Mar 13
16
Unquenchable!
(Bonar, “The Love That Passes Knowledge”)
“Many waters cannot quench love; neither can rivers drown it.” Song of Solomon 8:7
Let us take this verse as descriptive of the love of Christ, the “love that passes knowledge.” Nothing in heaven, or earth, or hell is able to extinguish or cool the love of Christ; the one love whose dimensions are beyond all measure!
It is unquenchable!
1. The waters of SHAME AND SUFFERING sought to quench and drown it. They would have hindered its outflowing, and come (like Peter) between the
Savior and the cross; but this love refused to be arrested on its way to Calvary; it would not be either quenched or drowned. Herein was love! It overleaped all the barriers in its way. Its fire would not be quenched, its life would not be drowned!
2. The waters of DEATH sought to quench it. Their waves and billows went over him. The grave sought to cool or quench it; but it proved itself stronger
than death. Neither death nor the grave could alter or weaken it. It came out of both as strong as before. Love defied death, and overcame it!
3. The waters of OUR UNWORTHINESS could not quench nor drown love. In general we find love drawing to the loveable; and when anything unseemly
occurs, withdrawing from its object. Not so here. All our unfitness and unloveableness could not quench nor drown his love. It clung to the unlovely, and
refused to be torn away!
4. The waters of OUR LONG REJECTION sought to quench it. After the gospel had showed us that personal unworthiness could not arrest the love of Christ, we continued to reject him and his love. Yet his love surmounted this unbelief, and
survived this rejection. In spite of all it remained unquenched!
5. The waters of OUR DAILY INCONSISTENCY sought to quench it. Even after we have believed, we are constantly coming short. Ah! what inconsistencies,
coldness, backslidings, lukewarmness, doubtings, worldliness, and such like, are daily flowing over this love to quench its fire and drown its life! Yet it survives all; it remains unquenched and unquenchable! All these infinite evils in us are like “waters,” “many waters”; like “floods”; torrents of sin, waves and billows of evil; all constantly laboring to quench and drown the love of Christ! And truly
they would have annihilated any other love; any love less than divine. But the love of Christ is unchangeable and everlasting! His love is invincible, and irresistible as death; it is a jealous love, unyielding and inexorable as the grave! All earth and heaven together would be ineffectual to cool or quench His mighty love! The love of Christ truly passes knowledge. It is infinite like himself. It emerges out of every
storm or flood. It survives all our unworthiness, and unbelief, and rejection!
Here, then, is the love of Christ! Its breadth, length, height, and depth, are absolutely immeasurable!
Sinner, resort immediately to the fountain of the Redeemer’s blood, while it is yet open. Come, without delay: “Wash, and be clean.” “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let each one who hears them say, “Come.” Let the thirsty ones come—anyone who wants to. Let them come and drink the water of life without charge.” If you thus come to the fountain of living water, you will be able to adopt the language of Cowper, and say–
There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins
And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains
The dying thief rejoiced to see That fountain in his day;
And there may I, though vile as he Wash all my sins away Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood Shall never lose its power Till all the ransomed church of God Are saved, to sin no more
For since by faith I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply
Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue
Lies silent in the grave Then in a nobler, sweeter song
I’ll sing thy power to save William Cowper, 1800.