The Gracious Heart of Jesus (Ryle)

Christ’s love is the source of great, deep, and lasting comfort in the Christian’s life.  I know that I’m sinful, weak, imperfect, and generally not an awesome Christian.  However, I don’t despair or give up because Jesus loves me.  He loves me with an everlasting love (Jer. 31:3).  J. C. Ryle said it well when he commented on Peter’s denial and Christ’s subsequent loving look in Luke 22:61a (At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter [NLT]):

The love of Christ toward his people is a deep well which has no bottom. Let us never measure it by trying to compare it with any kind of love men and women can give. It exceeds all other love in the same way that the sun exceeds all other light. Christ’s love is a mine of compassion, patience, and readiness to forgive sin. Let us never be afraid to trust that love when we first feel our sins. Let us never be afraid to go on trusting it after we have once believed. No one need ever despair, however far he may have fallen, if he will only repent and turn to Christ. If the heart of Jesus was so gracious when he was a prisoner in the judgment hall, we surely need not think it is less gracious when he sits in glory at the right hand of God.

J. C. Ryle, Luke, Crossway Classic Commentaries (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1997), Lk 22:54–62.

Shane Lems
Hammond, WI