The analogy seems to suggest to us, strange as it may be, and remote from the cold and abstract ideas of the Divine nature which it is thought to be philosophical to cherish, that something corresponding to the pain and loss that shadowed the patriarch's heart passed across the Divine mind when the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Not merely to give, but to give up, is the highest crown and glory of love, as we know it. And who shall venture to say that we so fully apprehend the Divine nature as to be warranted in declaring that some analogy to that is impossible for Him ? Our language is, " I will not offer unto God that which doth cost me nothing." Let us bow in silence before the dim intimation that seems to flicker out of the words of the text, that so He says to us, " I will not offer unto you that which doth cost me nothing." " He spared not his own Son " — withheld Him not from us.
^ While we must be careful to exclude from the idea conveyed by the language of the text anything like a struggle or conflict between opposite principles and feelings existing in the Divine mind, we are entitled, and even expected, to view the act of God in giving up His own Son with feelings substantially the same in kind as those with which we would contemplate an act of heroic self-denial, or of generous sacrifice, performed by one of our fellow-men for the advancement of our happiness.^
* W, OojDiiinipbftm,
ROMANS VIII. 32 109
^ There is a story of a poor family in Germany who were ready to perish in a time of famine. The husband proposed to the wife to sell one of their children for bread. At length she consented. But the difficulty arose — which of them should it be ? The eldest was named. This was their first-born, and the beginning of their strength. The second was named. He was the living image of the father. The third was named. In him the features of the mother breathed. The last was named. He was their youngest, the child of their old age. They agreed to starve together rather than sacrifice one.
2. " His own Son." — The reality of the surrender is emphasized by the closeness of the bond which, in the mysterious eternity, knits together the Father and the Son. As with Abraham, so in this lofty example of which Abraham and Isaac were but as dim wavering reflections in water, the Son is His own Son. The force of the analogy and the emphasis of that word, which is even more emphatic in the Greek than in the EngHsh, " his own Son," point to a community of nature, to a uniqueness and singleness of relation, to a closeness of intimacy, to which no other is a parallel. And so we have to estimate the measure of the surrender by the tenderness and awfulness of the bond. "Having yet therefore one Son, his well-beloved, he sent him."
3. "Delivered him up." — The greatness of the surrender is made more emphatic by the contemplation of it in its negative and positive aspect, in the two successive clauses. " He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up," an absolute, positive giving of Him over to the humiliation of the hie and to the mystery of the death.
(1) He delivered Him up to Suffering. — If it behoved Christ to become man, He might have been spared the trials that are generally the lot of men, trials which they very rightly deserve because of their sins. Let the one sinless Man be spared the Bufiferings that sinners meet with as their due. But no ! Very few, if any, are the sufferings incident to human life that Jesus was exempted from. He was not spared the endurance of poverty. Into poverty He was born, in poverty He lived, and in poverty He died. Poorer than the foxes that had holes, and the birds of the air that had nests. He often had not where to lay His head.
no THE INCLUSIVE GIFT
(2) He delivered Him up to Temptation. — He was in all points tempted like as we are. Tempted to distrust God, tempted to presumption, tempted to worldliness. And very bitter enmity was His portion. Perhaps few have been more utterly detested than He was while in the world. It is true that for a time He was popular with the multitude, but, it would seem, only so long as they thought He would provide them with loaves and fishes. But the hatred that assailed Him was intense : it expressed itself in many vile and abusive epithets, in many false accusations, in many attempts, public and private, to take away His life.
(3) He delivered Him up to Ingratitude. — "Were there not ten cleansed ? but where are the nine ? " That was only one instance out of multitudes in which those whom He benefited showed their utter unthankfulness. His own brethren did not believe in Him, but said that He was mad, and would have kept Him under restraint like a lunatic.
(4) He delivered Him up to Death. — He was spared nothing that could make His sufferings terrible : the treachery of Judas ; the cowardice of the other Apostles ; the barbarous, brutal treat- ment to which He was subjected by Herod, and by the soldiers under Pontius Pilate. Of all the deaths that man could die, there was none more torturing than the death of the cross, and there was none so degrading; He was not spared that. And to make it all the worse, to add to the contempt and shame, He was crucified between two thieves. Amply true are the Apostle's words, " God spared not his own Son."