Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2656
“He laid down His life for us.” 1 John 3:16.
Come, Believer, and contemplate this sublime Truth of God, thus proclaimed to you in simple monosyllables—“He laid down His life for us.” There is not one long word in the sentence—it is all as simple as it can be—and it is simple because it is sublime. Sublimity in thought always needs simplicity in words to express itself. Little thoughts require great words to explain them. Little preachers need Latin words to convey their feeble ideas, but great thoughts and great expressers of those thoughts are content with little words.
“He laid down His life for us.” Here there is not much upon which any man can display his eloquence. Here is little room for metaphysical discussion or for deep thought—the text sets before us a simple yet sublime Doctrine of God. What, then, shall I do with it? If I would speak of it profitably to myself, since I need not employ my wit to dissect it, nor my oratory to proclaim it, let me exercise my adoration to worship it! Let me prostrate all my powers before the Throne of God and, like an angel when his work is done and he has nowhere else to fly at his Lord’s command, let me fold the wings of my contemplation and stand before the Throne of this great Truth and meekly bow and worship Him who Was, and Is, and is to come—the great and glorious One who “laid down His life for us.”
It will be well for me, in commencing my discourse, to remind you that there is no understanding the death of Christ unless we understand the Person of Christ. If I were to tell you that God died for us, although I might be telling you the truth and you might possibly not misunderstand what I meant, yet I would be, at the same time, uttering an error. God cannot die! It is, of course, impossible, from His very Nature, that He could even for a moment cease to exist! God is incapable of suffering. It is true that we sometimes use words to express emotions on the part of God but, then, we speak after the manner of men. He is impassive. He cannot suffer. It is not possible for Him to endure anything, much less, then, is it possible for Him to suffer death. Yet we are told, in the verse from which our text is taken, “Hereby perceive we the love of God.” You notice that the words, “of God,” are inserted by the translators. They are in italics because they are not in the original. A better translation would be, “Hereby perceive we love.” But when we read, “of God,” it might lead the ignorant to fancy that God could die, whereas God could not.
We must always understand and constantly remember that our Lord Jesus Christ was “very God of very God” and that, as God, He had all the attributes of the Most High and could not, therefore, be capable either of suffering or death. But then He was also Man, “Man of the substance of His mother.” Man, just like ourselves, sin alone excepted. And the Lord Jesus died not as God—it was as Man that He gave up the ghost. As Man, He was nailed to the Cross. As God, He was in Heaven, even when His body was in the tomb. As God, He was swaying the scepter of all worlds even when the mock scepter of reed was in His hand. And the imperial robe of universal monarchy was on the eternal shoulders of His Godhead when the soldier’s old purple cloak was wrapped about His Manhood. He did not cease to be God, He did not lose His Omnipotence and His eternal dominion when He became Man—nor did He, as God, die or suffer—it was as Man that He “laid down His life for us.”
Come now, my Soul, and worship this Man, this God! Come, Believer, and behold your Savior! Come to the innermost circle of all sanctity, the circle that contains the Cross of Christ, and sit down and, while you worship, learn three
lessons from the fact that “He laid down His life for us.” The first lesson should be—Did He lay down His life for us? Ah, then, my Brothers and Sisters, how great must have been our sins that they could not have been atoned for by any other price! Secondly, did He lay down His life for us? Ah, then, Beloved, how great must have been His love! He would not stop short anywhere until life, itself, had been resigned. Thirdly, did He lay down His life for us? Ah, then, my Soul, be of good cheer—how safe you are! If such an Atonement has been offered, if such a sure satisfaction has been given to Almighty God, how secure you are! Who is he that can destroy him who has been bought with the blood of such a Redeemer?
I. Come, then, let me believingly meditate on the first sad fact. Did Christ lay down His life for me? Then, HOW GREAT MUST HAVE BEEN MY SINS!
Ah, my Brothers and Sisters, I will speak a little of my own experience and, in so doing, I shall also be describing yours. I have seen my sins in many different ways. I saw them once by the blazing light of Sinai and, oh, my spirit shrank within me, for my sins seemed exceedingly black! When the sound of the trumpet waxed loud and long, and the lightning and fire flashed into my heart, I saw a very Hell of iniquity within my soul—and I was ready to curse the day that I was born, that I should have had such a heart so vile and so deceitful! I thought that then I had seen the exceeding blackness of my sin. Alas, I had not seen enough of sin to make me loathe it so as to leave it, for that conviction passed away! Sinai was but a volcano and it was hushed to silence—and I began to play with sin, again—and loved it as much as ever.