The Objective of Christ's Death
(No. 2483)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1896.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
AUGUST 15, 1886.
"Who gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this
present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: to
whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." Galatians 1:4, 5.
THE Apostle Paul, in his writings, is notable for the fact that he
scarcely ever mentions the name of the Lord Jesus Christ without
pausing to praise and bless Him. There are many benedictions and
hallelujahs in Paul's Epistles which might have been omitted so far as
the run of the sense is concerned, but not one of them could be omitted
because his heart was so aglow with love to his Divine Master that he
only needed to mention that dear name and out burst his praises in a
second! Brethren, let us all try to keep a heart like the Apostle's–so
full of love to Christ that we have only to come across His track and
we shall at once fall down and worship and adore Him or, upon the wings
of holy love mount up nearer to His Throne.
I am quite sure that when Paul was writing the Epistle to the
Galatians, he was eager to get at his task. The Galatians had turned
aside from the Gospel of God's Grace and Paul was in dead earnest to
bring them back to the grand Truth of the doctrine of salvation and
justification by faith in Christ. He was burning to get at his work of
trying to win them back to the old paths, but it seemed necessary and
courteous to begin with a salutation. In that salutation occurred the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, so off went the Apostle! Earnest as he
was to get to the special subject on which he was about to write, he
felt that he must tarry a while and write a little to the honor of his
Divine Master. So we read, "Grace be to you and peace from God the
Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins,
that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the
will of God and our Father: to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."
Then He gets at the business he has in hand–"I marvel that you are so
soon removed from Him that called you into the Grace of Christ to
another gospel: which is not another; but there are some that trouble
you and would pervert the Gospel of Christ," and so on.
He is red-hot upon that subject, yet he must stop a minute or two to
pen some few words of praise to his glorious Lord and Savior. The old
proverb says, "Prayer and provender hinder no man's journey." And to
stop a little while, to praise and bless the name of Jesus Christ,
hinders no man's argument! Whatever it is that you have to do, if your
Master shall cross your path, pause a while and praise Him as best you
can. When Mary sat at Christ's feet, she was not wasting her time, she
was employing it then to the highest possible profit! And when you and
I get away from the Master's work to think of our Lord, Himself, and to
praise Him and commune with Him, we are by no means wasting our time!
We are gathering strength and laying it out to the best possible
purpose with regard to our future work and warfare.
I can see the great wisdom of the Apostle in acting in such a fashion
as this. He is about to write to these Galatians concerning their
leaving the Gospel–what is the best way to make them sorry for turning
aside from the faith? Why, to set before them Jesus Christ, Himself,
who is the very essence and glory of the Gospel! I have heard of one
who preached much against certain errors, but there was another servant
of the Lord who never preached against those errors, but who always
proclaimed the Gospel right out straight–and when one asked him why he
did not attack the errors, he said, "I do preach against them most
effectually. If there is a crooked stick about and you want to show how
many crooks there are in it, you need not do anything except lay a
straight one down by the side of it–and the crookedness of the other
stick will be detected at once." So the Apostle admires, extols and
adores the Lord Jesus Christ and thus, in the best possible manner,
introduces what he has to say concerning the errors of the Galatians.
Oh, for a burst of sunlight from the face of Christ! Then would the
shadows of today soon fly away! They who have never seen Him may love
modern novelties and falsehoods, but if they have beheld His face and
have been won by His charms, they will hold that He who is the same
yesterday, today and forever, is infinitely to be preferred to all the
inventions of men! I could say no less than this when I noticed the
position in which our text is placed.
But now let us come to the text itself. To my mind it contains four
things. First, what our Lord Jesus Christ aimed at with regard to His
people–"that He might deliver us from this present evil world."
Secondly, what our Lord has done to secure this end–"Who gave Himself
for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world."
Thirdly, why He did it– "According to the will of God and our Father."
And fourthly, what we shall say concerning it–"To whom be glory
forever and ever. Amen."
I. First, then, WHAT DID OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST AIM AT WITH REGARD TO
HIS PEOPLE?
To preserve them from going down into the Pit? To rescue them from
Hell? To bring them to Heaven? Yes, all that, but more than that! His
great objective with regard to His people is to deliver them from this
present evil world. We are living in this present evil world and, as
Paul called it by that name, we need not alter the phrase, for we
cannot help knowing that it is still an evil world. And in it are God's
redeemed and chosen people, by nature part and parcel of that world,
equally fallen, equally estranged from God, equally set on mischief,
equally certain to go down into the Pit of destruction if left to
themselves. The objective of Christ is to carve out a people from this
great brook of stone–it is His purpose to find His own people who were
given to Him before the earth was–and to deliver them from the bondage
and the slavery in which they are found in this Egypt, of which they
seem to form a part, though to the eyes of Christ they are always as
separate and distinct as the Israelites were when they dwelt in the
land of Goshen.
What does the Apostle mean by saying that the Lord Jesus Christ gave
Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil
world?
First, Christ came that He might deliver His people from this common
condemnation of this present evil world. This is the City of
Destruction which is to be burned with fire and Christ's business is to
fetch His people out of it. Therefore He sends His Evangelists to cry
to them, "Flee from the wrath to come! Tarry not in the city, but
escape for your lives– you are in a doomed world which will certainly
be destroyed–therefore, flee to the only Shelter from the coming
storm." The Lord desires that we should be so clear of this world that
when it is condemned we may not share in the condemnation. It is
Christ's purpose to bring us into a state of justification before God,
through His blood and righteousness, that we may not perish in the
common wreck in the day when the world shall be consumed with fire, but
that we may have our ark wherein, as righteous Noah was preserved from
the deluge of water, we may be saved from the fiery floods of Divine
Wrath. The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world that He might deliver
us from that condemnation which now rests upon all the race of Adam
except those who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set
before them in the Gospel.
But He came with this further purpose, to deliver us from the condition
in which the world is found. In Paul's day the world was in a horrible
state. Then the slave was chained to his master's door, like a dog, and
slept at night in a hole under the stairs–and the slave's master
indulged in all kinds of debauchery and sin. The cruelty of the Romans
satisfied itself with gladiatorial shows where men murdered each other
to make a public holiday. Christ came to gather out a people even from
among these abominations–and He did gather them out–a holy people who
could not and would not live as the rest of the world lived! They did
not go away into the deserts, or hide themselves in caves, living as
hermits, but they went up and down in the earth, attending faithfully
to the duties of daily life, yet everywhere marked as differing from
other men. Their moral tone–their whole thought about the things of
this world and the next–was altogether different from that of the rest
of mankind, for Christ had come to draw them out of the kennel of
iniquity in which others lived like beasts, to lift them up out of the
bog of sin and make them to be a pure-minded, holy, kind, generous,
loving people who should be like their Master, Jesus Christ!
For this purpose, the Savior died. He thought it worth His while, even,
to die upon the Cross that He might thereby make a better, purer,
nobler, more unselfish, more devout people than as yet had appeared in
the Roman or Jewish world. And this is what He is still doing in this
present evil world! He is lifting up men and women out of the
filthiness in which they have been wallowing–making them love
holiness, purity, temperance–and hate all that is evil in the sight
ofGod.
This, then, is the great objective of Christ's death–to deliver us
from the world's condemnation, and to deliver us from the world's
condition.
He also came to deliver us from the world's customs. There are many
things which a worldling does which a Christian cannot do. I need not
enlarge upon the tricks in trade which are all too common in the
present day, but if you are Christ's own, I charge you, do not even
think of them, but let your course be straight as an arrow's and let
your conscience be clean as the driven snow! It is not for God's people
to say, "It is the custom of the trade, so we may do it." What have you
to do with that? It is the custom of the trade to ruin men's souls, but
the Churches of God have no such custom, nor have those who follow
closely after the Lord Jesus Christ. He has come on purpose that we may
not conform to the sinful fashions of men, but that we may have a way
of our own, or rather, that we may make Christ's way the way of
holiness, to be our way.
Hence, He has come to deliver us from the spirit of the world. The
spirit of the world is, "I can swim. So, if everybody else is drowned,
there will then be the more room for me." "I fight for my own hand,"
says the worldling, "and if, in the process, I crush the widow and the
fatherless, I cannot help that–they should not get in my way." The
rules of political economy do not permit of anything like mercy–they
are as inflexible as the laws of nature. They are something after this
fashion–"Grind down the poor and get as much as you can out of them
for as little money as possible. Care for nobody but yourself. Mind the
main chance. Make money, honestly, if you can, but if not, make it
anyway, only keep clear of the law, for it would be a mistake to fall
into its clutches." Now, Christ has come to gather out of the world a
people who will not be possessed with this detestable spirit, but who
will resolve to live for others rather than for themselves. We are to
consider those who are around us and to think what influence our
conduct will have upon them. We are to love the Lord our God with all
our heart, mind, soul, strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
We are to love even our enemies. We are to do good to the unthankful
and to the evil. We are, in all ways, and according to the measure of
our ability, to copy the example of our Father who is in Heaven, who
makes His sun to shine and His rain to fall upon the evil as well as
upon the good. O Friends, look what Christ has come to do–even to
separate to Himself a people like Himself out of this present evil
world!
Yet once more, He will do this by delivering us from all fear of this
world. What a great many of you there are who dare not do anything but
what society agrees should be done! If society says, "This is the right
thing to do," you call it "etiquette," and you do that particular
thing. Then all the people around you are very respectable and you want
to be counted respectable–and the consequence is that you dare not
call your souls your own, and you do not act as you would wish to until
you have first asked your neighbors' permission. There are multitudes
of people still in the condition of abject slavery to those who are
around them! But when Christ came into the world, He gathered out of
the world a people who were not afraid of anybody. After His good
Spirit had renewed them, they walked about fearless of the greatest
earthly potentates! There was the great Emperor of Rome, for instance,
and who dared ever contradict what the Emperor of Rome said? The man
who wrote our text did!
And Paul before Nero is a vastly greater man than the cruel tyrant upon
the throne. When they bring the saints before the judgment seat, the
Roman consul says, "Offer sacrifice to idols. You know the law–take
that incense and put it on the altar, this very moment." One of the
guards says, "Sir, this man is obstinate and rebellious. I have told
him what he is to do, but he refuses." The consul says, "Do you,
impious wretch, refuse to worship Jupiter? Put that incense on the
altar this moment, or you shall be torn in pieces with hot irons." The
man before him replies, "I am a Christian." "Is that your answer?"
"Yes, Sir, my only answer. I am a Christian." "Then tear him with the
pincers! Let him learn what my hot irons can do." They do it and the
brave saint bears it. Perhaps a groan escapes his lips, for flesh is
frail, but when he is asked again, "Will you worship Jupiter?" He
replies as before, "I am a Christian." "To the lions with him, then! To
the lions with him," cries the enraged persecutor, and he is taken off
to the amphitheatre. But as that poor simple peasant walks across the
arena, the wild beasts, themselves, seem cowed before him and, though
he is soon torn in pieces, everybody goes home from the amphitheatre
saying, "What a strange being that man was! He seemed utterly devoid of
fear!"
Yes, the early Christians were without fear and without reproach, for
Christ came to set them free from fear of this present evil world.
O Brothers and Sisters, were the martyrs as brave as this, and are we
going to yield to whatever laws and rules the world lives to lay down
for us? Do we mean to believe its current theology, or philosophy, and
do or not do as it may dictate? For my part, "I would as well not be as
live to be in awe of such a thing as I myself." Since Christ has given
me my liberty, I am His servant, and whether I am in fashion or out of
fashion is no concern of mine so long as I please Him! Dear Friends,
let it be so with you, I pray you, and may the Lord daily divide you
more and more from the world so that, at home or abroad, everybody can
see that you are not of the world! Love men, seek their good and in the
highest and best sense be far more loving to the world than the world
is to itself, but still, fear it not. Why should you? It is "the
present evil world" which "lies in the Wicked One." It is for you
bravely to bear your protest against the world every day you live, for
to this end did Christ come to this earth, "that He might deliver us
from this present evil world."
II. We have seen what our Lord aimed at by His death. Now, secondly,
WHAT DID CHRIST DO TO THIS END– to deliver us from this present evil
world?
The answer of the text is, "He gave Himself" I will not say that He
gave His royal crown, that diadem which did outshine the sun. I will
not say that He laid aside His azure vest and hung it on the sky as He
came down to earth. I will not say that He gave up for us the thrones
and royalties of Heaven. You know that He did all this and far
more–nor need I remind you that, when upon earth, He gave up all that
He had, even to His last garment, for they parted His raiment among
them and for His vesture they cast lots. I need not say that He gave
His back to the smiters and His cheeks to them that plucked off the
hair, nor that He gave His hands to the nails and His feet to the cruel
iron. I need not say that He gave His body, His soul and His spirit,
for you have it all in these three words–"He gave Himself."
"He gave Himself for our sins." That is the wonder of Christ's death!
Our sins could not be put away except by His dying in our place. There
was no expiation of our sin and, consequently, no deliverance from its
condemnation except by Christ's bearing in our place, that wrath of God
which was due to us–and He did it. "He gave Himself for our sins." I
need not say more upon that point except just this. Do not, I pray you,
let us permit Him in any sense or measure to fail in His supreme
objective. "He gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from
this present evil world," therefore, out of gratitude to Him, if for no
other reason, let us not be of the world, or like the world, servants
of the world, slaves of the world. What? Did Christ die to deliver us
from the world and do we go back to it and deliberately put our necks
under the world's yoke, wear the world's yoke and become, again, the
world's slaves? I am ashamed of myself and of you whenever we, for a
moment, act as the ungodly world acts and become as the world
is–self-seeking, rebellious against God's will, living contrary to the
Divine Law of Christ. Oh, let every drop of blood He shed on Calvary
purge you from all resemblance to the world! Let the dying Savior's
cries move you to hate the sin which the world loves! From Calvary,
hear Him cry, "Come out from among them and be you separate, says the
Lord, and touch not the unclean thing." By the blood with which He
bought you, be you not of the world, seeing that He has redeemed you
from among men that you might be altogether His own!
How does the death of Christ deliver us from the world? It does this by
removing from us the condemnation of our sin. Having borne our sins in
His own body on the tree, Christ has forever freed us from the penalty
that was our due. You know that is the very essence of the Gospel and
you also know that I preach this Truth of God every time I stand here,
so I need not enlarge upon it now.
Christ has also delivered us from the world by making sin hateful to
us. We say to ourselves, "Did sin kill Christ? Then we cannot play with
that dagger that stabbed our Lord! How can we be friendly with the
world that cast Him out and hanged Him on a tree? O murderous sin, how
can I give you lodgment in my heart when you killed the Altogether
Lovely One?" Men speak hard things of regicide, but what shall I say of
deicide And sin is that deicide which slew the Christ of God! Yet,
marvel of marvels, by that death on the Cross He has crucified us to
the world and the world to us and so He has delivered us from this
present evil world!
I may add that Christ has also delivered us from the world by the
splendor of His example in giving Himself to die for His enemies and by
the Glory of His infinite merit whereby He purchased back that image of
God in Adam which sin had obliterated. He gave Himself, the very image
of God, and more than that, God Himself, that He might give back to us
that image of God which long ago we had lost. Thus has Christ delivered
us from this present evil world. Judge, Sirs, whether He has thus
delivered you.
III. Time flies, therefore I must hasten on to the third question which
is, WHY DID CHRIST DO THIS?
First, because our holiness was included in the purpose of God. The
text says, "According to the will of God and our Father." Mr. Charles
Simeon used to say that there were some, in his day, who thought that
the very word, "predestination," sounded almost like blasphemy. And I
have no doubt that there are some left who cannot bear to hear of the
will and the purpose of God! But to us these words sound like sweetest
music! I do not believe that there ever would have been a man delivered
from this present evil world if it had not been according to the will,
the purpose, the predestination of God, even our Father! It needs a
mighty tug to get a man away from the world. It is a miracle for a man
to live in the world and yet not to be of it–it is a continuous
miracle of so vast a kind that I am sure it would never have been
worked if it had not been according to the will of God our Father. Yet
so it stood in the Divine Decree, that there should be a people chosen
from among men–a people who would be called out from among the mass of
the ungodly, who would be drawn by supernatural power to follow after
that which is right and good and holy. A people who would be washed in
the blood of Jesus and renewed by the Holy Spirit in the spirit of
their minds and, therefore, should be a peculiar people in the world
but not of it–the people of God set apart to Himself, to be His, now,
and His, hereafter forever and ever! I delight to remember that this is
the will of God, even our sanctification, our separation from the
world!
Now I want to push home this Truth of God into your very hearts. If
this is, indeed, the purpose of God, let us see to it, my Brothers and
Sisters, every one of us, that we fulfill that purpose in our daily
lives. Let us come out from the world more clear and straight than we
have ever done. I believe that there would be much more persecution
than there is if there were more real Christians. But we have become so
like the world, that the world does not hate us as it once did. If we
would be more just, more upright, more true, more Christ-like, more
godly, we would soon hear all the dogs of Hell baying with all their
might against us! But what of that? It would just be the fulfillment of
the Divine Purpose and God would be well pleased with us. Come, then,
and let us fall back upon the Omnipotent strength which always slumbers
within the Divine will. Lord, if it is Your will, fulfill it in me! If
this is Your purpose, accomplish it in me! Oh, what brave men and women
those early saints were! I do not wonder that our friend cried out,
just now, when I depicted the martyr–but there were tens of thousands
of such holy men and women in the days of persecution!
Have you never heard of her whom they set in a red-hot iron chair
because she would not turn away from Christ, or of that other poor
feeble woman who was tossed on the horns of bulls, but who,
nevertheless, spoke up right bravely for her Master as she came to die?
Yes, and there have been boys and girls, who, for Christ's sake, sooner
than sin, have braved the most fearful deaths! Remember John Bunyan
when he refused to give up preaching? They put him in prison and said
to him, "Mr. Bunyan, you can come out of prison whenever you will
promise to cease preaching the Gospel." He said, "If you let me out of
prison today, I will preach again tomorrow, by the Grace of God."
"Well," they said, "then you must go back to prison," and he answered,
"I will go back and stay there, if necessary, till the moss grows on my
eyelids, but I will never deny my Master." This was the stuff of which
the godly were made, then! May the Lord make many of us to be like
they–men and women who cannot and will not do that which is evil, but
will, in the name of God, stand to the right and the true, come what
may!
IV. Lastly, WHAT SHALL WE SAY CONCERNING IT ALL? Why, just this, "To
whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."
First, God is glorified in Christ's death. Has the Father given His
Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us? Then there is Glory enough in Jesus
Christ upon the Cross to last throughout eternity! Fix your eyes upon
that bleeding Savior– behold the glorious Justice of God in laying
guilt on Him, punishing it on Him and behold, also, the inconceivable
love of God in thus putting His Only-Begotten to death that we might
live through Him! You need not range the world around to see the Glory
of God in nature, though that is a delightful employment, for there is
enough Glory in the Cross of Christ to last throughout all eternity.
The Apostle says, "To whom be glory forever and ever." How long that
is, I cannot tell. "Forever" is without any end, but Paul says,
"Forever and ever," and there is Glory enough in the Cross of Christ to
last forever and ever, as long as the Eternal Jehovah, Himself, exists!
Well, then, has Jesus Christ delivered us from the world? Have we fled
to Him and been pardoned? Are we accepted in the Beloved? Then let us
begin to glorify God now. Let us glorify His dear Son. Let us praise
Him. Let every beat of our heart proclaim our joyous thankfulness and
so continually yield sweet music to God. I would that every breath were
like a verse of a Psalm and our whole life an endless hallelujah to His
Glory!–
"I would begin the music here, And so my soul should rise! Oh for some
heavenly notes to bear My passions to the skies,"
for it is, indeed, a subject of great praise to be separated from the
world, and to be made holy to the Lord.
But, Brothers and Sisters, when you once begin the music, never stop
because, as the Apostle says, Glory is to be given to God, "forever and
ever." I saw, last week, a Brother from the backwoods of America, and
he said to me, "Twenty years ago I was in your vestry and you did me
much good by something that you said to me." I asked, "What did I say?"
And the good man replied, "You said, 'Brother, as a minister, there are
two occasions upon which you ought to preach Jesus Christ.' I enquired,
'What are those two occasions?' You answered, "In season and out of
season.'" Well now, there are two occasions upon which we ought to
praise God–"in season, and out of season!" Praise Him when you feel
like praising and when you do not feel like it–praise Him till you do!
When you can say–
"I feel like singing all the time," then sing! And when you say, "I do
not feel like singing," make a point of singing just to let the devil
know that he is not your master! It is a good thing to praise Christ in
the presence of His friends. It is, sometimes, a better thing to extol
Him in the presence of His enemies. It is a great thing to praise Jesus
Christ by day, but there is no music sweeter than the
nightingale's–and she praises God by night. It is well to praise the
Lord for His mercy when you are in health, but make sure that you do it
when you are sick, for then your praise is more likely to be genuine.
When you are deep down in sorrow, do not rob God of the gratitude that
is due to Him–never stint Him of His revenue of praise whatever else
goes short. Praise Him, sometimes, on the high-sounding cymbals–crash,
crash–with all your heart and being. But when you cannot do that, just
sit and give Him praise in solemn silence in the deep quiet of your
spirit.
To be redeemed from a dying world, to be fetched out from a condemned
world, to be brought out from slavery, to be made a child of God is
enough to make you emulate the angels and even to excel them! They
cannot rise to so high a pitch of gratitude as you ought to reach, even
now, and ought to keep up all the days of your life–and then, "forever
and ever" in the Presence of the King.
O you poor souls who are still in the world, God help you to get out of
it! O you who are lost and ruined, there is no hope for you but in
Jesus Christ our Savior! Tell all men about Him, Brothers and Sisters!
You who are saved, talk about Christ everywhere! Let no man whom you
ever meet be without a knowledge of the way of salvation. "I do not
know what to say," says one. "I do not yet know much about it myself."
Do not say it, then, if you do not know it! But, if you do know it,
proclaim it! If you have tasted and handled it, proclaim it as best you
can–in broken English, if in no other style–
"Proclaim to sinners round What a dear Savior you have found." So, even
through you the purpose for which Christ bled shall be accomplished,
that is, the severance of His elect from the great mass of mankind
among whom they lie, and this shall be to the praise of the glory of
His Grace forever and ever! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN 17.
This matchless chapter contains that great intercessory prayer of
Christ for His people which may most properly is called "the Lord's
prayer."
Verse 1. These words spoke Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to Heaven, and
said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Your Son, that Your Son also
may glorify You. What a sight it must have been to see the Divine
Intercessor in this, His last great prayer before He poured out His
soul to death! We can never read this chapter so as fully to enter into
its meaning, for there must always be in it a depth far greater than
our experience can fathom. A man must die and enter Heaven before he
can fully realize all that Christ meant when He said, "Father, the hour
is come; glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You."
2. As You have given Him power over all flesh, that He should give
eternal life to as many as You have given Him. Notice the doctrine of
this verse. Here is the mention, both of a general and a particular
relation to Christ. "You have given Him power over all flesh." Never
think of setting a limit to the value of Christ's atoning Sacrifice!
Never dream that you can understand all its influences and all its
bearings. By His death, Christ has power over all flesh. But notice,
also, the special purpose and objective of redemption. Observe how it
applies particularly to the elect of God. The motive for the Father's
giving Christ power over all flesh is this, "that He should give
eternal life to as many as You have given Him."
3. And this is life eternal, that they might know You, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. The knowledge of God and the
knowledge of the Messiah, the Sent One–this is not only life, but it
is life that can never die–"This is life eternal." Have you, dear
Friend, received this eternal life? Do you know the only true God? Do
you know Jesus Christ whom He has sent? Then, at this very moment, you
possess eternal life and you shall never perish, for eternal life is a
life that cannot possibly die!
4, 5. I have glorified You on the earth: I have finished the work which
You gave me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with
Yourself, with the Glory which I had with You before the world was.
This is such a prayer as never could have been prayed by a mere man and
you cannot understand this prayer at all apart from the Manhood and the
Deity of Christ combined. No human being could have written such a
prayer as this even if it had been proposed to him to write a prayer
that would be equally suitable to God and man. It is only suitable to
Christ, the God-Man, and it is, in itself, one of the best evidences of
the Inspiration of Scripture! I dare take my stand upon this chapter,
alone, and say that here we have the finger of God, the writing of the
Holy Spirit–and here we have the very Words of Him who was God and Man
in one Person.
6. I have manifested Your name to the men which You gave me out of the
world: Yours they were, and You gave them to Me; and they have kept
Your Word. How gracious it was on our Lord's part to say the best He
could of His disciples! These 12 men had learned but little of the
Divine Word, but they had believed what they had been taught, so Jesus
could say of them to His Father, "Yours they were, and You gave them to
Me; and they have kept Your Word."
7, 8. Now they have known that all things whatever You have given Me
are of You. For I have given to them the Words which You gave Me; and
they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from
You, and they have believed that You did send Me. I want you to notice
how the Lord Jesus Christ makes no boast of being "an original
thinker." On the contrary, He says to His Father concerning His
disciples, "I have given to them the Words which You gave Me." I would
rather repeat the Word of God, syllable by syllable, than I would dare
to think for myself apart from the revealed will of God! What are men's
thoughts, after all, but vanity educed from vanity? But the Word of the
Lord endures forever–it shall abide when even Heaven and earth shall
pass away! Hence our Savior lays great stress upon this fact, "I have
given to them the Words which You gave to Me." Brother minister, may
you and I, when we come to die, be able to say to the Lord concerning
our people, "I have given to them the Words which You gave to me."
9. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which You
have given Me; for they are Yours. In this, our Lord's last great
intercessory prayer, He was especially engaged in petitions for His own
people. There is a sense in which He intercedes for all mankind, but in
the higher and more special sense referred to in this verse, Christ's
own chosen ones occupied all His thoughts–"I pray for them: I pray not
for the world, but for them which You have given Me; for they are
Yours."
10-11. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I am glorified
in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world,
and I come to You. Christ is God and, therefore, looking into the
future, He can speak of His approaching departure as though it had
already happened.
11. Holy Father, keep through Your own name those whom You have given
Me, that they may be one, as We are. See the plaintive power of this
prayer of a tender heart. First, our Lord shows His love by praying for
us and then by dying for us. Notice what importance He attaches to the
unity of His people–"that they may be one, as we are." Let us all try
to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." I suppose that
while we are in this world, we shall never all think alike, but let us
all think alike about our Lord–and gather to His name and feel a holy
unity through His Spirit! When shall it be again said that all Christ's
disciples have "one Lord, one faith, one Baptism"? Alas, they tore His
seamless robe and it still remains torn through the schisms and errors
which divide His people, one from another!
12, 13. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name:
those that You gave Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the
son of perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I
to You. These are sweet Words with which to die. Oh, that you and I
might have them in our hearts, if not on our lips, in our expiring
moments! "And now come I to You." Our Lord thinks nothing of the bloody
way by which He was to go to the Father.
What though the Cross, nails and spear are in the road? He thinks
comparatively little of all those terrible things, for He looks beyond
them. And He says, "Now come I to You."
13. And these things I speak in the world, that they might have My joy
fulfilled in themselves. Have you ever obtained this blessing, Brothers
and Sisters–Christ's joy in you–what is more, Christ's joy
fulfilledin you? God grant to all of us to know, by happy experience,
the meaning of this wondrous expression!
14, 15. I have given them Your Word; and the world has hated them,
because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I
pray not that You should take them out of the world, but that You
should keep them from the Evil One. ' 'Do not let the world so besmear
and defile them as to do them mischief. Let them keep on as lamps
burning in dark places. Take them not out of the world, but keep them
from the Evil One."
16-18. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through Your Truth: Your Word is Truth. As You have sent
Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. As the
Father took Jesus out of the bosom of His love and bade Him go as His
missionary to men, so does Jesus keep us, for a while, away from the
bosom of His Glory that we may stop here to be missionaries among our
fellow men. Are we fulfilling our calling? Are we justifying the
commission which Christ has laid upon us? Oh, that we were doing so to
the fullest extent that is possible!
19. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself–"For their sakes I set
Myself apart."–
19, 20. That they also might be sanctified through the Truth. Neither
pray I for these alone–This little handful of followers gathered about
Me–
20, But for them, also, which shall believe on Me through their word.
In the glass of prevision, Christ saw us, my Brothers and Sisters, and
He saw all the myriads, yet unborn, who are to be gathered to His Cross
and to bow before His feet–and He prayed for them all–"Neither pray I
for these alone, but for them, also, which shall believe on Me through
their word."
21, 22. That they all may be one; as You, Father, are in Me, andIin
You, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that
You have sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them;
that they may be one, even as We are One. Let us, more and more, lay
aside everything that divides, especially that evil heart of unbelief,
and pride, and self-seeking which is the great sect-making faculty. May
we get rid of that evil and come more and more to realize that all men
who are really in Christ are, and must be, one. If we are members of
one body, one blood courses through our veins and gives us life! One
Spirit is in the one body of Christ. There cannot be two lives. There
cannot be two beings within the one body of Christ. All true Believers
must be one and truly, if we speak the Truth of God to one another
concerning our Lord–and especially if we speak much to God together in
prayer–we straightway perceive that we areone!
23-26. I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one
and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them,
as You have loved Me. Father, I will that they, also, whom You have
given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My Glory, which
You have given Me: for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, the world has not known You: but I have known You
and these have known that You have sent Me. And I have declared to them
Your name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith You have loved
Me may be in them, and I in them. Here the Master ended His sweet
prayer and went off to His terrible passion in Gethsemane.