O Love of God, How Strong and True

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

As I was reading through Romans yesterday, I was again struck by the power of these verses. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing. His love certainly is strong and true.

This wonderful hymn captures so many elements of God's love (although as we know, there aren't enough adjectives to describe it!) that I want to look at it one or two verses at a time.

O love of God, how strong and true!
Eternal, and yet ever new;
Uncomprehended and unbought,
Beyond all knowledge and all thought.

That is one thing about God's love - it's beyond out knowledge and comprehension. Paul's prayer for the Ephesians is that they would be rooted in love so that they can know the love of Christ - that they can comprehend with all the saints the breadth and length and height of depth of His love.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19

Because of our human sinful nature, I think it's impossible for us to fully grasp the love of the Father. Paul even tells the Ephesians that Christ's love surpasses knowledge - it is beyond our knowledge and our thought. But we can know the love of Christ - even if we can't fully comprehend it. We certainly know it by what He did for us - taking our place on the cross. This love, which Paul describes to the Ephesians, is the same love he wants them to grasp:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-7

God made us alive together with Christ! He raised us up with Him! He has seated us with Him in the heavenly places! He did all this so that He might show us the surpassing riches of His grace! And He did all of this while we were still dead in our transgressions.

O love of God, how deep and great!
Far deeper than man’s deepest hate;
Self fed, self kindled, like the light,
Changeless, eternal, infinite.

God's love is deep and great. It is changeless and eternal. His love covers us, even our deepest sins and grievances against Him. He is our Creator and He loves us.

Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love.
Micah 7:18

Not only does He love us, He delights in His unchanging love for us.

That is an encouragement to me today. May His love be your light and your hope in whatever you are facing - keep your eyes on Jesus!

O Love of God, How Strong and True
Words by Horatio Bonar

O love of God, how strong and true!
Eternal, and yet ever new;
Uncomprehended and unbought,
Beyond all knowledge and all thought.

O love of God, how deep and great!
Far deeper than man’s deepest hate;
Self fed, self kindled, like the light,
Changeless, eternal, infinite.

O heavenly love, how precious still,
In days of weariness and ill,
In nights of pain and helplessness,
To heal, to comfort, and to bless!

O wide embracing, wondrous love!
We read thee in the sky above,
We read thee in the earth below,
In seas that swell, and streams that flow.

We read thee best in Him who came
To bear for us the cross of shame;
Sent by the Father from on high,
Our life to live, our death to die.

We read thy power to bless and save,
E’en in the darkness of the grave;
Still more in resurrection light,
We read the fullness of thy might.

O love of God, our shield and stay
Through all the perils of our way!
Eternal love, in thee we rest
Forever safe, forever blest.