The love of Christ is a
deep that knows no fathoming. It passes knowledge, and telling too; but, thank
God, we can know it, and speak of it too, according to our capacity.
But let it be understood
that we could never have merited this love. There was nothing in us but
defilement and alienation from God. Therefore, if we are the objects of such
love, it is wholly because it was in Him to love us. If we do love Him, it is
because we have known His love and have been begotten of God who has given us a
life and nature to love.
There are three aspects
of the love of Christ according to Eph. 5:25-33. Let us ponder them for a
little. First, “Christ … loved the Church, and gave Himself for it.” At this
time the Church was all in the future, and its members were sunk in sin and
distance from God. Yet He loved the Church, and gave Himself for it.
Looking through the glass
of God’s purpose, He saw where the Church was, and would possess Himself of
that Church, and would lift it up into union with Himself. But that was a
stupendous work which involved all the horrors of Calvary’s cross, of which the
sorrows of Gethsemane were but the dark foreshadowing.
In Gethsemane He was in
communion with His Father; but on the cross, during those dreadful hours of
darkness, He was having to do with God about sin, and hence the bitter cry, “My
God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46).
Did He love the Church?
would He redeem it? would He possess it for Himself? would He bring it into
eternal union with Himself? would He share His glory and kingdom with His
Church? Then all this must be endured. There was no other way. The deep waters
of the death of the cross must be passed through before all this could be brought
about. Who can tell the greatness and the eternal consequences of that work?
who can fathom the love expressed in it?
Let it be written in gold
across the sky of eternity, “Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it”!
But He is risen. The
glory of the Father claimed Him from the tomb. The One “crucified through
weakness … lives by the power of God” (2 Cor. 13:4), and as Victor has
ascended and set Himself down “on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb.
1:3). But has He forgotten His Church in all her toils, and needs, and
defilements, as she sojourns here in this land of her pilgrimage? Ah, no; that
could not be. What He endured for her on the cross forbids the thought that He
could ever forget her, or the least one that forms a part of her.
Hence we have the second
aspect of the love of Christ to the Church:“That He might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the Word.” This is His present ministry of love
for His Church—He “nourishes and cherishes it.” His great work now is to
sanctify the Church which He has redeemed for Himself by His precious blood.
Down here she is in the midst of evil; contamination abounds on every hand. She
is in danger of association with the world, of allowing the flesh to act, of
Satan’s wiles, of doctrinal evils; thus there is need of His present ministry
as High Priest and Advocate. His great work is to sanctify the Church, to keep
it morally clean, to purify it from every pollution, so that it might enjoy its
privileges of communion and worship (Heb. 10:19-22) and fulfill its
responsibilities as His representative and witness in this world.
This ministry of love
will go on all the while the Church is here. And what a ministry it is! It is
not a hard, righteous ministry, but what is set forth in John 13. Having loved
His own, He loves them unto the end. During supper He lays aside His garments
and takes a towel and girds Himself. He then pours water into a basin and
proceeds to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith
He was girded. How beautiful! Grace shines in every act of the blessed Lord in
this remarkable scene. It all speaks of what He is doing on high for His
wayworn and often defiled saints as they wend their way through a scene
altogether hostile to them. They are not of the world, therefore the world
hates them. Satan’s great object is to break up and blur every bit of testimony
for Christ. Hence his craft and subtlety to lead the people of God into unholy
associations, to allow the flesh, or tolerate evil doctrine—anything that will
bring in the sense of distance between their souls and God, that will becloud
their communion and darken their testimony. Alas, how often he succeeds!
But the present ministry
of Christ’s love is to purify, to sanctify, to remove all such work of Satan by
the wholesome exercise and self-judgment of the saints, and the application of
the water of the Word. As in Peter’s case, so in the case of each one.
Restoration to God from failure is no parrot work; it goes down deep into the
depths of one’s moral being, as the sin is seen in the light of God’s holiness,
and especially in the light of that love that led the Saviour to that cross of
shame to put it away.
But soon all this will be
changed, and the day will come of which it is written, “That He might present
it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such
thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph.5:27). This is the
third aspect of the love of Christ to the Church in this passage. As freed from
all the imperfections that characterize her now, how glorious the Church will
be in that day! There will be no sign of defilement or old age, but, holy and
without blemish, she will be suited to the eye and heart of her beloved Lord
and Saviour. Exceeding joy will fill His heart as she is presented before the
presence of His glory; and chastened joy will fill her heart as she finds
herself presented to Him who loved her even unto death. What thoughts of
gratitude and praise will fill her heart as she remembers what she once was,
what she is then, and all the fruit of His own love to her told out in such a
remarkable way!
If the Lord’s present
ministry of love is to nourish and cherish the Church, what an example for us
in our dealings one with another! But, alas, how little we know how to lay
aside our garments, and in the instinct of holy love get down to wash one
another’s feet! The desire would fill our heart—if in communion with our
Lord—to remove from each other all that which clouds communion with God, brings
in the sense of distance, and hinders our fellowship with each other.
If one of the members of
our own physical body gets hurt in any way, every other member in our body
seeks to nourish and cherish that member, and they rest not until it is restored
to health. So should it be with the members of the Church of God. To revive, to recover, to restore, to strengthen, should be the object before the mind,
and not to crush, and bruise, and dishearten. The look of love the Lord gave to
Peter, after he denied Him, broke his heart, and sent him out to weep bitterly.
It was a look of love.
Oh for the ministry of
love among the saints of God! holy love surely, but love that seeks the
good and not the hurt, the uplifting and not the crushing of the fallen one;
that nourishes and cherishes according to the example of our blessed Lord.
It is well to remember
that while everything else may fail, “Love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:8).
(From Help and Food, Vol.
27.)
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(FRAGMENT)
Let us listen in on our
Lord’s high-priestly prayer where we are permitted to hear Him presenting us to
the Father, that in His absence from us we might be kept and sanctified:“And
now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee.
Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom Thou hast given me, that
they may be one, as We are…. Sanctify them through thy truth:thy Word is
truth” (John 17:11-17).
Then He identifies us
with Himself before the Father, and we hear these wondrous words from the
Bridegroom of our hearts:“[THOU] HAST LOVED THEM, AS THOU HAST LOVED ME”
(verse 23).
Oh, fellow-Christian! do
we truly believe this? Is it taking possession of our hearts? We sing, and
sometimes say to ourselves and to Him, “Wonder of wonders, Jesus loved me!” but
here our Bridegroom presents us before the Father in the same nearness of love
as He Himself enjoys with the Father. May it sanctify us to Himself to be as “a
chaste virgin” espoused to a loving, precious, glorious Bridegroom.
(From Help and Food,
Vol. 40.)