“I will love them freely.” —Hosea 14:4.

THIS sentence is a body of Divinity in miniature. He who understands its meaning is a theologian, and he who can dive into its fullness is a true Master in Divinity. “I will love them freely,” is a condensation of the glorious message of salvation which was delivered to us in Christ Jesus our Redeemer. The sense hinges upon the word “freely.” “I will love them freely.” Here is the glorious, the suitable, the Divine way by which love streams from Heaven to earth. It is, indeed, the only way in which God can love such as we are. It may be that He can love angels because of their goodness. But He could not love us for that reason. The only manner in which love can come from God to fallen creatures is expressed in the word “freely.” Here we have spontaneous love flowing forth to those who neither deserved it, purchased it, nor sought after it.

No labor of man procures it. No effort of man can add to it. God is good from the simple necessity of His Nature. God is Love simply because it is His Essence to be so. He pours forth His love in plenteous streams to undeserving, illdeserving, Hell-deserving objects—simply because He, “will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion.” It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.

Appeal to any of the saints on earth, and they will tell you that they never could perceive any good thing in themselves.

I have searched my own heart

—I hope with some degree of earnestness

—and so far from finding any reason in myself why God should love me,

I can find a thousand reasons why He should destroy me, and drive me forever from His Presence.

The best thoughts we have are defiled with sin.

Our very faith is mixed with unbelief.

The most noble devotion which we ever paid to God is far inferior to His desserts, and is marred with infirmity and fault.

Remember that many of those who are the true servants of God were once the very worst servants of Satan. Does it not surprise you that men who were the companions of the harlot are now saints of the Most High? The drunkard, the blasphemer, the man who defied man’s laws as well as God’s—such were some of us—but we are washed, we are cleansed, we are sanctified.

I never did meet, and I never expect to meet with any saved soul that would ever, for a moment, tolerate the thought of there being any goodness in itself to merit God’s esteem. No! Vile and full of sin I am, and if You have mercy on me, O God, it is because You will, for I merit none.

With reverence let me say it—if there is something good in man, it is no wonder that God should love him. It would be unjust if He did not. If naturally in man there is any virtue. If there is any praise, if there is any commendable repentance, or any acceptable faith—man ought to be loved. This is not a thing to amaze the ages, nor to set the angels singing, nor to move the mountains and hills in astonishment.

But for God to love a man who is evil all over—to love him when there is every reason for hating him—when there is not a trace of goodness in him—oh, this is enough to make the rocks break their silence, and the hills burst forth into music!

Grace Abounding, a sermon delivered on Sunday morning,

March 22, 1863,

By the Rev. C.H. Spurgeon,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

“I will love them freely.” —Hosea 14:4

Read the rest of this Christ exalting sermon on the Gospel of God’s free and sovereign abounding grace here in pdf.