How wonderful, and yet how blessedly true, that the holy Son of God should love me! Yes, me, who was so unclean, so far from God, so self-willed, so proud, so sinful, as to present nothing to His eye but evil, and that continually! How strange! and yet it is a most precious fact that, notwithstanding all, He loved me. Oh, yes! His pitying eye beheld me when madly posting on the broad road which leads to everlasting destruction, and His compassionate heart moved tenderly toward me. Yes, He loved me then, and in richest grace drew near and spoke to me. Yes, He spoke to me. His still small voice my inmost conscience reached, saying “Turn ye, turn ye; why will ye die?” What, said my wounded heart, am I so bad, so unclean, so undone, that death, the second death, is but just before me? Where am I going? Whither are my steps inclining? Is it possible that all along my quiet, amiable life, every movement has only hurried me along the broad and downward road? Is this a fact? Can it be that until now my sinful feet have only walked in paths where He is not? Is it true that all my best enjoyments, thus far, have been with my back quite turned to Him, ears deaf to His loving words, and heart unmoved by all the groans, and sufferings, and death, of the loving Son of God upon the tree? And yet when thus so loathsome, so unclean, in purpose and in not, that He should then love me! Oh, yes! It was for “sinners,” “enemies,” “ungodly,” that Jesus died; and this He plainly tells me. Such is His love; ‘tis love divine, and such His love to me. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8))
When in my sins, my folly, and my pride, it was that Jesus loved me. He looked upon me, felt deepest feelings of affection for me, and when nothing less than His own death, and that too “even the death of the cross,” could meet my case—nothing but His own life’s blood poured out could cleanse me from my sins: “He loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Yes, He gave Himself; he willingly died in my stead. He lovingly poured out His soul unto death. He offered Himself without spot to God. He bare our sins in His own body on the tree. He suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. He did by Himself purge our sins. He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. What perfect love! What abounding grace! What rich mercy! Many a man has given large sums of money to benefit others, but that is not himself Some, too, have even sacrificed their lives for others, because they were good and worthy, as Scripture says, “For a good man some would even dare to die.” But “Christ died,” not for good people, but “for the ungodly.” He came into the world to save sinners. When Saul of Tarsus was madly persecuting and hating Christ’s members “members of His body”— and thus showing himself to be the chief of sinners, then it was that Jesus met him, and arrested him with His loving, tender voice, saying— “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” The Acts of the Apostles teaches us what mercy followed. Well then might the apostle in a later day exclaim— “He loved me, and gave Himself for me.” And consider what a stupendous work He must have accomplished when He gave Himself! What an everlastingness of value must it have had by reason of the infinite glory of His person! What eternal efficacy there must have been in the sacrifice of the Son of God, that one offering which He once offered! No wonder that it tells us of remission of sins, of the “old man” crucified with Him, of redemption accomplished, of peace made, and of reconciliation to God! No marvel that when He bowed His head in death upon the tree, saying, “It is finished!” that God was fully vindicated, the infinite claims of His righteousness and holiness fully met, a just atonement made for all our sins, God just, and yet the justifier of every one that believeth in Jesus. Well, indeed, might the apostle, when contemplating the death of Christ, say, “I am dead to the law;” “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless (in Him risen and ascended) I live; yet not I (not the old man, but a new life now in Christ risen, a new nature), Christ liveth in me.” Henceforth, therefore, all his resources were in Christ; his joy and hope, his spring of life and strength, were all in Him; so that he added, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:19,2019For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. 20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:19‑20).)
“Oh, wondrous truth! that Jesus came
Into this world of sin to suffer shame;
That He, the Lord of glory, Lamb of God, the Christ, should be
A homeless wanderer, with sorrow pressed and bitter agony;
And all for me.
“Oh, precious truth! that Jesus bore
The weight and burden of my sins—and more
Did He; for with the precious blood He shed on Calvary
Bought He redemption’s priceless gift—secure through all eternity;
And all for me.
“Oh, glorious truth! that Jesus lives
Enthroned on high; and in His mercy gives
So free, the blessed Spirit now within my heart to be
My Light, my Guide, my Comforter, to immortality;
And all for me.”