[April 22d.—Year not given.]
Grace.—The primary meaning of (charis) is, that which gives joy. And as nothing is such a source of joy as love, grace means love. And as love of a superior to an inferior is specially gratifying, such love is with emphasis grace; and as love towards the unlovely, the ungrateful, the sinful, the guilty is of all other forms of love the most powerful and effectual in rendering blessed, so this is the distinctive idea of grace in the Scriptures,—undeserved love.
The secondary meaning of the word is gift, benefit, undeserved benefactions; and especially divine influence.
II. Whose grace or love is here invoked?
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Of a divine person. It is the love of the Second Person of the Trinity. Therefore it is divine. The love of God is a. infinite, b. immutable, c. the sufficient and certain source of all good. If we are the special objects of this infinite, immutable and unmerited love of God, we are just as sure of receiving all we need, if we do his will, as a child is of receiving the care and protection of a parent.
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This love of Christ is a human love. It is the love of a person who has human affections, human tenderness, human sympathies, human yearnings, just as truly and in the same sense that we have.
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It is the love of a Lord. This includes a. The idea of possession. It is the love of one to whom we belong, as we belong to no one else; one who has bought us, bought us with his blood; to whom we are precious; whose heritage, whose reward, whose crown and glory we constitute. b. Lordship includes also the idea of authority. c. Of rightful power. d. Of actual protection.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is the undeserved love of a divine person clothed with our nature, whose love has all the attributes of sinless human love; the love of one who owns us, who is invested with absolute dominion over us and who is our protector and preserver.
III. What is meant by this love being with us.—When one sends his love to another, it is only the assurance of his love. So when we say the love of Christ be with you, we mean, 1. May Christ actually love you; may you be the object of his love. 2. May you have the assurance of that love so as to be able to enjoy it and rejoice in it. 3. May you have the manifestation of that love. 4. The communion of loving intercourse, such as that between intimate friends. 5. All the benefits which flow from the love of Christ, not only the inward joy, fellowship and delight, but the supply of our wants, assistance, protection, support and final deliverance which the love of an infinite Saviour can secure.
Now this assumes that Christ is present with us.
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We have no such communion with an absent friend as Christians are assumed to have with Christ. We have no communion with the dead, i.e., no intercourse with them. We can’t communicate our thoughts, our feelings, our wants to them, nor can they communicate with us or help us. He is present with us in the sense in which a friend is present, with whom we can converse, with whom we can constantly communicate.
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It implies that Christ is present with us as to his human nature. There are different kinds of presence. a. Local in space as opposed to distance. b. A presence of power and influence and manifestation, as the sun.
In this sense Christ’s human nature is present, i.e., the love of Christ is of a person who has the attributes of humanity, and therefore his love which is with us is a human love.
This conference this afternoon has special reference to the Senior Class. It is the invocation of their professors and their fellow-students that the grace of the divine human Saviour, whose they are, whom they serve and who is their protector and master, may be with them; that is, that they may always be assured of his love enjoyed by them, and thus be sustained, assisted, supported and comforted by it to the end.
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