Christ's Gift to Us and Ours to Him

Titus ii. 14

’ Who gave Himself for ns, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” — Titus ii. 14.

JE have already seen, in sermons on the previous part of this paragraph, that the Apostle is here regarding the Gospel predominantly under its ethical aspect, and that he states, as the great purpose for which the saving grace of God has appeared, the disciplining of us for sober, righteous, and godly living. Here, at the close of this section, he reiterates the same idea yet more tenderly and more emphatically, for he specifies that great and infinite gift of Jesus Christ, with all its mysteries of unfathomable self-sacrifice and love, and conceives that this mighty bestowment was given for the sole and simple purpose of making us love righteousness and hate iniquity and do good. Mighty agencies are not set in operation for small ends; to make good men was an adequate object for the sacrifice and self-surrender of Jesus Christ.

We have in this text mainly two great thoughts: the conception of Christ’s work and the conception of

78 CHRIST’S GIFT TO US Aid OURS TO HIM.

its purpose. And perhaps we shall best appreciate the fulness of meaning in the words before us if we simply take them as they stand.

I. — Note, first, the unspeakable and all-powerful gift. “He gave Himself for us.”

Now, that is more than a mere beautiful hyperbole for a life of beneficent devotion to the welfare of humanity. Such a thought as that is a great deal too shadowy to have rested on it the weight of the moral reformation and spiritual quickening of mankind. There must be something more meant than the beneficence of the most enthusiastic philanthropist; something more than the self-sacrifice of the martyrs for mankind. For there have been many such in the past; but the most pure, lofty, and fervent of them has not been able to kindle any widespread conflagration of righteous zeal amidst the dead greenwood of humanity. The fire which is to transform and transfigure the selfishness of men into eagerness for good works and self-surrendering devotion must be brought from another altar than any to which these have access.

I take it that in that great word, “He gave HimseK,” there lies a great deal more than such sacrifices as those which other benefactors have made for mankind. I take it that the beginning of Christ’s giving of Himself to the world lay farther back in time than the cradle of Bethlehem; for to Him it was condescension to be born; and His bestowment of Himself upon the world began “when He left the Father and came into the world.” He began to give Himself when, from the depths of eternity, He passed within the limitations of men, and, drawn by our need, and impelled by filial obedience and fraternal love, entered within the conditions of our existence, “and, forasmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, Himself likewise took part of the same.” It was much that Christ should stretch out His hand to bless, should “give His back to the smiter, and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair,” and bear His cross on His own shoulders, and should be fastened to it on Calvary. Did you ever think that it was, perhaps, more that He should have a hand with which to bless, and a back to be bared to the scourge, a cheek that did not flush with one angry spot when rude spittings were shot upon it, and traitorous kisses touched it, shoulders to bear His cross, and a body to be nailed upon it? Why had He these but because, ere He had them. He gave Himself for us? And so, having its roots in eternity that gift included all His wonderful, self-oblivious, and world-blessing life, and culminated in the death upon the cross. Not that He only gave Himself to the world when He “gave Himself up to the death for us all,” but that therein were most eminently expressed, and there were most mightily concentrated, the powers that redeemed and the love that sacrificed itseK. Unless this be our conception of Christ’s gift — a willing incarnation, a willing endurance of the woes and pains of humanity, and a willing death for the world — I know nothing that there is in Him, or in it, either to evoke or to deserve the reverence and the obedience of the world.

But then, mark, still further, that the Apostle here gives us another thought which deepens the wonderfulness and the preciousness of this gift; for, speaking to a man who had never come near Jesus Christ in the flesh, and including in his words the whole race of mankind to the last syllable of recorded time, he declares that “He gave Himself for us.” How did He give Himself for us unless in the giving He had the knowledge of us and His heart turned to us; unless when He yielded Himself to life, and to death, the thoughts of all the men in the world, and that should thereafter be in it, were the motives that impelled Him? And how did “He give Himself for us” unless He gave Himself for me and for thee? The individualizing character of Christ’s purpose of mercy in His death is taught us throughout Scripture, and His yielding of Himself for us is only intelligible when we understand that the us for which He died was made up of all the single ine’s that had been, or that should be. So you and I and all our fellows can take such great words as these of my text and point their generality till it blessedly pierces our own hearts, translating the universal benevolence into the individual affection, and saying, “He loved me, and gave HimseK for me.”

One more word before I pass from this first thought of my text — and it is this. The language here, strictly understood, simply declares that Jesus Christ, in His whole life, and eminently in His death, was doing something for our benefit. It does not literally and accurately declare in what way that benefit was to accrue. There are plenty of places in the New Testament in which we read that Jesus Christ suffered in life and in death the consequences of man’s transgression. Himself being sinless. There are plenty of places in which the “for us” means “instead of

US.” It does not grammatically mean that here. The Apostle is not defining the method in which Christ’s death was beneficial to humanity; but I want to ask this question, which I have asked, I daresay, from this place many a time before, and which seems to me to admit of but one answer — in what way was Christ’s death for me unless it was instead of me? I venture to say that it is of little more use than the lives and deaths of a hundred named and unnamed saints and heroes and benefactors, unless that be so.

Why is it, for instance, that the magic pen of a Plato leaves us cold when we read of the death of a Socrates, except for a moment’s admiration; and why is it that our hearts thrill when we read the inartificial records that fishermen and peasants have left us of Calvary? I know of but one reason why Christ’s life and death are a transforming power in the world. And the reason irf, “the Lord hath made to meet on Him the iniquity of us all.” “He gave Himself for us” most chiefly in this, that “He bare our sins and carried our sorrows” “in His own body on the tree “; and that therefore “by His stripes we are healed.” Christ’s sacrifice for sin is the superlative manifestation of His giving Himself for us.

II. — Secondly, notice the redeeming power of the gift thus conceived.

Now, you will remember that the metaphor contained in the word “redemption “is that of delivering a slave from bondage by paying a ransom. Probably it alludes to the emancipation of Israel from Egypt In this context, that from which we are said to be redeemed is iniquity or lawlessness; and that what is meant is emancipation from the power and practice of sin is obvious from the next clause, in which” purify expresses the same thing positively as “redeem” does negatively. It is noteworthy that here, in the Apostle’s summing up of the great purpose of the life and death of Jesus Christ, he isolates from all other consequences of that mighty fact, blessed as those are, and selects as the sole object to be considered, this power to deliver men from the bondage of evil.

Now, of course, Paul would have been the last man to say that the work of Jesus Christ did not avert from men the so-called penal consequences of sin. He would have been the last man to deny that the work of Jesus Christ had for its ultimate object the elevation of men to the full possession of the Divine likeness, and the walking in the light of the Divine countenance amidst the glories of heaven. But neither forgiveness nor acceptance, nor the blessings of the inward spiritual life here on earth, nor the glories and feHcities of that life beyond the grave, so much as come into his view here. This is what Christ died for — not that you may escape the consequences of your evil-doing; not only that you may be forgiven; not that you may have the blessedness of the consciousness of the Divine favour, and all those sweet and sacred secrets of fellowship with Him which make so much of a good man’s life; nor even that you may pass into heaven and its glories when, wearied with earth, you unregrettingly leave it; but that you may be good people down here, toihng and moiling amidst all the troubles and temptations of your daily life. That is what Jesus Christ died for — not only that He might redeem you from the penalties of sin, nor from its guilt, but that He might

CBRISrS GIFT TO US AND OURS TO HIM. 83

redeem you from doing it. “Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous.” And whilst one cannot say too much, or speak too thankfully, too hopefully, too joyfully of these other great purposes for which Christ died, let us remember that here all these are put into the shade, and one only is selected as the adequate purpose which warrants and repays even the expenditure of that love which “gave Himself for us.”

There is nothing except the gift of God in Jesus Christ which is powerful enough to break the bondage of sin under which we are held. You want more than culture, more than the morahty of prudence, more than education of conscience, in order to weaken passion and to strengthen will, so that a man may shake off the bondage of the evil which he has done, and may begin to walk in newness of life. I know of no power that enables a poor man, beset and burdened by torturing tyrants of his own passions, and feeble against the strong seductions of outward temptation, to stand fast and overcome them all, shaking their fetters from his emancipated limbs, but the realization of that infinite sacrifice, that changeless Divine human love, that mighty pure Brother’s life, from which there flow into men’s hearts motives and powers and impulses which, and which alone, are strong enough to make them free. “He that committeth sin is the slave of sin “; and if the Son shall make us free, we shall be free indeed. This conception of Christ’s work alone, as it seems to me, carries volume and substance enough to sweep out of our hearts our evil inclinations. This, and this alone, as it seems to me, brings into humanity impulses, motives, powers, which will free us from the dominion of the lusts and sins that have bound us. He comes as His angel did to the man sleeping in his chains, with the quaternion of rude soldiers watching over his slumbers, lest theii prey should escape, and separated from liberty by iron doors and thick walls. He lays His hand upon the sleeper, and at His word “Arise!” the chains fall off the fettered limbs; and the argus-eyed guardians are sunk in charmed slumber; and the captive passes them unharmed and unhindered, and through the iron gate that openeth of its own accord, and stands wondering at his liberty, but feeling in every thrilling vein that he is free at last. Christ is the Emancipator, and His gift of Himself, construed as Paul construed it, is the power that sets us free.

III. — Note, still further, the answering gift that corresponds to, and is evoked by, Christ’s gift of Himself.

The Apostle still is thinking in the terms of the ancient Jewish history; and just as in the redemption from iniquity there is an allusion to the deliverance oi the people from Egyptian bondage, so in the other clause which speaks about our Lord’s redeeming and purifying unto HimseK a people for His own possession, there is an allusion to the standing of Israel ol old, which, by its deliverance from Egjrpt, was, in a special sense, made to be God’s own particular possession. Thus Jesus Christ “gave Himself for us,” says Paul — with beautiful lingering emphasis on the reduphcated “Himself” — “gave Himself for us, that He might win us for HimseK.” The only way by which we can win another for ourselves is by giving ourselves to that other. Hearts are only bought by hearts; love’s flame can only be kindled by love’s flame. The only way by which one spiritual being can possess another is when the possessed loves and yields to the love of the possessor. And thus Jesus Christ makes us His own by giving Himself to us for our own. Brethren! there is no power known in humanity that can, I was going to say, decentralize a human life and lift it clean off its pivot of self except the power of the unspeakable love of Jesus Christ on the Cross. We revolve round our own centres, self is our centre; but that great Sun of Righteousness has mass enough to draw hearts and lives from their little orbit, and to turn them into satellites of its own. And then they move in music and in light around the Sun of their souls. If you want to know the blessedness of loving self, yield to the love of Him who forgot Himself for you and gave Himself for you. Nothing else will conquer that miserable demon of self-regard that cracks his whip and rattles his chains in all our hearts. But Christ is Conqueror, because Christ is the infinite Lover. He gave Himself that He might buy us for Himself. Therefore, to live for myself is death, is blasphemy, is ingratitude; and the only fitting response to Him who thus yielded all for us is that we should come and say, “We are not our own, we are bought with a price.”

IV. — Lastly, and only a word, notice here the enthusiasm for good which that great gift will kindle. “Zealous of good works.” Now do not let us run ofi with the idea that “good works” means giving away money, and visiting amongst poor people, and all these other conventional things that have usurped the name. These are good, no doubt; at least they will be if the motive be right; but the Apostle’s notion is a much wider and broader one than that. He means substantially the same thing as he and the other New Testament writers mean by “righteousness” — the deeds of all kinds which correspond to men’s place and power — “whatsoever things are lovely and of good report.”

Paul thinks that if a man has rightly pondered and yielded himself” to the influence of that serene and rupreme example of a beautiful works, Christ’s giving of Himself for us, he will not only do such works, but be passionately desirous of opportunities for doing them.

Ah! That goes pretty deep, does it not? It is not enough that a man shall do the good works, as so many professing Christians do, feeling all the while that it is rather a burden to have to do them, and that inclinations go the other way. But we must be passionate enthusiasts for goodness, must seek for opportunities for it, or, as Christ put it, “hunger and thirst after righteousness.” It is a deal easier to be zealous for the church, for a society, for a political or religious party or school, for a movement or a cause than to be “zealous for good works.” And all that zeal is froth unless the other be with it. AU Christ’s flock are earmarked thus. They are zealous for good. They like and they seek for good works. That is the Owner’s brand; they are known to be the people of His possession, because they are so marked.

Now, you Christian men and women, go away home and ask yourselves, “Is that me, and have I that likeness?” And do 3’ou all of you take this for a last word — you will never love righteousness and hate iniquity, you will never belong to Jesus Christ, you will never be “zealous of good works,” or take a pleasure in nobUity and purity of life and character, until you have submitted life and character to the transforming power of the wonderful fact that Jesus Christ gave Himself for you; and, on the other hand, you have no right to say that you are a Christian unless, through faith in that sacrifice, you not only are sure of forgiveness, but conscious that Jesus Christ has broken the chains of your sins, and made you free for and in His happy service. “0 Lord, tiuly I am Thy servant. Thou hast loosed my bonds.”