Jesus Christ: The Object of Love Revealed in the Gospel
The law requires love toward God and toward everything which God enjoins us to love. Prior to the fall, love had no other object than God and man (comprehended under the word “neighbor”). The law of nature indeed does not teach anything beyond this. However, God has presented an additional object of love in the gospel—the Lord Jesus Christ, the Mediator between God and man. The law requires the act of love, and the gospel makes known the object of love. The Lord Jesus is both God and a holy man. One must love Him as God (of whom we have just spoken). We consider Him here, however, as Immanuel—God and man in one Person—as Mediator and Savior, and in that capacity He is the object of our love. We have discussed the nature of love and it is thus not necessary to repeat it. We shall therefore stir you up to manifest such love toward the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus has few who love Him in the world. He would have more if He willed to have more, but He deems most not worthy of this. It is a great privilege and grace for the few who have been granted to love Him—and those who love Him, love Him so much that they will even give their life for Him. They will love Him until their death and to all eternity.
The Grievous Sin of Being Acquainted with Jesus and Yet Not Loving Him
The heathen, not having the gospel proclaimed to them, do not commit sin in not loving Him. They have not been commanded to do so, as He has not been declared to them. The Jews and Mohammedans know of Jesus; it is therefore their sin that they do not love Him, that they hate Him, and all who, after His Name, are called Christians. The Antichrist, even though he boasts of the name of Christ, sins in that he and his followers do not love Jesus, but persecute Him and His church and become drunk with the blood of the saints. Heretics, who wish to be called “Christian,” are also guilty of sin in not loving Him—hating Him in His truth and in His children, while persecuting every one of them with all their might. These will all endure their judgment and it will be unbearable for them.
However, those who are in the church, of which the Lord Jesus is the Head, ought indeed to love Him; but how few are to be found in her who love Him!
(1) Many have no dealings with Him whatsoever. They hear His name mentioned, hear Him described and recommended in the sermons, make mention of Him themselves, but nevertheless are indifferent as to who and what He is. He is a stranger to them and they have no desire to know Him. They also make no effort in that respect, and if anyone wishes to make Him known to them, they respond, “Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of His ways.” They leave Him for what He is, and since they do not know Him they also do not love Him. For it is impossible to love someone we do not know. There is no sorrow over missing Him, no yearning for Him, no uniting of the heart to Him, and no grief over the fact that they do not love Him.
(2) Many know Jesus according to the letter, but not internally by the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Consequently, such also have no love for Him. They do desire Him as a servant to protect them from hell and to help them get into heaven—of which they also have no correct perceptions. Beyond that they have no use for Him. There is no entering into covenant with Him, no surrendering to Him, no receiving of Him by faith unto justification and sanctification, no heart-union, and no exercising of fellowship with Him. They are neither acquainted with His presence nor with His absence. They are satisfied if they are but good church members, partake of the Lord’s Supper, live honestly, and have the illusion that they will be saved. On that basis they proceed—even though Jesus remains a stranger to them, remaining outside of their heart and thoughts. Since you are acquainted with human love, you will thus perceive that you have no love to Jesus whom you ought to love more vehemently than men. You may say that you love Jesus. But then I ask you, “How is this evident? Is there esteem and reverence for Him? Do you grieve and long for Him? Do you endeavor to live in immediate union with Him? Is there a resemblance between your nature and His? Are you obedient and do you keep His commandments? Is there love for the most eminent among the godly? Is there an aversion toward the unconverted, of whom we have dealt with in the above, and of whom you yourself are convinced that they are such? If you consider your love toward men and apply this to love toward Christ, then you must be convinced that you do not love Jesus—whatever good thoughts you may have concerning yourself.”
(3) Many who are in the church show publicly that they do not love Jesus. They live in a worldly and ungodly fashion. They curse, gamble, dance, drink, eat excessively, commit fornication, secretly commit all manner of unrighteousness, hate the godly and persecute them with their tongue and deeds, doing whatever an enemy of Jesus would do. Such are baptized, stay with the church, and imagine that they will yet be saved. We declare to them, however, that they are enemies of Christ; they do not love Christ, but hate Him. It would have been better for them if they had never heard Christ mentioned, than that they, being adorned by the name “Christian,” oppose Christ to such a degree. They do not inflict injury upon Christ—for He is highly exalted above them—but upon themselves.