God's Radical Choice

"The love of Christ - O boundless love! O the unsearchable riches of Christ's love! O happy souls have interest in this love, in these riches! This love made God willing to be made a curse, the Lord of life to die a base, accursed, and cruel death. Lord, there was no sorrow like your sorrow, no love like your love. Was it not enough, dearest Savior, that you condescended to pray, sigh, and weep for us, but were willing also to bleed and die for us? Was it not enough that you were hated, slandered, and blasphemed, but also scourged, nailed, wounded, and crucified? Was it not enough that you felt the cruelty of man, but also underwent the wrath of God? Was it not enough that you died not only once, but actually twice in soul and body enduring the second death? O the transcendent love of Christ! Heaven and earth are astonished by it. What tongue can express it? What heart can conceive it? The tongues, the thoughts of men and angels are far below it. O the height, depth, breadth, and length of the love of Christ! The love of Christ is free, unchangeable, and incomprehensible. He loved us when we had no beauty to attract his affections. We lay trodden under foot and polluted in our blood. There is nothing lovely in man. Christ knew all this clearly. In eternity past, Christ saw all our faults, and not one after another, but all together. This adds great wonder to the love of Christ. He saw every perverse look, every unkind gesture, every rebellious motion, every disingenuous act. Every heart was visible from eternity. Here is the wonder of Christ's love: it is fixed upon man, the worst of creatures. Consider his resolution, and wonder: I will give eternal life to those who have dishonored me." 

                                         - David Clarkson in Voices From the Past