“FOR YOUR SAKES”; “FOR MY SAKE”
Sylvain Perret
Luke 19: 1-6; 21: 1-4; 22: 26-27
I seek grace, beloved brethren, to say a word as to the reference in the first passage read, “for your sakes”; and then to say a word as to what the Lord refers to as “for my sake”.
It is a very precious verse in Corinthians that I am sure is well known to all, “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ”. How fundamental it is to be formed in the knowledge and appreciation of divine grace. This is the way that God has chosen to reveal Himself and to work with us, and He intends that we should be formed by it, that we should live in it. The apostle here is writing to those who know His grace. I suppose that would raise the question with us - do we know His grace? Do we know His grace at work? Do we know it as living in our hearts? “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sakes …”. I would suggest that “for your sakes” is a very wide thought. It would include, of course, the greatest of our needs, that is our condition as sinners and as to our sins; but I think that it is a much wider thought. However, it is always good to remind ourselves at such a time that this is where it starts. We never tire speaking about the outshining of God in love that looked upon the misery of His creature - taken up by the power of sin and Satan, which has wrought such ravages in the history of men - in order to save him. Think of the compassion of God and the compassion of our Lord Jesus, prepared to come, and even to be poor, in order for man to know his God. As the hymn-writer says:
Poor man his God to know! (Hymn 188)
What grace, what an outshining of God’s love and God’s interest in man, that He has drawn near to each one of us in this way. It was for our sakes because we needed it - every man, woman and child needs it. We all need Jesus; that is why He has come. He knows us, He knows our hearts, He knows our need and He has the answer for it, and He was prepared to come at the greatest cost to Himself! That is the outshining of “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ”, the outshining of the grace of God, and we delight in it. We delight to be occupied with it, to be engaged with it: how God has drawn near to us, drawn near to us in the Person of His Son, in a Person so attractive!
Think of His compassion, think of how He felt the condition in which man is. God feels in the greatest way the condition of man, the condition of this world, everything that goes on in it; He feels it. He has the answer in Christ, and He has prolonged this dispensation because of His grace, because He knows the need of man. I often find it so affecting to consider what He said to Jonah, that His compassion was because there was a people in that city that could not “discern between their right hand and their left hand”, Jonah 4: 11. Think of the compassion of God as to the condition of man, and the outshining of “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ”. It is available today; if there is anyone in this room that has not availed themselves of it and who therefore cannot speak of His grace as being ‘for my sake’; it is available to you.
I would suggest that “for your sakes” would include more than that. Simply put, it would mean that we find that the Lord Jesus and what we find exemplified in His life is a model for us; it was for our sakes. It was for us, as an object and as a model. Think of the work of God, that the Lord Jesus can become a model for us. The prophet Isaiah could speak of Him - and this was the way that men viewed Him when He came here - that He was “a root out of dry ground … and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him”, Isa 53: 2. But God would work in each one of our hearts so that He would be a model. We all understand this word; we all understand the idea of a model, someone that you would look up to, and you would like to imitate; you would like to be like them. And God has placed the Lord Jesus before us to be a model for us, someone that we look to, and we appreciate the way He is. You read through the gospels, you see the details of the way that He was in His life, and it attracts you. You desire to be like that: “that for your sakes he, being rich, became poor, in order that ye by his poverty might be enriched”. How attractive His movements! He had before Him, of course, the accomplishment of the will of the One who had sent Him. And He knew what that will was. That will was that there would be millions and millions who would be enriched. He was prepared, whatever the cost, to become poor in order to secure it. I trust this draws our hearts to this grace, to “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ”, that we desire to know Him, that we desire to have Him as a model. This was for our sakes. It was for us, but it is more than just for our need; it is that He might be an object and model to us.
I was interested in what Mark writes where we have read, for he is the gospel writer whose account of this matter adds, “for my sake”. You do not find that in Luke’s gospel, but you find it in Mark’s. Mark was a recovered person, and that is the point from which he is writing his gospel. He set out in the path with great desire, and then he found out that he was unable to follow Paul, but he was recovered. And I wondered whether that was why he adds, “for my sake”. He had arrived in his soul, through the exercises he had gone through, that the only Object he could have before himself was the Lord. Maybe he had set out with himself as object; how often we find that motive in our hearts, even in the Lord’s things. But he had come to it that the only power, the only motive, would be Christ, that it would be “for my sake”.
What this verse also draws out wonderfully is the valuation that the Lord Jesus has of anything that He can say is “for my sake”. Peter felt keenly the disciples’ exercises. He says, “Behold, we have left all things and have followed thee”. He “began to say” - maybe he had in mind a long list of things, but the Lord quickly answers him. What a blessed position to be in! To be conscious of the Lord’s own appreciation of what has been entered into by way of exercise which can result in what there is for His sake. It is wonderful to think that God revealed Himself very early on to Abraham as the reward, Gen 15: 1. It is a need that every man has, to have a sense of reward, a sense of approval. And God is the rewarder, “he is a rewarder of them who seek him out”, Heb 11: 6. The Lord here is the rewarder, “for my sake”. What a valuation He has of it. I just mention this for our encouragement, to see that this is what had been worked out in Mark’s soul, in one who was recovered, that what he ought to have before himself was to “know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ”, to have it reigning in his heart, to have an appreciation of what was for his sake. And the Lord Himself places a tremendous value on anything that is done for His sake.
I read in Luke because I think these three passages exemplify these things. They speak both of what we find in our Lord Jesus - what is “for our sakes” - but we also find the same features expressed in individuals; so they become “for my sake”. Where we read, first of all He goes to Jericho. The way that Jericho is met is an interesting thing in scripture. There is one simple thing to remember - Jericho is met with this word, “come down”. In the history of the people of Israel, when they came to Jericho, it was not going to be taken with what would have been a conventional way of going up against a city. They were to go round it, and then the walls came down, they fell down, Josh 6. Jericho was the first city that stood in the way as they entered into the land, and it would speak to us, no doubt, as to what always stands up against God, and that is the pride of man. But the way that the Lord meets Jericho is by this word, “come down”. Zacchæus was conscious of being “little in stature”. It is an interesting word, it does not say “height”, but it says “stature”. And in keeping with the spirit of Jericho, he felt that this would stop him from reaching the Lord. He obviously did not have a very high appreciation of himself, and he felt that his stature was probably not a good thing. Perhaps he thought it would be a good idea to gain some height, to appear a bit greater than he was. But what a wonderful thing, that when the Lord meets him in grace, his stature - what he thought of himself - does not stop him any more. The Lord says to him, “make haste and come down, for to-day I must remain in thy house. And he made haste and came down, and received him with joy”. The features we find displayed by Zacchæus are obedience and subjection. He accepts the truth of the way that Jericho is met. The pride and the greatness of man in his own eyes are set aside by the One who came down. That is what marked the Lord Jesus as He came into this scene; He is the One “that descended” (Eph 4: 10), the One who came down. Paul is impressed that “He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens”. That is how God in His wisdom has operated to place divine blessing outside of the activities of man in the flesh, by placing it in Christ. So the way that everything that would seek to come in of man is met, is by coming down: “Zacchæus, make haste and come down”. Blessing is obtained by heeding the word. Zacchæus is drawn to Him, and he understands that what he is or what he is not as a man makes no difference. The only thing that matters is that he receives Jesus in his house. That is a simple word of wisdom. We often get taken up with what we are and what we are not, but the only thing that matters is what Christ is to us. That is how Jericho is met: not by human wisdom, not by conventional means as we would think of them, but it is met in the One who displayed such grace - “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” - who displayed it for our sakes, and came down.
Zacchæus “received him with joy”. That is a delivered soul, a delivered spirit, a free spirit, one who is enjoying the presence of the Lord. His stature is never mentioned again. Even if it was little, it was still too big. But what filled his house was the Lord Jesus, and that changed everything for him.
Then we find this woman. How the Lord delighted to draw attention to this woman. No one else had noticed. Maybe what they were noticing was the value of what was placed there, but they were not noticing what it cost to those who had given it. The Lord Jesus has His own valuation of things. He has His own value of what is for His sake. It may appear insignificant in our eyes, or it may even be derided, but He could speak even of “a cup of cold water”, Matt 10: 42. What a valuation He has of it! What this woman showed - and the Lord loved to draw attention to it - was her sacrifice; she gave everything. She was so taken up with the greatness of God, with the greatness of the outshining of divine grace, that she was prepared to sacrifice everything. How the Lord Jesus delighted in that feature coming to light, for He was the One who was about to sell “all whatever he had”, Matt 13: 46. That is in His grace, and that was for our sakes. He gave everything; He gave Himself. How He delighted in that feature! How too she stands in contrast to the first woman that we find on the page of scripture. Eve was in an environment of plenty. She could have had everything she wanted - and man could have had everything he wanted - apart from one tree. And what do they want, under the influence of Satan? Out of all the plenty that they could have had, they wanted the only thing that God had said they could not have, Gen 3. That is the heart of man, that is the fallen heart, never satisfied. It can have everything, and yet it still wants something else. This woman was so taken up with the greatness of “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” that she was prepared to sacrifice everything.
These two features that come to light in Luke chapters 19 and 21 are really the expression of love; obedience and sacrifice. How supremely they are seen in our Lord Jesus, the One who was “obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross”, Phil 2: 8. What an expression of His love, of His love for His God and Father, His love for those that He had loved “to the end”, John 13: 1. He was obedient, and He sacrificed Himself; the expression of love. Yet it comes to light here in two individuals, two persons that had been taken up by the greatness of “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ”, of what He was in Himself as a model, what He was for our sakes. Therefore, they are delighted to heed His word and do what they could for His sake.
I read further as to the precious Model. Those words are so precious to our hearts are they not? “I am in the midst of you as the one that serves”. Think of the circumstances in which He spoke. This was “the night in which he was delivered up”, 1 Cor 11: 23. So much was upon His spirit as to what would enter into the day that was about to break: all that He would have to face, all that He would have to bear in His spirit. Think of His sufferings in Gethsemane, in anticipation of this (Luke 22: 39-46), the thought of being made sin, and even the temptation and activity of the devil who had returned. Yet what grace to take the time to even address the strife that had arisen amongst the disciples. He addresses it with the same patience and the same grace that He always had. He does not say, ‘Do you not know what is going on? What I am about to face? What is on my spirit?’ But He points to how He had been in their midst, “I am in the midst of you as the one that serves”. How attractive a model He is, how attractive is the grace that is in display! What a draw for us.
It is a very precious consideration to look at the details of “the night in which he was delivered up”. Paul obviously had been very greatly impressed with it because when he places the Supper in the assembly, that is what he refers to, “the night in which he was delivered up”. This would make it the occasion the opportunity, as it has been feelingly called, for ‘affectionate remembrance’ (CAC vol 31 p227), affectionate remembrance of Himself, His grace; what He was for our sakes. What a blessed model He is. He had been in the midst “as the one that serves”. Think of His service in the washing of feet; He “lays aside his garments” (John 13: 4-5); what humility, what devotion, what love! That was all for our sakes. What does He say to the disciples after He had washed their feet? He urges them to do the same, v 14-15. Here He says to them, “But ye shall not be thus”. What affectionate language of grace. He had something else in mind for them than to be taken up by these questions as to who was the greatest. He says, “The kings of the nations” (Luke 22: 25) do these things, “But ye shall not be thus”. You have seen something different; you have seen Someone different; you have seen a different King, One who operates differently, One who operates in grace, One who is “in the midst of you as the one that serves”. What a model He is!
Beloved brethren, I trust we are drawn to know more of His grace, to see that everything that has come to light in His manhood, in the way He was, is to be food and a model for us. It was for our sakes. It would encourage us to reach the point that Mark had reached, that what is laid before us is for His sake. He values it more than ever we can. He has His own appreciation and seal of approval of it. What blessed examples we find, and which we find supremely in our Lord Jesus. We find one who was gladly prepared to “come down” and to let Jesus in his heart, in his house, in his life; and one who was prepared to sacrifice “all the living which she had” because she was taken up with the greatness of the glory of divine grace, the greatness of God, the greatness of the outshining that there has been of God. These are features that can only be brought about by divine Persons.
May we draw more and more on the One who has left us such a model, as One who is “in the midst of you as the one that serves”. For His Name’s sake.
Maidstone
25th January 2026