The Heart of Jesus

I have been reading through A.W. Tozer's A Cloud by Day, a Fire by Night, a short compilation of selected sermons by James L. Snyder.  Tozer enjoyed poetry and hymns, and last night I read a poem by Oswald J. Smith titled "Deeper and Deeper" on page 107:

Into the heart of Jesus

Deeper and deeper I go,

Seeking to know the reason

Why He should love me so,

Why He should stoop to lift me

Up from the miry clay,

Saving my soul, making me whole,

Though I had wandered away.

The key to appreciating the sentiments of this poem are found in the first line:  it is Jesus we are to seek as we relish His grace and love.  It does us no good to look to ourselves to see why we are worthy of God's compassion, deliverance, and salvation because in our flesh no good thing dwells.  The world looks at Jesus through many lenses of unbelief, seeing no beauty in the One crucified on Calvary.  But those who have received His love and redemption through faith in Jesus look upon Him with wonder:  how good He must be to love the unlovable!  What humility and meekness is revealed in our LORD through His sacrifice; what generosity in His gifts and promises.  That He would pursue us when we wandered and wilfully disobeyed!

In Christ there is an endless layering of His glory with each new revelation.  His goodness is infinite and enduring forever, and of His love there is no end.  The answer to the question of why Jesus loves us so is found in Him alone and all His glorious attributes.  Every day we can be surprised and overwhelmed with the grace of God, for though He is God He picked us fallen sinners from the mire to be His chosen, His beloved.  We weren't just a "project" for Him to work on to feel good about Himself, but because He is good Jesus cares for everyone with all His heart.  He loves us because He is good, not due to our goodness.

Praise the LORD for making Himself known to us, having drawn us to Himself with cords of love!  Jesus has sought us out, called our names, stopped and stooped to lift us up, and saved us by His grace.  When the priest and Levite saw the man left for dead in the parable, they walked to the other side of the road.  The holiness and sanctification of Jesus is infinitely greater than mere man, yet He came to us when we were dead in sins and broken, healing and restoring us at His own expense.  God's love isn't content to be concealed or at a distance but draws near by grace.  Isn't it beautiful who Jesus is and all He has done?