(Before reading this article read Gal. 1:4;2:20; Eph. 5:2,25; 1 Tim. 2:26; Titus 2:14.)
There are two Greek verbs in the above passages that are uniformly translated "gave Himself." The verb in Gal. 2:20, and in the Ephesian passages, however, adds also the idea of giving over, "delivering," and all of them, taken in their context, imply "self-surrender" and "self-sacrifice."
There is something so lofty, so admirable, so ennobling in self-sacrifice, in the endurance of risk or suffering for others, that it has afforded a fascinating theme for novelist, poet and dramatist from the earliest days. So powerful is its attraction that, while some editors go so far as to want their writers against it, yet they confess to admitting two or three articles of that character into their magazines every year. Indeed, to cut it out of religious periodicals would be to cut out the heart and center of our blessed Faith.
There is a striking tablet erected in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England, to the memory of Charles George Gordon, known to the world as "Chinese Gordon," famous British soldier and fine Christian hero, which reads:
"He gave his strength to the weak,
He gave his sympathy to the suffering,
He gave his substance to the poor,
For
He had given his heart to God."
And it is just because that it was for the weak, the suffering and the poor, that he gave all these, and not simply to the mighty British Empire, that we find the description so touching. To live and die for the noble and good is one thing, to live and die for the mean and the degraded is quite another. It was after this latter fashion that Alien Gardiner resigned from a respectable station in the British Navy, and sacrificing his home ties and considerable wealth, went to his death for one of the most loathsome and degraded peoples of the earth. It was after this fashion that Charles Mackay surrendered the prospect Of an eminent career in engineering that he might preach the glorious gospel to the wretched inhabitants of Uganda. It was in the same fashion that David Livingstone tramped weary long miles through the heart of. the Dark Continent that he might open the way for others to heal what he aptly described as "the open sore of the world." Had not HE who "gave Himself" for them shown them the way?
Yes, the theme is familiar, but to build ourselves up in this, our holy Faith, we must ever heat it in the "tongues of fire" that play upon the pages of the Spirit-inspired Word. So let us turn to the context and gather from there answers to these two questions:. Who was He? For whom did He give Himself?
Modern scholarship assures us through the pen of A. T. Robertson, eminent New Testament Greek scholar and Bible exegete:"The text of Titus 2:15 reads (R, V.), of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.' The papyri and inscriptions furnish abundant proof that the expression, 'Our great God and Saviour,' was a current formula in the worship of the Roman emperor. Paul simply took the formula and applied it to Christ." We also have assurance from other scriptures that when he thus applied it, he intended no fulsome adulation but the words were meant to carry every ounce of weight that they could possibly carry. How wonderful then is the truth that our GREAT GOD AND SAVIOUR gave Himself for us. To paraphrase the words of a great English author:"Christians need never perish for want of wonders in their holy Faith, but only for want of wonder." God grant that we never perish in that way, for that means spiritual death.
When Pionius, the noble Christian martyr, replying to the question of his examiner as to what God he believed in, answered:"The One who made the earth, and beautified it with trees and fruits and flowers," the stern Roman demanded:"Meanest thou HIM WHO WAS CRUCIFIED?" Nor can we be at all surprised at the question. Paul also preached "the Man, Christ Jesus," and the vivid contrast stands out in those other words to Timothy:"There is one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all." Thus God and Man are represented as offering themselves for us in the Person of Christ Jesus. Oh, how dully and uncomprehendingly I write these words! If I were to spring from my seat, if I were to leap upon my chair, if I were to shout till the walls re-echoed again and again with the cry, I would be giving but a very feeble physical expression to the joy that should be in me as I think of them.
But this Man is Christ Jesus. Jesus is the name that is above every name, NOW. When He was upon earth, it was a comparatively common name. Now, we shrink from the name as applied to other men, for to us such use seems a profanation, for the One who bore it is so supremely above all other men, in His character, in His work, in His ways. As another has beautifully said:"All that we have failed to find in man, we can find in Him. Human wisdom has its limits, but here is a Man whose word is truth, who is Himself the truth. Human love is sometimes hollow, often impotent. It looks down on us, as a great thinker has said, like the Venus of Milo, that lovely statue, smiling in pity, but without arms; but here is a love that is mighty to help, and on which we can rely without disappointment or loss. Human excellence is always limited and imperfect, but here is One whom we may imitate and be pure. This Man has, loved each of us with a brother's heart, let us love Him with all our hearts." FOR HE GAVE HIMSELF FOR US.
Is it any astonishing thing then, that this Man is also the Christ, God's Anointed? If the dove, symbol of God's Holy Spirit, that went forth from out the ark and found not one spot upon which to rest its foot, could but return to the ark from which it came, so the Spirit of God could have anointed no man for this tremendous work of our salvation, had there been no Jesus, Son of Mary, Son of God. So He became the Christ and gave Himself for us, and we can truly say:
"O Thou bounteous Giver of all good,
Who art of all Thy gifts THYSELF THE CROWN,
Give what Thou wilt, without Thee "we are poor,
And with Thee we are rich, take what Thou wilt away.
"When on the other hand, we turn from this blessed Giver to see what the context shows us of those for whom He gave Himself, for whom out of a pure love He died, we find here God also commending (massing together, introducing) to us that great love wherewith Christ loved us, as even He did when He declared in that "while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." Does He speak of us as a people and by way of contrast compare us with that other people, subjects of a deified emperor? We find that we are a people who must be "purified and redeemed from all lawlessness." Does He think of us as a Church, a Bride? It is still as a Church that even after that initial blessed cleansing requires to be cleansed and sanctified, that it might be presented to Himself, the object of His joy, having "no spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing." Are we looked at as individuals? We see ourselves in the implied context as other Sauls, "breathing out threatenings and slaughter" against God's chosen.
Are we regarded as part of that environment to which we once belonged? We see those who must be delivered "from this present WICKED AGE." What a picture is here, my brethren, of those for whom Christ Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, died.
Frederick Arnot, heroic Christian Missionary and pioneer, once sprang between one of his black followers and a raging lion at the imminent peril of his own life. Says the missionary:"The lad I thus saved belongs to Bihe, and I heard a young Bihean say to his fellows that he would go anywhere with such a white man, who would throw his own body between a lion and a NO ACCOUNT black boy." In a Christian hymn we sometimes sing of our hearts "once worse than naught," and surely we may all reckon ourselves of "no account" along with the Bihean lad, yet for us the One who gave Himself went how much further than Arnot.
"When blood from a victim must flow,
This Shepherd by pity was led
To stand between us and the foe,
And willingly died in our stead."
Should we not be willing to go anywhere with Him?
F. C. Grant