Giving His Life for Men
‘Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your servant; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your slave: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. ’ — Matt. xx. 26, 27, 28. ‘Hereby know we love, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. * — 1 John iii. 16.
IN speaking of the likeness of Christ’s death, and of being made conformable to it, of bearing the cross and being crucified with Him, there is one danger to which even the earnest believer is exposed, and that is of seeking after these blessings for his own sake, or, as he thinks, for the glory of God in his own personal perfection. The error would be a fatal one: he would never attain the close conformity to Jesus’ death he hoped for: for he would be leaving out just that which is the essential element in the death of Jesus, and in the self-sacrifice it inculcates: that characteristic is its absolute unselfishness, its reference to others. To be made conformable to Christ’s death implies a dying to self, a losing sight of self altogether in giving up and laying down our life for others. To the question, how far we are;, to go in living for, in loving, in serving, in saving men, the Scriptures do not hesitate to give the unequivocal answer: We are to go as far as Jesus, even to the laying down of our life. We are to consider this so entirely as the object for which we are redeemed and are left in the world, the one object for which we live, that the laying down of the life in death follows as a matter of course. Like Christ, the only thing that keeps ns in this world is to be the glory of God in the salvation of sinners. Scripture does not hesitate to say that it is in His path of suffering, as He goes to work out atonement and redemption, that we are to follow Him.*
How clearly this comes out in the words of the Master Himself: ‘Whoever will be ‘chief among you, let him be your bond-servant, eyeis” as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.’ The highest in glory will be he who was lowest in service, and likest to the Master in His giving His life a
* Compare Matt. xx. 28 with Eph. v. 2, 25, 26; Phil. ii. 5-8; 1 Pet. ii. 21-23, and note how distinctly it is in connection with His redemptive work that Christ is set before us as our example: the giving His life away for others is its special significance. ransom. And so again, a few days later, after having spoken of His own death in the words: ‘The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit;’ He at once applied to His disciples what He had said by repeating what they had already heard spoken to themselves, ‘He that loveth his life shall lose it: and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.’ The corn of wheat dying to rise again, losing its life to regain it multiplied manifold, is clearly set forth as the emblem not only of the Master but of each one of His followers. Loving life, refusing to die, means remaining alone in selfishness: losing life to bring forth much fruit in, others is the only way to keep it for ourselves. Theref’ is no way to find our life but as Jesus did, in giving it up for the salvation of others. Herein is the Father, herein shall we be glorified. The deepest underlying thought of conformity to Christ’s death is, giving our life to God for saving others. Without this, the longing for conformity to that death is in danger of being a refined selfishness.
How remarkable the exhibition we have in the Apostle Paul of this spirit, and how instructive the words in which the Holy Spirit in him expressed to us its meaning! To the Corinthians he says: ‘Al-Tvays bearing about the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death ivorheth in us but life in you.’^ ‘Though He VMS crucified through lueahness yet He liveth by the power of God. For lue also are weak in Hiniy but we shall live with Him by the power of God TOWARD you’ {2 Cor. iv. 10-12; xiii, Ji), ‘I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up that w’hich is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake, which is the Church’ {Col. i, 2]i), These passages teach us how the vicarious element of the suffering that Christ bore in His body on the tree, to a certain extent still characterizes the sufferings of His body the Church. Believers who give themselves up to bear the burden of the sins of men before the Lord, who suffer reproach and shame, weariness and pain, in the effort to win souls, are filling up that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in their flesh. The power and the fellowship of His suffering and death work in them, the power of Christ’s life through them in those for whom they labour in love. There is no doubt that in the fellowship of His sufferings, and the conformity of His death in Phil, iii.^ Paul had in view not only the inner spiritual, but also the external bodily participations in the suffering of Christ.
And so it must be with each of us in some measure. Self-sacrifice not merely for the sake of our own sanctification, but for the salvation of our fellow-men, is what brings us into true fellowship with the Christ who gave Himself for us.
The practical application of these thoughts is very simple. Let us first of all try and see the truth the Holy Spirit seeks to teach us. As the most essential thing in likeness to Christ is likeness to His death, so the most essential thing in likeness to His death is the giving up our life to win others to God. It is a death in which all thought of saving self is lost in that of saving others. Let us pray for the light of the Holy Ghost to show us this, until we learn to feel that we are in the world just as Christ was, to give up self, to love and serve, to live and die, ‘even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.* Oh that God would give his people to know their calling that they do not belong to themselves, but to God and to their felloio-men; that, even as Christ, they are only to live to be a blessing to the world.
Then let us believe in the grace that is waiting to
make our experience of this truth a reality. Let us
believe that God accepts of our giving up of our
whole life for His glory in the saving of others. Let us believe that conformity to the death of Jesus in this, its very life-principle, is what the Holy Ghost will work out in us. Let us above all believe in Jesus: it is He Himself who will take up every soul that in full surrender yields itself to Him, into the full fellowship of His death, of His dying in love to bring forth much fruit. Yes, let us believe, and believing seek from above, as the work and the gift of Jesus, likeness to Jesus in this too..’ And let us at once begin and act this faith. Let us put it into practice. Looking upon ourselves now as wholly given up, just like Christ, to live and die for God in our fellow-men, let us with new zeal exercise the ministry of love in winning souls. As we wait for Christ to work out His likeness, as we trust the Holy Spirit to give His mind in us more perfectly, let us in faith begin at once to act as followers of Him who only lived and died to be a blessing to others. -Let our love open the way to the work it has to do by the kindness, and gentleness, and helpfulness with which it shines out on all whom we meet in daily life. Let it give itself to the work of intercession, land: look up to God to use us as one of His instruments in the answering of those prayers. Let us speak and work for Jesus as those who have a mis-, sion and a power from on high which make us sure of a blessing. .. Let us make soul-winning our object. Let us band, ourselves with the great army of reapers the Lord is sendiDg out into His harvest. And ere we thought of it, we shall find that giving our life to win others for God is the most blessed way of dying to self, of being even as the Son of man was, a servant and a Saviour of the lost.
0 most wonderful and inconceivably blessed likeness to Christ! He gave Himself to men, but could not really reach them, until, giving Himself a sacrifice to God for them, the seed-corn died, the life was poured out; then the blessing flowed forth in mighty power. I may seek to love and serve men; I can only really influence and bless them as I yield myself unto God and give up my life into His hands for them; as I lose myself as an offering on the altar, I become in His spirit and power in very deed a blessing. My spirit given into His hands, He can use and bless me.
0 most blessed God! dost Thou in very deed ask me to come and give myself, my very life, wholly, even unto the death, to Thee for my fellow-men? If I have heard the words of the Master aright. Thou dost indeed seek nothing less.
OGod! wilt Thou indeed have me? Wilt Thou in very deed in Christ permit me, like Him, as a member of His body, to live and die for those around me? to lay myself, I say it in deep reverence, beside Him on the altar of death, crucified with Him, and be a livino sacrifice to Thee for men? Lord! I do praise Thee for this most wonderful grace. And now I come, Lord God! and give myself. Oh for the grace of Thy Holy Spirit to make the transaction definite and real! Lord! here I am, given up to Thee, to live only for those whom Thou art seeking to save.
Blessed Jesus! come Thyself, and breathe Thine own mind and love within me. Take possession of me, my thoughts to think, my heart to feel, my powers to work, my life to live, as given away to God for men. Write it in my heart: it is done, I am given away to God, He has taken me. Keep Thou me each day as in His hands, expecting and assured that He will use me. On Thy giving up Thyself followed the life in power, the outbreaking of the blessing in fulness and power. It will be so in Thy people too. Glory be to Thy name. Amen.
TWENTY-SIXTH D^Y.
LIKE CHEIST
‘Behold, thy King Cometh, meek.’ — Matt. xxi. 5. * Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall iBnd rest for your souls. ’ — Matt. xi. 29.
IT is on His way to the cross that we find the first of these two words written of our Lord Jesus. It is in His sufferings that the meekness of Jesus is specially manifested. Follower of Jesus! who art so ready to take Thy place under the shadow of His cross, there to behold the Lamb slain for thy sins, is it not a precious thought, that there is one part of His work, as the suffering Lamb of God, in which Thou mayest bear His image and be like Him every day? thou canst be meek and gentle even as He was. Meekness is the opposite of all that is hard or bitter or sharp. It has reference to the disposition which animates us towards our inferiors. ‘With meekness,’ ministers must instruct those that oppose themselves, teach and bring back the erring {GaL vi. 1; 2 Tim, a, 25). It expresses our disposition towards superiors: we must ‘receive the word with meekness’ {Jas, i. 21); if the wife is to be in subjection to her husband, it must be in a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price {1 Pet, in.). As one of the fruits of the Spirit, meekness ought to characterize all our daily intercourse with fellow-Christians, and extend to all with whom we have to do {Eph. iv, 2; Gal. v. 22; Col in, 12; Tit. Hi. 2). It is mentioned in Scripture along with humility, because that is the inward disposition concerning oneself, out of which meekness towards others springs.
There is perhaps none of the lovely virtues which adorn the image of God’s Son, which is more seldom seen in those who ought to be examples. There are many servants of Jesus, in whom much love to souls, much service for the salvation of others, and much zeal for God’s will, are visible, and yet who continually come short in this. How often, when ofEence comes unexpectedly, whether at home or abroad, they are carried away by temper and anger, and have to confess that they have lost the perfect rest of soul in God! There is no virtue, perhaps, for which some have prayed more earnestly: they feel they would give anything, if in their intercourse with partner, or children, or servants, in company or in business, they could always keep their temper perfectly, and exhibit the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Unspeakable is the grief and disappointment experienced by those who have learnt to long for it, and yet have not discovered where the secret of meekness lies.
The self-command needed for this seems to some so impossible, that they seek comfort in the belief that this blessing belongs to a certain natural temperament, and is too contrary to their character for them ever to expect it. To satisfy themselves they find all sorts of excuses. They do not mean it so ill: though the tongue or the temper be shari3, there is still love in their hearts: it would not be good to be too gentle; evil would be strengthened by it. And thus the call to entire conformity to the holy gentleness of the Lamb of God is robbed of all its power. And the world is strengthened in its belief, that Christians are after all not very much different from other people, because, though they do indeed say, they do not show, that Christ changes the heart and life after His own image. And the soul suffers itself, and causes unspeakable harm in Christ’s Church, through its unfaithfulness in appropriating this blessing of salvation: the bearing the image and likeness of God.
This grace is of great price in the sight of God. In the Old Testament there are many glorious promises for the meek, which were by Jesus gathered up into this one, ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth’ (see Ps. xxv. 9; lxxvi, 9; Prov. in. SJf,; Jer. it. 3). In the New Testament, its praise consists in this, that it is His meekness that gives its snpernatnral incomparable beauty to the image of our Lord. A meek spirit is of great price in God’s sight; it is the choicest ornament of the Beloved Son. The Father could surely offer no higher inducement to His children, to seek it above all things.
For every one Tvho longs to jiossess this spirit, Christ’s word is full of comfort and encouragement: ‘Learn of me that I am meek.’ And what will it profit us to learn that He is meek? Will not just the experience of His meekness make the discovery of our want of it all the more painful? What we ask, Lord, is that Thou shouldest teach us how 2ve may be meek. The answer is again: ‘Learn of 7ne that I am meek. ’
We are in danger of seeking meekness and the other graces of our Lord Jesus as gifts of which we must be conscious, before we practise them. This is not the path of faith. ‘Moses knew not that his face shone,’ he had only seen the glory of God. The soul that seeks to be meek, must learn that Jesus is meek. We must take time to gaze on His meekness, until the heart has received the full impression: He only is meek: with Him alone can meekness be found. When we begin to realize this, we next fix our heart upon the truth: This meek One is Jesus the Saviour. All He is, all He has, is for His redeemed ones; His meekness is to be communicated to us. But He does not impart it, by giving, as it were from Himself, somethino: of it awav to us. No! we must learn that He alone is meek, and that only when He enters and takes possession of heart and life, He brings His meekness with Him. It is with the meekness of Jesus that we can be meek.
We know how little He succeeded in making His disciples meek and lowly while on earth. It was because He had not yet obtained the new life, and could not yet bestow, through His resurrection, the Holy Spirit. But now He can do ifc. He has been exalted to the power of God from thence to reign in our hearts, to conquer every enemy, and continue in us His own holy life. Jesus was our visible Example on earth, that we might see in Him what like the hidden life is that He would give us from heaven, that He Himself would be within us.
‘Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart:’ without ceasing the word sounds in our ears as our Lord’s answer to all the sad complaints of His redeemed ones, as to the diflSculty of restraining temper. 0 my brother! why is Jesus, your Jesus, your life, and your strength, why is He the meek and lowly One, if it be not to impart to you, to whom He so wholly belongs. His own meekness?
Therefore, only believe! Believe that Jesus is able to fill your heart with His own spirit of meekness. Believe that Jesus Himself will, through His own Spirit, accomplish in you the work that you have in vain endeavoured to do. ‘Behold! thy King COMETH TO THEE, MEEK. ‘Welcome Him to dwell in your heart. Expect Him to reveal Himself to you. Everything depends on this. Learn of Him that He is meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest to your soul.
Precious Saviour, grant me now, under the overshadowing of Thy Holy Spirit, to draw near unto Thee, and to appropriate Thy heavenly meekness as my life. Lord, Thou hast not shown me Thy meekness as a Moses who demands but does not give. Thou art Jesus who savest from all sin, giving in its stead Thy heavenly holiness. Lord, I claim Thy meekness as a part of the salvation that Thou hast given me. I cannot do without it. How can I glorify Thee if I do not possess it? Lord, I will learn from Thee that Thou art meek. Blessed Lord, teach me. And teach me that Thou art always with me, always in me as my life. Abiding in Thee, with Thee abiding in me, I have Thee the meek One to help me and make me like Thyself.
0 holy meekness! Thou art not come down to earth only for a short visit, then to disappear again in the heavens. Thou art come to seek a home. I offer Thee my heart; come and dwell in it.
Thou blessed Lamb of God, my Saviour and Helper, I count on Thee. Thou wilt make Thy meekness to dwell in me. Through Thy indwelling Thou dost conform me to Thy image. 0 come, and as an act of Thy rich free grace even now, as I wait on Thee, reveal Thyself as my King, meek, and coming in to take possession of me for Thyself.
‘Precious, gentle, holy Jesus,
Blessed Bridegroom of my heart,
In Thy secret inner chamber,
Thou wilt show me what Thou art. Amen. ’