Titus 2:14
“Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
We have once more, you see, the old subject. We still
have to tell the story of the love of God towards man
in the person of his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
When you come to your table you find a variety there.
Sometimes there is one dish upon it, and sometimes
another; but you are never at all surprised to find the
bread there every time, and, perhaps, we might add that
there would be a deficiency if there were not salt
there every time too. So there are certain truths which
cannot be repeated too often, and especially is this
true of this master-truth, that "God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them." Why, this is the bread of life;
"God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish,
but have everlasting life." This is the salt upon the
table, and must never be forgotten, This is a faithful
saying, and worthy of all acceptation, "that Jesus
Christ came into the world to save sinners, even the
chief."
Now we shall take the text, and use it thus: first of
all we shall ask it some questions; then we shall
surround it with a setting of facts; and when we have
done that, we will endeavour to press out of it its
very soul as we draw certain inferences from it. First
then:-
I. WE WILL PUT THE TEXT INTO THE WITNESS-BOX, AND ASK
IT A FEW QUESTIONS.
There are only five words in the text, and we will be
content to let it go with four questions. "Who gave
himself for us" The first question we ask the text is,
Who is this that is spoken of? and the text gives the
answer. It is "the great God and our Saviour, Jesus
Christ, who gave himself for us." We had offended God;
the dignity of divine justice demanded that offenses
against so good and just a law as that which God had
promulgated should not be allowed to go unpunished. But
the attribute of justice is not the only one in the
heart of God. God is love, and is, therefore, full Of
mercy. Yet, nevertheless, he never permits one quality
of his Godhead to triumph over another. He could not be
too merciful, and so become unjust; he would not permit
mercy to put justice to an eclipse. The difficulty was
solved thus: God himself stooped from his loftiness and
veiled his glory in a garb of our inferior clay. The
Word-that same Word without whom was not anything made
that was made-became flesh, and dwelt amongst us; and
his apostles, his friends, and his enemies, beheld
him-the seed of the woman, but yet the Son of God, very
God of very God, in all the majesty of deity, and yet
man of the substance of his mother in all the weakness
of our humanity, sin being the only thing which
separated us from him, he being without sin, and we
being full of it. It is, then, God, who "gave himself
for us"; it is, then, man, who gave himself for us. It
is Jesus Christ, co-equal and co-eternal with the
Father, who thought it not robbery to be equal with
God; who made himself of no reputation, and took upon
himself the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and, being found in fashion
as a man, humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. It is Christ Jesus,
the man, the God, "who gave himself for us." Now I hope
we shall not make any mistakes here, for mistakes here
will be fatal. We may be thought uncharitable for
saying it, but we should be dishonest if we did not say
it, that it is essential to be right here.
"Ye cannot be right in the rest
Unless ye think rightly of him."
You dishonour Christ if you do not believe in his
deity. He will have nothing to do with you unless you
accept him as being God as well as man. You must
receive him as being, without any diminution,
completely and wholly divine, and you must accept him
as being your brother, as being a man just as you are.
This, this is the person, and, relying upon him, we
shall find salvation; but, rejecting his deity, he will
say to us, "You know me not, and I never knew you!"
The text has answered the question "Who?" and now,
putting it in the witness-box again, we ask it another
question-"What? What did he do?" The answer is, "He
gave himself for us." It was a gift. Christ's offering
of himself for us was voluntary; he did it of his own
will. He did not die because we merited that, he should
love us to the death; on the contrary, we merited that
he should hate us; we deserved that he should cast us
from his presence obnoxious things, for we were full of
sin. We were the wicked keepers of the vineyard, who
devoured for our own profit the fruit which belonged to
the King's Son, and he is that King's Son, whom we
slew, with wicked hands ousting him out of the
vineyard. But he died for us who were his enemies.
Remember the words of Scripture, "Scarcely for a
righteous man will one die; peradventure, for a good, a
generous man, one might even dare to die; but God
commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly." He gave
himself. We cannot purchase the love of God. This
highest expression of divine love, the gift of his own
Son, was, in the nature of things, unpurchaseable. What
could we have offered that God should come into this
world, and be found in fashion as a man, and should
die? Why, the works of all the angels in heaven put
together could not have deserved one pang from Christ.
If for ever the angels had continued their ceaseless
songs, and if all men had remained faithful, and could
have heaped up their pile of merit to add to that of
the angels, and if all the creatures that ever were, or
ever shall be, could each bring in their golden hemp of
merit-yet could they ever deserve you cross? Could they
deserve that the Son of God should hang bleeding and
dying there? Impossible! It must by a gift, for it was
utterly unpurchaseable; though all worlds were coined
and minted, yet could they not have purchased a tear
from the Redeemer; they were not worth it. It must be
grace; it cannot be merit; he gave himself.
And the gift is so thoroughly a gift that no prep of
any kind was brought to bear upon the Saviour. There
was no necessity that he should die, except the
necessity of his loving us. Ah! friends, we might have
been blotted out of existence, and I do not know that
there would have been any lack in God's universe if the
whole race of man had disappeared. That universe is too
wide and great to miss such chirping grasshoppers as we
are. When one star is blotted out it may make a little
difference to our midnight sky, but to an eye that sees
immensity it can make no change. Know ye not that this
little solar system, which we think so vast, and those
distant fixed stars, and yon mighty masses of nebulae,
if such they be, and yonder streaming comet, with its
stupendous walk of grandeur-all these are only like a
little corner in the field of God's great works? He
taketh them all up as nothing, and considereth them
mighty as they be, and beyond all human conception
great-to be but the small dust of the balance which
does not turn the scale; and if they were all gone to-
morrow there would be no more loss than as if a few
grains of dust were thrown to the summer's wind. But
God himself must stoop, rather than we should die. Oh!
what magnificence of love! And the more so because
there was no need for it. In the course of nature God
would have been as holy and as heavenly without us as
he is with us, and the pomp of yonder skies would have
been as illustrious had we been dashed into the flames
of hell as it will be now. God hath gained nought,
except the manifestation of a love beyond an angel's
dream; a grace, the heights, and depths, and lengths,
and breadths of which surpass all knowledge of all
creatures. God only knows the love of God which is
manifested in Jesus Christ. He gave himself. We will
leave this point now, when it is fully understood that
Christ's dying to save sinners, and giving himself for
the ungodly, was a pure act of gratuitous mercy. There
was nothing to compel God to give his Son, and nothing
to lead the Son to die, except the simple might of his
love to men. He would not see us die. He had a Father's
love to us. He seemed to stand over our fallen race, as
David stood over Absalom, and we were as bad as
Absalom; and there he fled, and said, "My son, my son!
Would God I had died for thee, my son, my son!" But he
did more than this, for he did die for us. and all for
love of Us who were his enemies!
"So strange, so boundless was the love,
Which pitied dying man;
The Father sent his equal Son
To give them life again."
'Twas all of love and of grace!
The third question is, "What did he give?" "Who gave
himself for us," and here lies the glory of the text,
that he gave not merely the crowns and royalties of
heaven, though it was much to leave these, to come and
don the humble garb of a carpenter's son; not the songs
of seraphs, not the shouts of cherubim: 'twas something
to leave them to come and dwell amongst the groans and
tears of this poor fallen world; not the grandeur of
his Father's court, though it was much to leave that to
come and live with wild beasts, and men more wild than
they, to fast his forty days and then to die in ignomy
and shame upon the tree. No; there is little said about
all this. He gave all this, it is true, but he gave
himself. Mark, brethren, what a richness there is here!
It is not that he gave his righteousness, though that
has become our dress. It is not even that he gave his
blood, though that is the fount in which we wash. It is
that he gave himself-his Godhead and manhood both
combined. All that that word "Christ" means he came to
us and for us. He gave himself. Oh! that we could dive
and plunge into-this unfathomed sea-himself!
Omnipotence, Omniscience, Infinity-himself. He gave
himself-purity, love, kindness, meekness,
gentleness-that wonderful compound of all perfections,
to make up one perfection-himself. You do not come to
Christ's house and say, "He gives me this house, his
church, to dwell in." You do not come to his table and
merely say, "He gives me this table to feast at," but
you go farther, and you take him by faith into your
arms, and you say, "Who loved me, and gave himself for
me." Oh! that you could get hold of that sweet
word-himself! It is the love of a husband to his wife,
who not only gives her all that she can wish, daily
food and raiment, and all the comforts that can nourish
and cherish her, and make her life glad, but who gives
himself to her. So does Jesus. The body and soul of
Jesus, the deity of Jesus, and all that that means, he
has been pleased to give to and for his people. "Who
gave himself for us."
There is another question which we shall ask the text,
and that is, "For whom did Christ give himself?" Well,
the text says, "For us." There be those who say that
Christ has thus given himself for every man now living,
or that ever did or shall live. We are not able to
subscribe to the statement, though there is a truth in
it, that in a certain sense he is "the Saviour of all
men," but then it is added, "Specially of them that
believe." At any rate, dear hearer, let me tell thee
one thing that is certain. Whether atonement may be
said to be particular or general, there are none who
partake in its real efficacy but certain characters,
and those characters are known by certain infallible
signs. You must not say that he gave himself for you
unless these signs are manifest in you, and the first
sign is that of simple faith in the Lord Jesus. If thou
believest in him, that shall be a proof to thee that he
gave himself for thee. See, if he gave himself for all
men alike, then he did equally for Judas and for Peter.
Care you for such love as that? He died equally for
those who were then in hell as for those who were then
in heaven. Care you for such a doctrine as that? For my
part, I desire to have a personal, peculiar, and
special interest in the precious blood of Jesus; such
an interest in it as shall lead me to his right hand,
and enable me to say, "He hath washed me from my sins,
in his blood." Now I think we have no right to conclude
that we shall have any benefit from the death of Christ
unless we trust him, and if we do trust him, that trust
will produce the following things:-"Who gave himself
for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity"-we
shall hate sin; we shall fight against it; we shall be
delivered from it- "and purify unto himself ,a peculiar
people, zealous of good works." I have no right.
therefore, to conclude that I shall be a partaker of
the precious blood of Jesus unless I become in my life
"zealous of good works," My good works cannot save me,
cannot even help to save me; but they are evidences of
my being saved, and if I am not zealous for good works,
I lack the evidence of salvation, and I have no right
whatever to conclude that I shall receive one jot of
benefit from Christ's sufferings upon the tree. Oh! my
dear hearer, I would to God that thou couldest trust
the Man, the God, who died on Calvary! I would that
thou couldest trust him so that thou couldest say, "He
will save me; he has saved me." The gratitude which you
would feel towards him would inspire you with an
invincible hatred against sin. You would begin to fight
against every evil way; you would conform yourselves,
by his grace, to his law and his Word, and you would
become a new creature in him! May God grant that you
may yet be able to say, "Who gave himself for me"! I
have asked the text enough questions, and there I leave
them. For a few minutes only I am now going to use the
text another way, namely:-
II. PUT THE TEXT INTO A SETTING OF FACTS.
There was a day before all days when there was no day
but the Ancient of Days; a time when there was no time,
but when Eternity was all. Then God, in the eterna1
purpose, decreed to save his people. If we may speak so
of things too mysterious for us to know them, and which
we can only set forth after the manner of men, God had
determined that his people should be saved, but he
foresaw that they would sin. It was necessary,
therefore. that the penalty due to their sins should be
borne by someone. They could not be saved except a
substitute were found who would bear the penalty of sin
in their place and stead. Where was such a substitute
to be found? No angel offered. There was no angel, for
God dwelt alone, and even if there had then been
angels, they could never have dared to offer to sustain
the fearful weight of human guilt. But in that solemn
council-chamber, when it was deliberated who should
enter into bonds of suretyship to pay all the debts of
the people of God, Christ came and gave himself a
bondsman and a surety for all that was due-from them,
or would be due from them, to the judgment-seat of God.
In that day, then, he "gave himself for us."
But Time began, and this round world had made, in the
mind of God, a few revolutions. Men said the world was
getting old, but to God it was but an infant. But the
fulness of time was come, and suddenly, amidst the
darkness of the night, there was heard sweeter singing
than ere had come from mortal lips, "Glory to God in
the highest; on earth peace; good will to men!" What
lit up the sky with unwonted splendour and what had
filled the air with chorales at the dead of night? See
the Babe upon its mother's breast, there in Bethlehem's
manger! "He gave himself for us." That same one who had
given himself a surety has come down to earth to be a
man, and to give himself for us. See him! For thirty
years he toils on, amidst the drudgery of the
carpenters shop! What is he doing? The law needed to be
fulfilled, and he "gave himself for us," and fulfilled
the law. But now the time comes when he is thirty-two
or thirty-three years of age, and the law demands that
the penalty shall be paid. Do you see him going to meet
Judas in the garden, with confident, but solemn step?
He "gave himself for us." He could with a word have
driven those soldiers into hell, but they bind him-he
"gave himself for us." They take him before Pilate, and
Herod and Caiaphas, and they mock at him, and jeer him,
and pluck his cheeks, and flagellate his shoulders! How
is it that he will smart at this rate? How is it that
he bears so passively all the insults and indignities
which they heap upon him? He gave himself for us. Our
sins demanded smart; he bared his back and took the
smart; he have himself for us. But do you see that
dreadful procession going through the streets of
Jerusalem, along the rough pavement of the Via
Dolorosa? Do you see the weeping women as they mourn
because of him? How is it that he is willing to be led
a captive up to the hill of Calvary? Alas! they throw
him on the around! They drive accursed iron through his
hands and feet. They hoist him into the air! They dash
the cross into its appointed place, and there he hangs,
a naked spectacle of scorn and shame, derided of men,
and mourned by angels. How is it that the Lord of
glory, who made all worlds, and hung out the stars like
lamps, should now be bleeding and dying there? He gave
himself for us. Can you see the streaming fountains of
the four wounds in his hands and feet' Can you trace
his agony as it carves lines upon his brow and all down
his emaciated frame? No you cannot see the griefs of
his soul. No spirit can behold them. They were too
terrible for you to know them. It seemed as though all
hell were emptied into the bosom of the Son of God, and
as though all the miseries of all the ages were made to
meet upon him, till he bore:-
"All that incarnate God, could bear,
With strength enough, but none to spare."
Now why is all this but that he gave himself for us
till his head hung down in death, and his arms, in
chill, cold death, hung down by his side, and they
buried the lifeless Victor in the tomb of Joseph of
Arimethea? He gave himself for us!
What more now remaineth? He lives again; on the third
day he cometh from the tomb, and even then he still
gave himself for us! Oh! yes, beloved, he has gone up
on high but he still gives himself for us, for up there
he is constantly engaged in pleading the sinner's
cause. Up yonder, amidst the glories of heaven, he has
not forgotten us poor sinners who are here below, but
he spreads his hands, and pleads before his Father's
throne and wins for us unnumbered blessings, for he
gave himself for us.
And I have been thinking whether I might not use the
text in another way. Christ's servants wanted a subject
upon which to preach, and so he "gave himself for us,"
to be the constant topic of our ministry. Christ's
servants wanted a sweet companion to be with them in
their troubles, and he gave himself for us. Christ's
people want comfort; they want spiritual food and
drink, and so he gave himself for us-his flesh to be
our meat, and his blood to be our spiritual drink. And
we expect soon to go home to the land of the hereafter,
to the realms of the blessed, and what is to be our
heaven? Why, our heaven will be Christ himself, for he
gave himself for Us. Oh! he is all that we want, all
that we wish for! We cannot desire anything greater and
better than to be with Christ, and to have Christ, to
feed upon Christ, to lie in Christ's bosom, to know the
kisses of his mouth, to look at the gleamings of his
loving eyes, to hear his loving words, to feel him
press us to his heart, and tell us that he has loved us
from before the foundation of the world, and given
himself for us.
I think we have put the text now into a setting of
certain facts; do not forget them, but let them be your
joy! And now the last thing we have to do is to:-
III. TURN THE TEXT TO PRACTICAL ACCOUNT BY DRAWING FROM
IT A FEW INFERENCES.
The first inference I draw is this-that be who gave
himself for his people will cat deny them anything.
This is a sweet encouragement to you who practice the
art of prayer. You know how Paul puts it, "He that
spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us
all, how shall he not, with him, also freely give us
all things?" Christ is all. If Christ gives himself to
you, he will give you your bread and your water, and he
will give you a house to dwell in. If he gives you
himself, he will not let you starve on the road to
heaven. Jesus Christ does not Give us himself and then
deny us common things. Oh! child of God, go boldly to
the throne of grace! Thou hast got the major; thou
shalt certainly have the minor; thou hast the greater,
thou canst not be denied the less.
Now I draw another inference, namely, that if Christ
has already given himself in so painful a way as I have
described, since there is no need that he should suffer
any more, we must believe that he is willing to give
himself now unto the hearts of poor sinners. Beloved,
for Christ to come to Bethlehem is a greater stoop than
for him to come into your heart. Had Christ to die upon
Calvary? That is all done, and he need not die again.
Do you think that he who is willing to die is unwilling
to apply the results of his passion? If a man leaps
into the water to bring out a drowning child, after he
has brought the child alive on shore, if he happens to
have a piece of bread in his pocket, and the child
needs it, do you think that he who rescued the child's
life will deny that child so small a thing as a piece
of bread? And come, dost thou think that Christ died on
Calvary, and yet will not come into thy heart if thou
seekest him? Dost thou believe that he who died for
sinners will ever reject the prayer of a sinner? If
thou believest that thou thinkest hardly of him, for
his heart is very tender. He feels even a cry. You know
how it is with your children; if they cry through pain,
why, you would give anything for someone to come and
heal them; and if you cry because your sin is painful,
the great Physician will come and heal you. Ah! Jesus
Christ is much more easily moved by our cries and tears
than we are by the vies of our fellow-creatures. Come,
poor sinner, come and put thy trust in my Master! Thou
canst not think him hard-hearted. If he were, why did
he die? Dost thou think him unkind? Then why did he
bleed? Thou art inclined to think so hardly of him!
Thou art making great cuts at his heart when thou
thinkest him to be untender and ungenerous. "As I live,
saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him
that dieth, but rather that he would turn unto me and
live." This is the voice of the God whom you look upon
as so sternly just! Did Jesus Christ, the tender one,
speak in even more plaintive tones, "Come unto me, all
ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you
rest"? You working men, you labouring men, Christ bids
you come to him "all ye that labour." And you who are
unhappy, you who know you have done wrong, and cannot
sleep at nights because of it; you who are troubled
about sin, and would fain go and hide your heads, and
get:-
"Anywhere, anywhere out of the world,"
-your Father says to you one and all, "Run not from me,
but come to me, my child!" Jesus, who died, says, "Flee
not from me, but come to me, for I will accept you; I
will receive you; I cast out none that come unto me.
"Sinner, Jesus never did reject a coming soul yet, and
he never will. Oh! try him! Try him! Now come, with thy
sins about thee just as thou art, to the bleeding,
dying Saviour, and he will say to thee, "I have blotted
out thy sins; go and sin no more; I have forgiven
thee." May God grant thee grace to put thy trust in him
"who gave himself for us"!
There are many other inferences which I might draw if I
had time, but if this last one we have drawn be so
applied to your hearts as to be carried out, it will be
enough. Now do not you go and try to do good worlds in
order to merit heaven. Do not go and try to pray
yourselves into heaven by the efficacy of praying.
Remember, he "gave himself for us." The old proverb is
that "there is nothing freer than a gift," and surely
this gift of God, this eternal life, must be free, and
we must have it freely, or not at all. I sometimes see
put up at some of our doctors that they receive "gratis
patients." That is the sort of patients my Master
receives. He receives none but those who come gratis.
He never did receive anything yet, and he never will,
except your love and your thanks after he has saved
you. But you must come to him empty-handed; came just
as you are, and he will receive you now, and you shall
live to sing to the praise and the glory of his grace
who has accepted you in the Beloved, and "who gave
himself for us" God help you to do it. Amen.
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