XVIII. GOD'S LOVE COMMENDED TO US.
"But Cod commendeth His
love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, died for us."-Romans
v. 8.
WHAT is meant here by "commend?" To recommend to set
forth in a clear and strong light.
Towards whom is this love exercised? Towards us -- towards
all beings of our lost race. To each one of us He manifests this love. Is it
not written, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life?"
How does He commend this love? By giving His Son to die for us. By giving
one who was a Son and a Son well-beloved. It is written that God
"gave Him a ransom for all;" and that "He tasted death for every
man." We are not to suppose that He died for the sum total of mankind in
such a sense that His death is not truly for each one in particular. It is a
great mistake into which some fall, to suppose that Christ died for the race in
general, and not for each one in particular. By this mistake, the Gospel is
likely to lose much of its practical power on our hearts. We need to apprehend
it is Paul did, who said of Jesus Christ, "He loved me and gave
Himself for me." We need to make this personal application of
Christ's death. No doubt this was the great secret of Paul's holy life, and of
his great power in preaching the Gospel. So we are to regard Jesus as having
loved us personally and individually. Let us consider how much pains God
has taken to make us feel that He cares for us personally. It is so in His
providence, and so also in His Gospel. He would fain make us single ourselves
from the mass and feel that His loving eye and heart are upon us individually.
For what end does He commend His love to us? Is it an ambition
to make a display? Surely there can be no affectation in this. God is
infinitely above all affectation. He must from His very nature act honestly. Of
course He must have some good reason for this manifestation of His love. No
doubt He seeks to prove to us the reality of His love. Feeling the most perfect
love towards our lost race, He deemed it best to reveal this love and make it
manifest, both to us and to all His creatures. And what could evince His love,
if this gift of His Son does not? Oh, how gloriously is love revealed in this
great sacrifice! How this makes divine love stand out prominently before the
universe! What else could He have done that would prove His love so
effectually?
Again: He would show that His love is unselfish, for
Jesus did not die for us as friends, but as enemies. It was while we
were yet enemies that He died for us. On this point, Paul suggests that
"scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure for a good
man, some would even dare to die." But our race were far as possible
from being good. Indeed,! they were not even righteous, but were utterly
wicked. For a very dear friend one might be willing to die. There have been
soldiers who, to save the life of a beloved officer, have taken into their own
bosom the shaft of death; but for one who is merely just and not so much as
good, this sacrifice could scarcely be made. How much less for an enemy! Herein
we may see how greatly "God commendeth His love to us, in that while we
were yet enemies, Christ died for us." Notice yet further, that this love
of God to us can not be the love of esteem or complacency, because there is in
us no ground for such a love. It can be no other than the love of unselfish
benevolence. This love had been called in question. Satan had questioned it in
Eden. He made bold to insinuate, "Hath your God indeed said, Ye shall not
eat of every tree in the garden?" Why should he wish to debar you from such
a pleasure? So the old Serpent sought to cast suspicion on the benevolence of
God. Hence there was the more reason why God should vindicate His love.
He would also commend the great strength of this love. We should
think we gave evidence of strong love -- if we were to give our friend a great
sum of money. But what is any sum of money compared with giving up a dear Son
to die? Oh, surely it is surpassing love, beyond measure wonderful, that Jesus
should not only labor and suffer, but should really die! Was ever love
like this?
Again: God designed also to reveal the moral character of
His love for men, and especially its justice. He could not show favors to the
guilty until His government was made secure and His law was duly honored.
Without this sacrifice, He knew it could not be safe to pardon. God must
maintain the honor of His throne. He must show that He could never wink at sin.
He felt the solemn necessity of giving a public rebuke of sin before the
universe. This rebuke was the more expressive because Jesus Himself was
sinless. Of course it must be seen that -- sin His death God was not frowning
on His sin, but on the sin of those whose sins He bore and in whose
place He stood.
This shows God's abhorrence of sin since Jesus stood as our
representative. While He stood in this position, God could not spare Him, but
laid on Him the chastisement of our iniquities. Oh, what a rebuke of sin was
that! How expressively did it show that God abhorred sin, yet loved the sinner!
These were among the great objects in view -- no beget in our souls the
two-fold conviction of His love for us and of our sin against
Him. He would make those convictions strong and abiding. So He sets forth Jesus
crucified before our eyes -- a far more expressive thing than any mere words.
No saying that He loved us could approximate towards the strength and
impressiveness of this manifestation. In no other way could He make it seem so
much a reality -- so touching and so overpowering. Thus he commends it to our
regard. Thus He invites us to look at it. He tells us angels desire to look
into it. He would have us weigh this great fact, examine all its bearings,
until it shall come full upon our souls with its power to save. He commends it
to us to be reciprocated, as if He would incite us to love Him who has so loved
us. Of course He would have us understand this love, and appreciate it, that we
may requite it with responsive love in return. It is an example For us that we
may love our enemies and, much more, our brethren. Oh, when this love has taken
its effect on our hearts, how deeply do we feel that we can not hate any one
for whom Christ died? Then instead of selfishly thrusting our neighbor off, and
grasping the good to which his claim is fully as great as ours, we love him
with a love so deep and so pure that it can not be in our heart to do him
wrong.
It was thus a part of the divine purpose to show us what true
love is. As one said in prayer, "We thank Thee, Father, that Thou hast
given us Thy Son to teach us how to love." Yes, God would let us know that
He Himself is love, and hence that if we would be His children, we too
must love Him and love one another. He would reveal His love so as to draw us
into sympathy with Himself and make us like Him. Do you not suppose that a
thorough consideration of God's love, as manifested in Christ, does actually
teach us what love is, and serve to draw our souls into such love? The question
is often asked -- How shall I love? The answer is given in this example.
Herein is love! Look at it and drink in its spirit. Man is prone to love
himself supremely. Put here is a totally different sort of love from that. This
love commends itself in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. How forcibly does this rebuke our selfishness! How much we need this
lesson, to subdue our narrow selfishness, and shame our unbelief!
How strange it is that men do not realize the love of God! The
wife of a minister, who had herself labored in many revivals, said to me,
"I never, till a few days since, knew that God is love." "What
do you mean?" said I. "I mean that I never apprehended it in all its
bearings before." Oh, I assure you, it is a great and blessed truth, and
it is a great thing to see it as it is! When it becomes a reality to the soul,
and you come under its powerful sympathy, then you will find the Gospel indeed
the power of God unto salvation, Paul prayed for his Ephesian converts that
they might "be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and
length and depth and height; and to know the love of God that passeth
knowledge, that they might be filled with all the fullness of God."
God sought, in thus commending His love to us, to subdue our
slavish fear. Some one said, "When I was young, I was sensible of fearing
God, but I knew I did not love Him. The instruction I received led me to fear,
but not to love." So long as we think of God only as One to be feared, not
to be loved, there will be a prejudice against Him as more an enemy than a
friend. Every sinner knows that he deserves to be hated of God. He sees plainly
that God must have good reason to be displeased with him. The selfish sinner
judges God from himself. Knowing how he should feel toward one who had wronged
him, he unconsciously infers that God must feel so toward every sinner. When he
tries to pray, his heart won't; it is nothing but terror. He feels no
attraction toward God, no real love. The child spirit comes before God, weeping
indeed, but loving and trusting. Now the state of feeling which fears only, God
would fain put away, and mae must not regard Him as being altogether such as
ourselves. He would undeceive us and make us realize that though He has It
spoken against us, yet He does earnestly remember us still." He would have
us interpret His dealings fairly and without prejudice. He sees how, when He
thwarts men's plans, they are bent on misunderstanding Him. They will think
that He is reckless of their welfare, and they are blind to the precious truth
that He shapes all His ways toward them in love and kindness. He would lead us
to judge thus, that if God spared not His own Son, but gave Him up freely for
us all, then He will much more give us all things else most freely.
Yet again: He would lead us to serve Him in love and not in
bondage. He would draw us forth into the liberty of the sons of God. He loves
to see the obedience of the heart. He would inspire love enough to make all our
service free and cheerful and full of joy. If you wish to make others love you,
you must give them your love. Show your servants the love of your heart, so
will you break their bondage, and make their service one of love. In this way
God commends His love towards us in order to win our hearts to Himself, and
thus get us ready and fit to dwell forever in His eternal home. His ultimate
aim is to save us from our sins that He may fill us forever with His own joy
and peace.
REMARKS.
1. We see that saving faith must be the heart's belief of this
great fact that God so loved us. Saving faith receives the death of Christ as
an expression of God's love to us. No other sort of faith -- no faith in
anything else -- wins our heart to love God. Saving faith saves us from our
bondage and our prejudice against Him. It is this which makes it saving.
Any faith that leaves out this great truth must fail to save us. If any one
element of faith is vital, it is this. Let any man doubt this fact of God's
love in Christ, and I would not give much for all his religion. It is
worthless.
2. The Old Testament system is full of this idea. All those
bloody sacrifices are full of it. When the priest, in behalf of all the people,
came forward and laid his hand on the head of the innocent victim and then
confessed his sins and the sins of all, and then when this animal was slain and
its blood poured out before the Lord, and He gave tokens that He accepted the
offering, it was a solemn manifestation that God substituted for the sufferings
due the sinner, the death of an innocent lamb. Throughout that ancient system,
we find the same idea, showing how God would have men see His love in the gift
of His own dear Son.
3. One great reason why men find it so difficult to repent and
submit to God, is that they do not receive this great fact -- do not accept it
in simple faith. If they were to accept it and let it come home to their
hearts, it would carry with it a power to subdue the heart to submission and to
love.
4. One reason why young men are so afraid they shall be called
into the ministry, is their lack of confidence in this love. Oh, if they saw
and believed this great love, surely they would not let eight hundred millions
go down to hell in ignorance of this Gospel! Oh, how it would agonize their
heart that so many should go to their graves and to an eternal hell, and never
know the love of Jesus to their perishing souls! And yet here is a young man
for whom Christ has died, who can not bear to go and tell them they have a
Saviour! What do you think of his magnanimity? How much is his heart like
Christ's heart? Do you wonder that Paul could not hold his peace, but felt that
he must go to the ends of the earth and preach the name of. Jesus where it had
never been known before? How deeply be felt that he must let the world know
these glad tidings of great joy! How amazing that young men now can let the
Gospel die unknown and not go forth to bless the lost! Ah, did they ever taste
its blessedness? Have they ever known its power? And do you solemnly intend to
conceal it, that it may never bless your dying brethren?
5. This matter of commending God's love is the strongest and
most expressive He could employ. In no other way possible could He so forcibly
demonstrate His great love to our race.
Hence, if this fails to subdue men's enmity, prejudice, and
unbelief, what can avail? What methods shall He use after this proves
unavailing? The Bible demands, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so
great salvation?" Well may it make this appeal, for if this fails to win
us, what can succeed?
6. If we had been His friends, there had been no need of His
dying for us. It was only because we were yet sinners that He died for us. How
great, then, are the claims of this love on our hearts!
7. Sinneht love them. So they try to win His love by doing some
good things. They try in every such way to make God love them, and especially
by mending their manners rather than their hearts. Alas, they seem not to know
that the very fact of their being sunk so low in sin is moving God's heart to
its very foundations! A sinless angel enjoys God's complacency, but not His
pity; he is not an object of pity, and there is no call for it. The same is
true of a good child. He receives the complacency of his parents, but not their
compassion. But suppose this child becomes vicious. Then his parents mourn over
his fall, and their compassion is moved. They look on him with pity and anxiety
as they see him going down to the depths of vice, crime, and degradation. More
and more as he sinks lower and lower in the filth and abominations of sin, they
mourn over him; and as they see how changed he is, they stand in tears, saying
-- Alas, this is our son, our once-honored son! But how fallen now! Our bowels
are moved for him, and there is nothing we would not do or suffer, if we might
save him!
So the sinner's great degradation moves the compassions of his
divine Father to their very depths. When the Lord passes by and sees him lying
in his blood in the open field, he says -- That is my son! He bears the image
of his Maker. "Since I have spoken against him, I do earnestly remember
him still; therefore my bowels are troubled for him: I will surely have mercy
upon him, saith the Lord." Sinners should remember that the very fact of
their being sinners is the thing that moves God's compassion and pity. Do you
say -- I do not see how God can make it consistent with His holiness to pardon
and love such a sinner as I am? I can tell you how -- By giving His own Son
to die in your stead!
8. Christ died for us that He might save us, not from, our
sins. Then must it not grieve Him exceedingly that we should continue in sin?
What do you think? Suppose you were to see Jesus face to face, and He were to
show you those wounds in His hands and in His side, and were to say -- I died
for you because I saw you lost beyond hope, and because I would save you from
your sins; and now, will you repeat those sins again? Can you go on yet longer
to sin against me?
9. You may infer from our subject that Jesus must be willing to
save you from wrath, if you truly repent and accept Him as your Saviour. How
can you doubt it? Having suffered unto death for this very purpose, surely it
only remains for you to meet the conditions, and you are saved from wrath
through Him.
10. You may infer also that God, having spared not His Son, will
also with Him freely give you all things else: grace enough to meet all your
wants; the kind care of His providence; the love of His heart; everything you
can need. To continue in sin despite of such grace and love must be monstrous!
It must grieve His heart exceedingly.
A friend of mine who has
charge of one hundred and fifty boys in a Reform School, is accustomed, when
they misbehave, to put them for a time on bread and water. What do you think he
does himself in some of these cases? He goes and puts himself with them on
bread and water! The boys in the school see this, and they learn love of
their superintendent and father. Now, when tempted to crime, they must say to
themselves, "If I do wrong, I shall have to live on bread and water; but
the worst of all is, my father will come and eat bread and water with me and
for my sake; and how can I bear that? How can I bear to have my father who
loves me so well, confine himself to bread and water for my sake!"
So Jesus Ruts Himself on pain and shame and death that you might
have joy and life -- that you might be forgiven and saved from sinning; and now
will you go on to sin more? Have you no heart to appreciate His dying love?
Can you go on and sin yet more and none the less for all the love shown you
on Calvary?
You understand that Christ died to redeem you from sin. Suppose
your own eyes were to see Him face to face, and He should tell you all He has
done for you. Sister, He says, I died to save you from that sin; will you do it
again? Can you go on and sin just the same as if I had never died for you?
In that Reform School of which I spoke, the effects produced on
even the worst boys by the love shown them is really striking. The Superintendent
had long insisted that he did not want locks and bars to confine his boys. The
Directors had said -- You must lock them in; if you don't they will run away.
On one occasion, the Superintendent was to be absent two weeks. A Director came
to him urging that he must lock up the boys before he left, for while he was
absent, they would certainly run away. The Superintendent replied -- I think
not; I have confidence in those boys. But, responds the Director, give us some
guarantee. Are you willing to pledge your city lot, conditioned that if they do
run away, the lot goes to the Reform School Fund? After a little reflection, he
consents, "I will give you my lot -- all the little property I have in the
world -- if any of my boys run away while I am gone." Before he sets off,
he calls all the boys together; explains to them his pledge; asks them to look
at his dependent family, and then appeals to their honor and their love for
him. "Would you be willing to see me stripped of all my property? I think
I can trust you." He went; returned a little unexpectedly and late on one
Saturday night. Scarce had he entered the yard, when the word rang through the
sleeping halls, "Our father has come!" and almost in a moment they
were there greeting him and shouting," We are all here! we are all
here!"
Can not Christ's love have as much power as that? Shall the love
the Reform School boys bear to their official father hold them to their place
during the long days and nights of his absence; and shall not Christ's love to
us restrain us from sinning? What do you say? Will you say thus? "If
Christ loves me so much, then it is plain He won't send me to hell, and
therefore I will go on and sin all I please." Do you say that? Then there
is no hope for you. The Gospel that ought to save you can do nothing for you
but sink you deeper in moral and eternal ruin. You are fully bent to pervert
it, to your utter damnation! If those Reform School boys had said thus,
"Our Father loves us so well, he will eat bread and water with us,
and therefore we know he will not punish us to hurt us" would they not
certainly bring a curse on themselves? Would not their reformation be utterly
hopeless? So of the sinner who can make light of the Saviour's dying love. Oh,
is it possible that when Jesus has died for you to save your soul from sin and
from hell you can do it again and yet again? Will you live on in sin only the
more because He has loved you so much?
Think of this and make up your mind. "If Christ has died to
redeem me from sin, then away with all sinning henceforth and forever I forsake
all my sins from this hour! I can afford to live or to die with my Redeemer;
why not? So help me God. I have no more.