a 2 Cor. iii. 2, 3. b Phil. ii. 5. c John xiii. 34.
Christ's love a pattern for ours.
Eph. v. 2. Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.
TO restore us to the Divine image is one great end of all that the Lord Jesus Christ has done and suffered for us. There are indeed perfections in the Deity which are incommunicable to any creature ;
b b2
but his moral perfections admit of imitation and resemblance : and therefore we are exhorted to " be followers, or imitators, of God, as dear children a." But in the person of our blessed Lord and Saviour, Jehovah is brought nearer to us, so that we may- trace his very steps, and learn to follow him in every disposition of the mind, and every action of the life. Hence in the passage before us, whilst we are parti- cularly informed of the manner in which he has dis- played his love to man, we are exhorted to '* walk in love, as he has loved us."
In our further elucidation of these words, we shall be led to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ in a two- fold view ;
I. As a sacrifice to God- It was not merely as a martyr that Jesus died, but as a sacrifice for sin. This appears,
1. From all the sacrifices of the Mosaic law —
[For what end were these instituted, but to prefigure him? These beyond a doubt were offerings for sin, the vic- tims dying in the place of the offerer, and making an atone- ment for him by their blood : and if the Lord Jesus Christ did not correspond with them in this particular, and actually fulfil what those prefigured, they were all instituted in vain, and were shadows without any substance at all.]
2. From the declarations of the prophets —
[The prophet thus plainly speaks of Christ as dying for the sins of men ; " He made his soul an offering for sin :" " He bare the sins of many :" " On him were laid the iniquity of us allb." What is the import of these testimonies, if Christ did not offer himself a sacrifice for sin ?]
3. From the testimony of John the Baptist —
[It was in reference to the lambs that were offered every morning and evening for the sins of all Israel, that the Baptist spake, when he pointed out the Lord Jesus as " the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world." If Christ were not a sacrifice for sin, this testimony was not founded in truth.]
4. From the declarations of Christ himself —
a ver. I. t> Isai. liii. 6, 10, 12.
2114.] Christ's love a pattern for ours. 373
[He constantly affirmed, that " he came to give his life a ransom for many :" that his blood should be shed for the remission of sins ; and that by being " lifted up upon the cross, he would draw all men unto him."]
5. From the united testimony of all the Apostles —
[All with one voice represent him as redeeming us to God by his blood, and offering himself as " a propitiation, not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world." In a word, the whole tenour of the sacred writings proves, that " he bare our sins in his own body on the tree," and " died, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God."]
But in all this he was further designed,
II. As an example to us —
In the circumstance before noticed, we cannot resemble him ; for " no man can redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him." Nevertheless in the love which instigated him to this we may re- semble him. Our love, like his, should be,