The Love of Christ in Giving Himself for the Church 2
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2. The LIFE of Jesus. When, too, this blessed Redeemer came into the world from the womb of the Virgin, he still "gave himself." From the day he was circumcised, when he came under the law, until the day he was crucified when he endured its curse, he was ever giving himself. With every thought of his holy mind, every word of his holy lips, and every action of his holy hands, he was giving himself to God, as ever doing the will of God; ever performing the work which the Father gave him to do. Thus even as a child, before he entered upon his public ministry, he could say, "don't you know that I must be about my Father's business?" (Luke 2:49.) What condescension in him who was the eternal Son of God to—think with human heart, to speak with human lips, to touch the things of earth with human hands, to walk upon human ground with human feet.
We lose much of the blessedness of redemption from lack of seeing or bearing in mind what the Son of God was here below as the God-Man. We are so habituated, in reading of his words and acts in the gospels to think of him only as a man, that we much lose sight of the Deity that was in the closest union with his human nature, and of his being God-Man as well as man. When we look at the shame, the scorn, the contempt that he endured during his sojourn here below, living a life of the greatest poverty, and yet going about ever doing good—what an object is presented to our believing eye, if we can view this God-Man with faith as thus ever doing the will of God.
When, too, we are enabled, under divine leading, to draw near the sacred precincts of Gethsemane's gloomy garden; when we can stand as under the shadow of the olive trees, and view the Redeemer as God's own Son, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, not now as filling heaven with his glory, but as a poor, bowed-down, drooping man—suffering, groaning, and agonizing under the weight of sin, until the huge drops of blood and sweat fell from his forehead, pressed out of his holy body by the pressure of God's anger, the curse of a broken law, and the sins of millions resting upon his innocent head—what a sight for faith! Here truly he was giving himself.
Who compelled him to this act? Was it man? Was it the force and fury of his enemies? Did he not say in the hour of his greatest woe—and O what words they are!—"do you think that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" He had but to look up and utter one word of prayer, and millions of angels would have flown to the rescue! But he meekly added, "How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" (Matt. 26:53, 54.) And well we may ask with him, How could the church have been redeemed had these angels come? Here was the struggle, the conflict, the agony; the bitter cup lay on one side, and deliverance from drinking it on the other.
'Deliverance from the bitter cup' was to save himself a weight of woe, to be rescued from the agony of the cross, and the drinking of the wrath of God to the very dregs. But this escape from personal suffering was to lose the Church, renounce the bride, leave her to sin, death, and hell, forfeit his word, deny his engagements, give up all he came upon earth to do, and thus sacrifice his own glory, and with it the glory of God.
On the other hand, there was the bitter cup, the shame and bodily agony of the cross, and, what was far less endurable, the curse of the law, the terrible wrath of God, the hidings of his Father's face, producing the deepest agony and distress of soul, with all the dreadful pangs of that blackness of darkness into which but for his enduring it, the church must have forever sunk. As then he tasted the first drops in the gloomy garden the cup was so bitter that for a moment, as it were, there was a pause in his holy mind whether he could or would drink it up. But it was only for a moment, and would not have been recorded, but to show us the depth of his sufferings, and to encourage our fainting faith. Immediately, in all the meek submission of his holy nature, strengthened as it was by the Holy Spirit who held him up in this mighty conflict, he said, "Not my will but may yours be done." Then it was decided. Meekly he took the cup into his holy hand, and drank it to the very dregs!
3. The DEATH of Jesus. But now let us follow him to the CROSS, and see what he endured there. We will not dwell upon his bodily agony, though beyond conception distressing, for many have endured that. Peter was crucified—tradition says with his head downwards. Many have suffered crucifixion, it being in those days the common punishment of slaves. Josephus tells us there was not wood enough round about Jerusalem to supply crosses for prisoners at the siege of that city, whom Titus crucified. Thousands have died in greater 'bodily agony' than the Lord, for he only suffered in body for six hours. But of all the generations of men, none have ever felt what the Lord endured in his soul; for he had to suffer in his soul what the elect of God would have had to suffer in hell, if he had not suffered it. What is the body? That is not the chief seat of suffering—martyrs have rejoiced in the flames. It is the soul that feels. It was so with Jesus. His body, it is true, was racked and torn, but it was the racking of his soul in which lay his chief agonies; and the greatest of all was the final stroke God reserved to his last moments, the last drop of the cup in all its bitterness, which was hiding his face from him. Nothing else but this last bitter drop extorted the cry of suffering from his lips. He could look from the cross upon his mother and the disciple whom he loved, and speak in most affectionate language to both. He could pray for his very murderers with holy calmness—"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
But when, to crown all the scene of suffering, the Father hid his face from him, that was more than his holy soul could bear; that extorted from him the dolorous cry—such a cry as earth never before or since heard, a cry which made the sun to hide his face as if in sackcloth, the solid earth to shake, and the very graves to open their mouths as if they could no longer hold their dead, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
But then all was finished! He had given himself—the whole work was now done; and every type and figure of the law fulfilled and accomplished. Thus the law was satisfied, justice honored, God pleased, the church redeemed—and all the counsels of eternity in her deliverance from death and hell fully accomplished! Then, therefore, and not before, the blessed Lord cried out with a loud voice, to show that he gave up his life—that it was not taken from him by violence or weakness—"It is finished!" and then, with all the tranquility of his holy soul, he meekly bowed his head, and committing his spirit into the hands of his heavenly Father, quietly and solemnly gave up his spirit. To give himself thus to death, was the last act of his giving himself.
III. But now we come to the EFFECT of this giving of himself, and especially that which flows from it, as its fruit and result in this time-state.
From the cross flows all our salvation. The cross is, as it were, the sun of the gospel; for from the cross shine forth all the grace and glory of the gospel; nor is there a beam of light, life, pardon, or peace which ever reaches a contrite soul, but what comes from and through Christ, and him crucified. It was this which made Paul say—"God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." It was this too which made him preach "Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."
But let us now look at the fruit of the cross as manifested to the church in her time-state. We read in our text that "Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he mightSANCTIFY and CLEANSE it with the washing of water by the word." Two things are here spoken of as the effect of Christ giving himself—sanctification and cleansing. I think we may understand these words in two different senses, first, the sanctification and cleansing of the church as effected upon the cross; and secondly, the sanctification and cleansing of the heart and conscience by the application of Christ's blood by the Holy Spirit.
1. The sanctification and cleansing of the church as effected upon the CROSS. When Christ died upon the cross, he opened a fountain in one day, as the prophet Zechariah speaks, "for sin and uncleanness." (Zech. 13:1.) We may, therefore, view the church as washed on that day from all her sins in his most precious blood. Does not this form the grand theme of the eternal anthem sung in the courts of bliss—"Unto him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood" (Rev. 1:5); and again, "These are those who came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." (Rev. 7:14.) We may view, then, the church as in that day washed, because the iniquity of the land was to be removed in one day—the day of the atonement at Calvary. (Zech. 3:9.) It was removed when Christ shed his precious blood, for then he washed the church in his own blood from all her transgressions—and not only so, but on that day he clothed her in his spotless righteousness.
Thus, under the teaching and leading of the Holy Spirit, we may come to the foot of the cross with eyes of faith and see on that day, on that solemn spot, the church washed in the atoning blood and clothed in the justifying righteousness of the Son of God. And as the church was on that day cleansed, so was she on that day sanctified; for do we not read, "So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates in order to make his people holy by shedding his own blood." (Heb. 13:12); and again, "And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." (Heb. 10:10, 14.)
2. The sanctification and cleansing of the heart and conscience by the APPLICATION of Christ's blood by the Holy Spirit. But we have to come to the experience of individual souls—for what is the church but the aggregate of believers? We have therefore to pay special regard to what is wrought by the Holy Spirit in the heart of every saint of God; because unless there be a work begun and carried on by the Holy Spirit in the heart, there is no inward faith in, acquaintance with, hope towards, or love to Christ and him crucified, or any looking to the blood of the cross as that whereby we have redemption, and the forgiveness of sins.
1. We read in our text, that he gave himself for the church, "that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the WASHING of water by the word." Thus, there is not only a sanctifying and cleansing of the church by the blood of the cross, but a washing of water by the word of truth. By the word is meant the gospel, the word of his grace, and that as applied with power; for this is God's appointed instrument, which the Holy Spirit employs to bring the benefits and blessings of Christ's finished work in the soul. It is therefore called the "washing of water by the word;" that is, the inward cleansing and baptizing of the soul, which is compared to the washing of the body with water.
You recollect what the Lord said to Nicodemus—"Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God;" and please to bear in mind, that in being born of water there is no allusion to any baptism, infant or adult, but an allusion to the influences of the Holy Spirit upon the soul, of which water is a standing emblem all through God's inspired word. It is indeed amazing, upon what a slight foundation, has been built that huge, towering structure which has overshadowed the church of England and thousands in it with such destructive influence—I mean the dream, for it is neither less nor more than an 'ecclesiastical dream', of what is called "baptismal regeneration." This vast edifice stands upon two or three words of the Lord, being "born of water," which have no reference whatever to the ordinance of baptism.
The washing, then, with water by the word signifies the regenerating, sanctifying influences and operations of the Holy Spirit upon the heart, which are produced by the application of the word of truth to the heart and conscience. Here is the word of grace which I hold in my hands, and in full accordance with which I hope I am now speaking in your ears this morning. That word of grace, if the Spirit is pleased to accompany any portion of it with power to your hearts, has an influence upon your conscience. Some, God is pleased thereby to regenerate and quicken into spiritual life; some, to bless and deliver from bondage and trouble, guilt and sorrow; others to comfort and strengthen, encourage and revive; others to warn, teach, and admonish. But what God does, he does by the word of his grace and the influences which accompany that word.
Forever bear in mind that God does nothing but by his word. The sanctifying, cleansing effects therefore which attend the word of his grace under the operations of the Spirit are spoken of here as "the washing of water by the word." The "word" is the written Scripture; the "water" is the power of the Holy Spirit; the "washing," is the cleansing effect of the application of the word. Let me ask you this question, if you doubt my words—How are we to get the burden and guilt of our sins off our conscience, the defilement of mind which sin produces, the bondage of spirit which sin creates, the fears and alarm of the soul which sin works? You will say, "By believing in Jesus Christ, for being justified by faith we have peace with God." That is true; but how can we believe in Jesus Christ, so as to find this peace? By the word of his grace, accompanied by the special influence, unction, and dew of the Holy Spirit revealing and making known pardon and acceptance with God, which is therefore spoken of here as "the washing of water by the word."
For as water washes the body, so the word of truth washes the soul, by washing away the guilt and filth and defilement of sin. As the blessed Lord said—"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32.) And again—"Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." (John 15:3.) So also—"A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean." (John 13:10.) Thus as water when applied cleanses the body from natural filth, so does the word of promise, the word of truth, the word of salvation revealing and making known the Saviour's precious blood, cleanse the conscience from the guilt, filth, and defilement of sin.
2. But Christ gave himself for the church, not only that he might cleanse, but might also SANCTIFY her, and that by the washing of water by the word. This points to the sanctification of the Spirit, for washing in the blood of Christ and sanctification by the Spirit go hand in hand; as the apostle testifies, "But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Cor. 6:11.)
View the church without the sanctifying operations and influences of regenerating grace. She is far from Christ; she has no desire towards him, no manifest union, no communion with him; no faith in his blood, no hope in his mercy, no love to his name. Were she left always thus, where would her fitness for heaven be? But when the word of truth comes with power, and is accompanied by the influences of the Holy Spirit to the heart, then there is not only a cleansing of the conscience from the guilt and filth of sin, but the communication of a new heart and a new spirit.
How plainly is this spoken of by the prophet Ezekiel, where, after the promise, "From all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you," it is added, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." We have not only therefore to be washed from our sins in the blood of the Lamb, not only to be pardoned and forgiven and thus have a title to heaven, but we need a fitness for heaven; we need a new heart and a new spirit given to us, whereby we may taste, handle, feel, and enjoy the love of Christ as shed abroad in the heart, and experience the flowings forth of love to him in return.
As then the blood cleanses, so the Spirit sanctifies. John therefore says, "This is he who came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood." (1 John 5:6.) The blood is the blood of the atonement; the water is the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit.
Observe the ORDER in which these blessings come–
First, is the love of Christ in eternity;
secondly, the gift of himself in time;
thirdly, the cleansing by blood;
fourthly, the sanctifying by the Spirit.
Now look at these things for yourselves. Are your sins pardoned? Have you any evidence that you are washed in the blood of the Lamb? Do you believe that you are going to heaven? What does your belief of this, or your hope in it, rest upon? Where are your evidences? Surely not from merely seeing these truths in the Scripture as the bare revelation of God, or merely believing them from my statements. Such a faith and such a hope, if you have no better, will prove delusive, and will leave you in the hands of him who is a consuming fire. If your hope of eternal life is well grounded, it is because the word of life has come into your soul, and you have been not only cleansed by the application of the blood of sprinkling to your conscience, but sanctified and renewed by the power of the word, through the Holy Spirit, upon your heart.
But let us bear in mind that we continually stand in need of this "washing of water by the word." Our conscience contracts fresh guilt, which needs to be cleansed away by the blood of sprinkling. We are continually sinking into deadness, darkness, carnality, and sloth, and therefore we need continual revival out of death by the power of the word of life. And Jesus is ever sending forth the power of his grace and communicating the influences of the Holy Spirit, both to cleanse the conscience from the guilt of sin, and to revive the life of faith in the soul. As then the Holy Spirit is pleased to accompany the word of truth with his own divine influences, it not only cleanses the conscience from the guilt and filth of sin, but renews and sanctifies the soul, and brings it into sweet union and communion with, and a holy obedience unto the Lord the Lamb.
This then is the mighty work, the fruit and effect of Christ's loving the church and giving himself for it, which is now being carried on upon earth. And this is the work that must be done in your soul; for by this alone can you prove your title to heaven; and by this alone obtain a fitness for it.
IV. But I pass on to our last point, which is, what will be the FUTURE FRUIT of Christ's having loved the church and given himself for it—a state of eternal holiness, happiness, and glory. "That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."
What is the church now, so far at least as she can be viewed by the eyes of man? Full of spots, wrinkles, and blemishes. And what are we ourselves as viewed by our own eyes? What do we see in ourselves every day, but sin and filth and folly? What evil is there in the world that is not in us, in our hearts? It is true men cannot read our hearts; but we read them; yes, are every day and sometimes all the day reading them. And what read we there? Like Ezekiel's roll, it is "written within and without;" and we may well add, if we rightly read what is there written, we have every reason to say it is "full of lamentations, and mourning, and woe." (Ezekiel 2:10). For I am sure that there is nothing that we see there every day and every hour, but would cover us with shame and confusion of face, and make us blush to lift up our eyes before God, or almost to appear in the presence of our fellow man! And yet with all this, our life may be circumspect, and our walk and conduct irreproachable. No, it should be so and ought to be so, in order to maintain a godly and consistent profession before men.
But neither others, nor we ourselves, now see what the church one day will be, and what she ever was in the eyes of Jesus! He could look through all this time-state—through all the sins and sorrows of this intermediate period, and fix his eye upon the bridal day—the day when before assembled angels, in the courts of heaven, in the realms of eternal bliss, he would present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy, and without blemish. O what a day will that be, when the Son of God shall openly wed his espoused bride; when there shall be heard in heaven—"Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting—Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns! Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready." (Rev. 19:6-7.)
How cleansed, how sanctified, how washed, how clothed must the church be in that day when the very eyes of omniscience, which can read the slightest departure, even a 'wrinkle from infinite purity', will find in her neither spot nor blemish, so that God himself in all the blaze of his holiness may say of the church, "I have viewed her with my omniscient eye; I have looked at every member of the mystical body of my dear Son; I have examined each with all the eyes of Godhead—but there is no spot, there is no wrinkle, no blemish in any one of them! all are complete in him! all stand accepted in the Beloved!"
Now, my friends, if any of you know what you are, and what you have been, and what you fear you may yet may be; can you entertain any hope of being one of this glorious church which is to be presented to the Lord the Lamb without spot or blemish, except it be by having a saving interest in the atoning blood and justifying righteousness of the Son of God? Do you think that your own works, of whatever nature they may be, can ever present you before God without spot or wrinkle or any such thing? Are they now without spot or wrinkle in your eyes? Can you now look upon anything which your heart conceives, your lips speak, or your hands execute, and say there is no wrinkle, no spot, no blemish in it? What! Are you yet so ignorant both of God and yourself, both of law and gospel, both of sin and holiness? Can pride and self-righteousness have so blinded your eyes, can Satan have so deluded you as to make you say of any word from your lips or any action of your hands, "It is as pure as God in heaven, it is as holy as the glorious I AM?" You know that you dare not say so! Yet the church—and if you are to be saved, it must be as a member of this church—yet the church is to stand before the throne of God and be examined by his omniscient eye to see if any one in that glorious assemblage has any spot or wrinkle in him or upon him. For if the eye of God were to see a single spot or wrinkle in you, would he not, so to speak, at once commission an angel, to take you and hurl you from heaven into hell?
You could not stand among the church of God if you had a single spot or wrinkle in soul or body. You would be ejected with ignominy out of heaven! You might have crept in there as an intruder, but would be cast out as polluted into the depths of eternal woe! How foolish, then, how vain, how delusive must every hope be which is founded upon good works, so called. Take them one by one. Examine the best of your religious duties, as they are termed, and ask yourself whether any one of them is without spot or wrinkle.
But O, if renouncing all your own righteousness and fleeing to Christ, you are savingly interested in the finished work of the Son of God—if you are washed in his precious blood—if you are clothed in his glorious righteousness—then you will stand at the last day before the judgement throne of God without spot or wrinkle; and Christ will present you unto himself as the bride and spouse of his heart, holy and without blemish!
But you may ask—and this is an inquiry well worth pressing upon your conscience—"How am I to know that I shall stand at that day without spot or wrinkle?" To answer that inquiry, what do you know, I ask, of the cleansing, sanctifying influence of regenerating grace, of the word of truth laying hold of your conscience, of the word of power coming into your heart, of the blood of Christ being applied, and the love of God shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit? If not now, yet before you are called away from these lower scenes, you are blessed with a living faith in the Son of God, with the application of his love and blood to your conscience, when time ends with you, it will open to you a glorious eternity, and forever delivered from all your present sins and sorrows, fears and anxieties, you will be presented at the great day among that glorious church, which has neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing!
But if you live and die without a saving interest in these heavenly blessings, would I be faithful, standing up here in the name of the Lord—would I be faithful to my commission and to my conscience—if I were to say it will be all well with you? that you have only on your death-bed to send for a minister to pray by your bedside, give you the sacrament, and speak a few comfortable words, and it will be all right with your soul? Would I be faithful to my commission to encourage such a delusion as this—a delusion by which thousands are continually deceived? I dare not do it! Yes, I would lift up my voice and cry aloud, "There is no salvation past, present, or future, but what flows through the precious blood of the Lamb, and is made experimentally known to the soul by the power of the Holy Spirit!"
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