Matt Chandler serves up a delicious gospel spread from Colossions 1:13-23. Enjoy!

Beautiful words from Horatius Bonar’s hymn, I Hear the Words of Love, describing truths yet more beautiful still.

My love is oft-times low,
My joy still ebbs and flows;
But peace with Him remains the same –
No change Jehovah knows.

I change, He changes not,
The Christ can never die;
His love, not mine, the resting place,
His truth, not mine, the tie.

I love this quote from Spurgeon:

Remember, sinner, it is not thy hold of Christ that saves thee – it is Christ; it is not thy joy in Christ that saves thee – it is Christ; it is not even faith in Christ, though that is the instrument – it is Christ’s blood and merits; therefore, look not to thy hope, but to Christ, the source of thy hope; look not to thy faith, but to Christ, the author and finisher of thy faith; and if thou doest that, ten thousand devils cannot throw thee down… There is one thing which we all of us too much becloud in our preaching, though I believe we do it very unintentionally – namely, the great truth that it is not prayer, it is not faith, it is not our doings, it is not our feelings upon which we must rest, but upon Christ, and on Christ alone. We are apt to think that we are not in a right state, that we do not feel enough, instead of remembering that our business is not with self, but Christ. Let me beseech thee, look only to Christ; never expect deliverance from self, from ministers, or from any means of any kind apart from Christ; keep thine eye simply on Him; let his death, His agonies, His groans, His sufferings, His merits, His glories, His intercession, be fresh upon thy mind; when thou wakest in the morning look for Him; when thou liest down at night look for Him.

The Forgotten Spurgeon, Iain Murray, p42

“Excuse me!”

“Hi!” I call out to the woman approaching me on the street.

She has a six-pack of beers under one arm and a couple of packs of cigarettes in her hand. I wonder what she wants.

“Do you have children?” she asks.

“No, I don’t,” I reply, feeling slightly confused.

“Do you have a dad then?”

“Yes I do.”

“Does he love you? Does he always love you?”

“Yes he does.”

“Even if you do something really, really bad?” she asked.

I look into her eyes – pain, hurt. “Yes, I think he would.”

“So even if I do something really bad my dad will still love me?”

Tears are welling up in her eyes.

I nod.

She looks at me gratefully and we go our separate ways.

As I continue my walk to the supermarket on that cold, bright winter morning I realise I am wrong.

*

A dad’s love should be unconditional. But it isn’t always.

I like to think my dad would always love me no matter what. But I can’t know that he will. What if he changes? What if I do something really terrible?

But I do know my dad in heaven will always love me. I know this because he demonstrated his love once and for all in giving his life for me.

He died to right every wrong that I have done and will ever do. When he did this he knew every bad thing that I would do to him and yet he still did it. Nothing I do wrong ever surprises him.

*

I didn’t think of telling the woman this. I should have; I know my dad in heaven wants everyone to know of his amazing love for them.

I feel rubbish for messing up and wasting the opportunity to tell this woman of his love.

Then the truth comes home.

He still loves me even though I mess up because it doesn’t depend on me. The reality of his love is rooted in an event in history. I can’t change it by what I do or don’t do.

Amazing, undeserved, unchanging love!

This is love worth dying for! This is love worth living for!