DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 28, 1878,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"For the love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that if
One died for all, then were all dead." 2 Corinthians 5:14.
THE Apostle and his brethren were unselfish in all that they did. He
could say of himself and of his brethren that when they varied their
modes of action they always had the same objective in view–they lived
only to promote the cause of Christ and to bless the souls of men. He
says, "Whether we are beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we are
sober, it is for your cause." Some may have said that Paul was too
excitable and expressed himself too strongly. "Well," he said, "if it
is so, it is to God." Others may have noticed the reasoning faculty to
be exceedingly strong in Paul and may, perhaps, have thought him to be
too coolly argumentative. "But," said Paul, "if we are sober, it is for
your cause." Viewed from some points the Apostle and his co-laborers
must have appeared to be raving fanatics, engaged upon a Quixotic
enterprise and almost, if not quite, out of their minds.
One who had heard the Apostle tell the story of his conversion
exclaimed, "Paul, you are beside yourself; much learning does make you
mad," and no doubt many who saw the singular change in his conduct and
knew what he had given up and what he endured for his new faith had
come to the same conclusion. Paul would not be at all offended by this
judgment, for he would remember that his Lord and Master had been
charged with madness and that even our Lord's relatives had said, "He
is beside Himself." To Festus he had replied, "I am not mad, most noble
Festus; but speak forth the words of truth and soberness."
And to Corinthian objectors he gave a still fuller reply. Blessed are
they who are charged with being out of their mind through zeal for the
cause of Jesus! They have a more than sufficient answer when they can
say, "If we are beside ourselves, it is to God." It is no unusual thing
for madmen to think others mad and no strange thing for a mad world to
accuse the only morally sane among men of being fools and lunatics! But
Wisdom is justified of her children. If others assailed the Apostle
with another charge and insinuated that there was a method in his
madness–that his being all things to all men showed an excess of
prudence–and was no doubt a means to an end, which end it is possible
they hinted at was a desire for power, he could reply most
conclusively, "If we are sober, it is for your cause."
Paul had acted so unselfishly that he could appeal to the Corinthian
Church and ask them to bear him witness that he sought not theirs but
them. And that if he had judged their disorders with great sobriety it
was for their cause. Whatever he did, or felt, or suffered, or spoke,
he had but one design in it–the Glory of God in the perfecting of
Believers and the salvation of sinners. Every Christian minister ought
to be able to use the Apostle's words without the slightest reserve.
Yes, and every Christian should be able to say the same–"If I am
excited, it is in defense of the Truth of God. If I am sober, it is for
the maintenance of holiness. If I seem extravagant, it is because the
name of Jesus stirs my inmost soul– and if I am moderate in spirit and
thoughtful in mood–it is that I may in the wisest manner subserve the
interests of my Redeemer's kingdom."
God grant that weeping or singing, anxious or hopeful, victorious or
defeated, increasing or decreasing, elevated or depressed we may still
follow our one design and devote ourselves to the holy cause! May we
live to see Churches made up of people who are all set on one thing and
may those Churches have ministers who are fit to lead such a people
because they, also, are mastered by the same sacred purpose. May the
fire which fell of old on Carmel fall on our altar, whereon lies the
sacrifice, wetted a second and a third time from the salt sea of the
world, until it shall consume the burnt sacrifice and the wood, the
stones and the dust–and lick up the water that is in the trench. Then
will all the people see it and fall upon their faces, and cry, "The
Lord! He is God! The Lord, He is God!"
The Apostle now goes on to tell us why it was that the whole conduct of
himself and his co-laborers tended to one end and objective. He says,
"The love of Christ constrains us, because we thus judge, that if One
died for all, then the all died." I give you here as exact a
translation as I can. Two things I shall note in the text–first, under
constraint. Secondly, under constraint which his understanding
justified.
I. Our main point will come under the head, "UNDER CONSTRAINT. Here is
the Apostle, a man who was born free, a man who beyond all others
enjoyed the greatest spiritual liberty–glorying that he is under
constraint! He was under constraint because a great force held him
under its power. "The love of Christ constrains us." I suppose,
"constrains us," is about the best rendering of the passage that could
be given, but it might be translated, "restrains." The love of Christ
restrains true Believers from self-seeking and forbids them to pursue
any objective but the highest. Whether they were beside themselves or
sober, the early saints yielded to Divine restraint, even as a good
ship answers to her helm or as a horse obeys the rein.
They were not without a restraining force to prevent the slightest
subjection to impure motives. The love of Christ controlled them and
held them under its power. But the word, "restrained," only expresses a
part of the sense, for it means that he was, "coerced or pressed," and
so impelled forward as one carried along by pressure. All around him
the love of Christ pressed upon him as the water in a river presses
upon a swimmer and bears him onward with its stream. Bengel, who is a
great authority, reads it, "Keeps us employed," for we are led to
diligence, urged to zeal, maintained in perseverance and carried
forward and onward by the love of Jesus Christ. The Apostles labored
much, but all their labor sprang from the impulse of the love of Jesus
Christ.
Just as Jacob toiled for Rachel solely out of love to her, so do true
saints serve the Lord Jesus under the Omnipotent constraint of love.
One eminent expositor reads the word, "constrains us," as though it
signified that the Lord's servants were kept together and held as a
band under a banner or standard. And he very appropriately refers to
the words of the Church in the Song of Songs, "His banner over me was
love." As soldiers are held together by rallying to the standard, so
are the saints kept to the work and service of their Lord by the love
of Christ which constrains them to endure all things for the elect's
sake and for the Glory of God–and like an ensign–is lifted high as
the center and loadstone of all their energies. In our Lord's love we
have the best motive for loyalty, the best reason for energy and the
best argument for perseverance!
The word may also signify, "compressed," and then it would mean that
all their energies were pressed into one channel and made to move by
the love of Christ. Can I put restraint and constraint, and all the
rest, into one by grouping them in a figure? I think I can. When a
flood is spread over an expanse of meadow land and stands in shallow
pools, men restrain it by damming it up–and they constrain it to keep
to one channel by banking it in! Thus compressed it becomes a stream
and moves with force in one direction. See how it quickens its pace!
See what strength it gathers! It turns yonder wheel of the mill, makes
a sheep wash, leaps as a waterfall, runs laughing through a village as
a brook where the cattle stand in the summer's sun. Growing all the
while, it develops into a river, bearing boats and little ships! And
this done, it still increases and stays not till it flows with mighty
flood into the great sea.
The love of Christ had pressed Paul's energies into one force, turned
them into one channel and then driven them forward with a wonderful
force till he and his fellows had become a mighty power for
good–always active and energetic. "The love of Christ," he says,
"constrains us." All great lives have been under the constraint of some
mastering principle. A man who is everything by turns and nothing long,
is a nobody! A man who wastes life on whims and fancies, leisure and
pleasures, never achieves anything! He flits over the surface of life
and leaves no more trace upon his age than a bird upon the sky. But a
man, even for mischief, becomes great when he becomes concentrated.
What made the young prince of Macedon, Alexander the Great, but the
absorption of his whole mind in the desire for conquest? The man was
never happy when he was at ease and in peace. His best days were spent
on the battlefield or on the march. Let him rush to the front of the
battle and make the common soldier grow into a hero by observing the
desperate valor of his king–and then you see the greatness of the man!
He could never have been the conqueror of the world if the insatiable
greed of conquest had not constrained him. From this come your Caesars
and your Napoleons– they are whole men in their ambition, subject to
the lust of dominion.
When you carry this thought into a better and holier sphere, the same
fact is clear. Howard could never have been the great philanthropist if
he had not been strangely under the witchery of love to prisoners. He
was more happy in a
hospital or in a prison than he would have been at Court or on the sofa
of the drawing room. The man could not help visiting jails–he was a
captive to his sympathy for men in bondage–and so he spent his life in
seeking their good. Look at such a man as Whitfield or his associate,
Wesley. Those men had but one thought and that was to win souls for
Christ–their whole being ran into the one riverbed of zeal for God and
made them full and strong as the rushing Rhone. It was their rest to
labor for Christ! It was their honor to be pelted while preaching and
to be maligned for the name of Jesus! A bishopric and a seat in the
House of Lords would have been the death of them! Even a throne would
have been a rack if they must have ceased hunting for souls.
The men were under the dominion of a passion which they could not
withstand and did not wish to weaken. They could sing–
"The lo ve of Christ does me constrain To seek the wandering souls of
men! With cries, entreaties, tears, to save, To snatch them from the
fiery wave." Their whole life, being, thought, faculty, spirit, soul
and body became one and indivisible in purpose. And their sanctified
manhood was driven forward irresistibly so that they might be likened
to thunderbolts flung from the eternal hand which must go forward till
their end is reached. They could no more cease to preach than the sun
could cease shining or reverse his course in the heavens!
This kind of constraint implies no compulsion and involves no bondage.
It is the highest order of freedom, for when a man does exactly what he
likes to do, if he wants to express the enthusiastic joy and delight
with which he follows his pursuit, he generally uses language similar
to that of my text. "Why," he says, "I am engrossed by my favorite
study. It quite enthralls me. I cannot resist its charms, it holds me
beneath its spell." Is the man any the less free? If a man gives
himself up to a science, or to some other pursuit, though he is
perfectly free to leave it whenever he likes, he will commonly declare
that he cannot leave it–it has such a hold upon him that he addicts
himself to it!
You must not think, therefore, that when we speak of being under
constraint from the love of Christ we mean, by it, that we have ceased
to exercise our wills, or to be voluntary agents in our service. Far
from it! In fact, we acknowledge that we are never so free as when we
are under bonds to Christ! No, our God does not constrain us by
physical force. His cords are those of love and His bands are those of
a man. The constraint is that which we are glad to feel–we give a full
assent to its pressure–and therein lies its power. We rejoice to admit
that, "The love of Christ constrains us!" We only wish the constraint
would increase every day.
We have seen that Paul had a great force holding him–we advance a step
further and note that the constraining force was the love of Christ. He
does not speak of his love to Christ–that was a great power, too,
though secondary to the first. But he is content to mention the
greater, for it includes the less–"The love of Christ constrains us,"
that is, Christ's love to us is the master force! And O, Brothers and
Sisters, this is a power to which it is joy to submit! This is a force
worthy to command the greatest minds! "The love of Christ." Who shall
measure this Omnipotent force? That love, according to our text, is
strongest when seen in His dying for men. Mark the context, "because we
thus judge, that if One died for all." The peculiar display of the love
of Christ which had supreme sway over Paul was the love revealed in His
substitutionary death!
Think of it a moment. Christ the Ever-Blessed, to whom no pain, nor
suffering, nor shame could come, loved men! O singularity of love! He
loves guilty men, yes, loves His enemies! Loving poor fallen men, He
took their nature and became a Man. Marvelous condescension! The Son of
God is also Son of Mary and, being found in fashion as a Man, He
humbles Himself and is made of no reputation. See Him taken before
human judges and unjustly condemned! Seized by Roman lictors and lashed
with the scourge! Gazing a little longer, you see Him nailed to a
cross, hung up for a felon, left amid jeer and jibe and cruel glance
and malicious speech to bleed away His life till He is actually dead
and laid in the grave!
At the back of all this there is the mystery that He was not only
dying, but dying in the place of others, bearing almighty wrath,
enduring that dread sentence of death which is attached to human sin.
Herein is love, indeed, that the infinitely Pure should suffer for the
sinful, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God! Love did never
climb to so sublime a height as when it brought Jesus to the bloody
tree to bear the dread sentence of inexorable Law! Think of this love,
Beloved, till you feel its constraining influence!
It was love eternal, for long before the earth was fashioned, the
eternal Word had set His eyes upon His people and their names were
engraved on His heart. It was love unselfish, for He had nothing to
gain from His redeemed–there were harps enough in Heaven and songs
enough in the celestial city without their music! It was love most free
and spontaneous, for no man sought it or so much as dreamed of it! It
was love most persevering, for when man was born into the world and
sinned and rejected Christ–and He came to His own and His own received
Him not–He loved them still, loved them even to the end. It was
love–what shall I say of it? If I were to multiply words I might
rather sink your thoughts than raise them!
It was love infinite, immeasurable, inconceivable! It surpasses the
love of women, though the love of mothers is strong as death and
jealousy is cruel as the grave. It passes the love of martyrs, though
that love has triumphed over the fury of the flame. All other lights of
love pale in their ineffectual brightness before this blazing sun of
love, whose warmth a man may feel but upon whose utmost light no eye
can gaze! He loved us like a God! It was nothing less than God's own
love which burned within that breast which was bared to the spear that
it might redeem us from going down into the Pit! It is this force,
then, which has taken possession of the Christian's mind and, as Paul
says, "constrains us."
Now we may advance another step and say that the love of Christ
operates upon us by begetting in us love to Him. Brothers and Sisters,
I know you love our Lord Jesus Christ, for all His people love Him. "We
love Him because He first loved us." But what shall I say? There are
scarcely any themes upon which I feel less able to speak than these
two–the love of Christ to us and our love to Him–because somehow love
needs a tongue elsewhere than this which dwells in the mouth. This
tongue is in the head and it can therefore tell out our thoughts–but
we need a tongue in the heart to tell out our emotions which have now
to borrow utterance from the brain's defective orator.
There is a long space between the cool brain and the blazing heart–and
matters cool on the road to the tongue, so that the burning heart grows
weary of chill words. But oh, we love Jesus! Brothers and Sisters, we
truly love Him! His name is sweet as the honeycomb and His Word is
precious as the gold of Ophir. His Person is very dear to us–from His
head to His feet He is altogether lovely. When we get near Him and see
Him at the last, I think we shall swoon away with excess of joy at the
sight of Him and I, for one, ask no Heaven beyond a sight of Him and a
sense of His love! I do not doubt that we shall enjoy all the
harmonies, all the honors and all the fellowships of Heaven, but if
they were all blotted out, I do not know that they would make any
considerable difference to us if we may but see our Lord upon His
throne, and have His own prayer fulfilled, "Father, I will that they,
also, whom You have given Me be with Me where I am, that they may
behold My Glory." He is happiness to us, yes, He is All in All!
Do you not feel that the sweetest sermons you ever hear are those which
are fullest of Him? When I can sometimes hear a sermon, it sickens me
to listen to fine attempts to philosophize away the Gospel, or to
pretty essays which are best described as a jingle of elegant words.
But I can hear with rapture the most illiterate and blundering Brother
if his heart burns within him and he heartily speaks of my Lord, the
Well-Beloved of my soul! We are glad to be in the place of assembly
when Jesus is within, for whether on Tabor with two or three, or in the
congregation of the faithful–when Jesus is present it is good to be
there.
This joyful feeling, when you hear about Jesus, shows that you love Him
and your endeavors to spread the Gospel show that you love His cause.
The love of Christ to you has moved you to desire the coming of His
kingdom and you feel that you could give your life to extend the
borders of His dominions! He is a glorious King and all the world
should know it! Oh that we could see all the nations bowing before His
scepter of peace! We love Him so much that till the whole earth smiles
in the light of His throne, we can never rest. As to His Truth, a very
great part of our love to Christ will show itself by attachment to the
pure Gospel. I have not much patience with a certain class of
Christians, nowadays, who will hear anybody preach so long as they can
say, "He is very clever, a fine preacher, a man of genius, a born
orator."
Is cleverness to make false doctrine palatable? Why, Sirs, to me the
ability of a man who preaches error is my sorrow rather than my
admiration! I cannot endure false doctrine, however neatly it may be
put before me. Would you have me eat poisoned meat because the dish is
of the choicest ware? It makes me indignant when I hear another gospel
put before the people with enticing words by men who would gladly make
merchandise of souls! And I marvel at those who have soft words for
such deceivers.
"That is your bigotry," says one. Call it so if you like, but it is the
bigotry of the loving John who wrote–"If there come any unto you and
bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid
him God speed: for he that
bids him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds." I would to God we
had all more of such decision, for the lack of it is depriving our
religious life of its backbone and substituting for honest manliness a
mass of the tremulous jelly of mutual flattery. He who does not hate
the false does not love the true! And he to whom it is all the same
whether it is God's Word or man's, is himself unrenewed at heart! Oh,
if some of you were like your fathers, you would not have tolerated in
this age the wagon loads of trash under which the Gospel has been of
late buried by ministers of your own choosing! You would have hurled
out of your pulpits the men who are enemies to the fundamental
doctrines of your Churches and yet are crafty enough to become your
pastors and undermine the faith of a fickle and superficial generation!
These men steal the pulpits of once orthodox Churches because otherwise
they would have none at all!
Their powerless theology cannot, of itself, arouse sufficient
enthusiasm to enable them to build a mousetrap at the expense of their
admirers and, therefore, they profane the houses which your fathers
have built for the preaching of the Gospel and turn aside the
organizations of once orthodox communities to help their infidelity! I
call it by that name in plain English, for "modern thought" is not one
whit better–and of the two evils I give infidelity the palm, for it is
less deceptive. I beg the Lord to give back to the Churches such a love
to His Truth that they may discern the spirits and cast out those which
are not of God.
I feel sometimes like John, of whom it is said that though the most
loving of all spirits, yet he was the most decided of all men for the
Truth of God. Once when he went to the bath and found that the heretic,
Cerinthus, was there, he hurried out of the building and would not
tarry in the same place with him! There are some with whom we should
have no fellowship! No, not so much as to eat bread! And though this
conduct looks stern and hard, it is after the mind of Christ, for the
Apostle spoke by Inspiration when he said, "If we, or an angel from
Heaven preach to you any other Gospel than that which you have
received, let him be accursed." According to modern efficiency he ought
to have said, "Let him be kindly spoken with in private, but pray make
no stir! No doubt the thought was original and we must not question his
liberty. Doubtless, he believes the same as we do, only there is some
little difference as to terms."
This is treason to Christ, treachery to the Truth of God and cruelty to
souls! If we love our Lord we shall keep His Words and stand fast in
the faith, coming out from among the false teachers! Nor is this
inconsistent with charity, for the truest love to those who err is not
to fraternize with them in their error, but to be faithful to Jesus in
all things! The love of Jesus Christ creates in men a deep attachment
to the Gospel, especially to the doctrines which cluster around the
Person of our Lord. And I think more especially to that doctrine which
is the cornerstone of all, namely, that Christ died in the place of
men. He who touches the doctrine of Substitution, touches the apple of
our eye! He who denies it, robs our soul of her only hope, for there we
gather all our consolation for the present and our expectation for days
to come. A great force, then, held the Apostle–that force was the love
of Christ–and it worked in Him love to Christ in return!
Now, this force acts proportionately in Believers. It acts in every
Christian more or less, but it differs in degree. We are all of us,
alive, but the vigor of life differs greatly in the consumptive and the
athletic–and so the love of Jesus acts upon all regenerate men, but
not to the same extent. When a man is perfectly swayed by the love of
Christ, he will be a perfect Christian. When a man is growingly under
its influence, he is a growing Christian. When a man is sincerely
affected by the love of Christ, he is a sincere Christian. But he in
whom the love of Christ has no power whatever is not a Christian at
all. "I thought," says one, "that believing was the main point." True,
but faith works by love and if your faith does not work by love it is
not the faith which will save the soul.
Love never fails to bloom where faith has taken root. Beloved, you will
feel the power of the love of Christ in your soul in proportion to the
following points. In proportion as you know it. Study, then, the love
of Christ–search deep and learn its secrets. Angels desire to look
into it. Observe its eternity–without beginning. Its
immutability–without change. Its infinity–without measure. Its
eternity–without end. Think much of the love of Christ, till you
comprehend with all saints what are its breadths and lengths. And as
you know it, you will begin to feel its power. Its power will also be
in proportion to your sense of it. Do you feel the love of God shed
abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit? Knowing is well, but enjoyment
as the result of believing is better! Does it not sometimes force the
tears from your eyes to think that Jesus loved you and gave Himself for
you?
On the other hand, does it not at times make you feel as if, like
David, you could dance before the ark of the Lord, to think that the
love of God should ever have been set on you–that Christ should die
for you? Ah, think and think again–for you the bloody sweat, for you
the crown of thorns, for you the nails, the spear, the wounds, the
broken
heart–all, all for love of you who were His enemy! In proportion as
your heart is tender and is sensitive to this love, it will become a
constraining influence in your whole life. The force of this influence
will also depend very much upon the Divine Grace which dwells within
you. You may measure your Grace by the power which the love of Christ
has over you. Those who dwell near their Lord are so conscious of His
power over them that the very glances of His eyes fill them with holy
ardor. If you have much Grace you will be greatly moved by the love
which gave you that Grace and made you wondrously sensitive to it. But
he who has little Grace, as is the case with not a few, can read the
story of the Cross without emotion, and can contemplate Jesus' death
without feeling. God deliver us from a cold and hard marble heart!
Character also has much to do with the measure in which we feel the
constraint of Jesus' love. The more Christ-like the more
Christ-constrained. You must become, dear Brothers and Sisters, by
prayer through the Holy Spirit, to be like Jesus Christ. And when you
do, His love will take fuller possession of you than it does at this
moment and you will be more manifestly under its constraining power.
Our last point upon this head is that wherever its energy is felt it
will operate after its kind. Forces work according to their nature–the
force of love creates love–and the love of Christ begets a kindred
love. He who feels Christ's love acts as Christ acted. If you really
feel the love of Christ in making a sacrifice of Himself you will make
a sacrifice of yourself. "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because
He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for
the brethren."
We shall, for our Lord's sake, count all things but dross for the
excellency of His knowledge. O Soul, you will have no choice left after
you have once known and chosen your Lord! If that road leads to wealth,
but if it does not glorify Christ, you will at once say, "Farewell
wealth." That road leads to honor–you will be famous if you will take
that path. But if it will bring no glory to Christ, if you feel the
power of His love in your soul, you will say, "Farewell honor! I will
embrace shame for Christ, for my one thought is to sacrifice myself for
Him who sacrificed Himself for me." If the love of Christ constrains
you, it will make you love others, for His was love to others, love to
those who could do Him no service, who deserved nothing at His hands.
If the love of Christ constrains you, you will specially love those who
have no apparent claim upon you and cannot justly expect anything from
you, but on the contrary deserve your censure. You will say, "I love
them because the love of Christ constrains me."
Dirty little creatures in the gutter. Filthy women polluting the
streets. Base men who come out of jail merely to repeat their
crimes–these are the fallen humanities whom we learn to love when the
love of Christ constrains us! I do not know how else we could care for
some poor creatures, if it were not that Jesus teaches us to despise
none and despair of none. Those ungrateful creatures, those malicious
creatures, those abominably blasphemous and profane creatures whom you
sometimes meet with and shrink from–you are to love them because
Christ loved the very chief of sinners! His love to you must be
reflected in your love to the lowest and vilest. He is your Sun–be you
as the moon to the world's night.
The love of Jesus Christ was a practical love. He did not love in
thought, only, and in word, but in deed and in truth–and if the love
of Christ constrains us–we shall throw our souls into the work and
service of love. We shall be really at work for men, giving alms of our
substance, enduring our measure of suffering and making it clear that
our Christianity is not mere talk, but downright work! We shall be like
the bullock of the burnt offering, laid upon the altar to be wholly
consumed. We shall consider nothing but how we can most completely be
eaten up with the zeal of God's House, how without the reserve of one
single faculty we may be entirely consumed in the service of our Lord
and Master. May the Lord bring us to this!
II. THE CONSTRAINT OF WHICH WE HAVE SPOKEN WAS JUSTIFIED BY THE
APOSTLE'S
UNDERSTANDING. "The love of Christ constrains us; because we thus
judge." Love is blind. A man may say that in the affairs of love he
exercises a calm discretion, but I take leave to doubt it. In love to
Christ, however, you may be carried right away and be as blind as you
like and yet you shall act according to the most sound judgment. The
Apostle says warmly, "The love of Christ constrains us," and yet he
adds with all coolness, "because we thus judge." When understanding is
the basis of affection, then a man's heart is fixed and his conduct
becomes in a high degree exemplary. So it is here.
There is a firm basis of judgment–the man has weighed and judged the
matter as much as if the heart were out of the question–but the
logical conclusion is one of all-absorbing emotion and mastering
affection as much as if the understanding had been left out of the
question. His judgment was as the bronze altar, cold and hard, but on
it he laid the coals of burning affection, vehement enough in their
flame to consume everything. So it ought to be with us. Religion
should be with a man a matter of intellect as well as of affection–and
his understanding should always be able to justify the strongest
possible passion of his soul, as the Apostle says it did in the case of
himself and his brethren.
They had reasons for all that they did. For, first, he recognized
Substitution–"We thus judge, that if One died for all." O Brothers and
Sisters, this is the very sinew of Christian effort–Christ died in the
sinner's place! Christ is the Surety, the Sacrifice, the Substitute for
men! If you take the doctrine of vicarious Sacrifice out of the
Christian religion I protest that nothing is left worth calling a
revelation! It is the heart, the head, the soul, the essence of our
holy faith– that the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all and
with His stripes we are healed! The Apostle firmly believed this to be
a matter of fact and then, out of his belief, there grew an intense
love to Jesus, as well there might. Did Jesus stand in my place? Oh,
how I love Him! Did He die for me? Then His love has mastered me and
will always hold me as its willing captive! O sacred Substitute, I am
Yours and all that I have!
In the next place, he recognized union to Christ, for, he said, "If One
died for all, then the all died," for so it runs, that is to say, the
all for whom Christ died, died in His death. His dying in their place
was their dying! He dies for them, they die in Him. He rises, they rise
in Him. He lives, they live in Him. Now if it is really so, that you
and I who have believed in Christ are one with Christ and members of
His body, that Truth of God may be stated coolly, but like the flint,
it conceals a fire within it! For if we died in Jesus, we are dead to
the world, to self–to everything but our Lord! O Holy Spirit, work in
us this death even to the fullest! The Apostle recognizes the natural
consequence of union with the dying Lord and resolves to carry it out.
Brothers and Sisters, when Adam sinned, we sinned. And we have felt the
result of that fact–we were constituted sinners by the act of our
first representative and every day we see it to be so. Every little
child that is carried to the grave bears witness that death passes upon
all men, for that all have sinned in Adam, even though they have not
personally sinned after the similitude of his transgression. Now, just
as our sin in Adam effectively operates upon us for evil, so must our
death with Christ effectively operate upon our lives for good. It ought
to do so. How can I live for myself? I died more than 18 centuries ago!
I died and was buried! How can I live to the world? Eighteen hundred
years ago and more the world hung me up as a malefactor–yes, and in my
heart of hearts I have also crucified the world–and regard it as a
dead malefactor. How shall I fall in love with a crucified world, or
follow after its delights? We thus died with Christ.
"Now," says the Apostle, "the love of Christ constrains us; because we
thus judge, that if One died for all, then the all died." All who were
in Christ, for whom He died, died when He died. And what follows from
it but that they should not live unto themselves, but unto Him that
died for them and rose again? We are one with Christ and what He did
for us we did in Him and, therefore, we are dead because He died!
Therefore we ought no longer to live in the old selfish way, but should
live only to the Lord. This is the basis upon which the intellect rests
and then the affections yield themselves to the sacred force of Jesus'
dying love.
I close with the following reflections, putting them very briefly. The
first reflection is–how different is the inference of the Apostle from
that of many professors. They say, "If Christ died once for all and so
finished the work of my salvation, then I am saved and may sit down in
comfort and enjoy myself, for there is no need for effort or thought."
Ah, what a mercy to feel that you are saved and then to go to sleep in
the corner of your pew! A converted man and, therefore, curled up upon
the bed of sloth! A pretty sight, surely, but a very common one! Such
people have but little or no feeling for others who remain unconverted.
"The Lord will save His own," they say and they little care whether He
does so or not. They appear to be dreadfully afraid of doing God's
work, though there is not the slightest need for such a fear, since
they will not even do their own work!
These are presumptuous persons, strangers to the Grace of God, who know
not that the main part of salvation lies in our being saved from
selfishness and hardness of heart! It is the devil's inference that
because Christ did so much for me I am now to do nothing for Him! I
must even beg the devil's pardon, for I scarcely think that even he is
base enough to draw such an inference from the Grace of God. Assuredly
he has never been in a position to attempt so detestable a crime. It is
to the last degree unutterably contemptible that a man who is indebted
to the Lord Jesus Christ for so much should then make the only
consequence of his indebtedness to be a selfish indolence! Never will a
true child of God say, "Soul, take your ease. You are all
right–nothing else matters!"
Oh no! "The love of Christ constrains us." How much more ennobling,
again, is such conduct as that of the Apostle than that of many
professed Christians? I am not about to judge anyone, but I would beg
you to judge yourselves. There
are some and I would try to hope that they may be Christians–the Lord
knows them that are His–who give to the cause of God, who serve God,
after a fashion. But still, the main thought of their life is not
Christ nor His service, but the gaining of wealth! That is their chief
objective and towards it all their faculties are bent. There are other
Church members–God forbid we should judge them–whose great thought is
success in their profession. I am not condemning their having such a
thought, but the chief ambition of the Apostle and of those like he was
not this, but something higher! The chief aim of all of us should be
nothing of self, but serving Christ! We are to be dead to everything
but our Lord's Glory, living with this mark before us–this prize to be
strained after–that Christ shall be glorified in our mortal bodies!
In our business, in our studies, in everything, our slogan must be,
Christ, Christ, Christ! Is it not a far more noble thing for a man to
have lived wholly unto Christ than for mammon, or honor, or for himself
in any shape or form? I speak as to wise men–judge what I say! Do you
not think, also, that such a pursuit as this is much more peace-giving
to the spirit? People will judge our conduct and they are sure to judge
as severely as they can. If they see us zealous and self-denying they
will say of us, "Why, the man is beside himself." This will not matter
much to us if we can reply, "It is for God." Or if they say, "Oh, you
old sober sides, how grave you are," we shall not be offended if we can
reply, "Ah, but it is for the good of others that I am sober."
You will be very little distressed by sharp criticisms if you know that
your motive is wholly unselfish. If you live for Christ and for Christ,
alone, all the carping of men or devils will never cast you down. Do
you not think that a life spent for Jesus only is far more worth
looking back upon at the last than any other? If you call yourselves
Christians, how will you judge a life spent in making money? It cannot
be very much longer before you must gather up your feet in the bed and
resign your soul to God. Now, suppose yourself sitting in your chamber
all alone, making out the final balance-sheet of your stewardship–how
will it look if you have to confess, "I have been a Christian
professor. My conduct has been outwardly decent and respectable, but my
chief purpose was not my Master's Glory. I have lived with the view of
scraping together so many thousands and I have done it."
Would you like to fall asleep and die with that as the consummation of
your life? Or shall it be, "I have lived to hold up my head in society
and pay my way and leave a little for my family"? Will that satisfy you
as your last reflection? Brothers and Sisters, we are not saved by our
works, but I am speaking, now, upon the consolation which a man can
derive from looking back upon his life. Suppose he shall have felt the
power of my text and shall be able to say, "I have been enabled, by the
Grace of God, to which I give all the glory, to consecrate my entire
being to the entire glorification of my Lord and Master. And whatever
my mistakes, and they are many–and my wanderings and failures, and
they are countless–yet the love of Christ has constrained me, for I
judged myself to have died in Him, and I have lived to Him. I have
fought a good fight. I have kept the faith"?
Why, I think it were worth while so to die! To be constrained by the
love of Christ creates an heroic life, exalted, illustrious–no, I must
come down from such lofty words–it is such a life as every Christian
ought to live! It is such a life as every Christian must live if he is
really constrained by the love of Christ, for the text does not say the
love of Christ ought to constrain us–it declares that it does
constrain us. Brothers and Sisters, if it does not constrain you, judge
yourselves that you be not judged and found wanting at the last! God
grant we may feel the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Spirit. Amen.