Loving Jesus

I’ve been writing a blog for a while now, talking about doctrine, talking about issues in the Christian life, talking about going to Africa, and you know, I was thinking today that I wanted to take the opportunity to just stop and say something very simple, I love Jesus.
I love everything about Him.

I love the way He is.

I sin all the time and He doesn’t give up on me. I am no one important yet He spends all day with me. I am a slow learner yet He keeps on teaching me. I am a sensitive person and He is so kind. I am seriously needy and He is constantly giving.

I love what He’s done.

How He became man. How He suffered. How He died. How He bore the wrath of God. How He rose again. How He prays. How He did all this…for me…personally.

I love who He is.

I was listening recently to a fellow TMC alumnus being interviewed on the radio, (The Way of the Master podcast) denying the deity of Jesus and it honestly hurts to hear him say those things about Jesus. Not just in a hey he’s got his doctrine wrong kind of way, but in a man that’s heartbreaking to hear someone talking about the One I love like that.

I love that Jesus is fully man.

Reading through the gospels, I love that He got tired. I love that He had to pray. I love that He asked questions. I love that He agonized over things.

I know Jesus can sympathize with me in my weaknesses because He became man. He knows what it is like to be me.

But I also love that Jesus is fully God.

Reading the gospels, I love watching Him talking to the whirlwind and telling it to stop and seeing it listen. I love watching the demons shudder in fear and submit to His authority. I love watching Him touch the leper and seeing the leprosy vanish instantly. I love hearing Him say, before Abraham was I am.

I know Jesus can do something about my weaknesses because He is God. If He weren’t, what hope could I find in the cross?

Spurgeon puts it better than I ever could when he writes,

“I beg you to give Christ your love. It is all you can give him. It is a poor thing, but he values it.

He would sooner have your heart than all the gold in Europe. He would sooner have the heart of a poor servant girl, or of a poor humble laborer upon the soil, than the queen’s
diadem.

He loves love. Love is his gem– his jewel.

He delights to win it, and if he be indeed altogether lovely, let him have it.   Is Christ altogether lovely? Then do I love him? As a child of God, do I love him as much as I ought?

I do love him. Yes, blessed be his name, I do love him.

But what a poor, cold, chill love it is.

How few are the sacrifices I make for him.

How few are the offerings that I present to him.

How little is the fellowship that I maintain with him.

Christian, is there a ‘rival’ in your heart? Do you allow anyone to come in between you and him who is “altogether lovely”? If so, chase out the intruder!

Christ must have all your heart, and let me tell you the more we love him the more bliss we shall have.

A soul that is altogether given up to the love of Christ lives above care and sorrow.

It has care and sorrow, but the love of Christ kills all the bitterness by its inexpressible sweetness!

I cannot tell you how near a man may live to heaven but I am persuaded that a very large proportion of the bliss of heaven may be enjoyed before we come there.

There is one conduit pipe through which heavenly joy will flow, and if you draw from it you may have as much as you desire. “Abide in me” says Christ; and if you do abide in his love you shall have his joy fulfilled in yourselves that your joy may be full. You will have more capacious vessels when you get to heaven, but even now the little vessel that you have can be filled up to the brim by knowing the inexpressible loveliness of Jesus, and surrendering your hearts to it.

Come, believing hearts, yield again to his charms! Surrender yourselves to the supremacy of his affection! Christ is so lovely that I should not live without loving him!

“Yes, he is altogether lovely.”

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