The motives to love Christ are the last thing that I shall speak unto. When God required of the church the first and highest act of religion, the sole foundation of all others — namely, to take him as their God, to own, believe, and trust in him alone as such, (which is wholly due unto him for what he is, without any other consideration whatever,) — yet he thought it proper to add a motive unto the performance of that duty from what he had done for them, Exodus 20:2-3. The sense of the first command is that we should take him alone for our God; for he is so, and there is no other.
But in prescribing this duty, he minds them of the benefits they had received from him in bringing them out of the house of bondage. God, in his wisdom and grace, ordered all the causes and reasons of our duty, so as that all the rational powers and faculties of our souls may be engaged. Therefore he does not only present himself to us, nor is Christ merely proposed unto us as the proper object of our affections, but he calls us also to the consideration of all those things that may satisfy our souls. That it is the most just, necessary, reasonable and advantageous course for us so to fix our affections on him. And these considerations are taken from all that he did for us, along with the reasons and grounds for why he did it.
We love him principally and ultimately for who he is. But firstly and primarily, we love him for what he did. What he did for us is first proposed unto us, and it is that with which our souls are first attracted. For we are drawn to him by our sense of need and by our realization that he alone fulfills our desire for blessedness. This directs us to what he has done for us as sinners. But then we are led immediately unto the consideration of what he is in himself. And when our love is fixed on him or his person, then all of these things, from a sense of our own wants and desires, become motives to confirm and increase that love. This is the constant method of the Scripture: it first proposes unto us what the Lord Christ has done for us, and then it leads us to see who he is and shows us the consideration of all other things to engage our love for him. (See Philippians 2:5-11, with chap. 3:8-11.)
Motives to the love of Christ are so great, and so many, and so diffused through the whole dispensation of God in him unto us that they can by no means be fully expressed. Let these be ever enlarged in the declaration of them since they certainly cannot be represented in this short discourse where but a very small part is allotted unto their consideration. The studying, the collection of them or so many of them as we are able, the meditation on them and improvement of them, are among the principal duties of our whole lives. What I shall offer is the reduction of them unto these two headings: 1. The acts of Christ, which is their substance; and, 2. The spring and fountain of those acts, which is the life of them.
1. The Acts of Christ. In general, they are all the acts of his mediatory office, with all the fruits of them, whereof we are made partners. There is not anything that he did or does, in the discharge of his mediatory office, from the first inception of it in his incarnation to his present intercession in heaven, except it is motivated by his love (as is proposed to us often in the Scripture). Whatever he did or does with or towards us in the name of God, as the king and prophet of the church — whatever he did or does with God for us, as our high priest —all speaks this language in the hearts of them that believe: O love the Lord Jesus in sincerity.
The consideration of what Christ thus did and does for us is inseparable from that of the benefits which we receive from him. A mixture of both these — of what he did for us and what we have obtained — comprises the substance of these motives: “Who loved me, and gave himself for me” — “Who loved us, and washed us in his own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God” — “For you were slain, and have bought us unto God with your blood.” And both these are beyond our understanding. For who is able to comprehend the glory of the mediatory acting of the Son of God, in the assumption of our nature — in what he did and suffered on our behalf? And for us, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive, all that we receive from it. The least benefit we have received deserves our love and seems almost criminal were such love is not entertained. What, then, does this greatest love deserve, which was purchased for you by the greatest expense, even the price of the blood of the Son of God?
If we have any faith concerning these things, it will produce love, and that love will produce loving obedience. Whatever we profess concerning Christ, if it springs from tradition and opinion and not from faith, will not engage our souls to love him. The frame of heart which ensues on the real faith and love toward these things is expressed in terms of remembering what he has done: Psalm 103:1-5, “Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits; who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases; who redeems your life from destruction; who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfies your mouth with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
Let men pretend what they will, there needs to be no greater and no other evidence to prove that any one does not really believe the things that are reported in the gospel, concerning the mediatory acting of Christ, or that he has no experience in his own soul and conscience of the fruits and effects of them, than this — than that his heart is not engaged by them unto the most ardent love towards his person.
Anyone who has no love for the One who has given his all for them cannot be a true believer. Some may more abound in good deeds more than others; some may be more diligent than others in the observation of times for the solemn performance of certain duties; some may have brighter and clearer understandings than others. But as for those whose hearts and minds do not have love for the Savior, on what grounds can they be esteemed Christians? How do they live by the faith of the Son of God? Are the great things of the Gospel and of the mediation of Christ as presented to us, so small as that they must give place unto all other occasions or diversions whatever? No; if our minds are not filled with these things — if Christ does not dwell plentifully in our hearts by faith — if our souls are not possessed with them — we are strangers unto the life of faith. But if we are conversant about these things, they will engage our hearts into the love of the person of Christ.
Take one instance from among the rest — namely, his death. How can someone have the heart of a Christian, if he does not derive his life from it? Who can look into the Gospel and not fix on those lines which either immediately and directly, or through some other paths of divine grace and wisdom, do lead him thereunto? And how can anyone have believing thoughts concerning the death of Christ and not have his heart affected with ardent love unto his person? Christ in the Gospels “is evidently set forth, crucified” before us. How can any by the eye of faith look on this bleeding, dying Redeemer and suppose love unto his person to be nothing but the work of fancy or imagination? Those who “always bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,” (as the apostle speaks, 2 Corinthians 4:10) know the contrary. Those whose hearts recognize this precious perfume of his death have their hearts ravished with love for this Savior.
Again: as there can be no faith in Christ where there is no love to him on the account of his mediatory acts; so, where this love is lacking, these persons are put under the highest guilt of ingratitude that our nature is liable unto. The highest aggravation of the sin of angels was their ingratitude unto their Maker. For why, by his mere will and pleasure, they were stated in the highest excellency, pre-eminence, and dignity, that he thought good to communicate unto any creatures — or, it may be, that any mere created nature is capable of in itself — they were unthankful for what they had so received from undeserved goodness and bounty; and so cast themselves into everlasting ruin. But yet the sin of men, in their ingratitude towards Christ on the account of what he has done for them, is an aggravation above that of the angels. For although the angels were originally instated in a condition of dignity which in this world we cannot attain unto, yet they were not redeemed and recovered from misery as we are.
In all the crowd of evil and wicked men that the world is pestered withal, there are none, by common consent, so stigmatized for unworthy villainy, as those who are signally ungrateful for singular benefits. If persons are unthankful unto them, if they have not the highest love for them, who redeem them from ignominy and death, and instate them in a plentiful inheritance, (if any such instances may be given,) and that with the greatest expense of labor and charge, — mankind, without any regret, does tacitly condemn them unto greater miseries than those which they were delivered from. What, then, will be the condition of them whose hearts are not so affected with the mediation of Christ and the fruits of it, as to engage the best, the choicest of their affections unto him! The gospel itself will be “a savor of death” unto such ungrateful persons.
2. His Love to Us. That which the Scripture principally insists on as the motive of our love unto Christ is his love unto us — which was the principle of all his mediatory actions in our behalf. Love is that jewel of human nature which commands a valuation wherever it is found. Let other circumstances be what they will, whatever distances between persons may be made by them, yet real love, where it is evidenced so to be, is not despised by any except the most heartless of men. Even if such love can produce no outward effects to them that are beloved, yet it commands at least, as it were, some kind of respect in return.
This is especially so if this love be altogether undeserved and so proves itself to proceed from a goodness of nature, and an inclination to the good of them on whom it is fixed. If there be any such affection left in the nature of any man, it should provoke a reciprocal love. And all these things are found in the love of Christ, unto that degree and height as nothing parallel unto it can be found in the whole creation.
I shall briefly speak of it under two general heads:
(1.) The sole reason for all the mediatory acts of Christ, both in light of our sinful nature and in all that he did and suffered for us, was his own mere love and grace, working by pity and compassion. It is true; he undertook this work principally with respect unto the glory of God and out of love unto him. But with respect unto us, his only motive was his abundant, overflowing love. And this is especially remembered unto us in that instance where it carried him through the greatest difficulties — namely, in his death and the oblation of himself on our behalf, Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 5:2, 25, 26; 1 John 3:16; Revelation 1:6. This alone inclined the Son of God to undertake the glorious work of our redemption and carried him through the death and dread which he underwent in the accomplishment of it.
We should regularly make consideration of this love of Christ, which was the great means of conveying all the effects of dine wisdom and grace unto the church — that glass which God chose to represent himself and all his goodness in unto believers — that spirit of life in the wheel of all the motions of the person of Christ in the redemption of the church unto the eternal glory of God, his own and that of his redeemed also — that mirror wherein the holy angels and blessed saints shall forever contemplate the divine excellencies in their suitable operations.
When some raise questions about the divine nature of the person of Christ, they unwittingly destroy the whole nature of that love which we ascribe unto him. Therefore fore, a more distinct explication and defense of it may be called for. And this cause will not be forsaken. Those who do so know nothing of the life and power of the gospel, nothing of the reality of the grace of God, nor do they believe aright one article of the Christian faith, whose hearts are not sensible of the love of Christ; nor is he sensible of the love of Christ, whose affections are not thereon drawn out unto him. They often make a pageant of religion — a fable for the theater of the world, a business of fancy and opinion — whose hearts are not really affected with the love of Christ. They do so that they might have some emotional affection toward the mediatorial work of Christ.
Many babble things which they have learned by rote but they have no real acquaintance with Christianity, who imagine that the placing of the most intense affections of our souls on the person of Christ — the loving him with all our hearts because of his love — our being overcome until we are sick of love — the constant motions of our souls towards him with delight and adherence — are but fancies and imaginations. I renounce such a religion, whose ever it may be, that teaches, insinuates, or gives countenance to such abominations. Such doctrine is far from the gospel and as contrary to the experience of believers as that which instructs men to a contempt of the most fervent love unto Christ or casts reflections upon it. I had rather choose my eternal lot and portion with the weakest believer, who, being effectually sensible of the love of Christ, spends his days in mourning that he can love him no more than he finds himself on his utmost endeavors for the discharge of his duty to do, than with the best of them, whose vain speculations and a false pretense of reason puff them up unto a contempt of true love for Christ.
(2.) This love of Christ is pure and absolutely free from any alloy or mixture. There cannot be the least suspicion of anything of self in it. And it is absolutely undeserved. Nothing can be found amongst men that can represent or exemplify its freedom from any desert on our part. The most candid and ingenuous love amongst us is, when we love another for his worth, excellency, and usefulness, though we have no singular benefit of them ourselves. But not the least of any of these things was found in those on whom he set his love, except as effects of that love which he set upon them.
Men sometimes may rise up unto such a high degree and instance in love, as that they will even die for one another; but then it must be because they esteem their worth and merit. It may be, says the apostle in treating of the love of Christ and of God in him, that “for a good man some would even dare to die,” Romans 5:7. It must be for a good man — one who is justly esteemed “commune bonum,” a public good to mankind — one whose benignity is ready to exercise loving-kindness on all occasions, which is the estate of a good man — it is possible that some would even dare to die for such a man. This is the height of what love among men can rise unto; and if it has been instanced in any, it has been accompanied with an open mixture of vain-glory and desire of renown. But the Lord Christ placed his love on us when we were sinners and ungodly; that is, everything which might render us unlovable and undeserving. Though we were as deformed as sin could render us and more deeply indebted than the whole creation could pay or answer, yet did he fix his love upon us, to free us from that condition and to render us fit for the most intimate fellowship with himself.
Never was there love which had such effects — which cost him so dear in whom it was and proved so advantageous to them on whom it was placed. In the pursuit of it, he underwent everything that is evil in his own person, and we receive everything that is good in the favor of God and eternal blessedness.
On the account of these things, the apostle ascribes a constraining power unto the love of Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:14. And if it constrains us to any return unto him, it does so in terms of love to him. For no suitable return can be made for love but love, at least not without it. As love cannot be purchased — “For if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be condemned,” Song of Solomon 8:7 — so if a man would give all the world for a requital of love, without love, it would be despised. To fancy that all the love of Christ unto us consists in the precepts and promises of the gospel, and all our love unto him in the observance of his commands, without a real love in him unto our persons, like that of a “husband unto a wife,” Ephesians 5:25, 26, or a holy affection in our hearts and minds unto his person, is to overthrow the whole power of religions to despoil it of its life and soul, leaving nothing but the carcass of it.
This love unto Christ and unto God in him, because of his love unto us, is the principal instance of divine love, the touchstone of its reality and sincerity. Whatever men may boast of their affectionate endearments to divine goodness, if it is not founded in a sense of this love of Christ and the love of God in him, they are but empty notions they feed upon. It is in Christ alone that God is declared to be love; without such an understanding, none can love him as they ought. In him alone that infinite goodness, which is the peculiar object of divine love, and it is truly represented unto us, without any such deceiving phantasm as the workings of fancy or depravation of reason may impose upon us. And on him alone does our salvation depend. And it is an infinite condescension in the holy God to so express his “glory in the face of Jesus Christ,” or to propose himself as the object of our love in and through him. For considering our weakness in even comprehending the infinite excellencies of the divine nature and his resplendent glory, it is the most adorable effect of divine wisdom and grace that we are admitted into the contemplation of them in the person of Jesus Christ. Yet the evidence of his love is also seen in all the blessed effects of his love which believers have experienced personally. We can only really love him for who he is when we love him rightly for what he has done!
Modernized revision of “Motives Unto the Love of Christ,” in the Works of John Owen, Vol. 1.
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