Sermon preached by the Rev. J. A. Tallach, at Stornoway on Tuesday, 22nd July, 1959, at the Ordination of the Rev. Alfred MacDonald, M.A.
“For the love of Christ constraineth us.” 2nd Cor: 5:4.
(Continued from page 231.)
(b) “The love of Christ constraineth us.” If we try to analyse this constraint and see what it is made up of, I think we must give the first and chief place to love—the love of Christ constrains the soul to love Him. “We love Him because He first loved us.” Having been loved by Him, and having become aware that He loves us,
we are constrained to love Him, we cannot do otherwise. Love as an affection is essentially personal, and Christ is loved as a living Person. Faith apprehends the glory of the Redeemer as revealed in the Word by the Spirit, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” This is the Saviour made known in the gospel, and freely offered to sinners while they are yet sinners, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” The soul then having been constrained to cast out its idols, is further constrained to close in willingly with Christ in the gospel and to claim Him as its very own, “My Beloved is mine, and I am His,” “He is chiefest among ten thousand and altogether lovely.” “Whom having not seen ye love.”
(2) Another ingredient in this constraint is, no doubt, a sense of indebtedness to Christ for what He is, and for all that He has done, and continues to do as Redeemer and Mediator. “I love the Lord because He hath heard my voice . . .” Who would not be constrained to thankfulness who has in any measure looked upon redeeming love in the revealing light of Gethsemane and Calvary? Who that has been brought up out of the horrible pit and the miry clay of sin, death and wrath, by sufferings so great and endured with such love and patience would not be constrained to deep and humble thankfulness to his Saviour? “What shall I render to the Lord for all His gifts to me?” “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” The Scriptures abound with such expressions. Wherever the love of Christ finds a place in the heart of a sinner, it constrains to love in which gratitude and thankfulness find no small place, “unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood . . . be glory and dominion for ever and ever.” This is true not only on account of the many blessings directly connected with Christ’s loving the church and giving Himself for it, but also for those other gifts in providence, which the Holy Spirit makes use of to bring the soul into union with Christ and His salvation—such blessings as the minister through whom deliverance may have come, and the gospel he preached; the time, place and text; the godly mother praying, it may be for years for an ungodly child (as in the case of Augustine); the father who mingles his prayers with tears for a careless son; the illness which brings a man face to face with eternity; and all the other ways, of a secondary kind, too numerous and various for us to mention, which the Lord in His infinite wisdom makes use of in the fulfilling of His eternal purposes of love and mercy; “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.” As countless rays of light spreading themselves throughout space, give light to worlds millions of miles apart, are all traceable to the one sun, so divine love enthroned on high in the glorious Person of the Redeemer is alone responsible for all the means by which sinners in
every quarter and in all ages are effectually called; “All things working together for good to them that love God, who are the called according to His purpose.” To the soul concerned, surely this is cause for thanksgiving and praise; surely the love of Christ constrains to humble and lasting gratitude as well as to love.
(3) There is just a step from thankfulness to a sense of obligation. To glorify God is the chief end of man. Sin has lost to us both the will and the ability to meet this obligation; grace restores both the will and the power, and redeeming love provides the incentive; the love of Christ constrains to the glory of God. “Ye are bought with a price, ye are not your own, therefore glorify God in your bodies and in your spirits, which are His.” Ye are not your own! body, soul, life, gifts, talents, blessings, privileges and opportunities all are Christ’s, the purchase of his love, the price of His precious blood marks them all as His own. The love of Christ constrains us, lays us under willing and loving obligation to be His and for Him. In this the parable of the talents is our instructor, as the man given five talents went and traded with the same and gained five talents more; not as the man who buried his talent in the earth. There is a vast difference between, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” and “Thou wicked and slothful servant;” it is surely a solemn reflection that the reward of each was earned in earth. How much the love of Christ constrains to do, how short the time is in which to do it, and how much each day puts into our hands with which to do it; and yet even when we have done all things, the sense of loving obligation is such that we cannot but say, “we are but unprofitable servants.” “Lord when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee.”
(4) One final word on this point. There is much in this heart constraint which looks beyond time; something that catches a glimmer of the final glory of Christ on the Great Day. There is certainly a future in the gospel, a glorious future. However dark and discouraging present appearances may be, the constraint in the heart of a believer, generated by the love of Christ and fed from its streams, partakes itself, in some measure, of the sense of joy and triumph anticipated by Christ even in the midst of His sorrows on earth, “Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down on the right hand of the throne of God.” Thereby faith is constrained to look unto Jesus enthroned on high, and in Him to see the final triumph of the gospel. This constraint is no mere vain impulse, a dream never to be realised, a vain beating against the bars of a prison, nay rather is it, “while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal,” and thereby “Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” It appears as if the Apostle never allowed himself to lose
sight of this view; notwithstanding his perils by land and sea, and all his many afflictions, his eye was on eternity, and his heart constrained to participate in the final triumph of the gospel. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day; and not to me only but unto all who love His appearing.” The constraining power of the love of Christ carried him to the end of the course, nerved his heart and hand for the fight and kept his eye on the crown. Paul died, but his sense of triumph did not die. He bequeathed it to all future generations, and there were those coming after him who took it up and carried it on; they in their turn also died, and left this heritage to those coming after them. And so it goes on, and will go on to the end of the world. We too must soon depart; what heritage are we to leave to those who succeed us. Oh, how much is this spirit of constraint needed in the service of the gospel today!
III. I must be brief as our time has almost passed. Not only does the love of Christ constrain a man in his heart, but this constraint works itself out in his life and conduct. The Apostle was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It mattered not whether he stood before Felix, the Roman Governor, or in Athens among the philosophers, or in Rome facing his persecutors; he still gloried in the cross, the love of Christ constraining him to take up his cross daily and to deny himself in the service of the gospel. Although in a peculiar sense this constraint applies to the ministry of the gospel, it is by no means confined to ministers. It is a love which binds the whole of the true church of Christ together into one powerful instrument by means of which the Lord fulfils His purposes of mercy. Although the visible church on earth; to try us, and prove us, and humble us, is divided up into so many separate branches, yet there is but one supreme and glorious Head, but one Holy Spirit of power and grace, but one bond of love which constrains the hearts of all who are truly on the Lord’s side, and the charter in force today is the same as that given to the disciples, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned.” The love which constrained Paul in Jerusalem, Athens and Rome is still the same. This is the love powerfully constraining the hearts and lives of men, which accounts for and explains the patient endurance of Confessors and Martyrs of the early christian church, the self denying labours of Reformers and Puritans in the 16th century, the courage and heroism of the Covenanters in Scotland. As in His mercy and wisdom the Lord saw fit He raised up men like Paul, Luther, Calvin, Knox and many others, whose chief concern and glory it was to devote themselves in heart and life to the interests of the Redeemer and His Cause, constrained to it by His love. As already noted the love which constrains to active service is in greater or less degree the common heritage of the whole
body of the true church of Christ on earth and of each believing member of it. We cannot all be ministers or missionaries or office-bearers, but the saving experience of the love of Christ becomes a constraining power embracing men and women, old and young, at home and abroad in its desire, prayer and endeavour for the glory of Christ and the prosperity of His Kingdom. Thereby, by the blessing of the Holy Spirit, the church becomes a mighty force at home and abroad for the ingathering of all the elect of God—a great number which no man can number.
We are gathered here tonight to ordain one of our brethren who expects in a short time to go out and preach the gospel to a heathen people in the depths of the African forest. We would like him and all those, European and African, already devoted to the work of our Mission in Rhodesia, to remember they are not alone. In certain circumstances, I suspect, a sense of loneliness will be their greatest trial. In such circumstances let them ever remember that they are not alone. There is a bond of union binding together every truly gracious member of the body of Christ on earth into one mighty and effectual instrument of salvation reaching ultimately to the ends of the earth. In an account of gospel work in Tibet I recently read, I was impressed by a remark made by a missionary left alone in a remote part of the country. Darkness was just approaching as he looked out over the valley. He became very conscious of a great loneliness taking possession of his soul; yet as he looked he gradually became more conscious that he would “not change his pathway for all the world could give. Four simple words in the Song of Solomon had fixed his soul in Christ—” Thy love is better: Thy love is better.” The love of Christ begets a compassionate love for sinners everywhere, whatever the colour of their skin. It brings home to the heart which has itself been touched by it, a sense of the preciousness of every soul of man. This sense of importance is deepened when it is related, as it must be, to the great and solemn realities of an unseen world—death, judgment and an eternity of heaven or hell. Added to this we must face the fact that every day we live, hundreds of souls are called out of time to face these dread realities. To meet the problems arising out of these considerations there is but one answer—not politics, not armaments, not worldly prosperity or social uplift—but the gospel of redeeming grace, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” For the encouragement of all those constrained by the love of Christ and urgently concerned for the salvation of lost sinners we have the infallible Word of Eternal Truth assuring us that “men shall be blessed in Him. All nations shall call Him blessed.” How great the privilege and the honour of being even remotely associated with such work and of contributing in a measure ever so small, toward the accomplishment of it.
Here tonight our present concern is connected with the Foreign Mission Stations of our Church in Rhodesia. As has often happened in the case of service in the Foreign Field, we have recently been sadly reminded of the very heavy demands which such service often makes upon those constrained and devoted to it, by the early death of our beloved missionary the Rev. James Fraser. How willingly and lovingly he gave his all for the cause to which he had devoted himself with such self-forgetfulness during these years past. Certainly the love of Christ constrains to self-denial, “if any man will come after me let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” The particular form which that self-denial is to take must be the concern of each individual—a matter between himself and his Saviour. It may be affectionate parents giving up son or daughter at the call of the gospel; it may be a person highly qualified, giving up all prospects of what the world calls success and prosperity in favour of hard and exacting labour in primitive conditions; or to take a more general view, it may be the call to contribute as liberally as possible to the financial upkeep of the work; or finally, but by no means of least importance, the fervent, patient, urgent, constraint of prayer for the blessing of the Lord—the prayer to raise up and equip labourers for the fields white unto harvest; to keep them who have already gone out and to provide them with every necessity to promote the work; and the prayer for the Lord’s blessing upon the gospel preached and the work done, to the salvation of souls; until the wilderness blossom as the rose, and until Ethiopia stretch out her hands to God. Surely the love of Christ is infinitely worthy of all that, and much much more.
Shame upon that man; shame upon that woman; who having heard the gospel, has never felt the constraining power of it, surely their hearts are hearts of stone!
Those who can truly say the love of Christ constraineth us, how thankful they have reason to be to the God of all grace. May our young friend here be richly blessed with much of that love, thereby Christ’s yoke shall be made easy for him, and His burden light. That is our heart-felt desire.