THE LOVE OF JESUS

Exodus 21:1-6; Ephesians 4:9,10; Hebrews 2:11,12

 

A.J.McK.      We had a distinct impression this morning as to the love of Jesus. I wondered whether we might enquire into that. We started with Hymn 249;

‘O Jesus, Lord, who loved us like to Thee?’

As we sang that hymn, this passage in Exodus 21 came to me. I do not feel able to go into the detail of it, but what came into my heart was verse 5; “But if the bondman shall say distinctly, I love my master, my wife, and my children, …”. The greatness of the love of Jesus encompasses all that He committed Himself to. There is a certain absolute character about that verse that freshly impressed me. “I love”; what else could He do? How could the Lord have taken a path other than one that committed Himself absolutely to God, the One in this type who was His Master, then to those whom He has secured. So there is the thought of the greatness of the love of the Lord Jesus for the God whose will He came to do, and for those who are His. We are among the number who have been secured, and we had a sense this morning of being part of what answers to that great love; “We love because he has first loved us”, 1 John 4:19.

This scripture in Ephesians was referred to in thanksgiving and I need the help of the brethren in considering what the expression of that love involved for Jesus. It involved His descent into “the lower parts of the earth”, but “He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens”. My impression is that the redeemed universe for God has been secured as the result of the love of Jesus. The lower parts of the earth we can barely comprehend, but perhaps we can get some impression together as to what that involved. Then “ascended up above all the heavens”: think of Him “going to God”, John.13:3. “Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end” (v.1). What was before Him was where He was to go and the One to whom He was to go – the One to whom He was to return. The reference to “up above all the heavens” suggests to me a place above the created scene, the redeemed universe secured for God, secured for Him in the worth of the love of Jesus.

This passage in Hebrews was referred to this morning, and I wondered if we might get a touch of what that love has brought us to. In the experience we had this morning, I think we touched something of this in our hearts; “I will declare thy name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”. As the Lord came in, we experienced His love and He was leading the praise Godward. I thought that we were in the area of the activity of His love in order that God might be glorified. Then we finished with hymn 72;

‘Our God whom we have known,

Well known in Jesus’ love,’

That touched my heart, that everything that is for God, everything that answers to Him, is established in the love of Jesus.

R.D.P.      In the illustration of the Hebrew bondman, bond service according to scripture mainly involved duty. The bondmen are to say, “we have done what it was our duty to do”, Luke 17:10. I wondered if the Lord as coming in and taking a bondman’s form introduced an element into bondmanship which had not been there before. “I love”; it speaks of what was beyond duty.

A.J.McK.      I appreciate that comment. He filled out that bondmanship perfectly. I suppose this gives us the view that love was added to it – His love for the will of the Master. That would not necessarily have been the case for bondmen at that time, for it was slavery, which does not usually suggest love for a master. But the Lord, as coming in, begins with the thought of love, and love seemed to characterise everything He did in every element of that service. It really glorified His service as a bondman.

P.M.      It is striking that this comes immediately after the giving of the commandments. That looked on to Jesus. No one else could fulfil the law, but He not only fulfilled it but He was the fulfilment of it, and He was that in love for God.

A.J.McK.      Yes. “Sacrifice and offering thou willedst not”, Heb.10:5. The law had to be given so that God might make Himself known, and might make His thoughts known to man. But it helps us to see that, at every stage of the Old Testament times, what God had before Him was the One who would fulfil it, the One who would be that law; “thy law is within my heart”, Ps.40:8. It rested in His heart; it was contained there. Do you think the love that the Lord Jesus had for it and the love that He had for the One who had given the law really characterised every element of that pathway of His?

P.M.      His motive for everything was love. Whether that was towards God or man, His motive was love.

A.J.McK.      That supports my impression because it says, “if the bondman shall say distinctly, I love …”. It suggests that “I love” was characteristic of Christ. What else could He do, what else could He express, because of who He was? “I love”; it filled every thought that He had, do you think?

R.D.P.      I was thinking of what has just been said as to love. In the gospels the Lord is challenged about the law and He says, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart …”. Then He says, “And the second is like it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”, Matt.22:37-39. It is interesting that the Lord says, “On these two commandments the whole law and the prophets hang” (v 40). It is in these two commandments that we get this great matter of love.

A.M.      In the life and work of the Lord Jesus, the love of God was revealed, it was displayed, but this is the love of a Man. What it must have meant for the Father to look down and see the love of a Man so perfectly expressed according to His own thoughts.

A.J.McK.      That is really my impression, that we should be engaged with the love of Jesus because it was what came into expression in Him when He was here. What came into expression was what entirely filled that blessed Man; He could, as it were, say “distinctly”. I wonder when that was, but I think it characterised every element of His pathway and every element of His life, that a Man should be here completely engaged and completely absorbed with everything that was for God, and with securing a scene that would be entirely for Him.

A.M.      Indeed, and as far as He personally was concerned, He could have returned to heaven at any time in His pathway, but He did not. At every stage, He said “I love”, and went forward.

A.J.McK.      Yes; He “having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end”, John 13:1. I wondered about reading that but it freshly impresses me that this was characteristic of the Lord Jesus and it characterised every moment of that life, every step that He took, every word that He spoke, every movement that He made. Every time that He reached out for a soul in need, it was in love, and it was because of what we have here in Exodus 21: “I love”.

N.J.H.      The bondman said, “I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free”, then immediately the master brings him before the judges. Were the gospel writers like these judges?

A.J.McK.      That is an interesting thought. Do you mean they were those who were able to have a full assessment of the commitment of the Lord Jesus? There were those who accompanied Him, and they would have seen it. You get men like Luke who would have been told about the love of Jesus, and it comes out in Luke’s writings – that love is expressed there. But do you think those who accompanied Him saw it particularly?

N.J.H.      Two of the gospel writers were in company with the Lord while here in the days of His flesh and two were with Paul, so the love of Christ was stamped across not only Paul’s life but was brought into the Pauline epistles.

A.J.McK      I suppose Paul had a particular view of it; he says as to the mystery, “I speak as to Christ, and as to the assembly”, Eph.5:32. Think of what filled Paul’s heart as he served, and those who accompanied him would have seen the truth of this.

H.T.F.      This could not have been fulfilled until the One who fulfilled the law came. I wonder if that confirms what our brother has suggested as to the gospels.

A.J.McK.      Yes. Do you mean that there was no one else of whom this could be true? No one else could have said “distinctly, I love”. That brings into our minds that scripture “Lo, I come”, Heb.10:9. The immensity of the incarnation was in order that this love might be manifested; the heart of God was manifested then.

R.W.McC      I was thinking that the Lord as a bondman exercised His right by committing Himself. He could have gone out free and the section in Deuteronomy 15, which probably links more with our side of it, it says, “thou shalt not let him go away empty; thou shalt certainly furnish him from thy sheep, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress” (vv.13,14), then “double the worth of a hired servant hath he been to thee” (v.18). The Lord could have gone out full with blessing, but He committed Himself to not going out free.

A.J.McK.      Does that not touch our hearts to think of the depth of this love? I was affected by that this morning;

‘O Jesus, Lord, who loved us like to Thee?’ (Hymn 249).

There is no love that can compare with it, no one else could have made this commitment and in one sense it is inconceivable that He could have gone out, although He had the right to do that. But in His love, He committed Himself entirely to His master, His wife, and His children, committed Himself completely to that great service of love.

K.M.      The bondman says, “I will not go free”, not ‘I cannot’. He made the decision Himself rather than it being imposed on Him.

A.J.McK.      So that shows us what was there in his heart.

T.W.L.      Is the praise of God in type the objective of the love that is expressed in the order of the bondman’s commitment: “my master, my wife, and my children”? Christ committed Himself to God to fulfil His will so that the “pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand”, Isa.53:10. He committed Himself to the assembly so that in “the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”. He committed Himself to His children because they represent His brethren, involving what they would be for His God. Does that fit in with what you have in mind?

A.J.McK.      It fits in very much, and captures what was in my heart as to Hebrews, that there is to be response for God, and it all depended upon this commitment of love. God saw to it that there was a way established by which He would have what His heart ever desired, and it was established in the greatness of that love of Jesus.

T.W.L.      I was thinking that in Christ you see unselfish love. He was not thinking for Himself. The Father thought for Christ and Christ thought for the Father. It is the unselfish love of Christ in commitment.

A.J.McK.      I think that is absolutely right. It was a love that was single minded, a love that was focussed on, and had in mind, everything that would be entirely for God.

C.C.D.R.      Could you say a word as to this double witness, the awl through the ear, so that there would be a mark on the ear and a mark on the door.

A.J.McK.      You have obviously been thinking about it.

C.C.D.R.      First of all the bondman speaks “distinctly”, but then there was what could be seen, not only in his ear, but there would be left an indelible mark on that door or the doorpost.

A.J.McK.      What you are drawing attention to is very attractive. It reinforces for us the level of the commitment that the Lord made; He Himself carried the mark of that commitment. As to a mark on the doorpost, I am not sure I can say much as to that, but it would be in type what would stand as confirmation to God as to the commitment Christ had made.

N.J.H.      Every time a person entered, they would be affected in principle by the devotion of Christ.

A.J.McK.      That is good; it would be there as a reminder.

C.C.D.R.      It may link with your scripture yesterday, “ears hast thou prepared me”¹. Do you think this morning we had that indelible witness before us, the mark of the awl and the doorpost; the love of Christ was before us.

A.J.McK.      That is good, and that is where we started this morning. We sat down in quietness and what was before us were the emblems, the witness of His love. I was helped some time ago by an older brother as to the Supper. He said ‘When you sit down at the Supper, look at the emblems, take account of them’. What you are drawing attention to is good because there is the mark of the greatness of this love and the greatness of the commitment that that Man has made.

H.T.F.      The Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross by His hands and His feet, but we have often been told that it was not the nails that held Him there, it was His love. I wondered if that links with what we are speaking of.

A.J.McK.      Zechariah says that Israel shall see the wounds in His hands (Zech.13:6). It is something to wonder at, as is the fact that He “descended into the lower parts of the earth”. The course that He took, the path that He went, led Him to death itself.

T.W.L.      In relation to what our brother has brought up as to the double witness, do we also see the love of Christ in His commitment to the rights of His God in having His ear bored through with an awl, because it was on the doorpost? According to Deuteronomy 6, the law was to be carved on the posts of the people’s houses, perhaps speaking of Christ’s commitment in love to the rights of His God.

A.J.McK.      I think that supports what we are saying. It is as if He would say, I have committed myself to that. And that commitment is unwavering and unchanging and unchangeable.

T.W.L.      It is good to take account in the life of Christ that not only was He committed to an answer to the heart of His God, but He was committed to the glory of the rights of His God. He carried all of that in His heart.

P.M.      At one point after Jesus had come down from the mount, they took account of Him that His face was set to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51); that was represented by the ear bored through. Jesus was committed to fulfil the will of God and the rights of God.

A.J.McK.      Yes, “he stedfastly set his face”; nothing was going to divert Him from that pathway. Blessed be His name, He was not diverted from it! And as having made that commitment, His objective was that there should be the fulfilling of everything that had been given Him to do. It was all done in love.

Maybe we should look at the scripture in Ephesians.

N.J.H.      It says “and to know the love of the Christ”, Eph.3:19. Paul looks forward to the whole thought of the service of God. It is the perfect love of Christ, but it was in Paul’s mind that the assembly is for Christ, and the worship of God. Everyone is going to know the love of the Christ.

A.J.McK.      That is the love of the One who has the highest office in the universe. He has all that is for God in His heart. I wondered if we might get a touch of what that love involved from this passage in Ephesians – what that commitment led to. It involved the Lord’s descent, something that should affect our hearts; He “descended into the lower parts of the earth”.

P.M.      I would like some help as to the “lower parts of the earth”. Is that more than a reference to the grave?

A.J.McK.      I do not know. I would like you to help us. My impression of it is that the whole universe for God was secured through this great movement. He went into the grave and I suppose there is the public testimony as to that, but He went into death itself.

P.M.      I wondered if His death, His entering into the “lower parts of the earth”, involved that He went lower than anyone else could ever go because of what death meant to Him.

R.W.McC.      Jonah touches on that: “The weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains”, chap.2:6.

H.T.F.      Does the fact that Jesus defeated death by going into it bear on that too? No one else had had that impact on death. He defeated it!

A.J.McK.      I think what we are saying should move us to worship when we take account of the distance that was involved. He went into death, but death had no claim on Him; is that your point? As to what it meant to Him, it meant that He went further than any other could go.

A.M.      You referred yesterday to Psalm 16; Thou wilt not “allow thy Holy One to see corruption” (v.10). The scripture uses the expression ‘Sheol’. Is it wonderful that as a result of the way that He has been, every sphere of creation has had the love of Jesus witnessed to it?

A.J.McK.      Yes. Whatever the sphere of creation, the love of Jesus has been witnessed to. As our brother was saying, God’s rights are over the whole sphere and it has been secured in love. It was His love that caused Him to go this far – to the “bottoms of the mountains”, and “the weeds were wrapped about my head”. How much that meant for the Lord Jesus. It was my impression that His love put those emblems on the table this morning for us, the love that took Him to the lower parts of the earth.

A.M.      There could be no greater distance or contrast between what He had constantly known in communion with His Father and being in the lower parts of the earth. There is no greater distance than that. But in love He went.

A.J.McK.      And we can take account of the fact that “He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens”, so that love brought Him out of the lower parts of the earth and took Him to the highest place The great breadth that is spanned by the love of Jesus impresses me.

P.M.      It has been said that He filled every heaven through which He passed, and He fills it with the greatness of His love and He fills the Father’s heart.

A.J.McK.      He has ascended up above all the heavens. We are told He passed through the heavens. I suppose we have to take it that He passed through all the heavens (Heb.4:14) to be above the heavens, so every heaven, every scene, every level has been filled as He passed through them in triumph in view of filling out His place in the Father’s presence.

P.M.      And is it God’s love for Him that every knee will bow, heavenly, and earthly and infernal beings, Phil.2:10. Every sphere through which He has passed will bow in adoration of that glorious One and even infernal beings will also acknowledge Him.

A.J.McK.      There will be those who will be brought to worship and we are glad to be among that number now, but then there will be what is compelled. There will be response from even what belongs in those lower parts. Infernal beings will be compelled to acknowledge His greatness and His glory, compelled to acknowledge the depth of that love.

R.W.McC.      I was going to link with what our brother said earlier; that scripture in Philippians goes on to say “to God the Father’s glory”.

A.J.McK.      So God is glorified by all of this. We enjoyed it this morning and I think as a number of us said, one day we will not leave it. We can only touch it now, but think about what God gets from this. How much He receives; “to God the Father’s glory”. Everything for Him is established by Christ.

R.D.P.      I was thinking of the expression in one of the hymns;

‘Through creation’s vault is ringing’ (Hymn 14).

It is very expressive. I was thinking of man’s efforts to establish the origins of the universe by seeking to go back for aeons of time, but no matter how far back they try to go, they do not have the answer. But the Lord Jesus went to the lower parts of the earth.

A.J.McK.      It is to move us to worship. I wondered about these words “what is it but that he also descended”. It is as if Paul would say, ‘We have to worship at this’. What you say as to creation’s vault – there is so much of creation that man does not know and every time he finds more, he finds there is yet more that he does not know. But creation, that whole area, has been marked, indelibly marked, by the love of Jesus.

R.D.P.      There is so much that we do not know about, and also things which we know very little about, such as the heavenly families – all will be in relation to the praise of God. There they are, all secured through the blood of Christ, through His work. I was thinking of how Christ has been manifested; “But now once in the consummation of the ages he has been manifested”, Heb.9:26. It is tremendous!

C.C.D.R.      So He, and only He, could have done this. No other man, no angel – only the Lord Jesus could have done this.

A.J.McK.      He has been made “some little inferior to the angels”, Heb.2:7. As we have been saying, it required the love of a Man in order that God might be glorified in this scene.

C.D.D.R.      And the love of a divine Person? I am thinking of the way in which those who were tempting the Lord could seek a sign, and the Lord said that they would not have a sign; they had already had them. They had had Solomon and Jonas (Matt.12:38-42). The Witness was there in front of them, fulfilling the law perfectly.

A.J.McK.      Yes, and He said there that “more than Solomon is here”.

R.W.McC.      I was thinking of the forsaking as we have been speaking; that was lower than anyone else has gone.

A.J.McK.      What did that mean to the Father – those three hours when communion was broken? The cost of that to divine Persons is something that impresses me. I am not sure that we will ever grasp the depth of what that involved. A precious communion characterised every moment of the life of Jesus, and it was broken. What distance that must have brought in when it became a question of God and man. It was because of the love of that Man that He went that way.

A.M.      We have various references in hymns to what is unfathomable. It is unfathomable to us, but He fathomed it.

A.J.McK.      Yes, He did.

‘Thou did’st measure then sin’s distance’ (Hymn 298).

We will take eternity to fathom some of these things. They are beyond the human mind to grasp. But He measured that distance; He “descended into the lower parts of the earth”, and has “ascended up above all the heavens”. That great movement is His and He has done it in love.

H.T.F.      I was noticing in Psalm 68 where this was taken from; “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts in Man, and even for the rebellious” (v.18). We do not get that in Ephesians 4 and I wondered if that brings out or links us with us being the subjects of the love of Jesus.

A.J.McK.      I do think that. I think that we had a sense this morning that those that were here were precious to God, precious to the Lord. We would have loved to have seen many more in this room, but I think we had a sense of the love of Jesus flooding into our hearts. There was the witness on the table and we were able, in the power that came in, to enter into the very greatest privilege. That is what divine love has established.

P.M.      Was it necessary that the Lord Jesus should go this way that He might be the Centre of a reconciled universe for God. Paul says, “by Him reconciling all things”, Col.1:20. How wonderful that is.

A.J.McK.      That brings before us what has come out as a result of this love; that that is really what I had in mind in Hebrews.

P.M.      By one man sin entered into the world, but by one Man, in love for His God, provided the basis for a universe reconciled to God. He has done it all because He loves His God.

A.J.McK.      Yes. Do you think that in Hebrews we touch something of how that works out; “in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”? The whole scene is characterised by His activity and His desires.

T.W.L.      I was thinking that the Lord Jesus passed through the heavens (Heb.4:14), and He reconciles all that by His love for His God. He does that as a Man; it shows the greatness of the manhood of Christ and also the greatness of His Person. He is the only One who could pass through the heavens, but as passing through them as Man, He reconciles them all to His God according to the love of His heart.

A.J.McK.      Yes; everything is reconciled to God: the sphere of the heavens is marked by His presence and because of that it is reconciled to God because He has been there. It is because of the Man Himself – His greatness and His glory, His love and who He is – that those heavens are reconciled.

T.W.L.      It says, “that he might fill all things”; that is character. That is what it is before God; it is that Man. Everything reconciled has the character of Christ for God.

A.J.McK.      Yes, the character of the One who has reconciled everything.

R.W.McC.      We were thinking about the mark of the awl on the doorpost. We will carry in our affections eternally the appreciation of what it cost Christ, and that cost will always be a witness to His love.

A.J.McK.      Our brother has drawn attention to “once in the consummation of the ages”. It has only needed to be done once.

R.W.McC.      I often think of that. It is like a balance with the fulcrum in the middle and all the ages are balanced.

A.J.McK.      Yes exactly, and His love is what has secured everything for God. So there is liberty here; “he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”. My impression is that there is a scene of peace and tranquillity where God is praised, where everything ascends to the One to whom it is due as a result of the love of Jesus.

R.D.P.      It is remarkable in John that the Lord in speaking to His Father says, “I sanctify myself for them”, John 17:19. Something of that enters into the Lord’s present position in relation to His saints. He says, “Sanctify them by the truth: thy word is truth” (v.17). I like to think of the Lord set apart at the present time. You get the thought of holiness in His setting Himself apart at the present time in relation to His people down here.

A.J.McK.      He does that in order that we might be actively engaged in what is proceeding in heaven. This is a high level; “in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”. It seems to me that this comes to the heart of the Lord’s desires for His God, and we are part of that. We had the experience of that this morning and it is His love and all that His love has done that brings us actively into that area where we can touch holiness.

R.D.P.      Holiness might be a word we may skirt around, but I suppose it is an area of things where everything is of God, where there is not even an errant thought or even a suggestion of it in that area of things in which He is.

N.J.H.      Mr Darby wrote ‘of all His sufferings talk’ (Hymn 270). It means that things are carried through in the affections of God’s people. We cannot attribute the marks of His sufferings to His body of glory, I understand, but everything, including His sufferings, is carried forward in the affections and in the wealth of the assembly.

A.J.McK.      Yes, and so it is “in the midst of the assembly” that He takes the initiative in leading the praise; “in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”. We had an experience of that this morning, the Lord in the midst leading the praise and filling out what was for God. We had the privilege to be part of that, and it comes from our affections. “We love because he has first loved us”, 1 John 4:18.

N.J.H.      It has been said that when He sings in the midst of the assembly; He sings through the affections of the assembly.

H.T.F.      I would like help as to the verse in John 11. “Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus” (v.5). I wondered if the love of Jesus that you are speaking of is a particular love, it is a personal love. When we are speaking of collective love, it does not generalise it; it is a love that is great enough to have reached us all – we who were afar off have been brought nigh by the blood of the Christ (Eph.2:13).

A.J.McK.      I do think that. We often sing Hymn 4;

‘Thine is the love Lord that draws us together’

I think the Supper is where we see the fruit of that personal love of Jesus working in us individually. But then it brings us together, and together we would desire to reach the heights of what that love has in mind.

C.C.D.R.      The verse previous to the verses that you have quoted in Hebrews comes from Psalm 22, where it says, “Yea, from the horns of the buffaloes hast thou answered me” (v.21). It is the provision of strength and power; it speaks of resurrection. I am wondering if that is the answer. We have spoken about the descent, I wondered if that answer is the ascent.

A.J.McK.      Yes, that is good: “from the horns of the buffaloes hast thou answered me”. We had a reference this morning to the way in which David was brought “forth into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me”, Ps.18:19. The greatness of the answer is in view of this place being filled by the Lord Jesus ascending “up above all the heavens”. What an answer He had and has and we have the privilege to enter into that.

 

Grimsby

9 February 2020

 

 

KEY TO INITIALS

H.T.F.      H Tim Franklin      Grimsby

N.J. H.      Norman J Henry      Glasgow

T.W.L.      Terry W Lock      Edinburgh

R.W.McC.      Rob W McClean      Grimsby

A.J.McK.      Alastair J McKay      Witney

A.M.      Andrew Martin      Buckhurst Hill

P.M.      Paul Martin      Colchester

K.M.      Keith May      Maidstone

R.D.P.      Ron D Plant      Birmingham

C.C.D.R.      Charles C D Remmington      St Albans