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II.
The Love of Jesus Christ to God the
Father
(1) The
Fact of His Love for the father
John. 14:31
FIRST PROPOSITION:
Jesus Christ loved the Father.
(2) How
the Love of Jesus Christ to the Father Manifested Itself
(a)
John. 14:21,
John.15:108
FIRST PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ to the Father manifested itself in His doing as the
Father gave Him commandment. (Compare
1 John 5:3f
1–2.)
Note
1.—John. 6:38
His
obedience to the Father’s will faltered not at forsaking the glory of heaven
for the shame of earth.
Note
2.—Phil. 2:8
His
obedience to his Father’s will faltered not at death, even the death of the
cross.
Comp.
John. 10:15,
17,
18
His death
was in the highest sense voluntary. It was the goal toward which
Jesus deliberately walked.
Luke 9:51
But it was
not only on that last journey that “He steadfastly set His face to go to
Jerusalem;” but when He first took upon Him the nature of man. He had
steadfastly set His face to go to Calvary. The Jews stood beside the tomb of
Lazarus and saw Jesus weeping
and said “Behold how He loved Him” (John 11:36)—loved Lazarus. We stand beside
the cross and behold Jesus
bleeding and we cry “Behold how He loved Him”—loved God.
(b)
John 8:55,
ESV
SECOND PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ to the Father manifested itself in His keeping; i.
e., attending to carefully, or guarding, the Father’s word.
To keep God’s word means more than to obey His
commandments. A man may obey commandments without hearty love to them, but we
guard that which we regard as a precious treasure. This
Jesus did. The Father’s word was
His most precious treasure. He guarded it as other men do their gold and
jewels. This esteem for His Father’s word was a peculiar mark of His love to
the Father. The Destructive Critics profess to love God. How little of it they
show in this way They are ready to give away God’s word to the first plausible
sophist that advances a high-sounding argument for surrendering some precious
portion of the Word of God.
(c)
Matt. 26:39,
42
THIRD PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ to the Father manifested itself in unwavering
submission to the Father’s will, even when that will might require that from
which the soul shrank in heart-breaking anguish.
(d)
Ps. 40:8
FOURTH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ to the Father manifested itself in positive delight
in doing the Father’s will. The connection shows that the Father’s will here
was His own sacrificial death.
Note
1.—Luke 2:49.
Note
2.—John 4:34,
ESV
(e)
John 8:29,
ESV
FIFTH PROPOSITION:
The love of Jesus Christ to the Father manifested itself in His always doing
the things which were pleasing to the Father.
This is more than obedience to express commandments. A son
may do whatever a father bids him, but a more loyal and loving son will not
wait to be bidden, but study to find out what is pleasing to his father and
anticipate the expression of his will. To know what was pleasing to the Father
was Jesus Christ’s constant
study; to do these things was his unvarying practice.
(f)
John 5:30
SIXTH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ to the Father manifested itself in His seeking the
Father’s will.
The accomplishment of His Father’s will was the one object
of His pursuit. As other men hunt for gold, or pleasure, or honor, or the
accomplishment of their own will, He sought for the accomplishment of His
Father’s will.
(g)
John 5:34,
41,
ESV (Compare John 5:44.)
SEVENTH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ to the Father manifested itself in His seeking and
accepting testimony and glory from the Father alone.
(h)
John 17:4
EIGHTH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ to the Father manifested itself in His finishing the
work the Father gave Him to do.
Note.—When
was that work finished? (John
19:30 On the cross. It was
love to God before love to man that brought Jesus to Calvary. We speak of God
the Father loving men in Christ, which is true, but it is also true that
Christ’s sacrifice for men finds its final reason and original source in
obedience to the will of the Father, who was the object of His Supreme love.
(i)
John 7:18, 17:4, 17:1
NINTH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ to the Father manifested itself in His seeking the
glory of the Father alone.
The Father’s glory was
Jesus Christ’s first and great
ambition, the consuming passion of His life. It was for the Father’s glory He
planned, prayed, acted, suffered and died.
Jesus taught that the first and
great commandment is “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” (Matt. 22:37, 38.) His own life
is the supreme manifestation of this law which He taught.
III. The Love of
Jesus Christ to Men
(1) Whom
Among Men Did Jesus Love?
(a)
Eph. 5:25
FIRST PROPOSITION:
Jesus Christ loved the Church.
The Church is loved by
Christ in a particular sense and
a peculiar way. While a philanthropist may love all mankind and yet, if he is
a true man, will in a peculiar way love his own wife as he loves no other
woman, so Christ has a 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, i. e.,
His love to all mankind, or His love in particular;
i. e., His love to the
Church, which is His body and His bride.
(b)
Eph. 5:2, Gal. 2:20
SECOND PROPOSITION:
Jesus Christ loves individual believers. Jesus Christ not only loves His
church as a whole, but He loves each individual who believes in Him.
(c)
John 13:1
THIRD PROPOSITION:
Jesus Christ “loved His own” which were in the world. Not all men were “His
own” when He was here upon earth, neither are all His own to-day.
Question:
Who are His own?
John 17:2,
9,
12
Jesus Christ’s
own are those whom God the Father has given unto Him. The proof that anyone
belongs to this elect company is that he comes to
Christ. John. 6:37
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 (see context John 13:1), and them He guards so
that not one of them perishes. (John 17:12, 18:9 ESV
(d)
John. 14:21
FOURTH PROPOSITION:
Jesus Christ loves him that hath His commandments and keepeth them.
Christ
has an altogether especial love for His obedient disciples; to them He
manifests Himself as not unto the world.
Note
1.—John 15:10— Those who keep his commandments
abide in his love. This does not mean, as sometimes interpreted, “abide in the
consciousness of his love.” It means rather what it says. There is a love of
Christ out of which one steps
by disobedience.
Note
2.—Mark 3:35
Whosoever does the will of God stands in the 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 his
own sister, and above all, to his own mother. Toward whosoever does the will
of God,
Jesus
Christ has that love which
combines all three in one.
Note
3.—John 15:9—
(See also John 5:10.)
Jesus Christ’s love to those
who keep His commandments is just the same as His Father’s love to Him.
(e)
Matt. 9:13, Luke 19:10, Rom. 5:6,
8
FIFTH PROPOSITION:
Jesus Christ loves sinners, the lost, the ungodly.
Jesus Christ
loves the vilest sinner as truly as He loves the purest saint, but He does not
love the vilest sinner in the same 0way that He loves the purest saint. His
love to the sinner is one thing; His love to the obedient disciple 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 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 the attraction of need is the
greater.
(f)
Luke 23:34
SIXTH PROPOSITION:
Jesus Christ loved His enemies.
(g)
John 19:25–27, 1 Cor. 15:7
(Compare
John. 7:5)
Jesus
seems to have shown himself to no unsaved man after his resurrection, except
his brother.
SEVENTH PROPOSITION:
Jesus Christ loved His own kindred. Jesus Christ had a peculiar interest in
and love for those who were His kindred according to the flesh. Christianity
does not ignore but sanctifies natural ties.
(h)
Mark 10:13–16
EIGHTH PROPOSITION:
Jesus Christ loved children. Children had an especial attraction for Jesus
Christ, and were the objects of his especial solicitude and care.
Matt. 18:3,
6,
10
The man or
woman who has not an especial love for children is not Christlike.
(i)
John 11:5,
(Mark
10:21),
John 19:26
NINTH PROPOSITION:
Jesus Christ loved especial individuals in an especial way.
While Jesus Christ
loves all men with infinite love, while he has a peculiar love to His Church
as His bride and His body, while He has an individual love to each member of
His body, while He has a still more especial love to all 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.
(2) How
the Love of Jesus Christ to Men Manifests Itself
(a)
2 Cor. 8:9,
ESV
FIRST PROPOSITION:
The love of Jesus Christ to men manifested itself in His becoming poor that we
might become rich.
How great the riches He renounced and how great the poverty
He assumed is seen in Phil. 2:6–8. How great the riches we obtain through His
becoming poor we see in Rom. 8:16, 17:
(b)
Eph. 5:2, Gal. 2:20, 1
John 3:16, 15:13
SECOND PROPOSITION:
The love of Jesus Christ for us manifested itself in His giving Himself,
laying down His life for us.
His was a self-sacrificing love. The death of
Christ was not the only
sacrifice He made, but 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. (Phil. 2:6, 7.)
(c)
Luke 7:48
THIRD PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus to the vilest sinner was manifested in His forgiving them
when they repented and believed on Him.
(d)
Rev. 1:5
FOURTH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ to us manifests itself in His washing (or loosing, ESV) us from our sins in His own blood.
(e)
Luke 15:4,
5,
6,
7
FIFTH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ to His lost sheep manifests itself
(a) in His going after them
until He finds them; (b)
in His rejoicing over the lost one found; (c)
in His laying the lost one found on His own shoulders;
(d) in His bringing it safely
home.
(f)
John 10:4, Is. 40:11
SIXTH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ to His flock manifests itself in His tender care for
each member of the flock.
(g)
Matt. 8:17—“That
it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself
took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.”
SEVENTH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ for men was manifested in Himself taking our
infirmities and bearing our sicknesses
(h)
Matt. 14:14—“And
Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude; and was moved with compassion
toward them, and he healed their sick.”
EIGHTH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ for men was manifested in His having compassion upon
them and delivering them from their sicknesses.
(i)
Matt. 15:32—“Then
Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the
multitude because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to
eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.”
NINTH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ to men was manifested in His having compassion upon
them and supplying their physical needs.
(Compare
Heb. 13:8,
ESV—“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, yea and forever.”)
(j)
Rev. 3:19,
ESV—“As many as I love, I reprove and chasten: be zealous therefore, and
repent.”
TENTH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ to men is manifested in His reproving them in order
to bring them to repentance.
(k)
John 14:18,
R. V—“I will not leave you desolate: I come unto you.”
ELEVENTH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ to His disciples is manifested in His not leaving
them desolate. He Himself comes to them.
(l)
John 11:33–36
TWELFTH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ was manifested in weeping over the sorrow of His
loved ones.
Note.—He
knew that this sorrow was but for a moment, that it was founded upon a
misapprehension, that in a few moments it would be changed for exceeding joy;
but it was real, and as it was theirs it was His also.
(m)
John 14:1
THIRTEENTH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ to His disciples was manifested in his comforting
them in their sorrow and anxiety.
This is the purpose of the entire fourteenth chapter. Note
John 14:1, 27
(n)
John 14:27, John 15:11
FOURTEENTH PROPOSITION:
The love of Jesus Christ to His disciples was manifested in His leaving them
His own peace and His own joy.
(o)
Mark 3:5,
ESV
FIFTEENTH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ to men was manifested in His grieving over the
hardening of their hearts.
The hardening of their hearts, as shown by the context, was
shameful and outrageous. It aroused Christ’s anger. But it also moved Him to
grief. Would that we had that feeling toward even the most outrageous sin that
our anger would be mixed with tears.
(p)
Luke 22:32, John 17:15, Luke 23:34
SIXTEENTH PROPOSITION:
The love of Jesus Christ toward His disciples and toward His enemies was
manifested in His praying for them.
This is a most important manifestation of love.
(q)
Luke 24:38,
39,
40, John 20:24–29
SEVENTEENTH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ toward skeptics was manifested in patient dealing
with unreasonable, inexcusable and stubborn doubts.
(r)
Mark 16:7
EIGHTEENTH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ toward a weak disciple was manifested by patient and
tender dealing with his lapse into grievous sin and apostacy.
(s)
Rom. 8:37
NINETEENTH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ to those who believe in Him is manifested in His
giving them overwhelming victory in all their conflicts.
(t)
John 19:26,
27
TWENTIETH PROPOSITION:
The Love of Jesus Christ was manifested (a)
in His forgetting His own awful agony in His sympathy for the sorrows of
others; (b) by
intrusting His own
(u)
John 13:1–5,
ESV
TWENTY-FIRST
PROPOSITION: The Love of Jesus Christ to men
manifested itself in His performing the lowliest and most menial service for
them.
It is easy to perform the most menial services for those we
love. A mother can perform the most humiliating and repulsive service for the
babe she loves. (Yet wealthy mothers usually employ a hireling to do it.) What
but love, wondrous love, could enable the only begotten of God, in the full
consciousness “that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that
He came forth from God, and goeth unto God,” to arise from the table and with
His own hands do this menial service for His disciples? And Judas was there,
too, and the devil had already put it into his heart to betray Jesus. (John
13:2,
10, 11, ESV)
(v)
John 15:15
TWENTY-SECOND
PROPOSITION: Jesus Christ’s love to His friends
manifests itself by His making known unto them all things that the Father
makes known unto Him.
When you discover some great truth, what do you wish to do
with it? Do you not wish to hurry away to your most-loved ones and make it
known to them? So Jesus, in the fulness of His love to us, hastens to make
known unto us all that the Father makes known unto Him.
(w)
John 10:3
TWENTY-THIRD PROPOSITION:
Jesus’ love to His own sheep is manifested in His calling them by name.
This looks like a very small matter, but in that fact lies
part of its significance. It is a tender illustration of the Savior’s love for
His own. There was also something peculiar in the way in which He called His
own by name. (Compare John 20:16.)
(x)
John 17:12,
John 18:8,
9 ESV,
Rom. 8:35–39
TWENTY-FOURTH
PROPOSITION: The love of Jesus Christ to His own
manifests itself in His keeping them so that not one of them is lost.
(y)
Acts 9:5, Matt. 25:37–40,
41–45
TWENTY-FIFTH PROPOSITION:
The love of Jesus Christ to His disciples manifests itself in His so
thoroughly identifying Himself with them that He regards all that is done unto
the least of them as done unto Himself.
(z)
Eph. 5:31,
32
TWENTY-SIXTH PROPOSITION:
The love of Jesus Christ to the church was manifested in His leaving the
Father to cleave unto the church, so that they two shall be one flesh.
This is, indeed, a great mystery.
(aa)
John 14:21–23
TWENTY-SEVENTH
PROPOSITION: The love of Jesus Christ to those who
keep His commandments is manifested in His manifesting Himself unto them and
making His abode with them.
(bb)
John 14:2
TWENTY-EIGHTH
PROPOSITION: The love of Jesus Christ to His
disciples has been manifested in His going to prepare a place for us.
(cc)
John 14:3
TWENTY-NINTH PROPOSITION:
The love of Jesus Christ to His disciples will manifest itself in His coming
again for us to receive us unto Himself, that we may be no more separated one
from the other.
(Compare
1 Thess. 4:16,
17)
Note
1.—He comes Himself: “I come again.” He sends no mere messenger.
Note
2.—It is to receive us “unto
Himself.”
Not merely into heaven. It is as if He longed for us, longed to press us to
His very soul, His very self “unto himself.” We long for Him, but not as He
longs for us. Heaven is a lonely place to Him without us. Earth ought to be a
lonely place to us without Him. Godet’s comment on these words is worth
repeating. “He presses him to His heart, so to speak, while bearing 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.” (Godet’s John, Vol. 2, p. 270, Am. Ed.)
(dd)
Eph. 5:25–27
THIRTIETH PROPOSITION:
The love of Jesus Christ to the church manifested itself in the past by His
giving Himself for it; manifests itself in the present in His sanctifying and
cleansing it with the washing of water by the word; will manifest itself in
the future by His presenting it to Himself “a glorious church not having spot,
or wrinkle, or any such thing,” but “holy and without blemish.”
IV. Jesus Christ’s
Love for Souls
(1)
Luke 19:10
FIRST PROPOSITION:
The Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.
This was the great object of His earthly mission. Not to
receive honor nor to accumulate wealth nor to gain a kingdom. He left behind
greater glories than the world contained. To save the lost. Lost men were of
more value and preciousness in His sight than all earth’s wealth and glory. A
single soul was of priceless value. The whole material universe had not the
value in His sight of a single soul. Each soul had this value in His sight.
Not only the soul of the philosopher and the saint, but the soul of the savage
and of the outcast.
(2)
John 4:6,
7,
10
SECOND PROPOSITION:
Jesus Christ was ever on the watch for opportunities to save perishing souls.
We see this again in John 9:35, And in Mark, 2:4, 5
He made use of His miracles as stepping-stones to reach the soul.
(3)
Luke 15:4
THIRD PROPOSITION:
Jesus Christ went after lost souls.
He not only watched for and welcomed opportunities when
they came in His way, He sought opportunities. He not only received the lost
when they came to Him, He went after them. A true love for souls will always
reveal itself in a going out in search of them.
(4)
John 4:32–34
FOURTH PROPOSITION:
Jesus Christ found His joy and satisfaction in saving lost souls.
In this work He forgot weariness, hunger, thirst. In it He
found joy and refreshment for His body. Mark 3:20, 21—“And the multitude
cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread, and when
his friends heard of it they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is
beside himself.” Jesus so lost himself in His work that He neglected the
ordinary needs of his body in its prosecution and His friends said, “He is
beside himself.”
(5)
Luke 15:5–7
FIFTH PROPOSITION:
Jesus Christ rejoiced with great joy over lost souls found.
As a shepherd rejoices over the sheep that had gone astray
when he finds it; as the woman rejoices over the coin lost from her marriage
necklace when it is found again; as the gold-hunter rejoices over the great
nugget of gold that he digs from the rock; as the merchantman seeking goodly
pearls rejoices over the one pearl of great price—so and infinitely more Jesus
rejoices over a lost soul found.
(6)
John 5:40, Luke 19:41,
42, Matt. 23:37
SIXTH PROPOSITION:
Jesus Christ grieved with great grief over lost souls that refused to be
saved.
No woman ever grieved over her stolen jewels, no mother
over a lost child, as Jesus over lost men who refused to be saved. No words
can picture the agony that shot through the heart of Jesus Christ when men
refused to come to him that they might have life.
(7)
John 10:11, Matt. 20:28
SEVENTH PROPOSITION:
Jesus Christ gladly laid down His life to save souls.
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