Jesus was god's love gift

JESUS WAS GOD'S LOVE GIFT
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
But God commendeth his own lovetoward us, in that,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.—
Romans 5:8.
GreatTexts of the Bible
God’s Own Love
But God commendeth his ownlove toward us, in that, while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us.—Romans 5:8.
1. Why does the Cross of Jesus Christ win our devotion? What is the
attractionby which it draws us and holds us to Him? It is because ofthe
supreme expressionwhich it gives to the love of God. “While we were yet
sinners,” provoking only the Divine displeasure, God places beyond all doubt,
“commends,” i.e. proves, the depth and the strength of His love towards us by
persevering in His purpose to compass our salvationeven to the sacrifice of
His dear Son.
2. So love is the starting-point. Faith requires a starting-point from which to
pursue its course, a fundamental idea on which to build, an underlying
ultimate cause, in which, as in Calvary’s rock, to plant the Cross. Denythis to
faith, and faith in Jesus Christand Him crucified becomes a vague and fitful

conception, floating about a cross whichis rather a figure of speechthan a
fixed and unalterable reality. The soul hungers to find that starting-point. It
cannot take Jesus Christand Him crucified as an incident, an afterthought, an
heroic rescue devised in an emergency. It feels instinctively that the Cross
must be the result of some deepercause. It demands to be led to that deeper
cause, that it may make it the starting-point of thought. Such a starting-point
is provided in the formula: The Atonement not the cause of God’s Love, but
Love the cause ofthe Atonement.
The Atonement is the expressionon earth of a love that filled God’s heart
from the beginning. The Atonement is God’s self-giving to save us from the
holy wrath under which our sins have brought us. The love of the holy God is
the starting-point from which to think one’s way up to Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. Beginthere, with the knowledge thatGod is love. Be sure that a holy
God loves you. Be sure that because He is holy, His wrath, the indignant,
sorrowfulwrath of holy love, is revealedfrom heavenagainstall ungodliness
and unrighteousness ofmen. Be sure that that tremendous love has expressed
itself in sacrificialsuffering to save you from that tremendous wrath. Take
these thoughts, put them together, and realise two facts:the nature of sin, the
Personof Christ. Realize the nature of sin; it is a scornof the Atonement, a
contempt of God’s supreme declarationof love, a delivering over of one’s self
to wrath, the wrath which is, because Godis holy. Realize the Personof
Christ. Behold in Him the Holy God whose wrathis revealedagainstsin,
suffering in the flesh for love, to save from that wrath. Realize the Godhead of
Christ. Grasp the sense in which Christ declares the Unity of Godheadwhen
He says: “I and my Father are one;” and realizing the Unity of the Godhead,
bow before the Cross as before a throne.1 [Note:C. C. Hall.]
Perhaps we do not yet know what the word “to love” means. There are within
us lives in which we love unconsciously. To love thus means more than to have
pity, to make inner sacrifices,to be anxious to help and give happiness; it is a
thing that lies a thousand fathoms deeper, where our softest, swiftest,

strongestwords cannotreach it. At moments we might believe it to be a
recollection, furtive but excessivelykeen, of the greatprimitive unity.2 [Note:
Maurice Maeterlinck.]
I
God’s own Love
God commends or proves His own love. It is a love which, like all that belongs
to that timeless, self-determining Being, has its reasonand its roots in Himself
alone. We love because we discernthe objectto be lovable. God loves by the
very necessityofHis nature. Like some artesianwell that needs no pumps or
machinery to draw up the sparkling waters to flash in the sunlight, there
gushes up from the depths of His own heart the love which pours over every
creature that He has made. He loves because He is God.
Like life, love is of many kinds. There is a love that ennobles and casts a
radiance upon life. There is a love that drags the lover down into the mouth of
hell. There is a love that many waters cannotquench. There is a love that is
disguisedlust. What kind of love is God’s own love?
1. It is a righteous love. Some of the saddesttragedies in human life spring
from the moral weakness ofthe deepestlove. Love is the mother of all
tenderness, and tenderness shrinks instinctively from what is stern or
rigorous. So love often becomes a minister of ruin. How many a mother, who
would have laid down her life for her son, she loved him so, has only helped
him down the road to ruin by the immoral weakness ofher love. How many a
father, to spare the bitter agony of punishing his child, has let his child grow
up unchastened. Such love as that is fatal. Sooneror later it tarnishes the

thought of fatherhood in the child’s eyes. For in his view of fatherhoodthe
child can find no place now for earnesthatred of the wrong, and passionate
devotion to the right; and so the image that, full of moral beauty, should have
inspired him through all life’s journey, is robbed of its ennobling powerby its
unrighteous weakness. And if out of the page of history you wipe the atoning
death on Calvary, you carry that tragedy of weaknessinto the very heavens.
Blot out the Cross, and I, a child of heaven, can never be uplifted and inspired
by the thought of the Divine Fatherhoodagain. Yes, I have sinned, and know
it. I deserve chastisementand death; I know it. And shall my Fathernever
whisper a word of punishment? and never breathe His horror at my fall? And
will He love me, and be kind to me right through it all without a word of
warning? I tell you, the moment I could believe that, the glory of the Divine
Fatherhoodis tarnished for me, God’s perfectlaw of goodness andawful
hatred of the wrong are dimmed; and all the impulse and enthusiasm these
Divine passions bring sink out of my life for ever. But when I turn to Calvary,
and to that awful death, I see a love as righteous as it is wonderful.1 [Note: G.
H. Morrison.]
Love grows out of holiness, and holiness in its turn flows out of love, and they
cannot exist apart. A father loves;and just in proportion to his love is his pain
when the children of his love do wrong; no other pain can be like that pain; no
disappointed affection, no separationto distant lands, no loss by death, can
cut the soul with the same wound as the wrong-doing of one on whom the
heart is set. A father who sees a loved child dishonour all his love, a sisterwho
sees the brother whom she admires disgracing the picture of him that her
mind had drawn, the mother who watches with agony the son of her affections
casthimself awayon profligate pleasures, is thrilled with a part whose
bitterness stands quite alone. Such pains as these are the measure of that
wrath with which God, our Father, tells us that He regards our sins. But in
spite of wrath He is still our Father, and still He draws us by the cords of an
infinite love back to Himself again.1 [Note:F. Temple.]

I cannot tell you the delight that I have found in thinking of God’s love to man
as a disapproving love. Man confounds love and approbation, or love and
interestedness. Thus a man loves those whom he thinks well of, or who are
necessaryto his happiness. But God’s love acknowledgesand demands
nothing either amiable or serviceable in its objects. The love of my God is not
diminished by His disapprobation of me. There is something remarkable in
Christ’s substitution for Barabbas in a way more especialthan for any other
individual, that he might be an example of those for whom He died.2 [Note:
Letters of Thomas Erskine, i. 153.]
2. It is a self-sacrificing love. It is a love that thought no sacrifice too great.
The suresttest of love is sacrifice. We measure love as we should measure her
twin-brother life, “by loss, and not by gain, not by the wine drunk, but by the
wine poured forth.” Look at the mother with her child. She sacrificeseaseand
sleep, and she would sacrifice life, too, for her little one, she loves her baby so.
Think of the patriot and his country. He counts it joy to drain his dearest
veins, he loves his land so well. Recallthe scholarathis books. Amusements,
intercourse, and sleep, he almost spurns them. His love for learning is so deep
he hardly counts them loss. Yes, in the willingness to sacrifice all that is
dearestlies the measure of noblest love. Turn now to Calvary, turn to the
Cross, and by the sight of the crucified Redeemerthere, begin to learn the
greatness ofGod’s love.
God is holy. He is without sin. He cannotlook upon sin with the leastdegree of
allowance, but He can sympathize with sinners. With all the vicarious passion
of undying love, He enters into our experience, shares our woe and sorrow,
our despairand remorse;and tastes our sin. Just as one suffers for and with
his child in trouble, so does Godwith His children. Thus we find ourselves in
the Godhead. Thus a greatlove bridges the chasm betweenGod’s holiness and
man’s guilt. Love spreads its white wings and flies acrossthe abyss. That
flight neither tires nor frightens love. Indeed love effaces the chasm.

Recentlyin New York City a baby’s life was savedthrough the transfusion of
blood from the body of the father into that of his child. The operation was one
of the most remarkable of its kind and has excited the keeninterest of many
outside the medical profession. Becauseofthe delicate and dangerous
characterof the operation, it was impossible to use either anæsthetics ora
connecting tube uniting the body of father and child. When the operation
beganthe child was in a dying condition, and before the operation was
finished, to ordinary appearances,it was dead. The father’s arm was opened
from the wrist to the elbow and a vein lifted out. An opening was then made in
the child’s leg and the blood-vessels ofparent and offspring stitched together.
An attending surgeonsaid to the father, “Doesit hurt?” With a face livid with
pain he said, “It hurts like hell, but if I can save the baby, what of it?” At last
everything was ready for the red tide from the father’s heart to enter the
apparently lifeless little body lying acrosshis slashedarm; and the instant the
blood rushed into the child’s body it revived. What had been practicallya
dead body was quickened.1 [Note:J. I. Vance, Tendency, 73.]
3. It is a love for sinners. It is here that, wide as the poles, God’s love stands
separate from all the love of men. “Godcommendeth his love to us, in that,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God longs to love me into
something lovable. But not for anything lovable in me did He love me first.
While I was yet a sinner He loved me. While I hated Him He loved me. While
I was fighting againstHim, in the rebellious years, He loved me. If we love
Him, it is because He first loved us. Such causelesslove is wonderful, passing
the love of women.2 [Note:G. H. Morrison.]
God is gracious and merciful, as the Scriptures show. He loves even real
sinners. Yea, to the blind, hard world, which lieth in the wickedone, He has
sent as a Saviour His own Son. I could not have done that, and yet I am a real
sinner myself.3 [Note:Luther.]

A prominent Sunday-schoolworker, who was accustomed, in former years, to
visit Sunday-schools, and to address the little ones there, sometimes startled
the little folks in the primary department, and even their teachers, by his
unlooked-forquestions and statements. “Whatkind of children does God
love?” he would ask. “Goodchildren,” “Goodchildren,” would come back the
answerfrom the confident little ones in every part of the room. “Doesn’tGod
love any children but goodchildren?” the visitor would ask. “No, sir,” would
be the hearty response. Thenthe visitor would startle or shock the little ones,
and sometimes their teacher, by saying plainly and deliberately: “I think that
God loves bad children very dearly.” At this, some of the surprised little ones
would draw up their mouths, and perhaps exclaim, “Oh!” Others would
simply stare in bewilderment. Perhaps the teacherwould have a look of
wonder or regret, and wait for the next disclosure of ignorance orerror on the
speaker’s part. “Did I say that God loved to have little children bad?” was the
visitor’s next question. “No, sir,” would come back from some of the startled
little ones in a tone of relief. “No, I didn’t say that God loves to have children
bad. God loves to have children good. He wants them to be very good,—as
goodas they can be. But when they are bad children God still loves them. God
is very loving, and He keeps on loving little ones who don’t even love Him at
all.” That would be a new idea to many of those little ones. And there is
nothing that a child is quicker to catch, or gladder to receive, than a bright,
new idea at any time. The average child would take in the thought suggested
quicker and more willingly than the average teacher. Thenthe visitor would
make the thought plainer to the pupils by an illustration. “Does yourmother
love you?” he would ask. Almost every child would promptly answer, “Yes,
sir,” to that question. “Were you evera bad child?” was the next home thrust.
“Yes, sir,” would come back faintly from some. “Did your mother stop loving
you then? Did you have to feelthat there was no loving mother to go back to,
because you were a bad child?” The child heart recoiledfrom that thought,
knowing the mother heart too well to admit it. Then was the time to press the
precious truth that God loves bad children more than the lovingestfather or
the lovingestmother in the world loves a child; that, even when the father and
mother forsake a needy child, the Lord will take up that child tenderly. That
Sunday-schoolworkerfound, in his wide field of observation, how common
and how deep-seatedis the idea that a child’s acceptancewithGod is rather

because ofthe child’s lovableness than because ofGod’s lovingness. Noris this
fearful error to be found merely, or chiefly, among primary-class pupils and
their teachers.1[Note:H. C. Trumbull, Our MisunderstoodBible, 164.]
A poor ignorant woman had been ill-used by her husband, a worthless wretch.
She had had to work hard for a precarious livelihood because he refused to
work at all. Life was so hard and dark for her that she night have been
excusedfor hating and scorning the man who had made it so. This was
Calvary over again, you see;and this child of God was being crucified. The
day came when the husband was sentencedto penal servitude for a crime
againstsociety. One day the person who tells the story met this woman
helping a broken-downman along the streettowards her home. It was the
releasedconvict, and he lookedthe brute he was. Her explanation of her
actionwas, “You see, sir, Jim has no one but me now.”1 [Note:R. J.
Campbell.]
An Englishclergyman was once preaching to a congregationofyoung people.
During the discourse he narrated the story of a Russiannobleman who, with
his wife and child, was driving through a forest. Soon they became aware by
the frantic way in which the horses struggledand strained at the traces, as
they sped along at a furious pace, that the animals feared some calamity. As
the frightened steeds tore through a ravine and up a high hill, those in the
carriage lookedback fearfully, and across the white fields of snow on the hill
they had left, they saw a black moving mass, and knew that a pack of
ferocious wolves was following them. Every nerve was strained to reach the
village, still a few miles distant; but the wolves drew nearerand nearer, and at
last the coachmancut away the traces and set two of the leaders free, just as
the wolves were approaching. The hungry pack turned its attention from the
carriage to the unfortunate horses thus set free. They were speedily torn in
pieces, and then, with their appetites whetted, the wolves continued their
pursuit in full cry after the carriage, now some distance ahead. The coachman
againfelt the wolves approaching, but he could not sacrifice the two

remaining horses. So he nobly volunteered to sacrifice himself, and imploring
his masterto take his place on the box as the only hope of saving his wife and
daughter, the devotedservant descendedand stoodin the middle of the road,
revolver in hand, attempting vainly, as he wellknew, to bar the progress of
the pack. The carriage dashedinto the village. The nobleman salliedforth at
once with a crowdof armed villagers in quest of the noble-hearted servant,
whose voluntary sacrifice had savedthree precious lives; but after beating
back the wolves they found, as they had feared, that he had paid the price of
his life for his devotion. “Now,” saidthe clergyman, pointedly addressing his
hearers, “was thatman’s devotion equal to the love of the Lord Jesus Christ?”
A young girl in the audience, carried awaywith rapt interest in the story,
answeredclearly, “No, sir.” “Why not?” said the preacher. “Because,”replied
the young girl, “that man died for his friends, but the Lord Jesus died for His
enemies.”1 [Note:L. A. Banks.]
II
We need to have God’s own Love commended to us
1. “Godcommendeth his own love”—thatis true and beautiful, but that is not
all that the Apostle means. We “commend” persons and things when we speak
of them with praise and confidence. If that were the meaning of the text it
would represent the death of Christ as setting forth, in a manner to win our
hearts, the greatness, the excellence, the transcendency, of God’s love. But
there is more than that in the words. The expressionhere employed strictly
means to settwo things side by side, and it has two meanings in the New
Testament, both derived from that original signification. It sometimes means
to set two persons side by side, in the way of introducing and recommending
the one to the other. It sometimes means to set two things side by side, in the
way of confirming or proving the one by the other. It is used in the latter sense
here. God not merely “commends,” but “proves,” His love by Christ’s death.

But “proves” is a cold word. It is addressedto the head. “Commends” is a
warmer word. It is addressedto the heart. It is not enough to establishthe fact
that God loves. Arguments may be wrought in frost as well as in fire. But it is
the heart that must be reached—throughthe head, indeed; but it is a small
thing to be orthodox believers in a doctrine. Christ must be not only the
answerto our doubts, but the Sovereignof our affections. Do we look on the
death of Christ as a death for our sin? In the strength of the revelation that it
makes of the love of God, do we front the perplexities, the miseries of the
world, and the ravelled skeins of Providence with calm, happy faces? And—
most important of all—do we meet that love with an answering love?2 [Note:
A. Maclaren.]
2. There are some attributes of God that need no proof. Some features of the
Divine characterare so universally conspicuous as to be self-evidencing.
Think, for example, of God’s power. If we believe in God at all we need no
argument to convince us of His power. The mighty forces that engirdle us all
cry aloud of that. The chambers of the deep, the chariot of the sun, are
stamped with it. The devastating march of the winter’s storm, and, none the
less, the timely calling of all the summer’s beauty out of the bare earth—these
things, and a thousand other things like these, teachus the powerof God. We
would not need the Cross if all that had to be proved was the Divine
omnipotence. Or take the wisdom of God. Is any argument needed to assure
us in generalof that? Day unto day uttereth speechof it, and night unto night
showethforth its glory. Our bodies, so fearfully and so wonderfully made; our
senses,linking us so strangely to the world without; our thought, so swift, so
incomprehensible; and all the constancyofnature, and all the harmony of
part with part, and all the obedience of the starry worlds, and all the
perfections of the wayside weeds,—thesethings, and a multitude of things like
these, speak to the thinking mind of the wisdom of the God with whom we
have to do. That wisdom needs no formal proof. It is self-evidencing. We
would not need the Cross if all that had to be proved was the wisdom of God.

3. But that God is a God of love has to be proved to men. For—
(1) Man does not naturally believe it. As a matter of fact, he is indisposed to
believe it, he is disposedto doubt it. The greatobject of the greatenemy of
souls is to induce scepticismon this point, and not so much intellectual
scepticism, as a practicalhabit of unbelief in it. Men, as a matter of fact, are
disposedto listen to the malignant aspersions ofGod which are whisperedinto
their ears by the greatfoe of God and man, and to take an altogetherfalse and
misleading view of the Divine character. A certain latent suspicion of God is at
the rootof human sin: a considerable number of persons do not think of
God’s love towards them at all; and some of those who do think of it cannot
bring themselves to believe that His love is a personalaffection and is directed
towards specific objects, that God regards eachof us severally, just as though
there were not another intelligent creature in the world for Him to regard.
Comparative mythology has taught a great many lessons,and amongstothers
this, that, apart from the direct or indirect influences of Christianity, there is
no creed to be found in which the belief in a God of love, and in the love of
God, is unfalteringly proclaimed, to say nothing of being setas the very climax
of the whole revelation. If this were the place, one could pass in review men’s
thoughts about God, and ask you to look at all that assemblageofbeings
before whom mankind has boweddown. What would you find? Gods cruel,
gods careless, gods capricious,gods lustful, gods mighty, gods mysterious,
gods pitying (with a contempt mingled with the pity) their sorrows and follies,
but in all the pantheons there is not a loving god.1 [Note:A. Maclaren.]
(2) It is not self-evident in Nature. There are things in nature which make it
hard to believe in the love of God. One is the tremendous struggle for
existence that is ceaselesslywagedamong all living things. Man fights with
man, and beast with beast;bird fights with bird, and fish with fish. To the

seeing eye the world is all a battlefield, and every living creature in it is in
arms, and fighting for its life. The watchwordof nature is not peace, but war.
The calmestsummer evening, to him who knows old nature’s story, is only
calm as the battlefield is calm where multitudes lie dead. Under that outward
peace, whichoften, like a mantle, seems to enwrap the world, by night and
day, on sea and land, the bloodiest of wars is being waged, creature, merciless
and venomous, preying upon creature. For right to live, for room to grow, for
food to eat, in grim and fearful silence the awful war goes on.
There may be some rarer spirits who, like Browning, can reasonfrom the
presence ofpower in Nature to the presence oflove.
In youth I lookedto these very skies,
And probing their immensities,
I found God there, his visible power;
Yet felt in my heart, amid all its sense
Of the power, an equal evidence
That his love, there too, was the nobler dower.
For the loving worm within its clod,

Were diviner than a loveless god
Amid his worlds, I will dare to say.2 [Note:J. Flew, Studies in Browning, 25.]
(3) The experiences oflife do not prove it. There are the problems of human
pain and sorrow and bereavement. Is it not very hard to reconcile these
darker shadows with the light of heavenly love? What is the meaning of the
suffering that seemedto fall so causelesslyonher you loved? Can God be love,
and never move a finger to ease your little child when he is screaming day and
night in fearful agony? When in the sudden tornado a whole city is swept
away;when from your arms your dearestjoy is torn away; when those who
would not harm a living creature are bowed for years under intolerable pain,
and when the wickedand the coarseseemto get all they wish, who has not
cried, “CanGod be love if He permits all this? How can God sayHe loves me,
and yet deal with me as I could never have the heart to deal with one I loved?”
We have only to look into our own lives and to look round upon the awful
sights that fill the world to make the robustestfaith in the goodness and love
of God stagger, unless it can stay itself againstthe upright stem of the Cross of
Christ. Sentimentalists may talk, but the grim fact of human suffering, of
wretched, helpless lives, rises up to say that there is no evidence broad and
deep and solid enough, outside Christianity, to make it absolutely certain that
God is love.
The things which to-day are our seeming friends, become to-morrow our real
foes. The brook which this morning supplies us with the waterof life and
charms our ear by its babble, may to-morrow become a raging flood, and
bring desolationto our fields and ruin to our homes. The sun in whose
brightness and warmth we bask to-day, may in a short time scorchour fields,
dry up our fountains, and thus become our destroyer. The clouds which
spread such delicious coolnessoverour cities and plains and inspire us with

new energy, may suddenly gather and blacken, and by their thunder and
lightning lay us low with terror or blast our existence. Who in face of all this
shall trust that
God was love indeed
And love Creation’s final law—
Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shriek’d againsthis creed?
In all ages men have had the feelings so beautifully expressedby Tennyson:
The Gods are hard to reconcile:
’Tis hard to settle order once again.
There is confusionworse than death,
Trouble on trouble, pain on pain,
Long labour unto agedbreath,

Sore task to hearts worn out by many wars
And eyes growndim with gazing on the pilot-stars.
(4) The conscience, whenit is awake, protestsagainstsucha notion as this,
that God is a God of love. Forevery one who honestly takes stock ofhimself,
and conceivesofGod in any measure aright, must feelthat the factof sin has
come in to disturb all the relations betweenGodand man. And when once a
man comes to say, “I feel that I am a sinful man, and that God is a righteous
God; how can I expectthat His love will distil in blessings upon my head?”
there is only one answer—“While we were yetsinners, Christ died for us.”
Whence has the world her magic power?
Why deem we death a foe?
Recoilfrom wearylife’s best hour,
And covetlonger woe?
The cause is Conscience—Conscienceoft
Her tale of guilt renews:

Her voice is terrible though soft,
And dread of Deathensues.1 [Note:Cowper.]
III
God commends His own Love to us in that, while we were yet Sinners, Christ
died for us
1. There are only two ways in which the human mind canget the assurance
that love is not merely its own ideal, but in very deed the ultimate law and
final goalof the world. The one way is that it should attain to such perfect
insight into the course of the world’s history as to convince itself that,
notwithstanding all appearancesto the contrary, everything is really working
togetherfor good. The other way is that it should be inspired with a
confidence in the Creatorand Ruler of the world strong enough to enable it to
feel sure that all must come right in the end, howeverdark and dense the
clouds may be which now encompass Him and concealHis ways—ina word,
the wayof faith, which sings:
Still will we trust, though earth seemdark and dreary,
And the heart faint beneath His chastening rod;
Though rough and steepour pathway, worn and weary,

Still will we trust in God.
These are the only two ways open to us: the wayof exactknowledge andthe
way of faith.
2. Now there appears to be at first a ready answerto the inquiry, How shall
man be taught that God loves him? It will naturally suggestitselfto our mind
to reply, God has only to revealHimself to us, He has only to appearin some
form that we can apprehend, He has only to speak to us as God in terms that
we can understand, leaving us no longer in any degree of uncertainty about
His relations with us, but directly asserting this fact in a distinctly
supernatural manner, and then we shall be persuadedreadily enough of the
truth. But here we are first brought face to face with the difficulty that, in
order to make such a revelationof Himself, God would first of all have to
contravene the fundamental principles of His government on earth. From that
time forth we should be walking by sight, no longerby faith; and in ordering
things thus He would also, so far as we can judge of the circumstances ofthe
case, be withdrawing from us that splendid purpose, that grand design, in the
fulfilment of which the human race is to reachits true destiny and receive its
crown.
3. Other possible solutions might be offered. Of all the solutions, however, that
might have occurred to us none such as this would ever have suggesteditself.
Not the boldest among us, not the most daring speculator, would have been
presumptuous enough to suggestthatGod Himself should divest Himself of
His Divine glory, should clothe Himself in human form, and give Himself up
to take the place of guilty man, and to bear the burden of human sin; that God
in His own Personas man, Himself at once human and Divine, should undergo
the terrible penalty that sin deserved;that He, weightedwith the
overwhelming load of human guilt, should hang upon a felon’s tree, should
submit to have His heart crushed and brokenby that terrible burden; that He

should die in agony, in order that He might demonstrate to all mankind,
whereverthe story of His passionwent, what that so greatlove of God to man
actually is, that love wherewith God loves the world and every man that He
has made in it.
i. Christ died for us
1. The first thing, then, to know is that Christ died for us. It is not that He
lived and died. It is that He died. We have not gotwithin sight of the secretof
Jesus, nor come near tapping the sources ofHis power, if we confine ourselves
to His words and His teaching, or even to the loweracts of His gentle life. We
must go to the Cross. It would have been much that He should have spoken
with certitude and with sweetness elseunparalleledof the love of God. But
words, howevereloquent, howevertrue, are not enough for the soul to rest its
weight upon. We must have deeds, and these are all summed up in “Christ
died for us.”
For ofttimes Love must grieve;
For us content and willing to be sad,
It left the halls wherein they made it glad,
And came to us that grieved it; oft below
It hides its face because itwill not show

The stain upon it. Now I feelits clear
Full shining eyes upon me, and I know
SoonI shall meet the kiss without the tear!1 [Note: Dora Greenwell.]
2. It is the death of Christ. God proves His love because Christ died. How so?
God proved His love because Socratesdied? God proved His love because
some self-sacrificing doctorwent into a hospital and died in curing others?
God proved His love because some man sprang into the sea and rescueda
drowning woman at the costof his ownlife? Would such talk hold? Then how
comes it that Paul ventures to saythat God proved His love, because Jesus
Christ died?
(1) It is the death of the Son of God. Where is the force of the fact of a man’s
death to prove God’s love? Underlying that swift sentence of the Apostle there
is a presupposition, which he takes forgranted. “Godwas in Christ,” in such
fashion that whatsoeverChristdid was the revelation of God. There is no
force of proof in the words of the text unless we come to the full belief, “God
was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.”
Some greatmartyr dies for his fellows. Well, all honour to him, and the race
will come to his tomb for a while, and bring their wreaths and their sorrow.
But what bearing has his death upon our knowledge ofGod’s love towards
us? None whatever, or at most a very indirect and shadowyone. We have to
dig deeperdown than that. “Godcommends his love … in that Christ died.”
“He that hath seenme hath seenthe Father.” And we have the right and the
obligation to argue back from all that is manifest in the tender Christ to the
heart of God, and say, not only, God so loved the world that he sent His Son,

but to see that the love that was in Christ is the manifestationof the love of
God Himself.
(2) It is the death of the Son of God for us. That “for us” implies two things:
one the voluntary actof God in Christ in giving Himself up to the death, the
other the beneficialeffectof that death. It was on our behalf, therefore it was
the spontaneous outgushof an infinite love. It was for us, in that it brought an
infinite benefit. And so it was a tokenand a manifestation of the love of God
such as nothing else could be.
During the greatAmerican civil war the Northern States had to resortto
conscriptionto fill up the ranks thinned by carnage. There was a man drawn
for the army who had a wife and children who were wholly dependent upon
him; so you may suppose when the lot fell on him to go forth and fight his
country’s battles there was greatlamentation in his family; his wife was
almost broken-hearted, and his children were weeping in sore distress.
Shortly after this, however, a young man who had been a friend of his for
many years, hearing that he had been drawn, came to see him, and of his own
accordofferedhimself as a substitute. “I have made arrangements,” saidhe,
“about my business, and I am going to the war in your place, to be your
substitute. I have neither wife nor child, and if I die I shall leave no helpless
friends behind me to struggle on in a wearyworld without comfort or
support.” Expostulation was vain, he could not be turned from his purpose,
his friend had to yield, and you may imagine the gratitude of wife and
children thus suddenly relieved from a terrible danger. Months passedon,
months of conflict and carnage, the noblest and best of a great nation were
pitted againsteachother, and the fearful struggle drenched the soilof the dis-
United States with the blood of their valiant citizens. It was a terrible time,
and over North and South alike there hung a cloud of gloom, and on every
heart there lay a dread sense of uncertainty and apprehension. Day by day
through all this weary period, as soonas the mails came in, that father, living
in his own peacefulhome, used to snatchup the newspaper, tear it open, and

eagerlyrun his eye down the list of the wounded and killed; day by day he
scannedthe fatal column with hope and fear, lesthaply he should see there the
name of his faithful friend. Months passedon, and the war became more and
more terrible, and tragic incidents were multiplied, hundreds and thousands
of brave fellows were being hurried into eternity, but still his friend was
spared. One day, however, on opening the paper, and glancing as usual over
that sadcolumn, the first thing that met his eye was the name of his substitute
amongstthe slain. He hurried to the field of battle. There, amidst the
slaughteredmen, he found the body that he sought. Sorrowfully and tenderly,
with a brother’s love, and with more than a brother’s gratitude, he lifted that
corpse from the gory plain, and bore it in his ownarms off the battlefield, and
brought it with him back to his own home, there laid it in his own family
tomb, and in that cemeteryat this day you will find over the young soldier’s
grave the simple but touching epitaph, “He died for me!”1 [Note: CanonHay
Aitken.]
(3) But there is one thing more—it is the death of the Son of God instead of us.
“Diedfor us”—thatexpressionplainly implies two things: first, that Christ
died of His own accord, being impelled by a greatmotive, love; and second,
that that voluntary death, somehow or other, is for our behoof and advantage.
The word in the original, “for,” does not define in what waythat death
ministers to our advantage. But it does assertthat for those Roman Christians
who had never seenJesus Christ, and by consequence foryou and me, there is
benefit in the fact of that death. Now, suppose we quote an incident in the
story of missionary martyrdom. There was a young lady, whom some of us
knew and loved, in a Chinese mission station, who, with the rest of the
missionary band, was fleeing. Her life was safe. She lookedback, and saw a
Chinese boy whom her heart twined round, in danger. She returned to save
him. They laid hold of her and flung her into the burning house, and her
charred remains have never been found. That was a death for another, but
“Jesus diedfor us” in a deeper sense than that. Take anothercase. A man sets
himself to some greatcause, not his own, and he sees that in order to bless
humanity, either by the proclamation of some truth, or by the origination of
some greatmovement, or in some other way, if he is to carry out his purpose,

he must give his life. He does so, and dies a martyr. What he aimed at could
only be done by the sacrifice of his life. The death was a means to his end, and
he died for his fellows. That is not the depth of the sense in which Paul meant
that Jesus Christ died for us. It was not that He was true to His message,and,
like many another martyr, died. There is only one way in which any beneficial
relation can be establishedbetweenthe Death of Christ and us, and it is that
when He died He died for us, because “he bare our sins in his own body on the
tree.”1 [Note:A. Maclaren.]
ii. The Commendation
What is the nature of the proof or commendation? What does the death of
Christ for us make knownto us of God’s own love?
1. The Factof it. God is jealous for our true happiness. We read it on the
Cross. He seeks to save us from pains and penalties which we have justly
deserved, and to secure us joys and comforts to which we had no claim; and in
order to compass these ends He has made the most stupendous sacrifice that it
was possible for Him to make. How can His will be opposedto our happiness
when He has used such means to secure it? how can He desire to rob us of
anything worth having when He has brought so much within our reach? The
old Greek idea of an envious God, who must needs regard with jealous eye
any unusual amount of human happiness—anidea by no means confined to
ancient Greece—is incompatible with, and is contradicted by, the revelation
made on the Cross of Calvary.
2. The Depth of it. Not only do we learn the fact of God’s love toward us by
considering the ends for which He was content to let the Saviour die, which
are rendered explicable only by the existence of such a love, but we are also
able to form some conceptionat leastof the intensity of that love. So far as it

can be measured, the Cross ofChrist is the measure of the love of God. One of
the vastestwords is that little word “so” in the third chapterof St. John. Let
down the plummet into that word as deep as you can, there is still a depth
below it; but if we seek to form some idea of that depth, we are referred to
Calvary as God’s answerto our inquiries.
3. The Fulness of it. If, when we were ungodly and unrighteous, helpless
subjects and slaves ofour sins, God so loved us as, altogetherof Himself, for
the praise of the glory of His own grace, apartfrom any merit or answeror
anticipation of love on our part—nay, while we were yet enemies to Him—if
then and thus God so loved us as, at such a price and cost, to provide for us so
greata salvation; if upon the ground of the salvationthus provided, and our
acceptanceofit with a faith answering to His grace, He receives us into a state
or status of complete filial relationship with Himself and takes no accountof
anything within us save our need and our will to be saved,—if all this is so,
can or will He fail us in what remains, the task and attainment of our actual
salvation? The distinction is kept up betweenour salvation in faith and our
salvationin fact, and the argument is that if God so gave Christ objectively to
our faith He may be trusted to give Him subjectively in our lives. Whether
objectively, however, to our faith or subjectively in our lives, Christ is always
one and the same thing—our own divine holiness, righteousness, life. We do
not believe in Him at all if we do not believe in Him as all these, not only for
us, but in us.
Like a cradle rocking, rocking,
Silent, peaceful, to and fro,
Like a mother’s sweetlooks dropping

On the little face below,
Hangs the greenearth, swinging, turning
Jarless, noiseless,safe and slow;
Falls the light of God’s face bending
Down, and watching us below.
And as feeble babes that suffer,
Toss and cry, and will not rest,
Are the ones the tender mother
Holds the closest,loves the best;
So when we are weak and wretched,
By our sins weigheddown, distressed,
Then it is that God’s greatpatience

Holds us closest, loves us best.
O greatheart of God! whose loving
Cannot hindered be nor crossed;
Will not weary, will not even
In our death itself be lost—
Love divine! of such greatloving
Only mothers know the cost—
Costof love which, all love passing,
Gave a Son to save the lost.1 [Note:Saxe Holm, in Sunday SchoolTimes, xxxv.
20, p. 318.]
4. The Duration of it. The proof is one of perpetual validity. The Bible does
not say, God commended; it does not say, God has commended; it uses the
perpetual present and says, Godcommendeth. There are some proofs for the
being and attributes of God that serve their purpose and then pass away.

There are arguments that appealto us in childhood, but lose their powerin
our maturer years. And there are proofs that may convince one generation,
and yet be of little value to the next; not a few evidences, suchas that from
design, which were very helpful to the believers of an older school, are well-
nigh worthless to their thinking sons, imbued with the teaching of the present
day. But there is one argument that stands unshakenthrough every age and
every generation. It is the triumphant argument of the Cross ofChrist.
Knowledge may widen, thought may deepen, theories may come and go, yet in
the very centre, unshakenand unshakable, stands Calvary, the lasting
commendation of the love of God. To all the sorrowing and to all the
doubting, to all the bitter and to all the eager, to every youthful heart, noble
and generous, to every weary heart, burdened and dark, to-day, and here, as
nineteen hundred years ago to all like hearts in Rome, “Godcommendeth his
own love towardus, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”2
[Note:G. H. Morrison.]
iii. Something Personal
Howeverclearour views upon this subject, we shall not feelthe full force of
these considerations until we turn from the race to the individual, from
mankind to ourselves in particular, and contemplate eachfor himself the love
of God, as exhibited on the Cross of Christ, as if that love had had no other
object. He loved me, and gave Himself for me. It is quite true that God’s love
is as wide as the world, for “Godso loved the world”; but it is equally true
that it is as narrow as the individual. Wide enough to comprehend all, it is also
sufficiently concentratedto apprehend eachwith its ownmerciful arrest,
laying a strong hand upon our heart, and changing the whole course of our
lives with its own mighty power.
Life—our common life—with its discipline of experience, will surely teachus
how little, comparatively, upon reason, and how largely, comparatively, upon

the heart, depend the issues ofliving. The most precious things we possess, the
highest relationships in which we stand to one another—are they not, one and
all of them, bound up with love, which thinks not in the syllogisms of reason,
but rather by the tender intuitions of the heart. “We do not prove,” says
Pascal,“thatwe ought to be loved, by arranging in order the reasons for
love.… The way of the heart is different from that of the mind, which is by
statementand proof.”
The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of a whole world dies
With the setting sun.
The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.

A German student, who had strayed far into doubt and sin, went one day in a
fit of desperate levity to see the aged pastorwho had been in years past his
spiritual guide. “My son,” said the saint of God, “tell me your sins, that I may
show you how to be delivered from them.” Immediately the young man began
to recite a shameful list of wrongdoings, andagain and again, with passionate
emphasis for eachsin, pronounced the words:“But I don’t care for that.” The
other listened patiently the he had done, and then quietly askedhim to comply
with a simple request. “To-night,” he said, “and every night when you retire
to rest, kneeldown and saythis: ‘O Lord Jesus Christ, Thou hast died upon
the Cross forme, that my sins may be forgiven;—but I don’t care for that,’
and come back at the end of a week and tell me your sins again.” Consentwas
lightly given, and for three nights the words were said. The fourth saw a
penitent, white and trembling, at the old man’s door, asking for admission. “I
can’t say it, and I do care,” was his faltering confession. The appeal of the
Cross had reachedhis heart.1 [Note:F. B. Macnutt.]
O healing Face, unto all men most kind,
Teachme to find Thee, lestI wander blind,
For as the river seeksthe sea, and as its rest the rain,
So seeks my face for Thee, so pleads my prayer the pain
That pleads through Thee:
“Beholdand see,

Is there a sorrow that has no part in Me?”2 [Note:Laurence Housman.]
God’s own Love
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Love Of God Commended
Romans 5:6-11
C.H. Irwin
It is a most remarkable phrase, this description which is given in the eighth
verse, of God commending his own love. We have, indeed, in other portions of
Scripture, the Divine Being representedas a heavenly Merchantman, setting
forth the blessings ofthe gospelas a merchantman might setforth his wares.
"He, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no
money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money
and without price." And againin the Book ofRevelation, "I counselthee to
buy of me goldtried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment,
that thou mayest be clothed; ... and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, thatthou
mayest see." Buthere God is representedas commending, not merely the
blessings ofthe gospel, but his own love, to human observationand
admiration. Yes;but this is for no selfishend. God's object in commending his
love to us is for our sakes. He sets it before us in all its matchless tenderness
and grandeur, that by means of it he may melt our hearts. He sets it before us
in all its attractive power, that he may draw our hearts to holiness and our
souls to heaven. He sets it before us in order that we may yield ourselves to its
influence, and that thus, by what Dr. Chalmers calls "the expulsive power of a

new affection," sin and the love of it, with all its withering blight and fatal
grasp, may be driven out of our natures.
I. THE LOVE OF GOD IS COMMENDEDBYITS OBJECTS. We have set
before us in these verses a descriptionof those who are the objects of the love
of God, as shown in the death of Jesus Christ his Son. Was it the angels that
were the objects ofGod's redeeming love? Was it for the angels that Jesus
died? No. They did not need his death. Was it for the goodmen and women of
the world that Jesus died? If it was only for the good, then the love of God
would be very limited in its range, and the greatmass of humanity would be
still helpless and hopeless. But one perfectly goodpersonit would be
impossible to find. "All have sinned." Who, then, are the objects ofthe love of
God? Just those very men and women of whom it is saidthat "there is none
righteous, no, not one."
1. The apostle describes us as being in a state of helplessness. "Whenwe were
yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly" (ver. 6). Surely
here is a commendation of God's love. Very often in this world the weak are
left to shift for themselves. But if any of us were left to our own unaided
efforts, what would become of us? Are we not all glad, no matter how strong
we are, of the assistanceofothers? if any of us were left to our own unaided
efforts to getto heaven, which of us could hope to get there? The gospelis a
gospelfor the weak - that is to say, for the very strongestof us, physically,
morally, and spiritually. In regard to God and eternity, how weak we are in
all these aspects!We cannot stay the hand of disease ordeath; we cannot in
our own strength maintain a life of an unswerving moral standard; we cannot
work out a salvationfor ourselves. Butlisten to this message:"Whenwe were
yet without strength,... Christ died for us."
2. But God loves more than the weak. He loves the ungodly. "Christ died for
the ungodly" (ver. 6). The word here used expresses the indifference of the
human heart to spiritual things. "The natural man receiveth not the things of
the Spirit." If God only loved those who turned to him of their own accord,
who then could be saved? If any of us have an interest now in spiritual things,
was it not because God, in his mercy, laid his hand upon us, and awakened
our minds to serious thought about him and our ownsouls? If there are those

who are godless, ungodly, any who have no interestin spiritual things, to
whom God's service is a weariness, letus say to them, "Godloves even you."
"Christ died for the ungodly."
3. But God goes a step lowerthan even the ungodly and indifferent. He goes
down into the depths of sin. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us"
(ver. 8). And not merely sinners, but enemies. "Whenwe were enemies, we
were reconciledto God by the death of his Son" (ver. 10). Here is the greatest
of all commendations of the Divine lore. It was a love, not for the deserving,
but for the undeserving; not for the obedient, but for the disobedient; not for
the just, but for the unjust; not for his friends, but for his enemies. If you have
ever tried to love your enemies, those who have done you an injury, you know
how hard it is. But Godloved his enemies - those who had broken his Law and
rejectedhis invitations - God loved them so much that he gave his ownSon to
die for their salvation, in order that he might bring those who were his
enemies to dwell for ever with himself. What a description it is of the objects
of God's love! "Without strength;" "ungodly;" "sinners;" "enemies." Surely
this ought to be enoughto commend the love of God to us. Surely, then, there
is hope for the guiltiest. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all
acceptation, thatChrist Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I
am chief."
"In peace letme resignmy breath,
And thy salvationsee;
My sins deserve eternal death,
But Jesus died for me."
II. THE LOVE OF GOD IS COMMENDEDBY ITS OPERATION.
1. On God's side it involved sacrifice. God's love did not exhaust itself in
profession. It showeditself in action. It showeditself in the greatestsacrifice
which the world has ever seen. That was a genuine love. How it must have
grieved the Father to think of his own holy, innocent Son, being buffeted and
scourgedand crucified by the hands of wickedmen, in the frenzy of their
passionand hatred! What a sacrifice to make for our sakes, whenGodgave

up his own Son to the death for us all! Herein is the proof of the reality of
God's love. Herein is its commendation to us.
"Love so amazing, so Divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all."
2. And then look at the operation of this love on our side. Look at the results it
produces in human hearts. "Hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of
God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us"
(ver. 5). "And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom we have now receivedthe atonement" (ver. 11). What
confidence it produces, what holy calm, what peace, what hope, what joy for
time and for eternity, when we know that Godloves us! Oh! there is no power
like it to sustain the human heart. Temptations lose their powerto drag us
down, when that love is bound around us like a life-buoy. Hatred and malice
cannot harm us, hidden in the secretof his presence. Sorrow and suffering can
bring no despair, when the Father's face is bending over us with his
everlasting smile, and his arms are underneath us with their everlasting
strength. His love is like a path of golden sunlight across the dark valley. "For
I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus ourLord." Thus God commends to us his love. He commends it
to us by showing us our own condition - what we are without it. He shows us
the characterofthe objects of his love - "without strength;" "ungodly;"
"sinners;" "enemies."He shows us the operationof his love. He points us to
the cross, andbids us measure there the height and depth of his marvellous
love. He shows us the operation of his love in human hearts - what peace, what
confidence, whathope, what joy unspeakable and full of glory, it produces.
For all these reasons it is a love worth yielding to. For all these reasons itis a
love worth having. Christians should commend the love of God. A consistent
Christian life is the besttestimony to the powerof the love of God. By loving
even our enemies, by showing a spirit of unselfishness and self-sacrifice, letus
commend to those around us the love of God.

"When one that holds communion with the skies
Has filled his urn where those pure waters rise,
And once more mingles with us meaner things,
Tis e'enas if an angelshook his wings;
Immortal fragrance fills the circuit wide
That tells us whence his treasures are supplied? C.H.I.
Biblical Illustrator
For scarcelyfor a righteous man will one die...but God commendeth His love.
Romans 5:7, 8
Human and Divine love contrasted
A. Thomson, D. D.

I. THE LOVE OF MAN TO HIS FELLOW CREATURES (ver. 7). You may
find in history generosityand gratitude manifestedby the greatestofall
sacrifices — that of life. But such instances are rare. We read of dangers
encountered, sufferings endured, for the purpose of rescuing others from
destruction; but seldom of devotion to death, in order to deliver a fellow
mortal from the heaviestcalamity, or to procure for him the most precious
privilege. When such an instance has occurred it has been uniformly a tribute
paid to distinguished excellence,oran acknowledgmentofobligations too
strong and sacredto be fulfilled by a less noble or costlyrecompense.
1. Suppose an individual distinguished for honour and integrity, who had
exerted himself on all occasions to maintain the rights, and redress the wrongs
of others, whose righteous deportment, fidelity, and defence of truth had
rendered him the objectof profound and universal veneration; suppose that
such a person, by the decree of despotism, were doomed to expiate an
imaginary crime on an ignominious scaffold, would you step forward to save
his life by the sacrifice ofyour own? No;nor can we imagine anyone doing it.
2. But, supposing that to righteousness we add benevolence — all that is
melting in tenderness, winning in compassion, god-like in beneficence, would
there be any among those to whom such characters are dearest, orany, even
of those who had shared his kindness, that would agree to be his substitute?
Yes; you may conceive suchcasesto occur. Still, however, the apostle speaks
correctly;it is only "some" who would thus die for a goodman — that, even
for this act of chivalry "daring" would be required — and that after all, the
fact must be qualified with a "peradventure." To the statement of the apostle
we may add that of our Lord, that "greaterlove hath no man than this, that a
man lay down his life for his friends:" This is the utmost limit to which human
affectioncan go. And this may be still more readily admitted, if we consider
friendship as comprehending those relationships which, binding husband and
wife, parent and child, brother and sister, by a thousand endearments,
instinctively prompt to efforts and endurances, from whose ample range even
the terrors of death are not excluded.
3. But supposing a person iniquitous and hostile, condemned to die for his
iniquity and rebellion, and under his sentence, cherishedas bitter an enmity

againsthis benefactoras he had ever done before, would that benefactor
consentto suffer his judicial fate, in order to send him back againto the life
and liberty he had so justly forfeited? Ah! no; that is a height of love which
humanity has never reached, and of which humanity is utterly incapable. And
were it ever to occur, we should be compelledto rank it amongst the greatest
miracles.
II. THE LOVE OF GOD TO MAN is illustrated by two circumstances.
1. "Christ died for us." The apostle could not speak ofGod dying for us, for
death cannot possibly be predicted of Him who "alone hath immortality." We
must remember, therefore, who Christ was, as wellas what He did. But in
viewing His death as a manifestation of Divine love, we must recollectthe
connectionwhich God had with it. The scheme, of which it formed the leading
feature and the essentialprinciple, was altogetherof His appointment (John
3:16). And while God was thus so gracious, it becomes us to think of the
relation in which Christ stoodto Him. Christ was not the creature, nor the
mere servant of God, but "His only begottenand well beloved Son, the
brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person." Yet God did
"not spare Him."
2. But the principal evidence of God's love is that Christ died for us, "while we
were yet sinners." Had man been such as that the eye of God could have
lookedon him with complacency, orhaving fallen, had the feelings of
penitence pervaded his heart, and made him willing to return, we should not
have been amazed at God's condescending love. But the marvel lies in this,
that there was no goodwhatever to attractthe regards of a holy being, and to
invite a willing interposition of His benevolence. On the contrary, there was
worthlessnessandguilt to such a degree as to provoke a just indignation, to
warrant an utter exclusion from happiness and hope. We were "yet sinners"
when Christ died for us. There are resources in the eternal mind which are
equally beyond our reach and our comprehension. There is a power, a
magnitude, and a richness in the love of God towards those upon whom it is
setwhich, to the experience of the creature, presents a theme of wondering
gratitude and praise. Man loves his fellows;but he never did, and never can
love them like God. Had He only loved us as man loves, there would have been

no salvation, no heaven, no glad tidings to cheerour hearts. But behold! God
is love itself. Guilt, which forbids and represses man's love, awakens, and
kindles, and secures God's. Deathfor the guilty is too wide a gulf for man's
love to pass over. God's love to the guilty is infinitely "strongerthan death."
God forgives, where man would condemn and punish. God saves, where man
would destroy. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways
My ways." "Hereinis love," etc.
(A. Thomson, D. D.)
Christ and the martyrs
J. Logan.
It was a principle in the breastof every Roman that he owedhis life to his
country. This being the spirit of the people, gave birth to many illustrious and
heroic actions. The spirit of patriotism glowedamong the people for many
ages ofthe republic; one hero sprung from the ashes ofanother, and great
men arose from age to age who devotedthemselves to death for the public
good. These being the most celebratedactions in the history of mankind, the
apostle here compares them with the death of Jesus Christ.
I. Those who devoted themselves to death for their friends or their country,
submitted to a fate which THEY MUST ONE DAY HAVE SUFFERED;but
Jesus Christ, who is the true God, and POSSESSETHETERNALLIFE,
submitted to death for our redemption.
II. Those among the sons of men who devoted themselves to death for the good
of others, MADE THE SACRIFICE FOR THEIR FRIENDS,forthose by
whom they were beloved; BUT JESUS DIED FOR HIS ENEMIES.
III. He who dies a martyr for the public good, DEPARTSWITH HONOUR;
BUT JESUS MADE HIS DEPARTURE WITH IGNOMINYAND SHAME.
(J. Logan.)

The love of God the motive to man's salvation
Bp. Mant.
I. THE SUPREME DIGNITYOF HIM WHO UNDERTOOKTHE WORK
OF OUR SALVATION.
II. THE STATE OF HUMILIATION TO WHICH HE CONSENTED TO BE
DEGRADED IN ORDER TO ACCOMPLISHOUR REDEMPTION.
III. THE RELATION BORNE TO HIM BY THOSE FOR WHOM THIS
AMAZING TESTIMONYOF LOVING KINDNESS WAS ENTERPRISED
AND PERFECTED. Inasmuchas we are by nature sinners, we are also by
nature enemies of God. If it be the act of an enemy to slight, resist, and
renounce the authority of our lawful sovereign;if it be the act of an enemy to
range ourselves under the banners of a potentate in open hostility to our own;
we who are "by nature the children of disobedience," in subjectionto "the
powers of darkness," "alienatedfrom the life of God," and the ministers and
slaves of sin, are by an obvious inference the natural enemies of God. And
standing in this relation to God, as rebels, it evidently appears how
inefficacious anything in us could have been towards meriting our redemption
and influencing Him to redeem us. There was in us, indeed, that which well
deservedthe wrath of God, and might well have left us exposedto the severity
of His displeasure.Conclusion:
1. The contemplation of this surprising love of God towards us ought to warm
and expand our hearts and fill them with the most earnestlove towards Him
in return, and with the most zealous determination to obey Him.
2. The contemplation of the love of God, as having alreadyinterposed to save
us by the sending of His Son, should fill us with a devout confidence in Him;
persuaded that He who has conferredupon us of His free grace the greatestof
all blessings will not withhold from us others which He may know to be for
our good.
3. A third inference to be drawn from a contemplation of the love of God
exemplified in the work of our salvation, is a further "confidence"that He
will not leave it imperfect; but that if we love Him and keepHis

commandments, "He which hath begun a goodwork in us will perform it
until the day of Jesus Christ."
4. The contemplation of the love of God employed for our redemption, and the
persuasionthat our salvation is "the gift of God," connectedwith the belief
that "we all had sinned and come short of His glory," etc.
5. But, then, whilst we renounce all hopes of salvationas merited by our
works, we must be cautious not to disregardthem as if they were not
necessaryto our salvation.
(Bp. Mant.)
Unparalleled love
D. Thomas, D. D.
The grand doctrine of the Bible is that God loves apostate man. Nowhere else
do we learn this. Nature teaches that God loves His creatures, but the volume
of nature was written before the Fall, and it says nothing as to His affection
towards man as a sinner. In every conceivable form the Bible impresses us
with the factthat God loves man though a sinner. Note —
I. THAT MAN HAS, CONSTITUTIONALLY, A KIND AFFECTION FOR
HIS SPECIES.The apostle is speaking here of men generally, and he says that
in some cases the generous instincts of human nature would prompt to the
utmost self-sacrifice. Thatman has this socialkindness I maintain in the face
of all the oppressionand cruelty that make up a large portion of history.
Notwithstanding the Pharaohs, Herods, Neros, Napoleons,there is a spring of
kindness in human nature.
1. The tendency of sin is to destroy this element. Had sin not entered into the
world, this element would have united all races in the bonds of a loving
brotherhood.

2. The tendency of Christianity is to develop this element. Christianity
recognisesit, appeals to it, strengthens it. Blessedbe God, bad as the world is,
there is a fountain of love in its heart.
II. THAT SOME CHARACTERS HAVE A GREATER POWER TO
EXCITE THIS AFFECTION THAN OTHERS.
1. The righteous man is not likely to excite it. "Scarcely." Who is a righteous
man? He is one who conforms rigorouslyto the outward forms of morality: he
pays all that is demanded of him, and he will be paid to the utmost fraction of
his due. He is what the cold mercantile world would calla "respectable"man.
He has no generous impulses, no heart, and therefore cannot awakenlove in
others. The just man is not a very popular character.
2. The "good" man has powerto excite it — the kind man — the man of
warm sympathies, who canweep with those who weep. Such a man evokes the
sympathies of others. He has often done so. Jobopening, by his kindness, the
heart of his age;Pythias enduring the punishment for Damon; and Jonathan
and David, are cases in point.
III. THAT THE SACRIFICE OF LIFE IS THE HIGHEST EXPRESSION
OF AFFECTION.There is nothing man values so much as life. Friends,
property, health, reputation, all are held cheap in comparisonwith life. To
give life, therefore, is to give that which he feels to be of all the dearestthings
most dear. A man may express his affectionby language, toil, gifts, but such
expressions are weak comparedwith the sacrifice oflife, which demonstrates
powerfully both the intensity and the sincerity of that affection.
IV. THAT CHRIST'S DEATH IS THE MIGHTIEST DEMONSTRATION
OF AFFECTION.This will appearif you consider —
1. The characters for whom He died — "sinners."
2. The circumstances under which He died. Not amid the gratitude of those He
loved, but amid their imprecations.
3. The freedom with which He died. He was not compelled.
4. The preciousness ofthe life He sacrificed.Conclusion:Learn —

1. The moral grandeur of Christianity. There is no such manifestation of love
in the universe.
2. The moral powerof Christianity. The motive it employs to break the heart
of the world is this wonderful love.
(D. Thomas, D. D.)
Self-sacrificing love for friends
Damon was sentencedto die on a certain day, and sought permissionof
Dionysius of Syracuse to visit his family in the interim. It was grantedon
condition of securing a hostage forhimself. Pythias heard of it, and
volunteered to stand in his friend's place. The king visited him in prison, and
conversedwith him about the motive of his conduct; affirming his disbelief in
the influence of friendship. Pythias expressedhis wish to die that his friend's
honour might be vindicated. He prayed the gods to delay the return of Damon
till after his own executionin his stead. The fatal day arrived. Dionysius sat on
a moving throne drawn by six white horses, Pythias mounted the scaffold, and
calmly addressedthe spectators:"Myprayer is heard; the gods are
propitious, for the winds have been contrary till yesterday. Damoncould not
come;he could not conquer impossibilities; he will be here tomorrow, and the
blood which is shed today shall have ransomed the life of my friend. Oh! could
I erase from your bosoms every mean suspicion of the honour of Damon, I
should go to my death as I would to my bridal. My friend will be found noble,
his truth unimpeachable; he will speedily prove it; he is now on his way,
accusing himself, the adverse elements, and the gods;but I haste to prevent
his speed. Executioner, do your office." As he closed, a voice in the distance
cried, "Stopthe execution!" which was repeatedby the whole assembly. A
man rode up at full speed, mounted the scaffold, and embraced Pythias,
crying, "You are safe, my beloved friend! I now have nothing but death to
suffer, and am delivered from reproaches forhaving endangereda life so
much dearer than my own." Damon replied, "Fatalhaste, cruel impatience!
What envious powers have wrought impossibilities in your favour? But I will
not be wholly disappointed. Since I cannotdie to save, I will not survive you."

The king heard, and was moved to tears. Ascending the scaffold, he cried,
"Live, live, ye incomparable pair! Ye have borne unquestionable testimony to
the existence ofvirtue; and that virtue equally evinces the existence ofa God
to reward it. Live happy, live renowned, and oh! form me by your precepts, as
ye have invited me by your example, to be worthy of the participation of so
sacreda friendship."
Self- sacrificing love for a father
While Octavius was at Samos, afterthe battle of Actium, which made him
master of the universe, he held a council to examine the prisoners who had
been engagedin Antony's party. Among the rest there was brought before
him an old man, Metellus, oppressedwith years and infirmities, disfigured
with a long beard, a neglectedheadof hair, and tattered clothes. The son of
this Metellus was one of the judges; but it was with greatdifficulty he knew
his father in the deplorable condition in which he saw him. At last, however,
having recollectedhis features, insteadof being ashamedto own him, he ran
to embrace him. Then turning towards the tribunal, he said, "Caesar, my
father has been your enemy, and I your officer; he deservedto be punished,
and I to be rewarded. One favour I desire of you; it is, either to save him on
my account, ororder me to be put to death with him." All the judges were
touched with compassionatthis affecting scene;Octavius himself relented,
and granted to old Metellus his life and liberty.
Divine love
H. F. Burder, D. D.
There are three gradations in which the love of God is here exhibited —
I. THE LOVE OF INFINITE COMPASSION. Contemplate —
1. The aspectunder which man appearedto the most holy God. Paul tells us
that men were —

(1)Sinners.
(2)Ungodly, i.e., living without God.
(3)Enemies.
(4)Objects of the Divine wrath.
2. The aspectunder which the blessedGod ought to be viewed by sinful man.
Shall any hard thought of God be alloweda dwelling place in your hearts?
Will you callin question His clemency? Is it possible for you to imagine that
He takes delight in the death of a sinner? "Herein is love," etc.
II. THE LOVE DISPLAYED IN THE EXERCISE OF THAT MERCY
WHICH SECURES FROM THE DANGER OF FUTURE
CONDEMNATION (ver. 9). Consider —
1. The extent of privilege actually attained by every believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is justified by the blood of Christ — that is, God, in the capacityof
a righteous lawgiver and judge, pronounces him righteous.
2. The security from final condemnation arising out of the state already
attained. "Muchmore...we shallbe savedfrom wrath through Him."
III. THE LOVE DISPLAYED IN COMPLACENCYTOWARD THOSE
WHO ARE IN A STATE OF RECONCILIATION (ver. 10). The life of Christ
in heaven secures to the believer all needful resourcesduring his progress
towards the enjoyment of consummated salvationif you consider —
1. That His presence in heavensecures His continual and prevailing
intercessiononbehalf of His people.
2. The perpetual communications of His grace as securedto us by His life in
glory. "All things are delivered unto Him by the Father" — that is, for the use
of His people. "It hath pleasedthe Father that in Him shall all fulness dwell";
therefore it pleasedthe Fatherthat from His fulness should every needy
disciple receive an abundant supply; so that of His fulness we, who have
believed, do receive even grace forgrace.

3. The interposition promised and pledged for the coming hour of our greatest
emergency. The death and the life of Christ gives to the believer indeed no
security againstdeath, but full security in death and after death.
(H. F. Burder, D. D.)
Divine love for sinners
D. Thomas, D. D.
We infer —
I. That God HAS LOVE. He is not sheerintellect: He has a heart, and that
heart is not malign but benevolent. He has love, not merely as an attribute,
but in essence. Love is not a mere element in His nature; it is His nature. The
moral code by which He governs the universe is but love speaking in the
imperative mood. His wrath is but love uprooting and consuming whatever
obstructs the happiness of His creation.
II. That God has love FOR SINNERS. Then —
1. This is not a love that is revealedin nature. It is exclusively the doctrine of
the Bible.
2. This is not the love of moral esteem. The Holy One cannot love the corrupt
character;it is the love of compassion — compassiondeep, tender, boundless.
III. That God's love for sinners is DEMONSTRATED IN THE DEATH OF
CHRIST. This demonstration is —
1. The mightiest. The strength of love is proved by the sacrifice it makes.
"Godgave His only begottenSon."
2. The most indispensable. The only wayto consume enmity is to carry
conviction that he whom I have hated loves me. This convictionwill turn my
enmity into love. God knows the human soul, knows how to break its corrupt
heart; hence He has given the demonstration of His love in the death of Christ.
(D. Thomas, D. D.)

God's unparalleled love
J. Lyth, D. D.
1. Sacrifice is the true test of love.
2. Life is the greatestsacrificeman can make.
3. Such a sacrifice is possible, but exceedinglyrare.
4. Supposes strong inducements.
5. But Christ died for His enemies.
6. He thus commends the love of God — because He is God — and is the gift
of God.
(J. Lyth, D. D.)
The love of God commended
Ibid.
I. By its OBJECTS — without strength — ungodly — sinners — enemies.
II. By its DISPLAY — Christ died — for us.
III. By its PURPOSE — OUR justification — reconciliationwith God — final
salvation.
IV. By its EFFECT — JOY in God.
(Ibid.)
Self-sacrificing love
Ellen Wonnacott.

That young sailorwho, when the last place in the lifeboat was offeredhim,
drew back, saying, "Save my mate here, for he has a wife and children," and
went down himself with the sinking ship; that brave soldierwho, in the
moment of deadly peril, threw himself in front of his old master's son and fell
dead with a smile upon his lips, the fatal bullet in his heart; that poor outcast
woman, out in the wild winter night, who wrapped her baby in her own scanty
dress and shawl, and patiently lay down in the snow to die, saving her child's
life at the costof her own; the pilot dying at his post on the burning steamer;
the Russianservantcasting himself among the wolves to save his master; the
poor child dying in a New York garretwith the pathetic words, "I'm glad I
am going to die, because now my brothers and sisters will have enough to eat"
— these, and hundreds of true hearts like these, proclaim with the clearness of
a voice from heaven, "'The hand that made us is Divine'; and in our Father's
heart are higher heights of love, deeperdepths of pity and self-sacrifice."
(Ellen Wonnacott.)
Disinterestedfriendship
Edwin, one of the best and greatestofthe Anglo-Saxonkings, flourished in the
beginning of the seventh century. He was in imminent dangerof perishing by
the hand of an assassin, who had gainedaccessto him under the guise of an
ambassador. In the midst of his address the villain pulled out a daggerand
aimed a violent blow at the king. But Edwin was preservedfrom danger by
the generous and heroic conduct of Tilla, one of his courtiers, who intercepted
the blow with his own body, and fell down dead on the spot. Thus did he
cheerfully resignhis own life to preserve that of his sovereign, whomhe loved.
But this instance of disinterestedfriendship loses allits charms, and sinks into
insignificance when contrastedwith the love wherewith Christ hath loved us.
For "Godcommendeth His love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ
died for us."
Nature does not reveal God's love

Nature does not reveal God's love. We find His powerthere, undeviating
cause and effect, irresistible force, iron law. But no love. The ocean, grandas
it is, and beautiful even, will crush the egg shell you call your ship; the
lightning kills; the torrent engulfs; the beautiful twilight air chills you; the
lovely flower concealspoisonunder its gorgeous petals;a weak spotin a
girder of iron precipitates a hundred people to an awful death; the sun strikes
with deadly sickness;and who can stand before God's cold? Careless or
ignorant of her laws, man is a leafunderfoot, or a bubble on the wave. You
may searchocean, air, and desert; you may traverse the whole universe of
matter, and know all the secrets ofscience, andyou can find no Christ. There
is no hint of mercy, or love, or pardon, in the whole realm of nature. God's
might and majesty are there; but the "love of God was manifestedin this, that
He sent His Son into the world that we might live through Him."
The love of God's unspeakable gift
W. Arnot.
A crew of explorers penetrate far within the Arctic circles in searchof other
expeditions that had gone before them — gone and never returned. Failing to
find the missing men, and yet unwilling to abandon hope, they leave supplies
of food, carefully coveredwith stones, onsome prominent headlands, with the
necessaryintimations graven for safetyon plates of brass. If the original
adventurers survive, and, on their homeward journey, faint yet pursuing, fall
in with these treasures, at once hidden and revealed, the food, when found,
will seemto those famished men the smaller blessing. The proof which the
food supplies that their country cares forthem is sweeterthanthe food. So the
proof that God cares for us is placed beyond a doubt; the "unspeakable gift"
of His Son to be our Saviour should melt any dark suspicion to the contrary
from our hearts.
(W. Arnot.)

H. Melvill, B. D.
The manifestations of God's love are many and various. If I look forth upon
our glorious world I cannot but feel that God displays His love in the dwelling
place which He hath given to the children of men. If I contemplate the
successionofseasons, andobserve how the sunbeam and the showerunite in
the production of sustenance,I recognise love in the workings of God's
providence. Thus also, if I think upon man, the creature of mighty capacity,
but of mightier destiny, I am necessarilyconsciousthat infinite love presided
originally over his formation. And, if I yet further remember that man, whose
creationhad thus been dictated by love, returned despite for benevolence, I
might marvel, if I did not know that love rose superior to outrage, and, in
place of forsaking the alien, suggestedredemption. Note: —
I. HOW CHRIST'S SUFFERINGSWERE AGGRAVATED BY THE
SINFULNESS OF THOSE AMONGST WHOM HE SUFFERED.
1. He possessedinfinite perceptions of the nature of sin. He saw it without any
of the varnish which it draws from human passionor sophistry; and He
discernedthat the leastacting of impurity struck so vehemently againstthe
bosses ofthe Almighty's attributes, that it rebounded in vengeance, which
must eternally crush the transgressor.
2. Now to this capacityof estimating sin, add(1) The love which He bore to the
Father. It would have accordedwellwith the longings of His heart, that He
should succeedin bringing back the earth into obedience, so that the Almighty
might draw His full revenue of honour. But when, from the contradictionof
sinners againstHimself, it became palpable that generations wouldyet do
despite to His heavenly Father, this must inexpressibly have laceratedHis
soul.(2)But vast also was His love to mankind; and here again His
apprehensions of sin come into the account. It would be idle to enlarge on the
greatness ofthat benevolence which had prompted the Mediatorto undertake
our rescue. The simple exhibition of Christ appearing as the surety of
mankind remains ever the overwhelming and immeasurable prodigy. Yet
when He beheld the beings, for every one of whom He was contentto endure
ignominy and death, pursuing obstinately the courses ofunrighteousness,

throwing from them the proffered boon of deliverance, it must have entered
like a poisonedarrow into His pure and affectionate heart, and lacerating and
cauterising whereverit touched, have made an inlet for sorrow where there
never could be found admission for sin.
3. If an artist study to setforth the Christ's sufferings, he has recourse to the
outward paraphernalia of woe. Yet there is more in the simple expressionthat
Christ died for us "whilst we were yet sinners," than in all that the crayon
ever produced, when the genius of a Raphaelguided its strokes.We look in at
the soulof the Redeemer — we are admitted as spectators ofthe solemn and
tremendous workings of His spirit.
4. We attempt not to examine too nicely into the awful matter of the
Mediator's sufferings, suffice it that there is not one amongstus who was not a
direct contributor to that weight of sorrow which seemedfor a time to
confound Him and to crush Him.
II. HOW COMPLETELYTHESE SUFFERINGSWERE IRRESPECTIVE
OF ALL CLAIM ON THE PART OF THOSE FOR WHOM THEY WERE
ENDURED. In the commencementof His dealings with our race, God had
proceededaccording to the strictestbenevolence. He had appointed that
Adam should stand as a federalhead or representative of all men; had Adam
obeyed, all men would have obeyed in him — just as when Adam disobeyed,
all men disobeyed in him. We were not, in the strictestsense, parties to this
transaction, but I hold that if we had had the powerof electing we should have
electedAdam, and that there would have been a wisdom in such procedure,
which is vainly lookedfor in any other. And if this appointment cannot be
arraigned, then it must be idle to speak ofany claims which the fallen have
upon the Creator;and whatsoeveris done on their behalf must be in the
largestsense gratuitous. If the arrangementwere one into which the love
which prompted the creationof man gatheredand condensedits fulness, and
its tenderness, then we lay it down that the compassions ofthe MostHigh
towards our race might have closedthemselves up, and, nevertheless, the
inscription, "God is love" would have been gravenupon our archives, and the
lying tongue of blasphemy alone would have dared to throw doubt on its
accuracy. But the love of God was a love which could not be content with

having just done enough — it was a love which must commend itself — which
must triumph over everything which could quench love. We were sinners, but,
nevertheless, Godloved us in our degradation, in our ruin. We were unworthy
the leastmercy, we had no claim to it — the minutest benefit, we had no right
to it — but God commended His love towards us
(H. Melvill, B. D.)
B. Beddome, M. A.
Severalconsiderations tend to enhance the greatness ofthe love of God
towards us —
I. THE DIGNITYOF THE SAVIOUR. He was no other than the eternal Son
of God, coequalwith the Father, infinitely endearedto Him by an ineffable
union, and a full participation in all the attributes of the Divine nature. Hence
when the death of Christ is mentioned greatstress is laid on the dignity of His
character, as that which gives worth and efficacyto His sufferings (Hebrews
1:3; 1 Peter1:19; 1 John 1:7).
II. THE DIVINE AGENCY EMPLOYED IN CHRIST'S DEATH. God did
not spare His ownSon, but freely delivered Him up as a victim in our stead,
and calledupon justice to make Him a sacrifice for us. Nor was the Divine
agencyemployed merely in this part of our Saviour's sufferings; it was also
engagedin their actual infliction. Men crucified His body, but it was the Lord
who "made His soul an offering for sin"; or it pleased"the Lord to bruise
Him, and put Him to grief"; and herein is expressedthe most astonishing
wrath, and the most astonishing love.
III. THE CHARACTER OF THOSE FOR WHOM CHRIST DIED. While as
yet no change was wroughtin us, no goodperformed by us; while inveterate
enemies to God, then it was that Christ died for us. It was also "while we were
yet without strength," either to do the will of God, or to deliver ourselves out

of the hands of infinite justice. The patriot dies for his country; but Christ
died for His enemies.
IV. THE VOLUNTARY NATURE OF CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS.His death
was foreordained, and He had receiveda commandment of the Fatherthat He
should lay down His life for the sheep;yet He had powerto lay down His life,
and powerto take it up again, and no one could take it from Him.
V. IF WE COMPARE THIS MANIFESTATION WITHEVERY OTHER
WE SHALL HERE FIND ITS HIGHEST COMMENDATION. The blessings
of Providence are incessantand innumerable; but of all His gifts, none is to be
compared with the gift of Christ. This is the unspeakable gift.
VI. THE CONSTANT EFFICACYOF THE DEATH OF CHRIST
AFFORDS ADDITIONALEVIDENCE OF THE MAGNITUDE OF THE
GIFT AND OF THE LOVE OF GOD IN ITS BESTOWMENT.His
righteousness foreveravails for our justification; His sacrifice retains its
cleansing virtue for our sanctification;and in the discharge of all His
mediatorial offices He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hence He is
able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him, and to do for
us exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask orthink. The gift of Christ
includes every other gift; for He that spared not His own Son, but delivered
Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things.
Improvement:
1. This subjectaffords encouragementto serious inquirers. The gospelis the
religion of sinners, the only one that canafford relief to the troubled
conscience.
2. The gospel, notwithstanding, affords no ground of hope or encouragement
to those who continue to live in sin. Though Christ died for sinners, it was that
they might repent, believe, and be saved.
3. To all true believers, the gospelbecomes a source ofabundant joy.
(B. Beddome, M. A.)

J. W. Burn.
God's manifestations of Himself invariably carry with them the
commendation of some distinguishing perfection. He is manifested —
1. In the universe, and "the heavens declare the glory" of His wisdom and
power.
2. In conscience, whichcommends His righteousness.
3. In the Bible, which commends His truth.
4. In history, which commends His sovereignty.
5. In Christ, who by His life and death, but especiallyin the latter, commends
His love. It is the glory of Christianity to give love to this commendation.
Other religions profess to reveal God in this or that aspectof His character,
but none as "love." Note —
I. THE TIME WHEN this commendation was made (ver. 6). "In due time."
The time was most appropriate. No other period would have done so well.
This will be seenif we consider that then —
1. The world most needed it. Readchap. 1, and what contemporary writers
said about the sinfulness, misery, and hopelessness ofmankind.
2. The world had exhaustedall its resources in the vain hope of working out
its own salvation. Philosophers had taught, priests had sacrificed, governors
had ruled with a view to this; but the world's wisdom, religion, and policy had
all failed.
3. The world was now as it had never been before prepared for the wide
diffusion of this commendation. The dispersionof the Jews who carried their
Messianic hopes with them; the conquests ofAlexander which disseminated a
language in which this commendation might be couched; the universal
supremacy of Roman powerand civilisation, which provided ample means for
the widespreadcommendationof the gospel, combined to prepare "a way for
the Lord."

II. THE PERSONSTO WHOM IT WAS MADE. "Sinners." That God should
commend His love to angels, to unfallen Adam, or to conspicuous saints,
would be but natural, and that that love in a generalway should be displayed
in nature is not to be wondered at, for the fountain of love must overflow;but
that God should commend His love to sinners as such is wonderful indeed.
The wonder heightens as we follow the apostle's analysis. Menwere —
1. Without strength. Once they were strong, but lured by the devil they fell
from the breezy heights of righteousness, andwere maimed and paralysedby
the fall. None could have complained if God had left them in that condition,
but pitying their inability to rise He "laid help on One who was mighty," who
was able to restore them to moral soundness and a righteous status.
2. Ungodly. Men had severedtheir connectionwith the source of righteousness
and bliss, and so were plunged in sin and misery. God did not withdraw from
man, but man from God. No blame could have attachedto God had He made
the separationeternal. But He commends His love in the gift of the Mediator,
God-man, who could lay His hand on both and bring both togetheragain.
3. Sinners. Men who had missedthe mark. "Man's chief end is to glorify God
and enjoy Him forever." Man's blessednessis to aim at this, and in reaching it
to find his true rest. But men failed to even aim at this. Their aspirations were
after inferior objects, and they missed even them. So the earth is strewnwith
moral wrecks. Godcommendeth His love in that He gave His Sonto save these
wrecks, andto enable man to aspire after and to reachthe true end of life.
4. Enemies. In one sense men were moral failures to be pitied; in another
moral antagonists to Godand goodness, hence the objects of God's wrath. But
instead of commending His angerHe commends His love through Christ, who
saves from wrath and reconciles to God.
III. THE MANNER OF this commendation.
1. "Christ died." Godcommended His love, indeed, in Christ's incarnation,
life, teaching, deeds, example. ForGod to visit, abide in, and do goodto the
inhabitants of His revolted province, was a singular display of affection.
Reasonasks, whynot come with legions of angels to destroy? But all this

regard would have fallen short of what was needed; so love was displayed in
an unstinted manner. "God sparednot His ownSon." Spared Him nothing
that was necessaryto save a lost world; i.e., Godgave all He could to
commend His love. The riches of the Divine mercy were practicallyexhausted
on the Cross (Romans 8:32).
2. "Forus."(1)In our room and stead. He bore our sins with their curse and
punishment on the tree.(2)For our benefit. To remove our condemnation
were much; but Christ's death for us involves much more — justification,
sonship, holiness, heaven.
(J. W. Burn.)
God's love commended
T. Robinson, D. D.
I.To our CONSIDERATION.
II.To our ADMIRATION.
III.To our ESTEEM.
IV.To our GRATITUDE.
V.To our IMITATION.
(T. Robinson, D. D.)
W. Hay Aitken, M. A.
Some years ago a young Englishlady, moving in the highestcircles of fashion
in Paris, happened one day to be slightly indisposed and lying upon her bed,
when her sisters came into the room in a state of great merriment, and said to
her, "There is a mad fellow come over here from England — a revival
preacher. They say it is the greatestjoke in the world; he goes ranting awayin

English, and one of the French pastors does his best to interpret what he says
into French. All the world is going, and we are going too," and off they went.
They had no soonergone than this girl, as she lay in her bed, felt an
indescribable desire to hear him too. She rang the bell for her maid, and said,
"I want to hear this revival preacher;dress me and order a carriage." Her
servant expostulatedwith her: "You really should not think of it, ma'am; I
am sure you are not fit to go." But she would not be put off. So she went, and
was shownto a seatin front of the platform and there satdirectly in front of
the preacher. By the time the hymn was sung and the prayer over I suppose
she beganto feel somewhatsolemnised. Thencame the sermon, and the
preacherstepped right to the front of the platform, and lookedher full in the
face with a keen, searching glance,and said, "Poorsinner, God loves you!" "I
do not know what other words he may have spoken," she afterwards said. "I
dare say he said a greatdeal, for he preached a long time; but all I know is
that I satthere before him with my head buried in my hands, sobbing,
sobbing as if my heart would break. My whole life passedin review before me.
I thought how I had lost it and wastedit, and all my life had turned my back
upon God, to live for sin, and worldliness, and folly. I had spurned His
entreaty and rejectedHis call; and yet, O my God, is it true, is it true, that all
the while Thou hast been loving me? These words kept re-echoing over and
over againthrough my mind, Poorsinner, God loves thee! I do not know how
I found my way home. The next thing I remember is that I was lying prostrate
upon my face before God, the tears still streaming from my eyes, as I lifted up
my heart to God, and said, 'It is true, it is true. Thou hast been loving me all
the time, and now Thy love hath triumphed. O mighty Love, Thou hast won
my poor heart! GreatGod, from this moment forward I am Thine.'"
(W. Hay Aitken, M. A.)
Love's commendation
C. H. Spurgeon.
God's commendation of His love is not in words, but in deeds. "God
commendeth His love not in an eloquent oration," but by an act. If thou

wouldst commend thyself to thy fellows, go and do — not go and say; and if
before God thou wouldst show that thy faith and love are real, remember, it is
no fawning words, uttered either in prayer or praise, but it is the pious deed,
the holy act, which is the justification of thy faith. Paul gives us a double
commendation of God's love.
I. CHRIST DIED FOR US. Note —
1. That it was Christ who died.
2. That Christ died for us. It was much love when Christ stripped Himself of
the glories ofHis Godheadto become an infant in the manger of Bethlehem;
when He lived a holy and a suffering life for us; when He gave us a perfect
example by His spotless life; but the commendation of love lieth here — that
Christ died for us. All that death could mean Christ endured. Consider the
circumstances whichattended His death. It was no common death; it was a
death of ignominy; it was a death of unutterable pain; it was a tong protracted
death.
II. CHRIST DIED FOR US WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS.
1. Considerwhat sort of sinners many of us have been, and then we shall see
the marvellous grace of Christ. Consider —(1) I levy many of us have been
continual sinners. Have not sinned once, but ten thousand times.(2) That our
sins were aggravated. Whenyou sin you do not sin so cheap as others: when
you sin againstthe convictions of your consciences, againstthe warnings of
your friends, againstthe enlightenment of the times, and againstthe solemn
monitions of your pastors, you sin more grosslythan others do. The Hottentot
sinneth not as the Briton doth.(3) That we were sinners againstthe very
Personwho died for us. If a man should be injured in the street, if a
punishment should be demanded of the personwho attackedhim, it would be
passing strange if the injured man should for love's sake bearthe penalty, that
the other might go free; but 'twas even so with Christ.(4) That we were
sinners who for a long time heard this goodnews, and yet despisedit.
2. Inasmuch as Christ died for sinners, it is a specialcommendation of His
love for —(1) God did not considerman's merit when Christ died; in fact, no

merit could have deserved the death of Jesus. Thoughwe had been holy as
Adam, we could never have deserveda sacrifice like that of Jesus. But
inasmuch as it says, "He died for sinners," we are thereby taught that God
consideredour sin, and not our righteousness.(2)Godhad no interest to serve
by sending His Son to die. If God had pleased, He might have crushed this
nest of rebels, and have made another world all holy.(3) Christ died for us
unasked. If He had died for me as an awakenedheir of heaven, then I could
have prayed for Him to die; but Christ died for me when I had no powernor
will to pray. Where did ye ever hear that man was first in mercy? Nay, rather,
it is the other way: "Return unto Me, backsliding children, and I will have
mercy upon you."
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Love commended
W. Hay Aitken, M. A.
I. HOW SHALL MAN BE CONVINCED OF GOD'S LOVE TOWARDS
HIM?
1. He is indisposed to believe in it, and is disposedto doubt it. Many do not
think of God's love at all; and others cannotbring themselves to believe that it
is a personalaffection. But all are exposedto the fatal influence of that arch-
deceiverwho poisons our mind by suggesting that God's commands are
grievous, and His government unjust.
2. Then we have to considerthe nature of our condition down here. God has
been pleasedto put us into a world where we do not see Him; we are not in a
position to enter into direct communication with Him.
3. Perhaps it will suggestitselfthat God has only to revealHimself to us,
leaving us no longer in any degree of uncertainty about His relations with us.
But in order to make such a revelationof Himself, God would first of all have
to contravene the fundamental principles of His government. From that time

forth we should be walking by sight, no longer by faith, and thus our
probation would be ended.
4. But it. may be replied that we see that God loves us in that He supplies our
outward wants, and those pleasures which make life tolerable. This at first
sounds plausible, but —(1) These effects appearto come to us in the ordinary
course of nature, and it is only natural to conclude that, if there be a God at
all, His laws will be wise, and such as to render the condition of those
creatures whom He has calledinto existence not wholly intolerable. If God
were to create beings without a supply for their natural wants, it would be
such an exhibition of folly as would casta reflectionupon His own character
and glory.(2)On the other hand, there are circumstances ofsorrow which
sometimes produce an opposite impression.
5. Perhaps it may be asked, Is it necessarythat man should be convinced of
God's love? If God really loves him, is not that enough? By no means. The
love of God, if it be real love, should have a certain practicaleffect. Many a
man may prate about the value of love, and yet be a totalstranger to anything
like the real affection. It is necessarythat God's love should be made so
manifest to me as to produce in me a similar moral attitude towards Him.
True love always yearns for reciprocity.
II. IN THE FULNESS OF TIME GOD GIVES AN ANSWER TO THIS
QUESTION;and it is such an answeras no imagination or genius of man
could ever have suggested. Itmight have been emblazoned upon the starry
skies so that all might read it, "Godis love!" These wondrous words might
have been uttered by prophet or philosopher, wherever they went, they might
have been the watchword of humanity, the battle cry of man in his conflict
with all the powers of evil, and yet I apprehend that so strong is the latent
suspicionsown in the heart of man by the greatenemy, that we should still
have remained indisposed to yield it full credence. Godis not contentto
commit this truth to mere testimony; it is true St. John wrote these words, but
he would never have written them if Christ had not first of all written them in
His own life, and sealedthe recordby His wondrous death. The truth that
God is love was only knownto Him, can only be known to us, because Christ
has demonstratedit in His own person upon the Cross.

Jesus was god's love gift

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Jesus was god's love gift