Christ's Marvellous Giving
A Sermon
(No. 3513)
Published on Thursday, May 25th, 1916.
Delivered by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At [21]the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
ON Lord's-day Evening, November 25th, 1866.
"Who gave himself for us."–Titus 2:14.
WE have once more, you see, the old subject. We still have to tell the
story of the love of God towards man in the person of his only begotten
Son, Jesus Christ. When you come to your table you find a variety
there. Sometimes there is one dish upon it, and sometimes another; but
you are never at all surprised to find the bread there every time, and,
perhaps, we might add that there would be a deficiency if there were
not salt there every time too. So there are certain truths which cannot
be repeated too often, and especially is this true of this
master-truth, that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto
himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." Why, this is the
bread of life; "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have
everlasting life." This is the salt upon the table, and must never be
forgotten, This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,
"that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, even the
chief."
Now we shall take the text, and use it thus: first of all we shall ask
it some questions; then we shall surround it with a setting of facts;
and when we have done that, we will endeavour to press out of it its
very soul as we draw certain inferences from it. First then:–
I. WE WILL PUT THE TEXT INTO THE WITNESS-BOX, AND ASK IT A FEW
QUESTIONS.
There are only five words in the text, and we will be content to let it
go with four questions. "Who gave himself for us" The first question we
ask the text is, Who is this that is spoken of? and the text gives the
answer. It is "the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave
himself for us." We had offended God; the dignity of divine justice
demanded that offenses against so good and just a law as that which God
had promulgated should not be allowed to go unpunished. But the
attribute of justice is not the only one in the heart of God. God is
love, and is, therefore, full Of mercy. Yet, nevertheless, he never
permits one quality of his Godhead to triumph over another. He could
not be too merciful, and so become unjust; he would not permit mercy to
put justice to an eclipse. The difficulty was solved thus: God himself
stooped from his loftiness and veiled his glory in a garb of our
inferior clay. The Word–that same Word without whom was not anything
made that was made–became flesh, and dwelt amongst us; and his
apostles, his friends, and his enemies, beheld him–the seed of the
woman, but yet the Son of God, very God of very God, in all the majesty
of deity, and yet man of the substance of his mother in all the
weakness of our humanity, sin being the only thing which separated us
from him, he being without sin, and we being full of it. It is, then,
God, who "gave himself for us"; it is, then, man, who gave himself for
us. It is Jesus Christ, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, who
thought it not robbery to be equal with God; who made himself of no
reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and, being found in fashion as a man,
humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. It is Christ Jesus, the man, the God, "who gave himself for us."
Now I hope we shall not make any mistakes here, for mistakes here will
be fatal. We may be thought uncharitable for saying it, but we should
be dishonest if we did not say it, that it is essential to be right
here.
"Ye cannot be right in the rest
Unless ye think rightly of him."
You dishonour Christ if you do not believe in his deity. He will have
nothing to do with you unless you accept him as being God as well as
man. You must receive him as being, without any diminution, completely
and wholly divine, and you must accept him as being your brother, as
being a man just as you are. This, this is the person, and, relying
upon him, we shall find salvation; but, rejecting his deity, he will
say to us, "You know me not, and I never knew you!"
The text has answered the question "Who?" and now, putting it in the
witness-box again, we ask it another question–"What? What did he do?"
The answer is, "He gave himself for us." It was a gift. Christ's
offering of himself for us was voluntary; he did it of his own will. He
did not die because we merited that, he should love us to the death; on
the contrary, we merited that he should hate us; we deserved that he
should cast us from his presence obnoxious things, for we were full of
sin. We were the wicked keepers of the vineyard, who devoured for our
own profit the fruit which belonged to the King's Son, and he is that
King's Son, whom we slew, with wicked hands ousting him out of the
vineyard. But he died for us who were his enemies. Remember the words
of Scripture, "Scarcely for a righteous man will one die; peradventure,
for a good, a generous man, one might even dare to die; but God
commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for the ungodly." He gave himself. We cannot purchase the
love of God. This highest expression of divine love, the gift of his
own Son, was, in the nature of things, unpurchaseable. What could we
have offered that God should come into this world, and be found in
fashion as a man, and should die? Why, the works of all the angels in
heaven put together could not have deserved one pang from Christ. If
for ever the angels had continued their ceaseless songs, and if all men
had remained faithful, and could have heaped up their pile of merit to
add to that of the angels, and if all the creatures that ever were, or
ever shall be, could each bring in their golden hemp of merit–yet
could they ever deserve you cross? Could they deserve that the Son of
God should hang bleeding and dying there? Impossible! It must by a
gift, for it was utterly unpurchaseable; though all worlds were coined
and minted, yet could they not have purchased a tear from the Redeemer;
they were not worth it. It must be grace; it cannot be merit; he gave
himself.
And the gift is so thoroughly a gift that no prep of any kind was
brought to bear upon the Saviour. There was no necessity that he should
die, except the necessity of his loving us. Ah! friends, we might have
been blotted out of existence, and I do not know that there would have
been any lack in God's universe if the whole race of man had
disappeared. That universe is too wide and great to miss such chirping
grasshoppers as we are. When one star is blotted out it may make a
little difference to our midnight sky, but to an eye that sees
immensity it can make no change. Know ye not that this little solar
system, which we think so vast, and those distant fixed stars, and yon
mighty masses of nebulae, if such they be, and yonder streaming comet,
with its stupendous walk of grandeur–all these are only like a little
corner in the field of God's great works? He taketh them all up as
nothing, and considereth them mighty as they be, and beyond all human
conception great–to be but the small dust of the balance which does
not turn the scale; and if they were all gone to-morrow there would be
no more loss than as if a few grains of dust were thrown to the
summer's wind. But God himself must stoop, rather than we should die.
Oh! what magnificence of love! And the more so because there was no
need for it. In the course of nature God would have been as holy and as
heavenly without us as he is with us, and the pomp of yonder skies
would have been as illustrious had we been dashed into the flames of
hell as it will be now. God hath gained nought, except the
manifestation of a love beyond an angel's dream; a grace, the heights,
and depths, and lengths, and breadths of which surpass all knowledge of
all creatures. God only knows the love of God which is manifested in
Jesus Christ. He gave himself. We will leave this point now, when it is
fully understood that Christ's dying to save sinners, and giving
himself for the ungodly, was a pure act of gratuitous mercy. There was
nothing to compel God to give his Son, and nothing to lead the Son to
die, except the simple might of his love to men. He would not see us
die. He had a Father's love to us. He seemed to stand over our fallen
race, as David stood over Absalom, and we were as bad as Absalom; and
there he fled, and said, "My son, my son! Would God I had died for
thee, my son, my son!" But he did more than this, for he did die for
us. and all for love of Us who were his enemies!
"So strange, so boundless was the love,
Which pitied dying man;
The Father sent his equal Son
To give them life again."
'Twas all of love and of grace!
The third question is, "What did he give?" "Who gave himself for us,"
and here lies the glory of the text, that he gave not merely the crowns
and royalties of heaven, though it was much to leave these, to come and
don the humble garb of a carpenter's son; not the songs of seraphs, not
the shouts of cherubim: 'twas something to leave them to come and dwell
amongst the groans and tears of this poor fallen world; not the
grandeur of his Father's court, though it was much to leave that to
come and live with wild beasts, and men more wild than they, to fast
his forty days and then to die in ignomy and shame upon the tree. No;
there is little said about all this. He gave all this, it is true, but
he gave himself. Mark, brethren, what a richness there is here! It is
not that he gave his righteousness, though that has become our dress.
It is not even that he gave his blood, though that is the fount in
which we wash. It is that he gave himself–his Godhead and manhood both
combined. All that that word "Christ" means he came to us and for us.
He gave himself. Oh! that we could dive and plunge into–this
unfathomed sea–himself! Omnipotence, Omniscience, Infinity–himself.
He gave himself–purity, love, kindness, meekness, gentleness–that
wonderful compound of all perfections, to make up one
perfection-himself. You do not come to Christ's house and say, "He
gives me this house, his church, to dwell in." You do not come to his
table and merely say, "He gives me this table to feast at," but you go
farther, and you take him by faith into your arms, and you say, "Who
loved me, and gave himself for me." Oh! that you could get hold of that
sweet word–himself! It is the love of a husband to his wife, who not
only gives her all that she can wish, daily food and raiment, and all
the comforts that can nourish and cherish her, and make her life glad,
but who gives himself to her. So does Jesus. The body and soul of
Jesus, the deity of Jesus, and all that that means, he has been pleased
to give to and for his people. "Who gave himself for us."
There is another question which we shall ask the text, and that is,
"For whom did Christ give himself?" Well, the text says, "For us."
There be those who say that Christ has thus given himself for every man
now living, or that ever did or shall live. We are not able to
subscribe to the statement, though there is a truth in it, that in a
certain sense he is "the Saviour of all men," but then it is added,
"Specially of them that believe." At any rate, dear hearer, let me tell
thee one thing that is certain. Whether atonement may be said to be
particular or general, there are none who partake in its real efficacy
but certain characters, and those characters are known by certain
infallible signs. You must not say that he gave himself for you unless
these signs are manifest in you, and the first sign is that of simple
faith in the Lord Jesus. If thou believest in him, that shall be a
proof to thee that he gave himself for thee. See, if he gave himself
for all men alike, then he did equally for Judas and for Peter. Care
you for such love as that? He died equally for those who were then in
hell as for those who were then in heaven. Care you for such a doctrine
as that? For my part, I desire to have a personal, peculiar, and
special interest in the precious blood of Jesus; such an interest in it
as shall lead me to his right hand, and enable me to say, "He hath
washed me from my sins, in his blood." Now I think we have no right to
conclude that we shall have any benefit from the death of Christ unless
we trust him, and if we do trust him, that trust will produce the
following things:–"Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us
from all iniquity"–we shall hate sin; we shall fight against it; we
shall be delivered from it? "and purify unto himself, a peculiar
people, zealous of good works." I have no right. therefore, to conclude
that I shall be a partaker of the precious blood of Jesus unless I
become in my life "zealous of good works," My good works cannot save
me, cannot even help to save me; but they are evidences of my being
saved, and if I am not zealous for good works, I lack the evidence of
salvation, and I have no right whatever to conclude that I shall
receive one jot of benefit from Christ's sufferings upon the tree. Oh!
my dear hearer, I would to God that thou couldest trust the Man, the
God, who died on Calvary! I would that thou couldest trust him so that
thou couldest say, "He will save me; he has saved me." The gratitude
which you would feel towards him would inspire you with an invincible
hatred against sin. You would begin to fight against every evil way;
you would conform yourselves, by his grace, to his law and his Word,
and you would become a new creature in him! May God grant that you may
yet be able to say, "Who gave himself for me"! I have asked the text
enough questions, and there I leave them. For a few minutes only I am
now going to use the text another way, namely:–
II. PUT THE TEXT INTO A SETTING OF FACTS.
There was a day before all days when there was no day but the Ancient
of Days; a time when there was no time, but when Eternity was all. Then
God, in the eterna1 purpose, decreed to save his people. If we may
speak so of things too mysterious for us to know them, and which we can
only set forth after the manner of men, God had determined that his
people should be saved, but he foresaw that they would sin. It was
necessary, therefore. that the penalty due to their sins should be
borne by someone. They could not be saved except a substitute were
found who would bear the penalty of sin in their place and stead. Where
was such a substitute to be found? No angel offered. There was no
angel, for God dwelt alone, and even if there had then been angels,
they could never have dared to offer to sustain the fearful weight of
human guilt. But in that solemn council-chamber, when it was
deliberated who should enter into bonds of suretyship to pay all the
debts of the people of God, Christ came and gave himself a bondsman and
a surety for all that was due–from them, or would be due from them, to
the judgment-seat of God. In that day, then, he "gave himself for us."
But Time began, and this round world had made, in the mind of God, a
few revolutions. Men said the world was getting old, but to God it was
but an infant. But the fulness of time was come, and suddenly, amidst
the darkness of the night, there was heard sweeter singing than ere had
come from mortal lips, "Glory to God in the highest; on earth peace;
good will to men!" What lit up the sky with unwonted splendour and what
had filled the air with chorales at the dead of night? See the Babe
upon its mother's breast, there in Bethlehem's manger! "He gave himself
for us." That same one who had given himself a surety has come down to
earth to be a man, and to give himself for us. See him! For thirty
years he toils on, amidst the drudgery of the carpenters shop! What is
he doing? The law needed to be fulfilled, and he "gave himself for us,"
and fulfilled the law. But now the time comes when he is thirty-two or
thirty-three years of age, and the law demands that the penalty shall
be paid. Do you see him going to meet Judas in the garden, with
confident, but solemn step? He "gave himself for us." He could with a
word have driven those soldiers into hell, but they bind him–he "gave
himself for us." They take him before Pilate, and Herod and Caiaphas,
and they mock at him, and jeer him, and pluck his cheeks, and
flagellate his shoulders! How is it that he will smart at this rate?
How is it that he bears so passively all the insults and indignities
which they heap upon him? He gave himself for us. Our sins demanded
smart; he bared his back and took the smart; he have himself for us.
But do you see that dreadful procession going through the streets of
Jerusalem, along the rough pavement of the Via Dolorosa? Do you see the
weeping women as they mourn because of him? How is it that he is
willing to be led a captive up to the hill of Calvary? Alas! they throw
him on the around! They drive accursed iron through his hands and feet.
They hoist him into the air! They dash the cross into its appointed
place, and there he hangs, a naked spectacle of scorn and shame,
derided of men, and mourned by angels. How is it that the Lord of
glory, who made all worlds, and hung out the stars like lamps, should
now be bleeding and dying there? He gave himself for us. Can you see
the streaming fountains of the four wounds in his hands and feet' Can
you trace his agony as it carves lines upon his brow and all down his
emaciated frame? No you cannot see the griefs of his soul. No spirit
can behold them. They were too terrible for you to know them. It seemed
as though all hell were emptied into the bosom of the Son of God, and
as though all the miseries of all the ages were made to meet upon him,
till he bore:–
"All that incarnate God, could bear,
With strength enough, but none to spare."
Now why is all this but that he gave himself for us till his head hung
down in death, and his arms, in chill, cold death, hung down by his
side, and they buried the lifeless Victor in the tomb of Joseph of
Arimethea? He gave himself for us!
What more now remaineth? He lives again; on the third day he cometh
from the tomb, and even then he still gave himself for us! Oh! yes,
beloved, he has gone up on high but he still gives himself for us, for
up there he is constantly engaged in pleading the sinner's cause. Up
yonder, amidst the glories of heaven, he has not forgotten us poor
sinners who are here below, but he spreads his hands, and pleads before
his Father's throne and wins for us unnumbered blessings, for he gave
himself for us.
And I have been thinking whether I might not use the text in another
way. Christ's servants wanted a subject upon which to preach, and so he
"gave himself for us," to be the constant topic of our ministry.
Christ's servants wanted a sweet companion to be with them in their
troubles, and he gave himself for us. Christ's people want comfort;
they want spiritual food and drink, and so he gave himself for us–his
flesh to be our meat, and his blood to be our spiritual drink. And we
expect soon to go home to the land of the hereafter, to the realms of
the blessed, and what is to be our heaven? Why, our heaven will be
Christ himself, for he gave himself for Us. Oh! he is all that we want,
all that we wish for! We cannot desire anything greater and better than
to be with Christ, and to have Christ, to feed upon Christ, to lie in
Christ's bosom, to know the kisses of his mouth, to look at the
gleamings of his loving eyes, to hear his loving words, to feel him
press us to his heart, and tell us that he has loved us from before the
foundation of the world, and given himself for us.
I think we have put the text now into a setting of certain facts; do
not forget them, but let them be your joy! And now the last thing we
have to do is to:–
III. TURN THE TEXT TO PRACTICAL ACCOUNT BY DRAWING FROM IT A FEW
INFERENCES.
The first inference I draw is this–that be who gave himself for his
people will cat deny them anything. This is a sweet encouragement to
you who practice the art of prayer. You know how Paul puts it, "He that
spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he
not, with him, also freely give us all things?" Christ is all. If
Christ gives himself to you, he will give you your bread and your
water, and he will give you a house to dwell in. If he gives you
himself, he will not let you starve on the road to heaven. Jesus Christ
does not Give us himself and then deny us common things. Oh! child of
God, go boldly to the throne of grace! Thou hast got the major; thou
shalt certainly have the minor; thou hast the greater, thou canst not
be denied the less.
Now I draw another inference, namely, that if Christ has already given
himself in so painful a way as I have described, since there is no need
that he should suffer any more, we must believe that he is willing to
give himself now unto the hearts of poor sinners. Beloved, for Christ
to come to Bethlehem is a greater stoop than for him to come into your
heart. Had Christ to die upon Calvary? That is all done, and he need
not die again. Do you think that he who is willing to die is unwilling
to apply the results of his passion? If a man leaps into the water to
bring out a drowning child, after he has brought the child alive on
shore, if he happens to have a piece of bread in his pocket, and the
child needs it, do you think that he who rescued the child's life will
deny that child so small a thing as a piece of bread? And come, dost
thou think that Christ died on Calvary, and yet will not come into thy
heart if thou seekest him? Dost thou believe that he who died for
sinners will ever reject the prayer of a sinner? If thou believest that
thou thinkest hardly of him, for his heart is very tender. He feels
even a cry. You know how it is with your children; if they cry through
pain, why, you would give anything for someone to come and heal them;
and if you cry because your sin is painful, the great Physician will
come and heal you. Ah! Jesus Christ is much more easily moved by our
cries and tears than we are by the vies of our fellow-creatures. Come,
poor sinner, come and put thy trust in my Master! Thou canst not think
him hard-hearted. If he were, why did he die? Dost thou think him
unkind? Then why did he bleed? Thou art inclined to think so hardly of
him! Thou art making great cuts at his heart when thou thinkest him to
be untender and ungenerous. "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no
pleasure in the death of him that dieth, but rather that he would turn
unto me and live." This is the voice of the God whom you look upon as
so sternly just! Did Jesus Christ, the tender one, speak in even more
plaintive tones, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden,
and I will give you rest"? You working men, you labouring men, Christ
bids you come to him "all ye that labour." And you who are unhappy, you
who know you have done wrong, and cannot sleep at nights because of it;
you who are troubled about sin, and would fain go and hide your heads,
and get:–
"Anywhere, anywhere out of the world,"
–your Father says to you one and all, "Run not from me, but come to
me, my child!" Jesus, who died, says, "Flee not from me, but come to
me, for I will accept you; I will receive you; I cast out none that
come unto me. "Sinner, Jesus never did reject a coming soul yet, and he
never will. Oh! try him! Try him! Now come, with thy sins about thee
just as thou art, to the bleeding, dying Saviour, and he will say to
thee, "I have blotted out thy sins; go and sin no more; I have forgiven
thee." May God grant thee grace to put thy trust in him "who gave
himself for us"!
There are many other inferences which I might draw if I had time, but
if this last one we have drawn be so applied to your hearts as to be
carried out, it will be enough. Now do not you go and try to do good
worlds in order to merit heaven. Do not go and try to pray yourselves
into heaven by the efficacy of praying. Remember, he "gave himself for
us." The old proverb is that "there is nothing freer than a gift," and
surely this gift of God, this eternal life, must be free, and we must
have it freely, or not at all. I sometimes see put up at some of our
doctors that they receive "gratis patients." That is the sort of
patients my Master receives. He receives none but those who come
gratis. He never did receive anything yet, and he never will, except
your love and your thanks after he has saved you. But you must come to
him empty-handed; came just as you are, and he will receive you now,
and you shall live to sing to the praise and the glory of his grace who
has accepted you in the Beloved, and "who gave himself for us" God help
you to do it. Amen.