Easter Love

One of the first songs any child learns in Sunday School is 'Jesus loves me this I know'….but what does it mean that Jesus loves us?

Let's consider a few well known scripture verses:

'For God so Loved the World that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.'

(John  3:16)

God's Love toward us is seen in that

 'while we were still sinners Christ died for us' 

(Romans 5:8)

'By this we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. 

And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.' 

(1 John 3:16)

As Easter once again draws nigh we remember afresh that Jesus loves us…with a love that inherently incorporates his coming to earth to die - to bear our sin, so that we could be forgiven, found 'in Him' and his righteousness, and not in our own 'filthy rags' of sin.  

But recently I was reminded of the extent of that love, 

a love that 

Ephesians 3:19 tells us

'passes knowledge'

The well known preacher of the 1800's in England, Charles Spurgeon, spoke about this passage in the March 28th section of his famous devotional 'Morning and Evening'. He believes that we can't even begin to have any idea about what Christ's love for us is all about, without understanding that it is rooted in two things.

1. the reality of 'his previous glory in its height of majesty', 

and 

2. 'his incarnation upon the earth in all its depths of shame'. 

He believes that if we don't start there, we miss the whole 'essence of his coming'. 

But he asks 'Who can tell his height of glory then? And who, on the other hand, can tell how low he descended?' …from such heights of glory as majestic Creator blessed forever to 'a death of shame and desertion by his Father'.  He calls it unparalleled agony!  But it is an agony, a suffering that he says needs to be understood in the terms of going from honour beyond comprehension to shame beyond comprehension.

Spurgeon believes the message of the Love of God is expressed in the cross, the message of Easter, but it must be understood in terms of honour and shame if it is begun to be understood at all!

Jesus willingly left heaven's glory and emptied himself of his high honour status privileges….so as to descend to shameful depths, so as to take our shame and thus rid us of our shame and grant us the gift of his honour to be seated as joint-heirs with him beside the Father in heaven!

Can we even begin to comprehend this?…we will never fully comprehend it, but we must contemplate it sufficiently so as to begin to glimpse its immensity and thus the immensity of what Christ has done for us. 

We can only bow in grateful praise, humble allegiance and faith-filled obedience, as we honour Christ as Saviour and King.

But surely then our next logical question must be:

What then does this mean for us when Jesus commands us to 'love one another as I have loved you' in John 13:34?

It means that we are willing to give up our own glory and take any amount of shame to ourselves, so that others might come to know what true honour is. 

Even at the cost of our own honour, which we are called to give up, we are to honour God so as to rightly honour others. We are to deny ourselves - put others' honour before our own. Any shame we are called to experience on this earth pales in comparison to the depth of shame Jesus bore for us.  In fact, we have to ask ourselves if what we often define as 'love' is really love at all if it is not at the cost of sacrificing our own honour and bearing shame—not only for the sake of Christ, but for the sake of others…because we live our lives not for our own sake (honour) but for the honour of Christ and those he loves.

These are challenging thoughts this Easter….but ones which come from the amazing, incomprehensible, immensity of the honour gifted to us in Christ, because of the immensity of shame he was willing to take upon himself for us.

The words of a couple of old hymns come to mind….

I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene….and wonder how he could love me, a sinner condemned unclean.

and

Amazing love, how can it be that thou my God shouldst die for me

Be amazed in new ways this Easter as you consider Jesus' love for us in terms of honour and shame!

*****

The full text of the morning's Spurgeon devotion for March 28 is pasted below:

"The love of Christ which passeth knowledge."
Ephesians 3:19

The love of Christ in its sweetness, its fulness, its greatness, its faithfulness, passeth all human comprehension. Where shall language be found which shall describe his matchless, his unparalleled love towards the children of men? It is so vast and boundless that, as the swallow but skimmeth the water, and diveth not into its depths, so all descriptive words but touch the surface, while depths immeasurable lie beneath. Well might the poet say,

"O love, thou fathomless abyss!"

for this love of Christ is indeed measureless and fathomless; none can attain unto it. Before we can have any right idea of the love of Jesus, we must understand his previous glory in its height of majesty, and his incarnation upon the earth in all its depths of shame. But who can tell us the majesty of Christ? When he was enthroned in the highest heavens he was very God of very God; by him were the heavens made, and all the hosts thereof. His own almighty arm upheld the spheres; the praises of cherubim and seraphim perpetually surrounded him; the full chorus of the hallelujahs of the universe unceasingly flowed to the foot of his throne: he reigned supreme above all his creatures, God over all, blessed forever. Who can tell his height of glory then? And who, on the other hand, can tell how low he descended? To be a man was something, to be a man of sorrows was far more; to bleed, and die, and suffer, these were much for him who was the Son of God; but to suffer such unparalleled agony--to endure a death of shame and desertion by his Father, this is a depth of condescending love which the most inspired mind must utterly fail to fathom. Herein is love! and truly it is love that "passeth knowledge." O let this love fill our hearts with adoring gratitude, and lead us to practical manifestations of its power.