in saving men: (1) Their sins and lost estate could not be glossed over or merely excused as an act of generosity on God’s part. God is infinitely holy, and sin is both against Him and His government. Sin against His Person might be passed over; but sin against His government cannot be treated lightly. Thus human sin stood in the way of the free exercise of God’s power for saving the lost. This hindrance has been removed by God Himself in the death of Christ on behalf of us all. Everything in your own self and in your past life which might hinder God from directly saving you has been judged in a manner so completely and righteously, that God is satisfied with it as the solution of the problem which your personal sin created. It is a pertinent question now as to whether you are yourself satisfied with that disposition of your sins which satisfies God. (2) The human will is involved in this vast issue. God does not override or coerce the human will. He gives it complete respect. He may persuade you by bringing before your vision the wonders of His grace and marvelous provision for your salvation being mediated through Christ; but even then you must exercise your will. You must elect to stand not in your own worthiness, but as sheltered under the sacrifice and merit of Christ for you. It remains true that “whosoever will, may come.” Thus you, too, must be satisfied with Christ’s saving work for you and willing to rest all your hope upon it as the ground of your own salvation. It therefore follows with unfailing certainty that Christ has died for you bearing your own judgment, and as you willingly commit yourself to Him as your Savior, every hindrance is removed and God’s immeasurable saving power is exercised in your behalf and to the end that His love for you may be satisfied.

God waits to thus exercise His love toward you. He desires to save you with that limitless salvation which His love provides; but He awaits your own choice of the Savior He has provided. There should be no confusion of mind at this point. There is a vast difference between what God may do for you, by which alone you are saved, and what you might do for Him in life and service for Him. It is thus seen that we either trust ourselves to save ourselves—something most hopeless, indeed, or we trust Christ who is in every respect qualified to be our Savior.

3. What Will God Do?

A very important distinction is here drawn, and must be kept in mind, between what God has done and what He will do for those who believe when they believe. As certainly as the provisions of God’s grace made possible through the death and resurrection of Christ are wholly wrought by God and we may enter into these only as we accept them from His hand, so certainly all that enters into our present salvation is wholly wrought of God alone and we can do no more than to accept what He bestows. No one can forgive his own sins, none could clothe himself in the righteousness of God, none could write his name in heaven. These and many other divine undertakings, if ever accomplished, and they are the very structure of salvation by God’s grace, must be wrought by Him alone. Will He do these and all other marvels of His grace for you? About this question you should have no doubt. Has He not prepared the way for your salvation at infinite cost to Himself, by even the sacrifice of His own Son? Are you not justified in believing, as I believe, that Christ’s death for you guarantees the truth that the same love which provides one to die in your place will continue to undertake for you, as you trust Him to do so?

The testimony of the New Testament is that we are saved by God’s grace. This must be true if sinners are saved at all; but too often there is failure to understand what God’s grace really is. As said before, it is easy to suppose that the exercise of grace on the part of God is just a big-heartedness that is willing to excuse and forget the wrong we have done. If that were true, there would be no need for the Savior to come into the world or for His sacrificial, substitutionary death for men. Over against this misconception is the truth that grace on God’s part is what He is rendered free to do in satisfying His love for us on the ground of the death and resurrection of Christ accomplished for us. To those who elect to stand sheltered under the provisions of Christ’s death for them, God’s grace is released, and when His grace is released from all that could ever hinder Him, His infinite love will never be satisfied to do any less for the one He thus saves than that which is the greatest achievement possible to His mighty power. Note here, again, that the divine motive which actuates God in saving sinners is not merely to rescue them from a deplorable estate in which they are found, but His supreme motive is to satisfy His own love for the one He saves—love for you and for me. His measureless love will not be satisfied with any less than the very greatest thing that God can do. If it seems presumptuous for one to attempt to define the greatest thing that God can do, let it be said that God can do nothing in this world or in the next but to make something like His Son, Jesus Christ, and the consummation of our salvation is declared to be that we shall be conformed to the image of His Son. “We shall be like him.”

In this same connection and as regards the motive which actuates God in the salvation of men, it should be remembered that, while God does save the lost with a view to the service they may render after they are saved—we are said to be “created in Christ Jesus unto good works,” and for their own personal advantage—that they “should not perish, but have everlasting life,” His primary motive is the exercise of His grace as an expression of infinite love. It is written that He saves men, “that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” There is that in God which could never have been exercised or manifested had He not undertaken the salvation of sinners. It is unthinkable that this marvelous competency in God should have gone undemonstrated or without exercise forever.

The wonderful fact is that each person who is saved becomes by that salvation a perfect representation before all intelligences—angels and men—of God’s limitless grace. When that throng of the saved is assembled in glory, God might call upon any one of them to stand out alone as the complete and all-satisfying-to-Himself embodiment of all that infinite grace can do, that is, all that God can do to satisfy His love for that soul.

The salvation which God achieves is a wonderful thing and two particular features out of many which enter into it should be had in mind.

a. Divine Cleansing.

There are many indeed who are most attentive to the cleansing of their bodies who have never awakened to the importance of the cleansing of their souls from defilement. Why, indeed, should defilement of the body be recognized and the defilement of the soul remain as though it did not exist, or as though it was of no consequence when the defilement of the soul may easily determine its destiny? Probably it is because one defilement is seen by natural vision and becomes our own responsibility for its cleansing, while the other need is unobserved unless the conscience or the voice of God reveals it, and its cleansing is that which God alone can achieve. In spite of human failure in understanding, the defilement and cleansing of the soul are real and the value of the cleansing is beyond all estimation.

The cleansing of the soul is removal of the stain of sin—sin as God sees it. The Scriptures declare that “the blood of Jesus Christ, his [God’s] Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” This is not a literal, physical application of Christ’s blood to the physical body of the one who is cleansed; it is rather that, because of the shedding of Christ’s blood, which answered the holy demands of God against sin, God is free to cleanse and remove the defilement of sin. What He does when He cleanses is not disclosed, nor need it be. The important thing is that the cleansing is achieved. This cleansing is not wrought merely to satisfy the heart and conscience in the present life. Its real value and limitless completeness will be experienced in all ages to come when, because thus cleansed by the blood of Christ, there will not appear a shadow or stain of earth’s sin to mar the blessedness of our fellowship with God in heaven.

b. Divine Redemption.

Redemption is a legal term. It speaks of a ransom which is justly demanded and fully paid. As before stated, sin is a crime against God’s righteous government. No government can exist that does not exact a penalty for crimes and offenses committed against it. Since God is infinitely holy, His demands are holy and since man is sinful by nature, not one of the human family, other than Christ Himself, has escaped the tragedy of offending God’s authority. As it is written, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23), and “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom 3:10). The penalty of sin is death—death physical, spiritual, and eternal. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). These are very great issues, which concern eternity as well as time.

When Adam sinned he died spiritually and his offspring, to the last individual of those who comprise the human race, are born spiritually dead. From this estate only a divinely wrought redemption can save, a redemption which pays the ransom price for us; for no man can ever redeem himself. If someone other than ourselves does not pay the ransom price, all the divine penalty which reaches into eternity must be experienced. No greater mistake is made respecting this immeasurable truth than to suppose (as many do) that, because God is love, He can and will relinquish the penalty as an act of mercy on His part. It is rather the case that, because God is righteous and just in all He does, no penalty can ever be overlooked or lessened. The whole race, and that involves each individual, being sinful both by nature and by practice, stands condemned. It is at this point, and not before, that the love of God enters the picture, and then not in an inconsiderate passing over of the penalty, but in paying it for us Himself. This is the meaning of Christ’s death as a redemption, a ransom, for us. It is as though a judge sitting in judgment upon one whom he loves finds it necessary to pronounce the sentence and thus to uphold the law. Regardless of what it may cost him, he measures out the whole demand of the law; but then he steps down from the judgment seat and makes bare his own breast and receives the death-blow himself in place of the one he loves but whom he has condemned. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Christ’s death was in no way for Himself. There was no cause of death in Him. He died for you and for me. This is the good news which the gospel brings to us. It is a message of vast import to every unsaved person in the world. It is something to be believed and in it alone, since faith is the sole condition of ransom.

Dallas, Texas