The love of Christ is the expression of His nature, for God is love. That holy, eternal love was known by the Father from eternity as the Son nestled in His bosom, and the coming of the Son into the world was an expression in time of that heavenly love, and expressed for the world to know, even as Jesus said, on His way to the cross, “But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do, Arise, let us go forth” (John 14:31). The Father knows the love of the Son as no other could know it, for “no man knows the Son, but the Father,” and the reciprocal affections in the unity of the Godhead belong to the Father and the Son in an infinitude that is beyond creature ken.
When Jesus was on earth His compassionate love for men was often expressed, as when He saw the weeping widow of Nain follow the bier of her son, her only son. He had come to heal the broken-hearted, and this was blessedly shown as Jesus, having “compassion on her…said to her, Weep not” (Luke 7:13). The divine compassion was not only in the words of Jesus to the widowed mother, but in His words of power to the dead, for He said, “Young man, I say to thee, arise.” The woman of Luke 7, who washed the feet of Jesus with her tears, and many other who tasted of His grace, knew the compassionate love of Jesus.
In the Home of Bethany
There were three in the home of Bethany, Martha, Mary and Lazarus, and when Lazarus fell sick, the sisters sent a message to Jesus, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick” (John 11:3). The sisters knew the love of Jesus, and it was to Him they sent in their hour of trial. Nor were they mistaken in pleading the love of Jesus for their brother, for it is written, “Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus” (verse 5). Jesus knew what was taking place in the loved home of Bethany, and what would take place, and said after receiving the message from the sisters, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.” Death might come, but this was not the reason for the sickness, but rather the divine glory that would be manifested in bringing Lazarus from death and corruption.
It was love that permitted the sickness and death to come into the circle of those Jesus loved, so that His loved ones might have a deeper sense of His love and care for them, and a sight of His glory they had never yet seen. Love for them caused Jesus to remain where He was for two days after receiving their message; it was love for them that made Him groan in His Spirit, and weep with the sorrowing sisters at the grave of their brother, and love that gave them the knowledge of the Son of God as the Resurrection and the Life, a knowledge that came to them because of the trial through which love called them to pass through. What lessons there are for the saints of God to learn in the trials through which they are called to pass. We are to prove the reality of the love of Jesus in the trial, in knowing His sympathy, His resources to take us through every difficulty, and a deeper knowledge of Himself as the One who orders all for His own glory and our richest blessing.
He Loved Them to the End
The disciples of Jesus had known His love for them as having been cared for and sheltered by Him throughout their companying with Him in many different situations. Just before His departure from this world to go to the Father, Jesus was gathered with His own for the Paschal supper, which was about to have its fulfilment in His death. It was regarding that time it is recorded for our instruction, that “having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them to the end” (John 13:1). Jesus knew that in their weakness they would all forsake Him and flee, but His love for them was unaffected even though He would feel their desertion with deepest sorrow.
It was about this time that the Lord had said to His disciples, “I am among you as He that serves” (Luke 22:27), and how blessedly was this expressed as Jesus “laid aside His garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself” (John 13:4). Although so great in His Person, the love of the Son of God had brought Him down from the presence of the Father to take a bondman’s place, and to serve, not only His God and Father, but, His disciples. Not even the presence of the betrayer could deter the Son of God from this blessed expression of His love towards His disciples.
Stooping to wash the disciples feet not only manifested His lowliness and love, but was to teach the disciples, and ourselves also as now His disciples, that He was going to the Father that we might even now have part with Him in the Father’s presence, but that the application of His word and His death would give us the meetness to have part with Him in the joys of the Father’s presence, as knowing His love and the Father’s love, and all the things He had made known and would make known. Jesus delights to have us speak to Him of all that concerns us here, but He desires that we should have communion with Him in regard to all that belongs to Him in His place on high.
The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved
Mary and Martha knew that Jesus loved their brother, and the Apostle John also knew that he was an object of the love of Jesus, and this privilege did not only belong to those whom Jesus loved when on earth, it also belongs to every disciple of Jesus now. John was among the favoured few that were gathered with the Lord when He washed His disciples’ feet, but he had a peculiar place that night, for he wrote of himself, “there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23). How good it is when we, like John, know the blessedness of resting on the bosom of Jesus, and knowing ourselves individually as loved of Him.
It was a time of great trial that night when John leaned on the bosom of Jesus, for the disciples were about to lose their Master, and He had told them that one of them was about to betray Him. The next time that John wrote of himself as “the disciple who Jesus loved” was a happy occasion (John 21:20), for the disciples were in the company of their Master as risen fro the dead. Surely we can learn from these two mentions of John being the disciple whom Jesus loved that, whether in times of sorrow or times of gladness, we can always take account of ourselves as being loved by the Lord, who manifested the greatness of His love for us in giving Himself for us upon the cross.
The Son of God Who Loved Me
Like the Apostle John, the Apostle Paul could delight in a personal knowledge of the love of the Son of God. When Paul considered the cross of Christ, he reckoned himself as having died with Christ, all that he was as a man of this world, seeking his own glory, had gone for ever in the cross of Christ. Paul saw that the world had been judged, exposed in its dreadful evil, and finished so far as God was concerned, in the cross. It was a system that hated God, and from which nothing good could be expected, and having refused the reconciliation offered in Christ, God brought it to an end judicially in the cross. The cross also ended the trial of man after the flesh, and Paul therefore saw himself as after the flesh.
There was much more that Paul saw in the cross: he saw the Son of God die there for him, a poor wretched sinner, yea, the chief of sinners. It was love beyond all telling, love that had made him a captive, so that his life was lived with his eye on “the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). Just as if there was not another, the Apostle appropriated for himself personally, just as John had done, the amazing love of Christ. Paul’s whole life was lived, from the time that the Lord in grace laid hold of him, with his eye fixed on the Son of God in heaven, but the One he looked upon in heaven was the One who gave Himself in love for him upon the cross.
Christ Also has Loved Us
In writing to the saints at Ephesus, Paul exhorted them to be “followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love” (Eph. 5:1-2). We are not to exhibit human affections only, but the divine love that was seen in Christ, who “also has loved us, and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.” Human affections belong to the natural relationships of life but divine affection is to be manifested in the circle of divine relationships into which God has called us, and even our natural affections are to be coloured with the divine affection that belongs to the divine nature that God has given us.
The death of Christ, in which His great love for us was manifested, was both a burnt offering and a peace offering, that yielded infinite pleasure to God. Christ’s death, through which God was glorified in relation to our sins, was that through which we are accepted before God. Not only as individuals, but as a company of Christians, gathered at any time, we can rejoice before God in the knowledge that Christ loved us, and gave Himself for us. As we contemplate the love of Christ for us, we can also delight in all that God received through and in that wondrous sacrifice.
Christ Also Loved the Church
Christ’s love is to be enjoyed by each one for whom He gave Himself, and for believers viewed collectively, who can say “Christ also loved us,” but “Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it” (Eph. 5:25). Whether for us individually, collectively or corporately, the measure of the love of Christ is in giving Himself. The man who found the treasure in the field, and the man who bought the lustrous pearl, gave all that he had to secure the object that was prized, and these are parables of what Christ paid to secure the church, but Christ not only became poor to secure the church that He loved, He gave Himself in death, and more He could not give.
The love of Christ is still as strong as when He gave Himself for the church, and it is even now expressed in His care for the church, as He sanctifies and cleanses it for the day when He will present to Himself “a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle…holy and without blemish.” When Christ has finished with His work on the church it will be a meet companion to share His glory and His eternal joys in the Father’s house.
Unto Him that Loves Us
We have just seen that Christ’s love for the church is a present love, manifested in His death upon the cross, but also in His present care. In Revelation 1:5 the Apostle John writes of Christ’s present love where he says, “Unto Him that loves us, and has washed us from our sins in His own blood.” How blessed it is for us to realise that Christ’s love for us is a present love, but it is in the death of Christ that His love found full expression. Christ’s love took Him into the deepest depths of divine judgment when He bore our sins, and shed His precious blood to wash all our sins away.
Love would have us with Him as suited companions for His glory, and as able to enter into and respond to His affections, so there must needs be the removal of all that was unsuited to Him. Through His death, Christ has removed all our sins, and all that hindered our entering His Father’s house, and we have also the fitness for an eternal place with Him as His body and His bride.
The love of Christ which passes knowledge
Is it any wonder that Paul writes of the “love of Christ which passes knowledge” as we contemplate the varied aspects of it in the Scriptures mentioned. This precious presentation of the love of Christ (Eph. 3:19) is found among many wonderful things in a prayer that desires that we might “be filled with all the fulness of God.” Dwelling upon the love of Christ which passes knowledge, a love that we well know, but which in its immensity is beyond our comprehension, we shall seek to be here to please the One who loves us, and as supplied by the divine fulness that is necessary to this desired end.
Christ’s love is foreshadowed in the love of Isaac for Rebekah, in the love of Jacob for Rachel, and in the love of him who said, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away” (Song of Songs 2:10), but these and all other human loves mentioned in the Scriptures are but faint shadows of the love of Him who came down from heaven to bring us to God, and to die for us, that we might be His and His for ever.
R. 29.12.70