Psalm 103:17; Jeremiah 31:3
The mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him.
I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): I’m quite sure that Paul went into these particular measurements in order that he might encourage the Ephesians, and encourage us through them, to work it out in this way. It’s no use saying “Oh yes, I’m going to meditate on the love of God in some abstract manner.” It’s not enough. You’ll never get it in that way. Now then, look at this length. What does it convey? Well, I think it conveys the endless character of the love of Christ…Have you ever considered the eternity of Christ’s love toward you, and to all the saints?
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Its length reaches from one eternity to another. It is from everlasting in the heart of God―A love from everlasting, which does not commence in time with faith, repentance, and new obedience; these being the fruits and effects of it; but was from all eternity, as appears from the eternal choice of the persons loved in Christ; from the everlasting covenant made with them in Him; from the constitution and setting up of Christ as their Mediator from everlasting; and from the security of their persons and grace in Him, before the world began.
MARY WINSLOW (1774-1854): His thoughts of love towards us have been from everlasting to everlasting. He loved us when we were wandering far from Him, and far from happiness. He loved us when we knew Him not. He loved us out of Satan’s kingdom into the kingdom of grace, and He will love us into the kingdom of glory.
JOHN GILL:This love will endure to everlasting, without any variation or change; nothing can separate from it―God is unchangeable; this is asserted by Himself: I am the Lord; I change not, Malachi 3:6.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): That love proceeds from One “with whom there is no variablenesss, neither shadow of turning,” James 1:17.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): This is an attribute of His nature, and must be from everlasting to everlasting.
JOHN GILL: This love is like Himself, sovereign, unchangeable, and everlasting: “I have loved thee:” I―who am the great God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; a God of infinite purity and holiness, doing whatever I please in heaven and in earth, and the Lord that changes not―“I have loved thee”―thee, personally.
EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): Unworthy as you are, He loves you infinitely more than you can conceive; and will continue to love you while eternity shall last.
AUGUSTUS TOPLADY (1713-1778): Thus runs the covenant of grace: “I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me,” Jeremiah 32:40. Now if God will neither leave them, nor suffer them to leave Him, their final perseverance in grace to glory must be certain and infallible.
GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): Without the belief of the doctrine of election, and the immutability of the free love of God, I cannot see how it is possible that any should have a comfortable assurance of eternal salvation―and this assurance can only arise from a belief of God’s electing everlasting love―that they may no longer build upon their own faithfulness, but on the unchangableness of that God, whose gifts and callings are without repentance.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: There is nothing that gives me greater hope and assurance this morning than my knowledge of the character of God―God is eternal, God is immutable, God is everlasting, God never changes His purposes―Is there a greater comfort than that?
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Christ does not love you to-day and cast you away tomorrow.
MARY WINSLOW: Our doubts and fears may harass us, but they can make no alteration in His eternal purposes. Jesus is alive; never fear! He is risen and at the right hand of the Majesty of heaven, and is the executor of His own will, entrusting it not to the highest angel in heaven. Let us then encourage our hearts in our Lord, and know that while we are looking to Jesus, He is at that very moment looking on us with a heart overflowing with love, as eternal as Himself.
A. W. PINK: It is as invariable as His nature. Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end, John 13:1.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, Romans 8:38.39.
Now don’t you see the importance of meditating upon all this? And contemplating it? You see, it is because we don’t do that, that we tend to think at times that He’s forgotten us, or that He’s left us, when troubles and problems and trials come, and we have our difficulties and disappointments. The trouble is you can’t see it, you haven’t realized its eternal character, you haven’t grasped this dimension of length―Nothing! Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is Christ Jesus our Lord. What a comfort! What a consolation! What a strength, what a stay in times of trial and in times of adversity…If He has set His heart and His affections upon you, my dear friend, it will never cease to be―Never! Nothing will ever be able to pluck you out of His hand, nothing will ever rob you of that love. Let hell be let loose, let everything go against you, nothing will ever make Him let you go. But this goes on even into eternity.
C. H. SPURGEON: Beloved, can you conceive how much Christ will love you when you are in heaven? Have you ever tried to fathom that bottomless sea of affection in which you shall swim, when you shall bathe yourself in seas of heavenly rest? Did you ever think of the love which Christ will manifest to you, when He shall present you without spot, or blemish, or any such thing before his Father’s throne? Well, pause and remember that He loves you at this hour as much as He will love you then; for He will be the same for ever as He is today, and He is the same today as He will be for ever…The same stability that the anchor gives the ship, when it hath at last got the grip of some immovable rock, that same stability doth our hope give to our spirits, when, like an anchor, it fixes itself in a truth so glorious as this—Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever, Hebrews 13:11.
A. W. PINK: We may feed on it now, and it shall be our endless delight in heaven.
