THE LOVE OF CHRIST
C. S. Elliott
I am affected by the permanent character of love of the Lord Jesus. One can hardly find words, to express the character of love with which, as it says, Jesus “having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end”. The footnote says, ‘To the end’ does not give the full force, for it makes it refer to time; whereas going through with everything is implied.
It is a great support to one’s soul to know that we are loved by such a One. The apostle Paul could say, from experience, “The Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”, Galatians 2: 20. He knew the love of that Man. And we, in our measure, in our little part, know something of His love. The Lord Jesus, because of who He was; knew accurately what was going to happen to Him. He knew that the hour had come that He should depart out of this world to the Father; He knew the love of the Father’s heart; also, He knew what it was to be rejected; He knew what it would be to have all forsake Him. He could say to His disciples, earlier in this book, “Will ye also go away?”, John 6: 67. How the Lord Jesus feels things! He has the feelings of a Man, the affections of a Man. In chapter 11 it says, “Jesus wept”. He is affected by conditions which affect His own. At times we may feel downcast, but then the sense would come over us that there is One who loves us, as John put it here, “Having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end”. It is a love that carries right through! It taxes our love as to whether it is going through to the end. The love of the Lord Jesus went right through; no deviation, no diminution, in spite of what lay before Him.
It was love for your soul and mine, love for His God and Father, love for mankind, that led Him to go the whole way. But this word is that He loved His own and that He loved them to the end.
We are challenged as to our link with such a One who did not spare Himself but gave Himself so freely. There was no reserve on the part of the Lord Jesus. He saw the disciples through all that came upon them—there was Peter’s denial of Him; the fishing expedition in John 21, and the unbelief of Thomas—He sees us through all our trials and failures, giving us the sense of “the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge”, Ephesians 3: 19. We have the sense that the love of Christ is just holding us up, and we get encouragement and strength to go through what lies ahead. Many are passing through pressures of one kind and another; many in bodily weakness, many getting old, with pressures in their bodies, but our spirits are refreshed with the knowledge that the love of
Christ is behind all—“Having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end”.
We would be affected by this—we know that our love is so feeble and so frail, and we are so changeable, but here we are in touch with a love which never deviates; a love that went right through and will be with us to the end. We are reminded that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and to the ages to come”, Hebrews 13: 8. What a Man He is! The effect of having to do with Him should enter into our souls more, and energize us more, for the enemy is increasingly active. He seeks to rob us of what we have in our souls; he takes no holidays. But the love of Christ is active on our behalf and, as we have said, His love goes right through. We would therefore desire that our love for Christ should be sustained, and He is able to preserve us and keep our love for Him fresh and vital and living.
This has made a very real impression on me, for you look around and see things falling apart; standards are falling; things that we esteemed in years gone by have broken down; things are just falling apart in the hands of men, but when you think of the permanence of what is linked with Christ you realise that with Him there is no breakdown. May our souls get into that area with that Man with whom there is no breakdown or variation or shadow of turning! What a blessed thing! With Him there is that which is going through for the pleasure of the heart of God, and there is that which sustains us through all the circumstances through which we are passing. He could say, “I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age”, Matthew 28: 20. It is the love of this Man which is behind us, who “Having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end”.
Let us be faithful to Him. As we seek to be faithful to Him. He will see us through. His hand is not shortened. We may think that it is, because of our impatience and lack of faith. But His hand is not shortened; He has all the resources, all the reserves at His disposal; we just need to realise it more, that this is the Man with whom we are linked—the Lord Jesus Christ! May we draw on His help, for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Brooklyn, N.Y.
12 February 1974