His Love to Men
¢Tet all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye erucified.’’ — Acts 2:36. Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by His blood.’’ — Rev. 1:5. ‘For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might become rich.’’ — 2 Cor. 8:9. He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked.’’ — 1 John 2:6.
‘*A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. (35) By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.’’ — John 13:34, 35.
A week ago to-day and two weeks ago to-day our subject was the real Christ; the Christ of God’s own appointment and actual historical fact as distinguished from the Christ of man’s dreams and fancies and imaginings; the Christ whose picture God Himself has drawn in the Bible as distinguished from the Christ of Christian Science, Theosophy, Unitarianism, Spiritualism and other forms of fiction. We have the same general subject to-day. Two weeks ago, however, we considered one feature of the picture of the real Christ which God has given in His
Word, viz.: ‘‘The Holiness of the real Christ.’’ One week ago to-day we considered a second feature of that picture, viz., ‘‘The Love of Jesus Christ to the Father.’? This morning we consider a third feature of the picture, ‘‘The Love of the real Christ, the Christ of God’s own appointment, the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, to His fellowman.’’ We have five texts:
1. Acts 2:36: ‘‘Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made Hum both Lord and Christ, this Jesus Whom ye crucified.’’
2. Rev. 1:5: ‘‘Unto Hum that loveth us, and loosed us from our sims by His blood.’’
3. 2 Cor. 8:9: ‘For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might become rich.’’
4. I John 2:6: ‘‘He that saith he abideth m Him ought limself also to walk even as He walked.’’
5. John 13:34, 35: ‘’A new commandment T give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. (35) By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.’
These are wonderful texts; they have long meant much to us all, but before we get through this morning I think they will mean more to some of us at least than they have ever meant before. We saw last week that while our Lord
Jesus loved His fellowman as no other man ever loved his fellowman, that nevertheless, far deeper than His love to His fellowman, the very foundation upon which His love to His fellowman rested, far higher than His love to His fellowman was His love to God the Father, and that so it should be with us, viz., that our love to God, the Father, should be deeper, far deeper, and far higher than our love to our fellowmen. Indeed, that it must be the foundation of any real love to our fellowmen. But notwithstanding this, we shall see to-day that the love of the real Christ to His fellowman was most amazing. And yet God tells us in His Word that in His love to His fellowmen Jesus, the Christ of God, set us an example that we should follow in His steps. As John puts it in 1 John 3:16, ““Hereby know we love, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lwes for the brethren.’’
What we have discovered in the picture God gives us in His Word of the love of Christ to His fellowman, will come under two heads:
First: Who among men Jesus Christ loved.
Second: How the love of the Christ to men manifested itself.
I. Who Among Men Jesus Christ Loved
We shall look first at Who among men Jesus Christ loved.
1. First of all, Jesus Christ loved the Church. This we find explicitly stated in Eph. 5:25: ‘‘ Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself up for it.’ Jesus Christ, as we shall see later, loves all men, but the Church is the peculiar object of His love. The Church is loved by Christ in a particular sense and in a peculiar way. A philanthropist may love all mankind and yet, if he is a true man, he will in a peculiar way love his own wife, love her as he loves no other woman; so Christ has peculiar love for the Church, His bride. We must be on our guard, in studying the various passages in the Bible which speak about the love of Christ, to note whether they refer to His love in general, 2. e., His love to all mankind, or His love in particular, 2. e., His love to the Church, which is His body and His bride.
Who are meant by the ‘‘Church?’’ Not, of course, any particular denomination, and not the Church as an external organization. By the ‘‘Church’’? ag used here, and used frequently in the New Testament, is meant all the ‘‘called out’’ of the present dispensation; that is to say, all those who in this present dispensation accept Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour, surrender to Him as their Lord and Master and confess Him as such before the world and live a life of obedience to His will.
Christ’s peculiar love for the Church is set forth in another way and a most beautiful way in John 13:1: ‘‘Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowimg that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were im the world, He loved them unto the end.’’ Here a body of people are spoken of as being ‘‘ His own.’’ Of course, these are the same as the ‘‘Church.’’ Why they are called ‘‘His own’’ is made clear in John 17:2,.9,12: ‘‘Hven as thou gavest Him wr thority over all flesh, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He shall gwe eternal life.... (9) I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for those whom Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine; (12) While I was with them, I kept them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me: and I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled.’’:
From these verses it is evident that Jesus Christ’s ‘‘own’’ are those whom God the Father has given unto Him. That is to say, there is a body of people out of the human race whom God has given unto Jesus Christ as His own peculiar property. The proof that any one belongs to this elect company is that he comes to Christ, as we read in John 6:37: ‘‘ All that which the Father giveth Me shall come unto Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.’’ This highly favored company given unto Christ by the Father, and who come to Christ, are objects of Christ’s special love. To them He ministers in a special way (as we see in the context of John 13:1) and them He guards so that not one of them perishes. (John 17:12 Cf. John 18:9). Of them he says: “‘Of those whom Thou hast gwen Me If lost not
one.””
2. In the second place, Jesus Christ not only loves the Church as a body, He loves m an altogether peculiar way individual believers m Himself. That comes out in many places, but it comes out in a beautiful way in the words of Paul in Gal. 2:20: ‘‘I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live wn the flesh I lwe m fath, the farth which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.’’
3. In the third place, Jesus Christ loved with an altogether peculiar and particular love those who loved Him and showed their love to Hum by having and keeping His commandmenis. This we read in His own words in John 14:21: ‘‘He that hath My commandments and keepveth them, he ws that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love Him, and wih manifest Myself unto him.’’
Our Lord Jesus expresses much the same thought in Mark 3:35: ‘‘For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother.’’ Whosoever does the will of God stands in a relation of closest kinship to Christ, such an one is to Him His ‘‘brother, and sister, and mother.’’ A man may love all men and yet he has a peculiar love to his own brother and to his own sister and above all to his own mother, but our Lord tells us that toward whomsoever does the will of God, He has that love which combines all three of these great loves in one.
4. In the fourth place, Jesus loved especial wmdwiduals in an especial way. This appears in John 19:26, where John is spoken of as ‘‘ The disciple ... whom Jesus loved.’’ It also appears from John 11:5 where we are told that ‘‘ Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.’’ While Jesus loves all men with infinite love, while He has a peculiar love toward His Church as His body and His Bride, while He has an individual love to each member of His body, while He has a still more special love to those who have His commandments and keep them and do His Father’s will, yet the more open any heart is to Him by faith and love, the more is that person the object of His especial delight.
5. In the fifth place, Jesus Christ loved sinners, the lost, the ungodly, the utterly vile. This we see time and time again in the picture God has drawn of Him in the Bible. For example in Matt. 9:13 He Himself says: ‘‘I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.’’ And in Luke 19:10 He says again, ‘‘The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost.’’ In Romans 9:6, 8 Paul says: ‘‘For while we were yet weak, m due season Christ died for the ungodly.... (8). But God commendeth His own love toward us, in og THE REAL CHRIST
that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’’ Jesus Christ loves the vilest sinner as trul as He loves the purest saint, but He does not love the vilest sinner in the same way He loves the purest saint. His love to the sinner is one thing; His love to the obedient disciple is quite another. Toward the one He has pity; in the other He takes pleasure. There is an attraction in both cases. In the one case it is the attraction of need appealing to compassion; in the other case it is the attraction of moral beauty appealing to appreciation and delight. Christ pities the sinner. He delights in the saint. He loves them both. In the parable of the Lost Sheep we see that to Jesus Christ the attraction of need was greater than the attraction of moral beauty.
Among the sinners whom Jesus loved were even His bitterest and cruelest enemies. We see Him on the cross forgetting His own dying agonies in His concern for those who nailed Him to the cross as He cries in His last moments, ‘‘ Father, forgwe them; for they know not what they do.’’ Here is a lesson we all greatly need to learn from our Lord’s example.
IT. How the Love of Jesus Christ to Men Mamifested Itself
We will now look more closely at the picture God has drawn of the real Christ in the Bible and see how His love to men manifested itself. Here
am staggered at the wealth of the material that God presents to us in His Word. In giving a careful study to this subject some years ago, I found that there were no less than thirty separate and distinct ways in which the love of Jesus Christ to man manifested itself. Of course, it is impossible to give all of them this morning. Indeed we must omit two-thirds of them. Which shall we select?
1. In the first place, the love of Jesus Christ to men manifested itself m His becoming poor that we might become rich. This comes out in one of the texts I gave you in opening, 2 Cor. 8:9: ‘For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might become rich.’’ How great the riches He renounced and how great the poverty He assumed is seen in Phil. 2:6-8:° ‘Who existing im the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped. (7) But emptied Hvmself, taking the form of a servant, bemg made m the likeness of men; (8) And being found wn fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.’’ How great the riches we obtain from His becoming’ so poor we see in Romans 8:16, 17: “The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God; (17) And af children, then heirs; heirs of God and joimt-heirs with Christ;’’?’ We might well stop here and ponder and wonder and admire and adore our wondrous Lord, but we must pass on. But before we do let me stop to say that even in this He has left us an example for our imitation, ‘‘He that sath he abideth mm Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked.’’ (I John 2:6.)
2. In the second place, the love of Jesus Christ to men, manifested itself m His gwing Hunself wp for us, This we see in a passage already: quoted, Gal. 2:20: ‘*. .. The Son of God Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.’’ His was a self-sacrificing love, z. e., it was a love that saerificed self. He sacrificed not merely His life for us. He sacrificed Himself for us. He ‘‘gave Himself up’’ for us. The death of Christ was not the only sacrifice He made though it was the crowning one. His whole life was a sacrifice from the manger to the cross. His becoming man at all was a sacrifice of immeasurable greatness and meaning.
Kiven in this marvelous sacrifice of Himself we must follow in His steps. God himself tells us so. He says in Eph. 5:2: ‘Walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for you.’’ And God also says in, 1 John 3:16 in words which can neither be misunderstood or evaded, “*Hereby know we love, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.’’
3. In the third place, the love of Jesus Christ for the vilest sunners manifested itself in His forgiving them when they repented of their smn and believed on Hum. God’s picture of the Christ abounds in illustrations of this. A notable instance is found in the seventh chapter of Luke. A woman who was a notorious sinner entered the house where He was being entertained by Simon, the Pharisee. She drew near Him as He reclined at the table and, bending over His feet, wet them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. Simon and the other guests were shocked that He should allow a woman of such a character even to touch Him, but Jesus looked up into those tear-dimmed eyes and said, ‘‘Thy sims are forgiven, thy faith has saved thee: go m peace.’’ Here also we are specifically told to imitate Him when others wrong us; for God says in Ephesians 4:32: ‘**Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, even as God also mm Christ forgave you.”’
4. In the fourth place, the Love of Jesus Christ to men manifested itself m His rebuking and chastening them when they sinned in order to bring them to repentance. Speaking from the Glory, Jesus Christ says in Rev. 3:19: ‘‘As many as I love, I reprove and chasten: be zealous therefore and repent.’’ A one-sided picture is oftentimes drawn of our Lord, the Christ of God, at this point. His readiness to forgive sinners, even the vilest, is emphasized, but that true and wise love of His that makes the impenitent sinner suffer in order that he may be brought to repentance, o6 THE REAL CHRIST
is lost sight of or obscured. Such a Christ is not ‘‘the real Christ.’’ It is not the Christ of actual fact. It is not the Christ God has Himself pictured for us in His own book.
5. In the fifth place, the love of Christ toward skeptics was manifested in patient dealing with unreasonable, mexcusable and stubborn doubts. There are various illustrations of this in the Bible. One of the most striking is in the case of Thomas. Thomas was not with the other disciples on the night of the resurrection day when Jesus Himself appeared in their midst and manifested Himself to them. When Thomas returned the other disciples said unto him: ‘‘We have seen the Lord,’’ but Thomas stubbornly replied, ‘* E’acept I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger ito the print of the nails, and put my hand wmto His side, I will not belreve.’’ (John 20:24, 25.) A week from that night, the next Lord’s Day, the disciples were gathered together again and Thomas was with them this time and Jesus Himself stood in the midst and said “‘Peace be unto you.’’ Then He turned to Thomas, the stubborn doubter, and gently said, ‘‘Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and see My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put tt to My side: and be not faithless but believing.’’ The stubborn, unreasonable, inexcusable doubt of Thomas is conquered and he falls upon hig knees before His Lord, looks up into His face and cries ‘‘My Lord and my God.’’ (John 20:26-29.) There is a lesson here for us. We grow so impatient with the doubter, especially when he is stubborn and unreasonable in his doubt, but our Lord did not and: our Lord’s method certainly is best.
6. In the sixth place, the love of Jesus Christ toward a weak disciple manifested itself by patrent and tender*dealing with his lapse ito grievous sin and awful apostasy. The case we have in mind is, of course, that of the apostle Peter who had denied his Lord three times with oaths and curses; and yet after His resurrection, our Lord, in sending a message through his angelic messengers to the disciples said, ‘‘But go, and tell His disciples and Peter, He goeth before you ito Galilee: there shall ye see Him, as He said unto you.’ (Mark 16:7.) Ob, how wondrously tender was that ‘‘and Peter.’’ Why, ‘‘and Peter?’’ was he not a disciple? Yes, the leader of the apostolic company. But three nights ago he had denied his Lord three times, with oaths and curses, and, if the messenger had only said, ‘‘Tell His disciples,’’ Peter would have said, ‘‘Yes, I was a disciple, but I am no longer. I denied my Lord with oaths and curses. He doesn’t mean me.’’ But our loving Lord in sending the messengers said, ‘‘Go and tell My disciples and, whoever you tell, be sure you tell poor, discouraged, back-slidden, broken-hearted Peter.’’ Here too is a lesson for us. When professed Christians prove weak, when in the hour of testing they fail, how ready we are to turn upon them harshly and utterly discourage them, instead of following in the footsteps of our Lord and dealing with them patiently and tenderly, no matter how grievous their lapse into sin may have been, and thus winning them back to Him.
7. In the seventh place, the love of Christ to His disciples manifested itself in His performing the lowliest and most mental services for them. This we see in that wonderful picture of the Christ that God has given us in John 13:1-5: ““Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were wm the world, He loved them unto the end. (2) And during supper, the devil having already put mto the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, (8) Jesus knowing that the Father had given ali things into His hands, and that He came forth from God, and goeth unto God, (4) riseth from supper, and layeth aside his garments; and he took a towel, and girded himself. (5) Then he poureth water wmto the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.’’ What a sight! What a sight! The Lord of Glory washing the dirty feet of those mutually jealous disciples. We cannot stop now to dwell upon the significance of this wonderful scene. Indeed what Jesus did on this occasion needs imitation more than it needs comment, and in this case our Lord Himself definitely tells us, and emphasizes the fact, that He has left us an example that we should follow in His steps. His words are, ‘‘For I have gwen you an example, that ye also should do as I have done to you.’’ AJohn 13:15.)
8. In the eighth place, the love of Jesus Christ to the Church was manifested in His leaving the Father to cleave unto the Church, so that they too should become one flesh. This stupendous fact is declared by Paul in Eph. 5:31, 32: ‘‘For this cause shall a man leave lus father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one fiesh.. (32) This mystery is great: but I speak im regard of Christ and of the Church.’’ One hesitates to attempt to interpret these remarkable words but God has put them into His Word that we may understand them and meditate upon them, and their meaning is plain if it is staggering in its marvelous significance. They mean this: God, the Father was the object of the eternal love of Christ. In the eternity behind us, before a world was formed or an angel or any created being, God the Father, and God the Son, loved one another. Their whole being was wrapped up in one another. The tendrils cf the love of Christ had wrapped themselves around the one object of His eternal love, the Father, with an infinitude of love that we cannot fathom or imagine. But man was created and man sinned and out of that great lost mass of mankind God gave His Son an elect people that should believe on Him, and become His Bride and out of love to this Bride, the eternal Son of God tore Himself away from the Father, came down to this sin-cursed world to win us as His Bride and to be joined to us. Do you wonder that Paul says, “This 1s a great mystery.’’
9. In the ninth place, the love of Jesus Christ to His disciples manifested atself in His going to prepare a place for us. This we see in those familiar and precious words of our Lord in John 14:2: ‘‘In My Father’s house are many mansions; uf wu were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.’’ It was love for His Church that brought Christ down to the earth and it was love for His Church that took Him away again from the earth. It was love for His Church that led Him to leave the Father and come down here and seek us out and win us for Himself as His Bride and to die to secure our pardon. It was also love for the Church that led him to leave us to go back to the Father and prepare for us an eternal home in His Father’s house.
10. In the tenth place, the love of Jesus Christ for His Church will manifest itself 11 His comang again for us to receive us unto Himself that we may be no more separated one from the other. This appears in the next verse to the one just quoted, John 14:3: ‘‘ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”’ Ob, how He loves us! He left us out of love for us. He left us for our good. But He is lonesome up yonder without us; even heaven, with the Father’s presence, is a lonesome place for Christ without us; He so loves us. And earth ought to be a lonesome place for us without our Lord and Christ, our heavenly bridegroom because we so love Him. Earth ought to be a lonesome place for us without Him no matter how beautiful our homes, how many our comforts, how numerous and excellent our friends, how noble and satisfying our children, our wives or husbands. Is earth a lonesome place for you without the Lord Jesus? Are you longing for His return? Does your heart keep crying, ‘‘ Even so come Lord Jesus, come quickly,’’ and are you even willing, if He must tarry, to lay aside your mortal body and ‘‘be absent from the body and at home with the Lord?’’. (2 Cor. 5:8.) Are you saying from the depth of your heart with Paul, ‘‘For me wz would be far better to depart and be with Christ.’”
There is a wonderful tenderness in the exact wording of this verse. (John 14:2). Our Lord Jesus says, ‘‘ZJ will come again and recieve you unto Myself.’’ Note those words ‘‘unto Myself.’’ He does not merely say into My home and into companionship with Me, but ‘‘unto Myself.’’ It is as if He longed for us to press us to His very soul, ‘‘unto Myself.’’ Godet’s comment on these words is worth repeating. ‘‘He presses him (2. e., the believer) to His heart, so to speak, while bearine Him away. There is an infinite tenderness in these last words. It is for Himself that He seems to rejoice in and look to this moment which will put an end to all separation.’’
Last summer, I entered a room in a little Mission Station in China many miles off the beaten track. It was the room in which the native pastor dwelt. There was just one decoration on the wall of that plainly furnished room. It was a text of Scripture and what do you think it was? Just these words: ‘‘Come Quickly Lord Jesus.’’