He has loved us with an everlasting love. If He had meant to cast us off, He would have had plenty of opportunity to do that long ago--and plenty of reason as well. But no sin which we are capable of committing has ever taken God by surprise for He knew we were just like that. . . Do you imagine that the Lord Jesus could come from heaven to save you and me, and be indifferent to the plight that some of us are in today? Did He go to Gethsemane and Calvary, and bear all the wrath of God for the judgment of my sin, then rise from the tomb to ascend into heaven and give to me the gift of resurrection life to live within this mortal body, only to let me perish? When you think of what He has done for you personally today, can you ever say "Does He really care?" Once you were His enemy, now you are His friend. Once you were dead in sin, now you are alive in a relationship that is eternal. When you called on Him as a sinner He saved you on the ground of the blood that was shed for you. Do you imagine He is going to allow His child to be caste away? It is only deliberate, willful sin that has not been confessed and forgiven that makes us feel that God has forsaken us, for that sin causes Him to hide His face from us. . .
If, however, there is no known sin or disobedience between you and the Lord, and as you think afresh of the blood of the everlasting covenant, remember that the Lord Jesus, because of that blood, cannot let one of His children go. "The outward man may perish, but the inward man is renewed day by day." Or as J. B. Phillips puts it in his graphic paraphrase of 2 Cor. 4:16: "This is the reason why we never collapse: the body suffers wear and tear, but we receive fresh daily strength inwardly, till we meet Him face to face."
