THE LOVE OF CHRIST
CONTEMPLATED
"And to know the love of Christ." Eph. 3:19
On no other subject did the mind of the apostle Paul dwell with so much
delight, as on that of the redeeming love of Christ. This was his favorite
theme. It was his ardent desire to exhibit to a lost world, the grace of the
Lord Jesus, which had been so abundantly manifested to himself, once a great
sinner. It was the love of Christ that sustained him amid all his trials,
and distresses, and persecutions, and enabled him to finish a glorious
career. Neither the threats of the Jews, nor the terror of the Romans, could
separate him from the love of Christ, or in the least abate his zeal for
spreading the news of salvation, and the wonders of redeeming love through a
lost world.
Writing to the Romans, he boldly exclaims, "Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or
nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For your sake we face death
all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all
these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am
convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither
the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of
God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
The same apostle, writing to the Ephesians, desires and prays that Christ
may dwell in their hearts by faith, that they being rooted and grounded in
love, "may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and
length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passes
knowledge."
Let us contemplate the love of Christ in all its extent, and in all its
vastness. When did it commence? In the past eternity. The love of Christ to
his people extends from eternity. Though it was manifested in time, yet it
existed from eternity. "Then I was by him as one brought up with him, and I
was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the
habitable part of his earth, and my delights were with the sons of men."
Christ says to each of his chosen ones, "I have loved you with an
everlasting love therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn you."
Oh! wonderful thought, everlasting love! Who can comprehend the import of
these words– everlasting love? Christ loves us, and his love is everlasting.
Yes, dear believer, Christ loved you before the world was created; before
you had an existence. From all eternity he thought upon your lost condition
by nature; and oh! how willingly, how gladly, he left the throne of glory to
bring salvation to you. His love never had a beginning. "This river of love
began to flow before the world was; from everlasting, from the beginning,
before ever the earth was. Christ's love to us is as old as the Father's
love to the Son. This river of light began to stream from Jesus towards us,
before the beams poured from the sun; before the rivers flowed to the ocean;
before angel loved angel, or man loved man: before creatures were, Christ
loved us. This is a great mystery; who can fathom it? This love passes
knowledge." (McCheyne)
The love of Christ will reach into eternity; will extend throughout its
immeasurable ages it has no end. This is the sweet declaration of Christ,
with regard to his love, that "For the mountains may depart and the hills
disappear, but even then I will remain loyal to you. My covenant of blessing
will never be broken," says the Lord, who has mercy on you."
O, to be among that happy number, who will enjoy in heaven the eternal favor
of Christ's love, which will make eternity itself one joyous unclouded day
of everlasting light and immortal felicity! Blessed Jesus! Give us a saving
interest in your unchanging loving-kindness, which is better than life. O,
let one ray of your most wonderful love light on our benighted hearts:
soften them by the manifestation of your grace.
Of the vastness of the love of Christ, we can form no adequate conceptions;
much less can we, by any power of the understanding, comprehend it. To use
the emphatic language of Rutherford, "it is as if a child could take the
globe of earth and sea in his two short arms." The love of Christ is like a
great ocean, whose depths are unfathomable. There is a height in this love,
to which no human intelligence can soar; a depth which no created mind can
penetrate. In viewing the love of Christ, there lies a wide unbounded
prospect before us. The mental vision wanders at liberty over this
illimitable range. The love of Christ is circumscribed by no limits; it is
bounded by no horizon: it is one vast expanse in which the soul may lose
itself in wonder, delight, and admiration.
The pious McCheyne, whom we have already quoted, has the following beautiful
remarks on the love of Christ– "Paul says: 'The love of Christ passes
knowledge.' It is like the blue sky into which you may see clearly, but the
real vastness of which you cannot measure. It is like the deep, deep sea,
into whose bosom you can look a little way, but its depths are unfathomable.
It has a breadth without a bound, length without top, and depth without
bottom. If holy Paul said this, who was so deeply taught in divine things;
who had been in the third heaven, and seen the glorified face of Jesus; how
much more may we, poor and weak believers, look into that love, and say, It
passes knowledge!"
If we cannot comprehend the love of Christ; if we cannot fathom it, let us
contemplate and admire it. It was the love of Christ that led him to assume
human nature, in order that he might suffer and die, and thus atone for the
sins of his people. It was this love that induced him to leave the bosom of
his Father, and the adoration of the angelic host, and to sojourn among
guilty, worthless mortals.
It was love that led him to exchange the throne of glory for the manger of
Bethlehem and the cross of Calvary. It was love that made his whole life,
from the manger to the cross, one of grief and sorrow. Love made him "a man
of sorrows, and acquainted with grief."
Well might the blessed Jesus have exclaimed, "Behold and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, with which the Lord has afflicted me in the day
of his fierce anger." It was love that made him suffer and die for sinners.
Yes, love led him to the gloomy garden of Gethsemane; love drew him to the
judgment hall; love nailed him to the cross; and love enabled him to exclaim
with his expiring breath, "It is finished."
"Greater love has no man than this." The love of Christ is wonderful love:
it is surpassing, boundless love. Look at that amazing love which Christ has
manifested to sinners; and may you be able to comprehend with all saints
what is its breadth, and length, and depth, and height! When you intently
contemplate that redeeming love which brought Christ from his throne, to
live and suffer, and die for sinners, does not your breast heave with
emotions of gratitude? Does not your soul rise in adoration, and is it not
lost in wonder, love, and praise?
Have you a heart so cold as not to be warmed by such unbounded love; a heart
so hard as not to be softened by such grace as is here set before the eyes
of a wondering world?
No feeble mortal can express the vastness of the love of Christ to sinners!
It is a mystery which eternity itself will never fully unravel. "God only,
knows the love of God." We know that it is great love, and that it is
manifested to sinners, but it is love too boundless for the most capacious
mind to grasp. None can comprehend its vastness: none can measure its
immensity; language fails to describe it; human thought cannot fathom it;
time cannot disclose its depths; and vast eternity itself will roll away in
its continual and delightful contemplation. How transcendent is the love of
Christ! It passes knowledge.
O my soul, are you not lost in wonder and admiration when you contemplate
this divine love– the love of Jesus? And love so amazing, love so boundless
as the love of Christ should call forth our loftiest strains of praise, and
exercise our highest powers of mind in devout contemplations. It should be
the constant theme of our meditation here, until we come to possess its full
and eternal enjoyment in that world where all is love. And if we possess the
love of Christ on earth, it will cheer our hearts, brighten our prospects,
alleviate our sorrows, mitigate our afflictions, and emit a ray of hope that
will enable us to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, even in
this valley of tears.
To be the object of Christ's love is desirable, and it is a blessed
attainment to know that you enjoy it; to say with Paul, "I have been
crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life
I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me." There is nothing so much calculated to drive from sin, or
excite to good works, as a ray of the love of Christ darting into the
sinner's heart! This will more effectually melt it, than all tide terrors of
the law, or the thunders of Sinai.
The love of Christ fills the soul with immortal joys. There is nothing so
reviving to the believer, as the sweet thought of Christ's love to him.
There is no subject stored with such an exuberance of divine consolation,
and heavenly joy, as that of redeeming love– the love of the Son of God to a
lost world. Every other subject loses its luster when contrasted with this
sublime, soul-reviving theme; and nothing tends so effectually to expand,
elevate, and purify the soul, as that faith "which works by love."
And what do we not owe to the love of Christ? All the comforts and happiness
of life, and all the joys of a blissful eternity flow from this love. You
should meditate much upon the love of Christ; and may that love ever glow
within you, and be like a perpetual fire burning upon the altar of your
heart.
"The love of Christ is a subject too lofty for a seraph's harp. The soul,
renewed by the spirit, is often incapable of expressing the sublime feelings
which pass through the mind, when thinking on this glorious subject. The
love of Christ conveys a joy to the believer's heart, which is unspeakable
and full of glory. The tongue cannot express the delight of heart which
arises from the manifestation of this love. The joy of harvest, the joy of
the bridegroom on his wedding day; the joy of victory, and taking great
spoils from the enemy; the joy of a poor man in finding great treasures; all
these are not worthy to be compared with the joy and exultation of the
believer's heart, on the manifestation of this love to his soul." (Vincent)
What does the blessed Jesus deserve for such unbounded love to sinners? All
our hearts should be devoted to his service, and all our affections should
be placed upon him. We should love him, because he first loved us. "Though
you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now,
you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy."
O to be made like the adorable Redeemer, and to praise him throughout the
countless age's of eternity, for the wonders of his redeeming love! May this
be the desire of every reader; and may each be enabled to exclaim with the
Psalmist, "Whom have I in heaven but you? There is none upon earth that I
desire besides you!"
"One there is, above all others,
Well deserves the name of Friend
His is love beyond a brother's;
Costly, free, and knows no end.
They who once his kindness prove,
Find it everlasting love.
Which of all our friends to save us,
Could or would have shed their blood!
But our Jesus died to save us
Reconciled, in him to God;
This was boundless love indeed
Jesus is a friend in need."