All the sacrifices and offerings of the Old Testament Scriptures, in connection with God's people, were types of the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Although we can learn much from them, in the light of the New Testament, the types were only shadows; they did not give a clear image of all the wondrous details of the perfect Offering of the Son of God. Now that the great work has been accomplished, the Holy Spirit has unfolded the deep secret of the cross, and among them is the wonderful revelation that the Lord Jesus gave Himself.
The offering up of Isaac is a beautiful type, in which the meek submission of the Son to the will of His Father is blessedly portrayed. But this offering rather expresses the Father giving His Son, and not the Son giving Himself. Isaac did not know about the offering, for he asked, "Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" but the blessed Son of God knew from eternity what lay before Him, and willingly offered Himself to give effect to all that lay in the heart and counsels of His God and Father.
In the parable of the treasure hid in the field, the man who found the treasure, because of the joy it gave him, sold all that he had and bought the field. Likewise, the merchant who sought goodly pearls, when he found one of great price, sold all that he had and bought it. Both tell us of the great price the Lord Jesus was willing to pay to procure the church as a treasure for His heart, and as a vessel for the display of His glory. After He had veiled His Godhead glory in human form, He gave up all that was His as Son of David to satisfy the longings of His heart. Yet even this lovely picture does not reveal the precious truth of the Lord giving Himself.
(1 Timothy 2:6)
If the sacrifice of Christ is of infinite value to God in securing all His will, it is of infinite value to men, for the work accomplished on the cross, in the sovereign goodness of God, is available to all men. A ransom is paid to set at liberty those in captivity; and the Lord Jesus has paid the price to liberate all who believe in Him from the captivity of Satan, the power of sin, and the fear of death.
Towards the close of His public ministry, with the cross so near, the Lord Jesus called His disciples around Him, when they were displeased at the sons of Zebedee seeking a special place in His kingdom, and told them, "For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). After the Lord Jesus had given His life, the Spirit of God announced, through the Apostle Paul, that the ransom was available for all.
The greatness of the Person gives character to the work of the cross, for the Man Christ Jesus is the Mediator of God and men, the One who has come out from God to set forth in His own Person and testimony God's disposition of grace towards all men. But apart from the cross none could be ransomed: the ransom price had to be paid, and the Lord Jesus in giving Himself, a sacrifice of infinite cost to Himself and to God, has enabled God to offer blessing to all men.
This is the time in which the testimony of Christ's great work goes out to men; and a special vessel was chosen to announce the testimony, and in this choice the sovereign grace and mercy of God are displayed, for it was the arch-persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, that the Lord called to be "a herald and apostle, a teacher of the nations in faith and truth." If then God could ransom such an one, and appoint him to announce the glad tidings of His grace, surely there is none beyond the reach of the mercy and grace of God. All that God requires from the sinner is repentance towards Him, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ; then, in the language of Elihu, God "is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom" (Job 33:24).
(Galatians 1:4)
If it required the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus to take away our sins, it would convey to our souls something of the awful nature of our sins in the sight of God. Men, naturally, are unaware of the true character of sin; it is only when we are convicted of it in the light of God's goodness that we realise its heinousness; and it is in the light of the cross that we learn of its enormity before God. Some, like Isaiah, Job, Daniel and Saul of Tarsus, were exposed to themselves in the holy light of God's presence, and felt something of the vileness of sin and the wretchedness of the sinner; but the cross of Christ exposes fully what sin is in the sight of God. Not only do we see there what man was capable of in treating the Son of God as a malefactor, but we see a sacrifice of infinite value offered to take our sins away.
Our sins connected us with this present evil world that rejected and crucified the Son of God, and the Lord Jesus has given Himself for our sins to deliver us from the evil world that still rejects Him, and which will soon receive its judgment at His hand. When the Lord comes to take the church out of this world to be forever with Him, we shall be completely delivered from the world and all its influence; but it is God's will that we should be delivered from the world even now. We do not belong to the world, even as the Lord Jesus said, "They are not of the world, as I am not of the world." But the Father desires that we might be delivered from every link that bound us to this evil world, whether religious, political, social or any other; and that we might be free from its spirit and influence.
(Galatians 2:20)
The Apostle Paul had learned the evil nature of the world in the cross of Christ. and said. "I am crucified with Christ." He saw himself as sharing Christ's place of rejection from the world, writing, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal. 6:14). But he saw more than the evil nature of the world in the cross: he saw the love of Christ, love for a poor guilty sinner who once had part with the world that crucified Him. He learned, not only that the Lord Jesus was the propitiation for our sins, but that He was our substitute; and he knew it was for him that Jesus died. Such is the love of God's Son for us individually! Each believer can take up the language of the Apostle, and say, "The Son of God loved me, and gave Himself for me."
If we have learned that Jesus loved us, and gave Himself for us; and if we have seen the true character of this present world in the cross, then we shall, with the Apostle endeavour by God's grace to live in this world with the eye of faith resting on the Son of God in the glory. All connected with the flesh, the sinful nature we have received from Adam fallen, has gone from before God's eye in the judgment of the cross, and it is thus God would have us view the flesh. The life that God has given to us is in Christ, and it is this life He would have us enjoy and manifest in every circumstance here below, but it is only as Christ is the object of our souls that we can come out like Him and for Him in this world.
(Titus 2:14; Ephesians 5:2)
We not only have the privilege of viewing Christ's giving Himself for us as individuals, but also as having our part in the favoured company for which Christ died. In both Titus and Ephesians we read of Christ giving Himself "for us," that is for those who have availed themselves of His vicarious work on the cross; so that, at all times, when true Christians meet together, they can join in the praises of Christ, and dwell upon the love expressed in His giving Himself for us. We can think of Christ giving Himself for the whole company of the redeemed, to which we belong; we can also think of Him giving Himself for us, even if it be but two or three gathered to His Name or for His pleasure in any way.
When writing to Titus, Paul speaks of the grace of God which brings salvation to all men, and which teaches believers to be sober at all times, to be righteous in all their ways, and to live constantly in the fear of God. He then directs Titus to the blessed hope of eternal life, a life which we possess in our spirits now, and which we shall soon have in its fulness, when we are changed into Christ's likeness, having bodies of glory like unto His body of glory. Then we shall have the full enjoyment of the eternal life in the Father's House, and we shall also share the glory of Christ's kingdom at His appearing. It was to bring us into this wonderful wealth of divine blessing that Christ "gave Himself for us."
But He also "gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." While waiting for the coming of the Lord to put us in possession of all the rich blessing that lies ahead, He would have us living in the scene of His rejection for His pleasure. His death that has set us free from the consequences of our sins has also delivered us from the power of sin, and this enables us, as servants of God, to live for Him. We are purified and redeemed not only to be fit for heaven, but to be fit for the Master's use on earth. What a great triumph God has procured in continuing the life of His Son in His saints here below, where men, under the influence of the god of this world, cast Him out!
At the beginning of Ephesians 5 we are exhorted to be "followers of God as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us." To be called upon by God to imitate Him as His children, loved by Him, is an immense privilege. God could not be satisfied with anything less than seeing His own features in those He has brought into relationship with Him. Those blessed divine features have been expressed here perfectly in the Son of God, so that we are directed to Christ, who has loved us and given Himself for us. Every step of Christ's life on earth was taken in obedience to His Father's will, and in love for us; but it is to the death of Christ our attention is directed, for it was there that His love to us was seen in its fulness and perfection. The love is measured by the value of the sacrifice, and the sacrifice of Christ is of infinite worth.
Someone might say, But the example given is infinitely beyond what mortal could reach. This is indeed so! yet our walk is to be marked by divine love, and nothing less will do for God. We have to confess that it is but feebly the divine love comes out in our walk; but we must ever recognise that this is the only standard that God has for His children. The more we are occupied with Christ and His love, the more shall we manifest His love in our walk.
When Christ gave Himself for us, His death was "an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour." There can be no doubt that we have the burnt offering character of Christ's death in this Scripture, in which the offerer was accepted in all the spotless purity and fragrance of the sacrifice; and this surely indicates our acceptance before God in all the peerless worth of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. God alone could rightly value the infinite worth of Christ's offering, and it is in His valuation of it that we are accepted and blessed in Christ.
Inasmuch as Christ's giving Himself for us is spoken of as a sacrifice as well as an offering, the Holy Spirit may be presenting the peace offering character of Christ's death in this passage along with the burnt offering character. If this is so, we have here our portion in communion with God as feeding upon the love of Christ made known in His death. In the peace offering, the blood of the victim was sprinkled on the altar round about, and all the inward excellency was offered upon the altar as a sweet fragrance to God. The priestly family, in which we now have our part, fed upon the breast; the offering priest received the right shoulder; and the offerer had the rest of the sacrifice to feed upon in communion with his house and his friends. How eloquently do these things speak of our communion in the death of Christ!
(Ephesians 5:25)
We have contemplated the love of Christ manifested in the giving of Himself for us individually, and also for us collectively: now we have the corporate aspect, in which He gives Himself in love for the church. As with some of the Scriptures already considered, the truth of Christ giving Himself is introduced to give point and force to some practical aspect of the Christian life. Here, the husband is exhorted to love his wife, even as Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it. The light of divine affections is brought to bear upon natural relationships, so that the earthly might be coloured by the heavenly.
There are many beautiful types in the Old Testament of Christ and the church, but in none of them could there be the clear light of Christ giving Himself in love for it. Adam went into a deep sleep to get his Eve; Isaac must first be, in type, offered up before procuring Rebekah; and Jacob had to toil fourteen years for the objects of his affections, saying, "in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night" (Gen. 31:40); but precious and instructive as these and other types are, they are but faint shadows of the reality brought out in Ephesians 5.
Only by dying for her could Christ have the church as the bride of His heart, and He did not esteem the price too great to satisfy His deep longings, to secure all the counsels of His Father, and to bring His own to share the glory of His kingdom, and the eternal rest and joys of the Father's House.
This same precious truth of Christ giving Himself is brought before us in other ways: in Hebrews He offers Himself without spot to God, and in John He lays down His life for the sheep. All combine to draw out our affections to Him who was so willing, at such infinite cost to Himself, to tell out the boundless love of God.