Christ's Love for us
by Thomas Brooks
Let us stand still, and admire and wonder at the love of
Jesus Christ to poor
sinners; that Christ should rather die for us, than for the
angels. They were
creatures of a more noble extract, and in all probability
might have brought
greater revenues of glory to God: yet that Christ should
pass by those golden
vessels, and make us vessels of glory, Oh, what amazing and
astonishing love is
this! This is the envy of devils. and the admiration of
angels and saints.
The apostle, being in a holy admiration of Christ's love,
affirms it to pass
knowledge, Eph. iii. 18, 19; that God, who is the eternal
Being, should love man
when he had scarce a being, Prov. viii. 30, 31, that he should
be enamored with
deformity, that he should love us when in our blood, Ezek.
xvi., that he should
pity us when no eye pitied us, no, not our own. Oh, such was
Christ's
transcendent love, that man's extreme misery could not abate
it. The
deploredness of man's condition did but heighten the holy
flame of Christ's love.
It is as high as heaven, who can reach it? It is as low as
hell, who can understand
it? Heaven, through its glory, could not contain him, man
being miserable, nor
hell's torments make him refrain, such was his perfect
matchless love to fallen
man. That Christ's love should extend to the ungodly, to
sinners, to enemies that
were in arms of rebellion against him, Rom. v. 6, 8, 10;
yes, not only so, but that
he should hug them in his arms, lodge them in his bosom,
dandle them upon his
knees, and lay them to his breasts, that they may suck and
be satisfied, is the
highest improvement of love, Isa lxvi. 11-13.
That Christ should come from the eternal bosom of his
Father, to a region of
sorrow and death, John i. 18; that God should be manifested
in the flesh, the
Creator made a creature, Isa. liii. 4; that he that was
clothed with glory, should
be wrapped with rags of flesh, 1 Tim. iii. 16; that he that
filled heaven, should be
cradled in a manger, John xvii. 5; that the God of Israel
should fly into Egypt,
Mat. ii. 14; that the God of strength should be weary; that
the judge of all flesh
should be condemned; that the God of life should be put to
death, John xix. 41;
that he that is one with his Father, should cry out of
misery, 'O my Father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me!' Mat. xxvi. 39: that he
that had the keys of
hell and death, Rev. i. 18, should lie imprisoned in the
sepulcher of another,
having, in his lifetime, nowhere to lay his head; nor after
death, to lay his body,
John xix. 41, 42; and all this for man, for fallen man, for
miserable man, for
worthless man, is beyond the thoughts of created natures.
The sharp, the
universal and continual sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ,
from the cradle to the
cross, does above all other things speak out the
transcendent love of Jesus Christ
to poor sinners. That wrath, that great wrath, that fierce
wrath, that pure wrath,
that infinite wrath, that matchless wrath of an angry God,
that was so terribly
impressed upon the soul of Christ, quickly spent his natural
strength, and turned
his moisture into the drought of summer, Ps. xxxii. 4; and
yet all this wrath he
patiently underwent, that sinners might be saved, and that
'he might bring many
sons unto glory,' Heb. ii. 10.
Oh, wonder of love! Love enables Jesus to suffer. It was
love that made our
dear Lord Jesus lay down his life, to save us from hell and
to bring us to heaven.
As the pelican, out of her love to her young ones, when they
are bitten with
serpents, feeds them with her own blood to recover them
again; so when we were
bitten by the old serpent, and our wound incurable, and we
in danger of eternal
death, then did our dear Lord Jesus, that he might recover
us and heal us, feed us
with his own blood, Gen. iii. 15; John vi. 53-56. Oh love
unspeakable! This made
[Bernard] cry out, 'Lord, you have loved me more than
yourself; for you have laid
down your life for me.'
It was only the golden link of love that fastened Christ
to the cross, John x. 17,
and that made him die freely for us, and that made him
willing 'to be numbered
among transgressors,' Isa. liii. 12, that we might be
numbered among [the]
'general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are
written in heaven,' Heb.
xii. 23.
Christ's love is like his name, and that is Wonderful,
Isa. ix. 6; yes, it is so
wonderful, that it is above all creatures, beyond all
measure, contrary to all nature.
It is above all creatures, for it is above the angels, and
therefore above all
others. It is beyond all measure, for time did not begin it,
and time shall never
end it; place does not bound it, sin does not exceed it, no
estate, no age, no sex
is denied it, tongues cannot express it, understandings
cannot conceive it: and it
is contrary to all nature; for what nature can love where it
is hated? What nature
can forgive where it is provoked? What nature can offer
reconciliation where it
receives wrong? What nature can heap up kindness upon contempt,
favor upon
ingratitude, mercy upon sin? And yet Christ's love has led
him to all this; so that
well may we spend all our days in admiring and adoring of
this wonderful love,
and be always ravished with the thoughts of it.
Love the Lord Jesus Christ! Thomas Brooks
See that you love the Lord Jesus Christ with a superlative
love, with an
overtopping love. There are none have suffered so much for
you as Christ; there
are none that can suffer so much for you as Christ. The least
measure of that
wrath that Christ has sustained for you, would have broke
the hearts, necks, and
backs of all created beings.
O my friends! There is no love but a superlative love
that is any ways suitable to
the transcendent sufferings of dear Jesus. Oh, love him
above your lusts, love him
above your relations, love him above the world, love him
above all your outward
contentments and enjoyments; yes, love him above your very
lives; for thus the
patriarchs, prophets, apostles, saints, primitive
Christians, and the martyrs of old,
have loved our Lord Jesus Christ with an overtopping love:
Rev. xii. 11, 'They
loved not their lives unto the death;' that is, they
slighted, contemned, yes,
despised their lives, exposing them to hazard and loss, out
of love to the Lamb,
'who had washed them in his blood.' I have read of one
Kilian, a Dutch
schoolmaster, who being asked whether he did not love his
wife and children,
answered, Were all the world a lump of gold, and in my hands
to dispose of, I
would leave it at my enemies feet to live with them in a
prison; but my soul and
my Savior are dearer to me than all. If my father, says
Jerome, should stand
before me, and my mother hang upon, and my brethren should
press about me, I
would break through my brethren, throw down my father, and
tread underfoot my
mother, to cleave to Jesus Christ.
Had I ten heads, said Henry Voes, they should all be cut
off for Christ. If every hair of
my head, said John Ardley, martyr, were a man, they should
all suffer for the faith
of Christ. Let fire, racks, pulleys, said Ignatius, and all
the torments of hell come
upon me, so I may win Christ. Love made Jerome to say, O my
Savior, did you
die for love of me?-a love sadder than death; but to me a
death more lovely than
love itself. I cannot live, love you, and be longer from
you. George Carpenter,
being asked whether he did not love his wife and children,
which stood weeping
before him, answered, My wife and children!- my wife and
children! are dearer to
me than all Bavaria; yet, for the love of Christ, I know
them not. That blessed
virgin in Basil being condemned for Christianity to the
fire, and having her estate
and life offered her if she would worship idols, cried out,
'Let money perish, and
life vanish, Christ is better than all.' Sufferings for
Christ are the saints' greatest
glory; they are those things wherein they have most gloried
Your cruelty is our glory, says Tertullian. It is reported
of Babylas,
that when he was to die for Christ, he desired this favor,
that his chains might
be buried with him, as the ensigns of his honor. Thus you
see with what a
superlative love, with what an overtopping love, former
saints have loved our Lord
Jesus; and can you, Christians, who are cold and low in your
love to Christ, read
over these instances, and not blush?
Certainly the more Christ has suffered for us, the more
dear Christ should be
unto us; the more bitter his sufferings have been for us,
the more sweet his love
should be to us, and the more eminent should be our love to
him. Oh, let a
suffering Christ lie nearest your hearts; let him be your
manna, your tree of life,
your morning star. It is better to part with all than with
this pearl of price. Christ
is that golden pipe through which the golden oil of
salvation runs; and oh. how
should this inflame our love to Christ! Oh that our hearts
were more affected with
the sufferings of Christ! Who can tread upon these hot
coals, and his heart not
burn in love to Christ, and cry out with Ignatius, Christ my
love is crucified? Cant.
viii. 7,8. If a friend should die for us, how would our
hearts be affected with his
kindness! and shall the God of glory lay down his life for
us, and shall we not be
affected with his goodness i John x. 17, 18. Shall Saul be
affected with David's
kindness in sparing his life, 1 Sam. xxiv. 16, and shall not
we be affected with
Christ's kindness, who, to save our life, lost his own? Oh,
the infinite love of
Christ, that he should leave his Father's bosom, John i. 18,
and come down from
heaven, that he might carry you up to heaven, John xiv. 1-4;
that he that was a
Son should take upon him the form of a servant, Phil. ii.
5-8; that you of slaves
should be made sons, of enemies should be made friends, of
heirs of wrath
should be made heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ,
Rom. viii. 17; that to
save us from everlasting ruin, Christ should stick at
nothing, but be willing to be
made flesh, to lie in a manger, to be tempted, deserted,
persecuted, and to die
upon a cross!
Oh, what flames of love should these things kindle in all
our hearts to Christ!
Love is compared to fire; in heaping love upon our enemy, we
heap coals of fire
upon his head, Rom. xii. 19, 20; Prov. xxvi. 21. Now the
property of fire is to turn
all it meets with into its own nature: fire makes all things
fire; the coal makes
burning coals; and is it not a wonder then that Christ,
having heaped abundance
of the fiery coals of his love upon our heads, we should yet
be as cold as corpses
in our love to him. Ah! what sad metal are we made of, that
Christ's fiery love
cannot inflame our love to Christ! Moses wondered why the
bush consumed not,
when he sees it all on fire, Exod. iii. 3; but if you please
but to look into your own
hearts, you shall see a greater wonder; for you shall see
that, though you walk
like those three children in the fiery furnace, Dan. iii.,
even in the midst of
Christ's fiery love flaming round about you; yet there is
but little, very little, true
smell of that sweet fire of love to be felt or found upon
you or in you. Oh, when
shall the sufferings of a dear and tender-hearted Savior
kindle such a flame of
love in all our hearts, as shall still be a-breaking forth
in our lips and lives, in our
words and ways, to the praise and glory of free grace? Oh
that the sufferings of a
loving Jesus might at last make us all sick of love! Cant.
ii. v. Oh let him forever
lie between our breasts, Cant. i. 13, who has left his
Father's bosom for a time,
that he might be embosomed by us forever.