The Wonders of His Love

This program contains excerpts from the following episodes:

"Song of Solomon, Day 3"

"The Savior Who Loves You"

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Dannah Gresh: Are your kids counting down the days until Christmas? Are you counting down the days until life gets back to normal? Do you ever just wish you could skip the whole holiday? Yes, I actually said that! Of course you’d never say that, but if you’ve ever had those kinds of thoughts, keep listening! You’ll be reminded to wonder at God’s love this Christmas.

Welcome to Revive Our Hearts Weekend, I’m Dannah Gresh. 

When was the last time you paused, really stopped, and thought about the love of God? 

Are you overwhelmed by the depth of His love? Or are you a little numb to it, more focused on crafts and cookies and keeping everybody healthy? Those are good things, but it’s easy to lose sight of why we’re even celebrating. I hope you want to cultivate a sense of awe at how God showed His love for us by sending Jesus. 

So, would you take some time now to slow down with me? As we’re getting ready to celebrate Christmas, now is a great time to marvel at God’s extravagant love. 

To do that, we’re gonna go back to "Joy to the World," which we looked at last week. Let me read the third verse to you, in case it’s been a while since you actually noticed the words you were singing.

He rules the world with truth and grace
And makes the nations prove,
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love.

Now, you may believe God’s love is good. But have you wondered at the thought of it? Do you really believe it’s better than anything? Here’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, from a series on the Song of Solomon.

Nancy: I find that so many women today, and perhaps men as well, but so many women in particular who are afraid to let God love them. They’re afraid to receive the love of Christ, and in many cases this is because of the history of hurt and rejection perhaps from parents, perhaps from a husband or a former husband. There are deep wounds, and these women have put up walls, and they’re not going to let anyone, including God, love them intimately.

Now, I had the blessing of coming from a godly family, and I had a dad who loved our mom and us well. So it’s been perhaps a little easier for me over the years to receive God’s love. I’m so thankful for that background. I know so few have it. But I want to tell you, regardless of which background you come from, the love of God far surpasses, infinitely surpasses the greatest possible human love on this earth.

The bride says, “I’m going to let him kiss me. I’m going to open up my life to receive his love.” And my prayer is that through this study, many, many, many women will find walls coming down in their relationship with Christ.

Now, at times that love may be painful. We’re going to see in the last chapter of this book that God’s love is a jealous love. It’s purifying and purging. Sometimes it touches our lives and our idols, the competitors for Him in our lives, our other loves, it touches them with consuming fire.

But God’s love is also a transforming love. And so the question is,

• Will you let Him touch you? 
• Will you let Him kiss you? 
• Will you let Him touch your life with His love? 
• Will you receive His love? 
• Will you put away your misconceptions about love based on the human love that you may have experienced, or lack of it? 
• Will you let God’s Word tell you how He loves you? 
• Will you receive that love?

As you do, you’re going to have greater capacity to love your mate, to love your children, to love others that God puts in your life.

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” And then she says, “Your love is better than wine.” Now, the literal translation there would be, “Your loves [plural] are better than wine.” Your loves are better than wine. The New International says there, “more delightful than wine.”

“Your loves”—the love of Christ manifests itself in countless ways:

• It’s infinite. 
• It’s measureless. 
• It’s bottomless. 
• It’s limitless. 
• It’s more immense than you could possibly imagine. You can never plumb the depths, or scale the heights, or reach the outer limits of the love of Christ.

And in His amazing love:

• He woos us. 
• He wins our hearts. 
• He makes Himself known to us. 
• He gave His life for us. 
• He lives for us. 
• He intercedes for us. 
• He defends us against our accuser. 
• He guides us. 
• He protects us. 
• He nourishes us. 
• He chastens us. 
• He comforts us. 
• He strengthens us. 
• He sustains us. 
• He sanctifies us. 
• And a whole lot more, because of His love. 

His love is the theme, I believe, of this song. We’re going to see that the love of God, the love of Christ calls for us to respond by loving Him back.

“His love is better than wine.” Now, for the Hebrews, wine was the chief luxury. It was associated with joy and gladness and pleasure. It was that which satisfied, excited. It was wine that would cause ecstasy. It’s intoxicating. It’s exhilarating.

And so this bride is saying, “When I think of the most exciting and ecstatic joys that this world has to offer, your love surpasses them all. I’m not satisfied with anything on this earth because there is nothing on this earth that can fill the empty places of my heart. My heart was made for you, my beloved, and your love is better to me than any human substance, any human experience, any human relationship.” That’s what she’s saying here. “Your love is better than wine.” The love of God love is deeply satisfying, if you ever come to know it. It’s more satisfying than life’s greatest pleasures.

I think of Psalm 63:3 that says, “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you." If His love is better than life, and it is, then it’s better than anything and everything in life.

Think of the pleasures and joys that mean the most to you, the things that are the most delightful to you. Somebody said to me this morning, “Did you see that magnificent sunset last night?” I had to confess I missed it. I probably had my nose deep in these notes. But a magnificent sunset, maybe an ocean view, or a gorgeous spring day, or a romantic dinner with your husband where you just sit and talk for hours. Rare? His love is better than all of that.

The greatest pleasures and delights you can think of, His love is better. Think of the things you most desire, the things you most long for—good health, money in the bank, a raise at work, being able to fit into a size 6, having a husband, having children, having your family together. His love is better than all of that combined.

The Valley of Vision says it this way:

All the good things of life are less than nothing
   when compared with his love . . .
All the treasures of a million worlds could not
   make me richer, happier, more contented,
   for his unsearchable riches are mine.

This bride feels that her groom’s love is incomparable, and she’s eager to accept his expressions of intimacy and love.

My prayer for you is that you will come to know and experience that love, if you never have before, for the first time. Perhaps you’ve known Christ, you’ve known His love in some measure, maybe for many years. I’ve been learning about the love of God, being drawn by Him into His love. God is taking me to greater depths of the amazing love of Christ . . . and that’s what I long for you to know as well.

Dannah: God’s love never gets old. Isn’t that incredible? What a wonderful reminder from Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. 

So, as we contemplate the wonders of His love, here’s my prayer for us: may we be able to comprehend that love, just as Paul prayed in his letter to the church at Ephesus. Chapter 3, verses 17–18:

I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love. 

As part of really understanding the love of God, we get a fuller picture when we think about Jesus and the cross. Erika VanHaitsma is going to set the scene of Jesus’ culture to help us get a glimpse of the love of Christ. 

Erika VanHaitsma: The Middle East is a culture of shame; it’s very different from our culture. Shame is how you keep people in line. You would literally rather die than be put to shame . . . and you do not want to bring shame on your family or your friends.

Jesus is about to go through some of the most shameful experiences in that culture you can, and it’s going to start with his closest friends. The relationship between a disciple and his teacher was supposed to be closer than that of a child to his father.

In fact, they had a saying that if both your father and your teacher are being held for ransom, you rescue your teacher first. Not that your father’s not important—the parent/child relationship was extremely important.

What they’re trying to say is, as important as this relationship with your mom and dad is, the relationship with the teacher is supposed to be even greater. You are supposed to, as a disciple, give your life to protect your teacher . . . at the very least, stand with them through everything.

So in the Garden of Gethsemane, when the soldiers come to take Jesus, what do His disciples do? They flee; they abandon their Teacher. Not only has He now been deserted by His closest friends, He has been put to shame by them . . . because, what kind of a teacher are you, that even your disciples won’t stay?

Then Jesus has to go through fake trials. He’s mocked; He’s beaten; He’s humiliated and lied about—heaping on even more shame—and then there’s the flogging. The Romans had several different levels of flogging. The most painful level occurred for those who were going to be crucified.

In fact, it was so painful, many did not survive. Their bodies just couldn’t take the pain, and they would die. If you happened to pass out because of the pain, they would throw salt water on your wounds to shock you back to wakefulness so they could inflict more pain. Jesus endured the flogging, because He had to make it to the cross.

And finally, He is on the cross. This is not only one of the most painful ways to die—throughout the history of the world—this is also, in that culture, the most shameful way to die. You are being publicly humiliated. And not only you, but by connection, everybody in your family—and friends—with you.

So you’re putting shame on those you love. The mental, emotional, and physical pain that Jesus endured this day, we cannot even imagine!

And then, added on top of all that, on the cross Jesus becomes our Passover Lamb. It is His blood this time that’s paying the redemption for the salvation of His people. It is His perfect sacrifice that will break the bonds of sin, and His resurrection will break the cords of death!

The Bible says that, “For the joy . . . set before him [Jesus] endured the cross, despising the shame and [has sat down] at the right hand of the [Father]” (Heb. 12:2). 

So, knowing that all this was coming, is it any wonder that in the Garden Jesus pleads with His Father, “Take this cup from Me. There has to be another way!” But knowing what was coming, “Not My will but Yours be done. So be it. I’m willing” (see Matt. 26:39).

How? How is Jesus able to say this? It’s not in His divinity, because His divinity is not about to suffer. His humanity is what is about to break. It is His blood that is about to be poured out, so it is His human flesh—His physical-ness—that has to say “yes” to His Father.

How is He able to tell His Father—knowing all He is about to endure—“So be it. Yes.” I think partly because Jesus spent His whole life saying “yes” to His Father. In the little things, in the big things—His habit, His attitude, His mindset was “yes, yes, yes.” So when that moment—that trial—came, He was already conditioned. “Yes.” He said, “Yes.”

But another reason I believe Jesus was able to say “yes” was because He had just celebrated the Passover. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the last supper Jesus ate with His disciples was the festival of the Passover. God is way too detail-oriented for that.

Mere hours before the cross, Jesus has just spent hours recounting the covenant story, the Exodus. He spent the time singing through very appropriate psalms. He knows this has been His Father’s plan from the beginning.

During the festival of Passover, Jesus was reminded of the amazing love of His Father for these people, the amazing works of His Father for their redemption. He’s reminded how the Lover came once, bounding over the mountains, tearing heaven and earth to get to the one He loves. And now it’s time to do it again.

In the Passover meal, His spirit was fortified, His humanity was reminded. So now He’s able to say in the Garden, “Not My will but Yours be done.” In other words, “This is the moment everything changes! This is the moment We’ve been waiting for. This is what We’ve been working for, for thousands of years, Father. It’s time to do it again. This is the fulfillment of those promises We made way back to Abraham. Let’s do it.”

The Lover is coming once again, bounding over the mountains, leaping over the hills! “Look, my Beloved, there He stands!” But now my Beloved is covered with shame . . . and dripping with blood. Now, His body is torn, His heart has been turned to wax, His bones are out of joint.

All men mock and shame my Beloved! But there He is, high and lifted up, filled with faithfulness to His Father and love for you!

Dannah: Wow, there is no other love like the love of God, the love of Christ. It’s painful to think about what Jesus went through and endured for us, but it gives us a deeper understanding of His sacrifice. Again, that was Erika VanHaitsma. 

At this time of year, we celebrate the fact that Jesus took on humanity. He came for you . . . for me . . . and He came to die. This kind of love goes beyond words and emotions. God’s love is a love that saves, that rescues. It's love in action.

You know, as we listened to Erika teach just then, I could not help but think of my shame. So many stories of my selfishness, my pride, and sin flashed in my mind. But unlike Jesus, I earned my shame. It was caused by my sin. Jesus took undeserved shame upon Himself so I did not have to be weighed down by that! He set me free. What kind of love is that?!

What should be our response to this amazing love? Wonder. Worship. Awe. Psalm 95, verses 6–7 says this: 

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
   let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
   and we are the people of his pasture,
   and the sheep of his hand.

He loves us.

Yeah, I know you still have to bake cookies for that party. Worship while you do it! Get your kids involved. Share your wonder with them.

I want you to listen to a Christmas carol that really does a good job inviting you to wonder and worship. It’s not a very common one; you may not be familiar with it, but I think you’ll like it.

Song: 

Gathered round Your table on this holy eve,
Viewing Bethlehem’s stable we rejoice and grieve;
Joy to see You lying in Your manger bed,
Weep to see You dying in our sinful stead.

Prince of Glory, gracing Heav’n ere time began,
Now for us embracing death as Son of Man;
By Your birth so lowly, by Your love so true,
By Your cross most holy, Lord, we worship You!

Bethlehem’s Incarnation, Calvary’s bitter cross,
Wrought for us salvation by Your pain and loss;
Now we fall before You in this holy place,
Prostrate we adore You, for Your gift of grace.

With profoundest wonder we Your body take–
Laid in manger yonder, broken for our sake:
Hushed in adoration we approach the cup–
Bethlehem’s pure oblation freely offered up.

Christmas Babe so tender, Lamb who bore our blame,
How shall sinners render praises due Your name?
Do Your own good pleasure in the lives we bring;
In Your ransomed treasure reign forever King!¹

Dannah: Don’t we all need that reminder? That’s “A Communion Hymn for Christmas.” Go look it up if you want to read the words again!

Hopefully messages like what you’ve heard today help you stop long enough from your Christmas shopping and cookie baking to remember why this season is so worth celebrating. Oh, and the next time you hear “Joy to the World,” maybe that concept of “the wonders of His love” will mean just a little more to you. 

Revive Our Hearts is sharing the truth about God’s love, not only at Christmastime but all year long, with women across the world. Thanks to listeners like you, we’re able to do that through podcasts and programs, books, Bible studies, conferences, and more. 

December is a crucial month for our ministry because it’s when we typically receive almost half of our donations. This year, we’re praying for the Lord to provide a total of four million dollars to help continue and expand our outreach. I know, that sounds like a big number. But our God is bigger, and He’s provided an exciting opportunity through some friends of Revive Our Hearts. They believe in how God is working through this ministry, and they’ve offered a matching gift challenge. So any amount you give here in December, they will match—dollar for dollar—up to two million dollars. I've got to tell you, this a huge blessing for us!

I’d encourage you to pray and consider partnering with us. Along with your donation, your impact will be doubled as women around the world will hear the hope of Jesus and experience what it means to thrive in Christ. You can make your gift by calling 1-800-569-5959, or go to ReviveOurHearts.com and click the “donate” button. 

Have a wonderful Christmas this week celebrating Jesus’ birth! And come back next week so that we can start the new year out focused on Jesus.

Thanks for listening today. I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you next time for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

¹“A Communion Hymn for Christmas,” Stephanie Seefeldt, Cradle and Cross, ℗ 2011 Stephanie Seefeldt.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.