A Sermon by John Macdonald
Romans 5: 8. God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
- The important result of the fact which we have been illustrating comes next into view in our text. That result is: God commends His love. We have examined the foundation of fact; let us now contemplate the super-structure of inference. As the former was glorious in depth, so the latter will be glorious in height.
But let us premise a few things which are important in guiding our steps:
(1.) The death of Christ for sinners was not the cause of God’s love to them, but the love of God was the source of Christ’s death.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son”. Whatever mercy is in the cross of the Son was in the bosom of the Father. The death of Christ and the love of God are as much one as the Father and the Son are one in the blessed Trinity.
(2.) The death of Christ was not merely a demonstration of divine love, but a communication of it to us in a specific and direct form.
It was not only to show that God did love sinners that Jesus laid down His life; but also and chiefly to convey in a suitable and consistent manner that love itself. As we have already seen, there was an actual substitution for the sinner in the person of Christ, and an actual atonement by sacrifice for the guilt of transgression in His death. In the practical and personal benefit conferred, there is a commendation of the peculiar love which bestowed the sacrifice.
(3.) Whatever love is manifested in the death of Christ is the love of God – of that God with whom we have to do.
It was the love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit alike, although manifested in the Mediator. We are to contemplate God as clothed in the glory of this love, as God; and whether, in the matter of salvation, we transact with the Father, the Mediator or the Comforter, we are to view them alike, through the medium of the bleeding Love on Calvary, as that God who is love.
God then purposes to commend, or display to the utmost extent, His love in the death of Christ for the ungodly. He would show in all His works that He is God – infinitely exalted above all His creatures – that His ways are not as our ways, neither His thoughts as our thoughts. He has displayed the holiness of His character in the immediate, final and everlasting damnation of the angels that fell – and He will yet commend His infinite righteousness
1The first part of this sermon, which appeared last month, spoke of “the grand fact of the Christian faith, that Christ died for sinners“.
in the eternal perdition of all impenitent sinners of this world of ours. But He has also displayed the glory of His love in the death of His Son for sinners; and He is continually commending it in the reconciliation to Himself of His enemies, by Christ’s sacrifice, that we may glorify Him as God in His love, and be ourselves blessed in this gracious exercise.
(1.) God thus commends His love to the faith of sinners – that is, to their trustful acceptance.
This is the first class with which the gospel has to do, and this is the original class to which we all belong. The message of love is sent to the enemies of God, and the greatness of that love is commended to the guilty, that they may desist from their enmity and be delivered from their guilt and live. The careless sinner is to be awakened, by the terrors of the law and character of God as seen on Sinai or Calvary, that he may be driven to consider his own condition as a rebel, and his prospects as a condemned criminal – and from this again be brought to seek reconciliation to God as his sovereign, and justification by God as his Judge. Then will the commendation of God’s love in the death of Christ become precious to him.
The sinner is convinced of sin by the manifestation of God’s law to his conscience, and through the inward operation of the Spirit of truth. He is brought to see his inseparable connection with those perfections of Jehovah which make Him a consuming fire to the workers of iniquity, and to hear for himself the Lawgiver pronouncing the sentence of death on every transgressor, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them”. Then he is filled with secret dread, and despair begins to lay iron hands upon his soul. He can only see God through the medium of His law; he can only contemplate his Judge through the medium of His righteous sentence. There seems therefore to be no way of escape. Sin meets him at every avenue, and the law challenges him at every gateway of flight. Sparks of hell are falling thickly into his conscience, and the heavings of perdition are beginning to swell in his soul.
He hears that God is gracious; but “will He be gracious to me”? He is assured that God pardons, but “will He pardon me”? He looks around; he sees that those whom he deems unpardoned are wicked and that those whom he deems pardoned are holy. He connects pardon with holiness, as cause and effect, and says in the darkness of legal bondage: “There it lies, were I as good as they, then I might have hope, and their Saviour might be mine too!”
To such we are sent to say, Behold the love of God! While these saints were yet sinners, while these friends were yet enemies, God gave His Son to die for them. You have seen God in the awfulness of His wrath against sin; behold Him now in the grandeur of His love to sinners! He whom you so justly dread “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. He did this for a world of ungodly enemies; and are you not an enemy? Behold the freeness and the fulness of God’s love!
Are you “without strength” – unable to do what is good for Him or for yourself? When “we were without strength”, “Christ died for us”. Do you feel that you are “ungodly” – that your heart is without the fear or love of God, and that you have hitherto been leading a godless life? Yet know this: that Christ died for the ungodly. Are you pre-eminently a sinner, the chief of sinners in your own esteem? Yet remember that Christ died for sinners, and that you are still but a sinner. Have you been the “enemy” of God, “a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious”? Yet hear this: Christ died for His enemies. Yes, He died for some who spat on Him and murdered Him: for His sacrificial death was a human murder.
On the cross of Christ, human enmity in its highest form came into conflict with divine love in its full glory; and love triumphed, gloriously triumphed. Christ’s last prayer was for His enemies: “Father, forgive them”. Sinner, did Jesus not command the gospel of salvation to be first preached in the city of His enemies, in the den of His murderers? And were the first believers not from among them? O then accept the offer of mercy and the gift of love in Christ Jesus. Come as a sinner, as only a sinner, and put full trust for salvation in God’s love to sinners. Magnify His love to them by coming as a sinner, and venturing all upon it; for it is indeed “a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”.
(2.) But God also commends His love, as illustrated in our text, to the continued hope of the believer.
We have already seen that this is the principal object of the context, in its doctrinal connection: to show how Christian hope “maketh not ashamed”; it cannot disappoint. The true believer entertains hope of the glory of God habitually, and is often enabled to rejoice in it with “joy unspeakable, and full of glory”; yet there are many cloudy skies and dark days in his spiritual life.
Often, when he would take a distant view of the object of His hope and endeavour to be glad in it, he is cast down on beholding the space that intervenes between him and it, the innumerable evils springing from his own corruption that must beset him by the way. Then he is ready to exclaim, I shall one day fall by sin, as by the hand of Saul. He remembers that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord” – and he feels that “in himself, that is in his flesh, there dwelleth no good thing”. Then the warfare between the former truth believed, and the latter truth experienced, becomes too heavy for him to endure; his knees become feeble and his hands hang down. The clouds of satanic temptation thicken around him, and the consciousness of indwelling sin descends, as the darkness of night, on the sweet vista of heavenly hope that stretched out before his view.
But fear not, believer. Remember the word on which your beloved Lord first caused you to hope! You believe in Jesus Christ. You rely on Him for justification. You have peace before God, and you love to be reconciled to Him through the death of His Son. You enjoy freedom of access to the throne of His grace. You can in some measure rejoice in your tribulation. You can feel that tribulation is working patience in your soul, and that by patience your experience is increased. No, you have known that past experience increased your hope, so that you have been enabled to “rejoice in hope of the glory of God”.
But now your hope fails in its exercise, and you are afraid that you will come short of its object, because of conscious sin. Is it not so? Then let me ask what was the source of all the blessings which you have enjoyed, and which you feel even now? “The love of God”, you will reply. True, then tell me: was that love exercised toward you as you now are, or as you formerly were when dead in sin? In the latter condition, you will say. Certainly. Then what follows? God now commends His love to you, in that while you were yet a sinner, He loved you and gave His Son to die for you. Sin was no obstacle to God’s love when He first loved you as an enemy; and shall it prevent His pitying love now that you are His friend?
Mark the reasoning in the sequel to our text (verse 9). If the love of God was such that His Son died in your stead when you were ungodly, an enemy, a sinner, unconverted and unpardoned, much more now, after you have been reconciled and justified through His blood, may you not be assured that such love will never suffer you to fall under wrath or come short of glory? If when you were accursed, Christ became a curse for you, much more when you are now blessed of God, will He not continue to bless you?
Indeed, if the love of Christ was so great that He laid down His life on the cross for you, will He forget you and suffer you to be plucked out of His hand, now that He has taken up His life again? If He died for your sins, did He not rise again for your justification? Was it not the self-same Jesus that was humbled first that was afterwards exalted? Is the crucified One not the glorified One? Is the object of His cross and of His throne not the same? If His love was victorious against all evil, shall it not be triumphant amidst all good? If He loved you when sin was the law of your heart and the practice of your life, will He not love you when sin has become the exception of your heart and the greatest burden of your life?
You may be groaning under the loathsome pressure of a body of sin and death, and you may at times be trembling for the consequences of the “evil heart of unbelief” that works deceitfully within you; your hands may hang down and your knees become feeble, but arise and behold this love for sinners. Come and feed on this sacrifice for sin! It is the first food of faith; it must be the constant food of hope. The more simply and entirely you live on the love of Christ to sinners, the more joyful and vigorous will you be in your course to glory. Flee from the sense of sin in yourself to the faith of love divine in the cross, and then will your hope abide joyful, under the sweet shadow of the grace of God spread out for you in these words: “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”.
3. God also commends that love which is set forth in our text to our admiration, our wondering love.
“Behold”, says the Apostle John, “what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us!” There is in this love of God a vastness, a majesty, a glory that can fill the faith of sinners and replenish the hope of believers, and then deluge their souls with an overwhelming flood of admiration. In this treasury of love divine, there is more than enough for all the uses of human salvation: a surplus that cannot be counted remains to manifest the immense riches of the Sovereign Himself. In this river of life, the trembling penitent drinks peace and joy, and the tried believer is refreshed with the waters of hope and glory.
But there still remains an unfathomable depth in which the matured saint may bathe his soul, plunging freely and exercising fully all the energies and faculties of a divine nature. Here he may be lost to self, but not to God, in a love that has no length or breadth or depth or height, that passes the comprehension of all beings, save of Him whose love it was. Here is the keynote of infinite, eternal harmony; here is the everlasting music of innumerable harps, here is the universe of sanctified hearts – the infinite space of redeemed affections. Speak of the lover, and you are abashed; speak of the loved, and you are confounded: so is it now. But hereafter believers will have strength corresponding to their desire, and desire corresponding to their duty. Then shall the intense silence of immeasurable prostration, or the fixed gaze of irresistible attraction, or the loud voice of universal praise, or the instantaneous act of self-devoted obedience, or the everlasting re-iteration of every possible method of admiration, testify somewhat to the glory of that love of which it is written: “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”.
Some of you have been touched by a sense of this love of God. It has been shed abroad in your hearts. On it your faith, hope and love are supported amid the cold selfishness of this world. But you may sorrow under the unfeelingness of your hearts and the deadness of your souls to such love as this. You bewail your stupidity, and mourn over your unwilling apathy. You mentally exclaim, “Lord! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Fear not. Christ did not die in vain. He has redeemed you by a ransom from the dominion of sin, and He will by His Spirit’s power communicate His purchase.
But He first causes you to feel your need of the gift that is to be given. Ask for what you need. Seek what you desire. The Spirit of God will give you what is lacking, for Christ’s glory, for it is His special office to glorify Christ. Pray much for the inward operation of this Spirit of God. O grieve Him not, neither quench His grace by sin or fleshly lust. Worldliness in a gracious soul is as ice heaped on the fire.
Sit much at the gospel telescope and, through it, behold “the King in His beauty” afar off. Read much and meditate much about the love of Christ, as revealed in the gospel. Let the evangelists and apostles be your constant companions. Learn from them how to love the Lord Jesus and how to esteem the grace of God. Hold much communion with the loving Jesus at a throne of grace. He is ever to be found there – in its neighbourhood, as Intercessor, He abides. Speak to Him, as one man to another, although you do not see Him. Charge Him with His love to sinners. Remind Him of Gethsemane; remind Him of Calvary! He loves such reminders; He delights in such remembrancers; He desires to have them around His sacred person. Say to Him: Art thou the God-man that died for Thine enemies? O Thou bleeding Lamb, teach me how to love – that I may love Thee as Thou lovedst me: even guilty, sinful me.
Rejoice that there are those who, even now, can and do praise as you cannot do. Remember these words, “I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, saying, with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing!” Soon, believer, we shall join that blessed multitude if we abide in Christ’s love – we shall see Jesus Himself, who died for us when enemies. Is this not hope and heaven now? And what will the reality be hereafter! Hold on then and let this be your staff through many a weary step: When I was an enemy Christ died for me; and now that I am a friend, He lives for me!”
But, ungodly sinner, what shall I say to you before parting? You have heard all that has been said concerning the love of God in Christ Jesus; yet are you unmoved? You remain unaffected, as a blind man under the full blaze of the sun, but with this difference: he would see the sun if he could, but you, even if you could, will not. There is one short sentence in the Word of God that settles your doom for ever: “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha” – accursed at the coming of Christ! Awful words! Fearful end of a sinful life!
O man or woman, will you not arise and shake yourself from this state? Do you not see that the love of God aggravates your sin, and that the cross rejected is hell kindled, the furnace heated? If Christ died for His enemies, what excuse can you ever have for not being saved, or reconciled to God through Him? There is no plea of justification for you in the sinfulness of your own self, or in the deficiency of divine love. He died for the ungodly. You are naked, homeless and defenceless in your impenitence; and this one text damns you beyond all remedy for ever if you will not turn from your sin and be reconciled to your God. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?” Behold the seal of this oath in the cross of Christ, God’s Son, dying for His enemies!
Can you doubt for a moment the sincerity of such a God, the love of such a Saviour? We beseech you to desist from your rebellion against Him who laid down His life for His enemies. In His death, there is a perfect sacrifice for sin. If you will but turn and believe in Him, you need not die; your life, indeed eternal life, will be given to you. He has suffered the pains of hell; therefore, if you now accept Him, His sufferings will become yours, and you shall not be called upon to repeat for yourself. The gospel is the declaration of the love of Christ to sinners.
Faith is the reception of that gospel into the heart as true and good. Is it not true? Believe it. Is it not good? Accept it. This is the whole mystery of a sinner’s interest in Christ. Lay aside that proud, self-righteous, calculating spirit. As a little child, hear the Father who speaks from heaven. Agree only to meditate on that love which we have preached to you. Compel your mind to this blessed work. Go with the stream of this love. Do not resist its divine current. It will carry you to faith and repentance. Call upon the Spirit of God in Christ’s name to quicken you; for this He waits to do.
Go home then, sinner, saying within yourself, O love, infinite and incomprehensible, unheard of in this world before, that the Son of God should have died for sinners, His enemies! Can I, dare I, sin any more against this God, this Christ? No, I will return to the Lord and say, In my sinful ignorance I sinned against Thee; in the light of Thy gospel I now return to Thee! I did not believe that Thou hadst such love as this in Thy Godhead! Have mercy upon me; cleanse me from my sin; fill me with Thy love by Thy Holy Spirit; make me a new creature in Christ Jesus!
This will be the meditation, the prayer of faith. And, according to your faith shall it be unto you. Your sins, which are many, shall be forgiven; and your guilt, like a cloud, shall be rolled away before the wondering gaze of your trembling conscience. The book of death shall be shut; the book of life shall be opened. You shall live as the friend of Christ on earth and hereafter you shall be with Him, to behold His glory for evermore. To this may the Lord the Spirit bring you all, my dear hearers.