Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 628
Delivered on Sunday Morning, May 7, 1835 by C. H. Spurgeon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:25-27.
WHAT a golden example Christ gives to His disciples! There are few masters who could venture to say, “If YOU would practice my teaching, imitate my life.” But the life of Jesus is the exact transcript of perfect virtue and therefore He can point to Himself as the paragon of holiness, as well as the teacher of it. The Christian should take nothing short of Christ for his model. Under no circumstances ought we to be content unless we reflect the Grace which was in Christ Jesus. Even as a husband, which is a relationship that the Christian sustains in common with the rest of men, he is to look upon Christ Jesus as being set before him as the picture and he is to paint according to that copy.
Christ himself being the Bridegroom of the Church, the true Christian is to seek to be such a husband as Christ was to His spouse. I fear, Brethren, that we often stop short of the Master’s example—we compare ourselves among ourselves and are therefore far from being wise. We think if we avoid the egregious faults of some and can attain to the moderate virtues of others, we have done well. Let it be so no longer. He would never excel in statuary who should take the works of some mere amateur to be his copy.
No. The sculptor knows that he cannot rival Praxiteles or Phidias and yet he takes some Greek torso or bust from the antique to be his model—he must have perfection there—even if there is none in his own workmanship. The painter would never attain to eminence if he went to an exhibition and devoted himself to the study of some work of moderate worth and said, “I will attempt to reach this and there I will stop contented.” No. He goes to the galleries of the great masters and though his timid pencil may not dare to hope that he shall strike out thoughts so clearly and make life stand out upon the canvas as they have done, yet he seeks to drink in their inspiration, hoping that he may rise to some proud eminence in art by imitating them.
Let the Christian, then, aspire to be like his Lord who is the Author and Finisher of his faith. And let him, as he runs the heavenly race, look to Jesus and make “the Apostle and High Priest of his profession” his continual study and aim to be changed into His image from glory unto glory. You must be struck, in reading the passage before us, on what high ground the Apostle takes the Christian. It is possible that some husbands might say, “How can I love such a wife as I have?” It might be a supposable case that some Christian was unequally yoked together with an unbeliever and found himself forever bound with a fetter to one possessed of a morose disposition, or a obstinate temper, or a bitter spirit.
He might therefore say, “Surely I am excused from loving in such a case as this! It cannot be expected that I should love that which is in itself so unlovely.” But mark, Beloved, the wisdom of the Apostle. He silences that excuse, which may possibly have occurred to his mind while writing the passage, by taking the example of the Savior, who loved, not because there was loveliness in His Church, but in order to make her lovely.
You perceive “He loved His Church and gave Himself for her, that He might present her to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.” He did not admire her because there was no spot in her. He did not choose her because she had no wrinkles. He fixed His affections where there were multitudinous spots and wrinkles— where everything was deformity. He still set His heart and would not withdraw till He had loved the spots away and loved every wrinkle out of her who was the object of His choice. And now He seems to say to every Christian man, however unhappily he may have fared:
“If perhaps, in the lot of Providence, you have been yoked to one who deserves but little of your affection, yet if you cannot love because of esteem, love because of pity. If you cannot love because of present merit, then love because of future hope, for possibly, even there, in that bad soil, some sweet flower may grow. Be not weary of holy tillage and of heavenly plowing and sowing, because at the last there may spring up some fair harvest that shall make your soul glad.” He loved His Church and gave Himself for her that He might present her to Himself a glorious Church.
I do not intend, however, this morning, to enter into the duty of husbands. That is not the reason for which I selected the text, but to set forth the love of Jesus towards His people. And first, let us consider the object of the Savior’s love. “He loved the Church.” Then let us observe the work which love has carried on in pursuance of its gracious design. “He gave himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her through the washing of water by the Word.” Then, thirdly, let us look at the beloved object when the design is accomplished—“without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.” And then let us pause awhile to behold this beloved object presented by our Lord to Himself in the day of His triumphant espousals.