Teaching Resources International

The Friendship of Christ by A. W. Pink

How many have ever heard a sermon or read an article on this subject?

How many of God’s people think of Christ in this blessed relationship?  Christ is the best Friend the Christian has, and it is both his privilege and duty to regard Him as such.  Our scriptural support is in the following passages:

“There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24), which can refer to none other than the Lord Jesus; “This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem” (Song of Solomon 5:16).  That is the language of His Spouse, the testimony of the Church, avowing this most intimate relationship.  Add to these the witness of the New Testament when Christ was termed “a friend of publicans and sinners” (Luke 7:34).

Many and varied are the relationships in which Christ stands to a believer, and he is the loser if He is ignored in any of them.  Christ is God, Lord, Head, Savior of the Church.  Officially He is our Prophet, Priest, and King; personally He is our Kinsman-Redeemer, our Intercessor, our Friend.  That title expresses the near union between the Lord Jesus and believers.  They are as if but one soul actuated them; indeed, one and the same spirit does, for “he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17).  “Christ stands in a nearer relation than a brother to the Church: He is her Husband, her Bosom-friend” (John Gill).  “We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones” (Ephesians 5:30).

But even those relationships fall short of fully expressing the nearness, spiritual oneness, and indissoluableness of the union between Christ and His people.  There should be the freest approaches to Him and the most intimate fellowship with Him.  To deny Christ that is to ignore the tact He is our best Friend.  “There is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”  That endearing title not only expresses the near relation between Him and His redeemed but also the affection which He bears them.  Nothing has, does, or can, dampen, or quench its outflow.

“Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them  unto the end” (John 13:1).  That blessed title tells of the sympathy He bears His people in all their sufferings, temptations, and infirmities.  “In all their affliction he was afflicted… in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old” (Isaiah 63:9).  What demonstrations of His friendship!  That title also tells of His deep concern for our interests.  He has our highest welfare at heart; accordingly He has promised, “I will not turn away from them, to do them good” (Jeremiah 32:40).

Consider more definitely the excellencies of our best Friend:

Christ is an ancient Friend. Old friends we prize highly.  The Lord Jesus was our Friend when we were His enemies!  We fell in Adam, but He did not cease to love us; rather He became the last Adam to redeem us and “lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).  He sent His servants to preach the Gospel unto us, but we despised it.  Even when we were wandering in the ways of folly He determined to save us and watched over us.  In the midst of our sinning and sporting with death, He arrested us by His grace and by His love overcame our enmity and won our hearts.

Christ is a constant Friend: One that “loveth at all times” (Proverbs 17:17).  He continues to be our Friend through all the vicissitudes of life — no fair-weather friend who fails us when we need Him most.  He is our Friend in the day of adversity, equally as much as in the day of prosperity.  Was He not so to Peter?  He is “a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1), and evidences it by His sustaining grace.  Nor do our transgressions turn away His compassion from us; even then He acts as a friend.  “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).

Christ is a faithful Friend. His grace is not shown at the expense of righteousness, nor do His mercies ignore the requirements of holiness.  Christ always has in view both the glory of God and the highest good of His people.  “Faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Proverbs 27:6).  A real friend performs his duty by pointing out my faults.  In this respect, too, Christ does “show himself friendly” (Proverbs 18:24).  Often He says to each of us, “I have a few things against thee” (Revelation 2:14) — and rebukes us by His Word, convicts our conscience by His Spirit, and chastens us by His providence “that we might be partakers of his holiness” (Hebrews 12:10).

Christ is a powerful Friend. He is willing and able to help us.  Some earthly friends may have the desire to help us in the hour of need, but lack the wherewithal: not so our heavenly Friend.  He has both the heart to assist and also the power.  He is the Possessor of “unsearchable riches,” and all that He has is at our disposal.  “The glory which thou gavest me I have given them” (John 17:22).  We have a Friend at court, for Christ uses His influence with the Father on our behalf.  “He ever liveth to make intercession for us” (Hebrews 7:25).  No situation can possibly arise which is beyond the resources of Christ.

Christ is an everlasting Friend. He does not desert us in the hour of crisis.  “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me” (Psalm 23:4).  Nor does death sever us from this Friend who “sticketh closer than a brother,” for we are with Him that very day in paradise.  Death will have separated us from those on earth, but “absent from the body,” we shall be “present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).  And in the future Christ will manifest Himself as our Friend, saying “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

Since Christ is such a Friend to the Christian, what follows? Friendship should be answered with friendship!  Negatively, there should be no coldness, aloofness, trepidation, hesitancy on our part; but positively, a free availing ourselves of such a privilege.  We should delight ourselves in Him.  Since He is a faithful Friend, we may safely tell Him the secrets of our hearts, for He will never betray our confidence.  But His friendship also imposes definite obligations — to please Him and promote His cause and daily seek His counsel.

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Honoring the Spirit by A. W. Pink

It seems fitting that we should close this lengthy discussion upon the Person, office, and operations of the Holy Spirit by dwelling upon what is due Him from those in whom He has wrought so graciously, for it is very evident that some recognition and response must be made Him by us.

There is, however, the more need for us to write something thereon, because there are quite a number who belong to a company which refrains from all direct worship of the Third Person in the Godhead, deeming it unscriptural and incongruous to do so.  It seems strange that the very ones who claim to give the Spirit a freer and fuller place in their meetings than any branch of Christendom, should, at he same time, demur at prayer being immediately directed to Him.  Yet it is so: some of them refuse to sing the Doxology because it ends with “Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”

From time to time one and another of our readers have written, taking exception to occasional statements made by us, such as “what praise is due the Spirit for His grace and goodness unto us!” challenging us to point to any definite passage wherein we are bidden to worship or pray to the Spirit distinctively.

First, let us point out that there are many things clearly implied in Scripture which are not formally and expressly stated, and to assert we must for that reason reject them is absurd—some have refused the canonicity of the book of Esther because the name of God is not found therein, yet His superintending Providence, His overruling power, His faithfulness and goodness, shine forth in each chapter!  We build not our faith on any isolated texts, but on the Word of God as a whole, rightly and spiritually interpreted.  We have begun thus not because we are unable to find any definite statements in the Word which obviously warrant the position we have taken, but because we deemed it well to refute an erroneous principle.  Even if there were no clear cases recorded of prayer and praise being offered immediately to the Holy Spirit, we should surely require some strong positive proof to show the Spirit is not to be supplicated.

But where, we ask, is there anything in Holy Writ which informs us that one Person in the Godhead must be excluded from the praises that we make unto the Lord?  Here we are meeting the objector on his own ground: if what we are about to advance fails to convince him, he must at least allow that he knows of no texts which refute or condemn us, no verse which warns us against rendering to the blessed Spirit that recognition and honor to which we consider He is fully entitled.

Worshipping The Spirit As A Member Of The Trinity

“Thou shalt fear (worship—Matthew 4:10) the LORD thy God, and serve Him” (Deuteronomy 6:13). Now the Lord our God is a Unity in Trinity, that is, He subsists in three Persons who are co-essential and co-glorious.  Therefore the Holy Spirit, equally with the Father and the Son, is entitled to and must receive devout homage, for we are here commanded to render the same to Him.

This is confirmed by the “holy, holy, holy,” of Isaiah 6:3, where we find the seraphim owning separately and worshipping distinctively the Eternal Three.  The words that follow in verse 8, “Who will go for Us?” make it quite clear that the threefold “holy” was ascribed to the Blessed Trinity. Still further confirmation is found in Acts 28:25, 26, where the Apostle prefaces his quotation of Isaiah 6:9 with “well spake the Holy Spirit by Isaiah the Prophet.”  If, then, the angels ascribe glory and render worship to the Holy Spirit, shall we, who have been regenerated by Him, do less!?

“O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our Maker” (Psalm 95:6).  Who is our “Maker?” Perhaps you answer, Christ, the eternal Word, of whom it is said, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3 and cf. Colossians 1:16).  That is true, yet Christ is not our “Maker” (either naturally or spiritually) to the exclusion of the Holy Spirit.  The Third Person of the Godhead, equally with the Father and the Son, is our “Maker.”  In proof of this assertion, we quote, “The Spirit of God hath made me, and the Breath of the Almighty hath given me life” (Job 33:4).  Let the reader carefully compare Job 26:13 with Psalm 33:6.  Let it also be duly noted that this 95th Psalm (vv. 7-11) is quoted in Hebrews 3:7-11 and prefaced with, “Wherefore as the Holy Spirit

saith.”  Thus not only may we worship the blessed Spirit, but here in Psalm 95:6 we are commanded to do so.

It does indeed seem strange that any professing Christian should raise any objection and question the propriety of worshipping the Spirit.  Are we not to acknowledge our dependence upon and obligations unto the Holy Spirit?  Surely!  Surely!  He is as much the Object of faith as is the Father and the Son: He is so in His Being and perfections, His Deity and personality, His offices and operations.  Moreover, there are particular acts of trust and confidence to be exercised on Him.  As He is God, He is to be worshipped, and that cannot be done aright without faith. We are to trust Him for His help in prayer and the discharge of every duty!  We are to exercise confidence that He will complete the good work which He has begun in us.  Especially should ministers of the Word look to Him for His help in and blessing upon their labors.  “Then said He unto me, Prophesy unto the Wind (Breath), prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O Breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live” (Ezekiel 37:9).

We sincerely trust that none of our readers will suppose that the Lord bade His servant to perform an idolatrous act by invoking the literal “wind.”  No, a comparison of verses 9 and 10 with verse 14 shows plainly that it was the Holy Spirit Himself who was referred to—see John 3:8.  Nor does this passage stand alone. In Song of Solomon 4:16 we find the Spouse praying to the Spirit for renewal and revival: “Awake, O north Wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.”  She expressed her desires metaphorically, but this is what she breathed after. It is the Spirit of life, then, we should always apply to for quickening, for the enlivening and exciting of His graces in us.

Worshipping The Spirit Directly

This subject is (alas) new to many.  Not a few seem to have been misled through a wrong understanding of that word concerning the Spirit in John 16:13, as though, “He shall not speak of Himself,” signified He shall never occupy the saints with His own Person and work, but always direct them to Christ.  It is true that the Spirit is here to glorify Christ, yet that by no means exhausts His mission.  His first work is to direct the attention of sinners to God as God, convicting them of rebellion against their Creator, Ruler, and Judge.  Then, too, He occupies the saints with the Father: His love, grace, and providential care. But John 16:13 no more means that the Spirit does not magnify Himself than Christ’s, “I have not spoken for Myself” (John 12:49) meant that He never occupied people with His own Person—His “come unto Me” (Matthew 11:28, John 7:37) proves otherwise.

Others create difficulty out of the fact that in the economy of redemption the Spirit now occupies the place of Servant of the Godhead, and as such it is incongruous to worship Him.  Such a cavil hardly deserves reply.  But lest some of our readers have been misled by this sophistry, let it be pointed out that during the days of His flesh, Christ occupied the place of “Servant,” the One who came here not to be ministered unto, but to minister—nevertheless, even during that season of His humiliation we are told, “Behold there came a leper and worshipped Him” (Matthew 8:2).  And have we not read that when the wise men from the east entered the house where He was, they “fell down and worshipped Him” (Matthew 2:11)?

Thus, the fact that the Holy Spirit is the Executive of the Godhead by no means debars Him of His title to our love and homage.  Some say that because the Spirit is in us, He is not a suitable Object of worship, as the Father and Son without us. But is the Spirit within the only relation He sustains to us?  Is He not omnipresent, infinitely above us, and as such an appropriate Object of worship?

That the Holy Spirit is to be publicly owned and equally honored with the Father and the Son is very evident from the terms of the great commission, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).  Now to be baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit is either a real act of worship, or otherwise it would be a mere formality—which of the two is not difficult to determine. In view of this verse, no one need have the slightest hesitation in rendering homage to the Spirit as he does to the Father and the Son.  This is not a case of reasoning on our parts nor of drawing an inference, but is a part of Divinely-revealed Truth.  If we praise and revere the Son for what He has done for us, shall not the Spirit be adored for what He has wrought in us!?  The Spirit Himself loves us (Romans 15:30), by whose authority, then, are we to stifle our love for Him!?

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen” (2 Corinthians 13:14).  Here again the Holy Spirit is honored equally with the Father and the Son—the Apostles certainly did not slight Him as do some of our moderns.  Let it be duly weighed that “communion” is a mutual thing, a giving and receiving.  In our communion with the Father, we receive from Him, and then return to Him love and obedience.  From the Son we receive life, and acknowledge it in our praises.  From the Spirit we receive regeneration and sanctification; shall we render Him nothing in return?  We understand this verse to signify, “O Lord Jesus Christ, let Thy grace be with us; O God the Father, let thy love be manifested unto us; O Holy Spirit, let Thy saints enjoy much of thy communion.”  This invocatory benediction revealed the longings of Paul’s heart unto the Corinthian saints, and those longings prompted his petition on their behalf.

“And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ” (2 Thessalonians 3:5).  What could be plainer? Here each of the three Divine Persons is distinguished, and the Apostle prays directly to the Lord the Spirit—obviously “the Lord” here cannot refer to the Son, for in such case it would signify “The Lord (Jesus) direct your hearts into the patient waiting for Christ.”  As it is the Spirit’s office to “guide us into all truth” (John 16:13), to “lead us into the paths of righteousness” (Psalm 23:3), so to “direct” our hearts into the love of God and longings after Christ.  He it is who communicates God’s love to us (Romans 5:50), and He it is who stirs us up to the performance of duty by inflaming our hearts with apprehensions of God’s tenderness toward us—and for this we are to pray to Him!  It is just as though the Apostle said, “O thou Lord the Spirit, warm our cold hearts with a renewed sense of God’s tender regard for us, stabilize our fretful souls into a patient waiting for Christ.”

“John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne; and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness” (Revelation 1:4, 5).  This is as much a prayer—an invocation of blessing—as that recorded in Numbers 6:24-26.  The Apostle John desired and supplicated God the Father (“Him who is,” etc.), God the Holy Spirit in the plenitude of His power (“the seven Spirits”), and God the Son, that the seven churches in Asia might enjoy Their grace and peace.  When I say “The Lord bless you, dear brother,” I should utter empty words unless I also pray the Lord to bless you.  This “grace and peace be unto you,” then, was far more that a pleasantry or courtesy:  John was making known to the saints his deep longings for them, which found expression in ardent supplication for these very blessings to be conferred upon them. In conclusion let us say that every verse of the Bible which bids us “Praise the Lord” or “worship God” has reference to each of the Eternal Three.

“Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:38).  Here is something very plain and expressive, the only point needing to be determined is, Who is “The Lord of the harvest?”  During the days of His earthly ministry, Christ Himself sustained that office, as is clear from His calling and sending forth of the Twelve; but after His ascension, the Holy Spirit became such.  As proof thereof, we refer to “The Holy Spirit said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them… so they, being sent forth by the Holy Spirit, departed” (Acts 13:2, 4)!

So again we read, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers” (Acts 20:28).  It is the Holy Spirit who now appoints the laborers, equips them, assigns their work, and blesses their efforts. In 1 Corinthians 12:5 and 2 Corinthians 3:17, the Holy Spirit expressly is designated “Lord.”

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all you creatures here below. Praise Him above you heavenly hosts—praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.” Amen!

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Love for Christ and Obedience by A. W. Pink

“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21).

In this instance, we shall depart from our customary method of expounding the different clauses of a verse in the order in which they occur; instead, we shall treat this verse more or less topically.  That in it which is of such vital importance is the final clause, where the Savior promised to manifest Himself to the obedient believer.  Now there is nothing the real Christian desires so much as a personal manifestation of the Lord Jesus.  In comparison with this, all other blessings are quite secondary.

In order to simplify, let us ask and attempt to answer three questions: How does the Savior now “manifest” Himself?  What are the effects of such manifestation?  What are the conditions which I have to meet?

In what way does the Lord Jesus now manifest Himself? It is hardly necessary to say, not corporeally.  No longer is the Word made flesh, tabernacling among men.  No more does He say, as He said to Thomas, “Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side” (John 20:27).  No longer may He be seen by our physical eyes (1 John 1:1).  Nor is the promise of Christ which we are now considering made good through visions.  We recall the vision which Jacob had at Bethel, when a ladder was set upon earth, whose top reached unto heaven, upon which the angels of God ascended and descended.  We think of that wondrous vision given to Isaiah when he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne before which the seraphim cried, “holy, holy, holy.”  No, it is not in visions or in dreams that the Lord promises to come to His people.

What then?  It is a spiritual revelation of Himself to the soul!  It is a vivid realization of the Savior’s being and nearness, in a deep and abiding sense of His favor and love.  “By the power of the Spirit, He makes His Word so luminous, that as we read it, He Himself seems to draw near.  The whole biography of Jesus becomes in this way a precious reality.  We see His form.  We hear His words.”  It is through the written Word that the incarnate Word “manifests” Himself to the heart!

And what are the effects upon the soul of such a manifestation of Christ. First and foremost, He Himself is made a blessed and glorious reality to us.  The one who has been granted such an experience can say with Job, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye (the eye of the heart) seeth thee” (Job 42:5).  Such a one now discerns the surpassing beauty and glory of His person and exclaims, “Thou art fairer than the children of men.”  Again: such a manifestation of Christ to the soul assures us of His favor.  Now we hear Him saying (through the Scriptures), “As the Father hath loved me, so I have loved you.”  And now I can respond, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.”

Another consequence of this manifestation of Christ is “comfort and support in trials, especially in those trials, which, on account of their Personal nature, are beyond the reach of human sympathy and love — the trials of desertion and loneliness from which Jesus Himself suffered so keenly; heart trials, domestic trials, secret griefs, too sacred to be breathed in the ears of men — all these trials in which nothing can sustain us but the sympathy which His own presence gives.”  Just as the Son of God appeared to the three faithful Hebrews in the fiery furnace, so does He now come to those in the place of trial and anguish.  So too in the last great trial should we be called upon to pass through it ere the Savior comes.  Then to earthly friends we can turn no longer.  But we may say with the Psalmist, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.”

Now, let us inquire, What are the terms on which the Savior thus draws near? Surely every Christian reader is most anxious to secure the key to an experience so elevating, so blessed.  Listen now to the Savior’s words, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”  The faith by which we are saved does not destroy the necessity for an obedient walk.  “Faith is the root of which obedience is the beautiful flower and fruit.  And it is only when faith has issued in obedience, in an obedience which stumbles not at sacrifices and halts not when the way is rough and dark; in an obedience that cheerfully bears the cross and shame — it is only then that this highest promise of the Gospel is fulfilled…  When love for the Savior shall lead us to keep His holy Word — lead us to an immediate, unreserved, unhesitating obedience — lead us to say, in the spirit of entire self-surrender and sacrifice, ‘Thy will, not mine, be done,’ then, farewell to doubt and darkness, to loneliness and sorrow!  Then shall we mourn no more an absent Lord. Then shall we walk as seeing Him who is invisible, triumphant over every fear, victorious over every foe.”

This manifestation of Christ is made only to the one who really loves Him, and the proof of love to Him is not by emotional displays but by submission to His will.  There is a vast difference between sentiment and practical reality.  The Lord will give no direct and special revelation of Himself to those who are in the path of disobedience.  “He that hath my commandments,’’ means, hath them at heart.  “And keepeth them,” that is the real test.  We hear, but do we heed?  We know, but are we doing His will?  “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18)!  “And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father.”

There are three different senses in which Christians may be considered as objects of the loving favor of the Father and of the Son: as persons elected in sovereign grace to eternal life; as persons actually united to Christ by believing: and as persons transformed by the sanctifying work of the Spirit.  It is in this last sense that Christ here speaks.  Just as the Father is said to love the Son because of His obedience (John 10:17, 18), so is He said to love the believer for the same reason.  It is the love of complacency, as distinguished from the love of compassion.  The Father was well pleased with His incarnate Son, and He is well pleased with us when we honor and glorify His Son by obeying His commandments.

“Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23).

The Lord here repeats that God has fellowship only with those whose hearts welcome Him, who love Him, and whose love is manifested by submission to His Word.  Then He loves in return.  The Old Testament taught precisely the same thing. “I love them that love me” (Proverbs 8:17).  “If a man love me he will keep my word.”  Let not renewed souls torture themselves by attempting to define too nicely the extent of their “keeping.”  Let those who are tempted to do so meditate upon John 17:6 — “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy Word.”  Mark it well that this was said by the Savior in full view of all the infirmities and failures of the disciples and said prior to the day of Pentecost!

To “keep” God’s commandments is to obey them, and the primary, fundamental thing in obedience is the desire of the heart, and it is on the heart that God ever looks.  Two things are true of every Christian: deep down in his heart there is an intense, steady longing and yearning to please God, to do His will, to walk in full accord with His Word.  This yearning may be stronger in some than in others, and in each of us it is stronger at some times than at others; nevertheless, it is there!  But in the second place, no real Christian fully realizes this desire.  Every genuine Christian has to say with the apostle Paul, “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may lay hold of that for which I am laid hold of by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12).   Now we believe that it is this heart-obedience, this inward longing to be fully conformed to His will, this burning desire of the renewed soul, of which Christ here speaks.  “If a man love me, he will keep my word.”

Every true believer loves Christ; therefore every true believer “keeps” His Word, keeps it in the sense thus defined.  Let it be repeated, God looks at the heart; whereas we are constantly occupied with the outward  appearance.  As we scrutinize our deeds, if we are honest, we have to acknowledge that we have “kept his word” very imperfectly; yea, it seems to us, that we are not entitled to say that we have “kept” it at all.  But the Lord looks behind the deeds, and knows the longings within us.  The case of Peter in John 21 is a pertinent illustration.  When Christ asked him a third time, “Lovest thou me?” His disciple answered, “Lord, thou knowest all things; THOU knowest that I love thee” (John 21:17).  My disgraceful actions contradicted my love; my fellow-disciples have good reason to doubt it, but Thou who searchest the heart knowest better.  In one sense, it is an intensely solemn and searching thing to remember that nothing can be hidden from Him before whom all things are open and naked; but in another sense it is most blessed and comforting to realize that He can see in my heart what I cannot often discover in my ways, and what my fellow-believers cannot — a real love for Him, a genuine longing to please and glorify Him.

Let not the conclusion be drawn that we are here lapsing into Antinomian laxity, or making it a matter of no moment what our outward lives are like.  To borrow words which treat of another subject, “As there was a readiness to will so there should be a performance also” (2 Corinthians 8:11).  Though the apostle acknowledged that he had not “already attained,” yet he continued to “follow after.”  Where there is love for Christ, there cannot but be bitter sorrow (as with Peter) when we know that we have grieved Him.  And more; there will be a sincere confession of our sins, and confession will be followed by earnest supplication for grace to enable us to do what He has bidden.

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There are three things told us in Scripture concerning the nature of God.

First, “God is spirit” (John 4:24).  In the Greek, there is no indefinite article and to say “God is a spirit” is most objectionable, for it places Him in a class with others.  God is “spirit” in the highest sense.  Because He is “spirit” He is incorporeal, having no visible substance.  Had God a tangible body, He would not be omnipresent, He would be limited to one place; because He is spirit, He fills heaven and earth.

Second, God is light (1 John 1:5), which is the opposite of “darkness.”  In Scripture, “darkness” stands for sin, evil, death; and “light” for holiness, goodness, life.  God is light, means that He is the sum of all excellency.

Third, “God is love” (1 John 4:8).  It is not simply that God “loves,” but that He is Love itself.  Love is not merely one of His attributes, but His very nature.

There are many today who talk about the love of God who are total strangers to the God of love.  The Divine love is commonly regarded as a species of amiable weakness, a sort of good-natured indulgence; it is reduced to a mere sickly sentiment, patterned after human emotion.  Now the truth is that on this, as on everything else, our thoughts need to be formed and regulated by what is revealed thereon in Holy Scripture.  That there is urgent need for this is apparent not only from the ignorance which so generally prevails, but also from the low state of spirituality which is now so sadly evident everywhere among professing Christians.  How little real love there is for God.  One chief reason for this is because our hearts are so little occupied with His wondrous love for His people.  The better we are acquainted with His love—its character, fullness, blessedness—the more will our hearts be drawn out in love to Him.

1. The love of God is uninfluenced. By this we mean, there was nothing whatever in the objects of His love to call it into exercise, nothing in the creature to attract or prompt it.  The love which one creature has for another is because of something in them; but the love of God is free, spontaneous, uncaused.  The only reason why God loves any is found in His own sovereign will: “The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: but because the Lord loved thee” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8).  God has loved His people from everlasting, and therefore nothing of the creature can be the cause of what is found in God from eternity.  He loves from Himself: “according to His own purpose” (2 Timothy 1:9).

“We love Him, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).  God did not love us because we loved Him, but He loved us before we had a particle of love for Him.  Had God loved us in return for ours, then it would not be spontaneous on His part; but because He loved us when we were loveless, it is clear that His love was uninfluenced.  It is highly important if God is to be honored and the heart of His child established, that we should be quite clear upon this precious truth.  God’s love for me, and for each of “His own,” was entirely unmoved by anything in them.  What was there in me to attract the heart of God?  Absolutely nothing.  But, to the contrary, everything to repel Him, everything calculated to make Him loathe me—sinful, depraved, a mass of corruption, with “no good thing” in me.

“What was there in me that could merit esteem,

Or give the Creator delight?

‘Twas even so, Father, I ever must sing,

Because it seemed good, in Thy sight.”

2. It is eternal. This of necessity.  God Himself is eternal, and God is love; therefore, as God Himself had no beginning, His love had none.  Granted that such a concept far transcends the grasp of our feeble minds, nevertheless, where we cannot comprehend, we can bow in adoring worship.  How clear is the testimony of Jeremiah 31:3, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.”

How blessed to know that the great and holy God loved His people before heaven and earth were called into existence, that He had set His heart upon them from all eternity.  Clear proof is this that His love is spontaneous for He loved them endless ages before they had any being.  The same precious truth is set forth in Ephesians 1:4,5, “According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him.  In love having predestinated us.”  What praise should this evoke from each of His children!  How tranquilizing for the heart: since God’s love toward me had no beginning, it can have no ending!  Since it be true that “from everlasting to everlasting” He is God, and since God is “love,” then it is equally true that “from everlasting to everlasting” He loves His people.

3. It is sovereign. This also is self-evident. God Himself is sovereign, under obligations to none, a law unto Himself, acting always according to His own imperial pleasure.  Since God be sovereign, and since He be love, it necessarily follows that His love is sovereign.  Because God is God, He does as He pleases; because God is love, He loves whom He pleases.  Such is His own express affirmation: “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated” (Romans 9:19).  There was no more reason in Jacob why he should be the object of Divine love, than there was in Esau.  They both had the same parents, and were born at the same time, being twins; yet God loved the one and hated the other!  Why?  Because it pleased Him to do so.  The sovereignty of God’s love necessarily follows from the fact that it is uninfluenced by anything in the creature.  Thus, to affirm that the cause of His love lies in God Himself, is only another way of saying, He loves whom He pleases.

For a moment, assume the opposite.  Suppose God’s love were regulated by anything else than His will, in such a case He would love by rule, and loving by rule He would be under a law of love, and then so far from being free, God would Himself be ruled by law.  “In love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to”—what?  Some excellency which He foresaw in them?  No; what then?  “According to the good pleasure of His will” (Ephesians 1:4-5).

4. It is infinite. Everything about God is infinite.  His essence fills heaven and earth.  His wisdom is illimitable, for He knows everything of the past, present and future.  His power is unbounded, for there is nothing too hard for Him.  So His love is without limit.  There is a depth to it which none can fathom; there is a height to it which none can scale; there is a length and breadth to it which defies measurement, by any creature-standard.

Beautifully is this intimated in Ephesians 2:4: But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us: the word “great” there is parallel with the “God so loved” of John 3:16.  It tells us that the love of God is so transcendent it cannot be estimated.  No tongue can fully express the infinitude of God’s love or any mind comprehend it: it “passeth knowledge,” Ephesians 3:19).  The most extensive ideas that a finite mind can frame about Divine love, are infinitely below its true nature.  The heaven is not so far above the earth as the goodness of God is beyond the most raised conceptions which we are able to form of it.  It is an ocean which swells higher than all the mountains of opposition in such as are the objects of it.  It is a fountain from which flows all necessary good to all those who are interested in it (John Brine, 1743).

5. It is immutable. As with God Himself there is “no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17), so His love knows neither change nor diminution.  The worm Jacob supplies a forceful example of this: “Jacob have I loved,” declared Jehovah, and despite all his unbelief and waywardness, He never ceased to love him.  John 13:1 furnishes another beautiful illustration.  That very night one of the apostles would say, “Show us the Father;” another would deny Him with cursings; all of them would be scandalized by and forsake Him.  Nevertheless “having loved His own which were in the world, He love them unto the end.”  The Divine love is subject to no vicissitudes.  Divine love is “strong as death … many waters cannot quench it” (Song of Solomon 8:6-7).  Nothing can separate from it: Romans 8:35-39.

“His love no end nor measure knows,

No change can turn its course,

Eternally the same it flows

From one eternal source.”

6. It is holy. God’s love is not regulated by caprice passion, or sentiment, but by principle.  Just as His grace reigns not at the expense of it, but “through righteousness” (Romans 5:21), so His love never conflicts with His holiness.  “God is light” (1 John 1:5) is mentioned before “God is love” (1 John 4:8).  God’s love is no mere amiable weakness, or effeminate softness.  Scripture declares, “whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth” (Hebrews 12:6).  God will not wink at sin, even in His own people.  His love is pure, unmixed with any maudlin sentimentality.

7. It is gracious. The love and favor of God are inseparable.  This is clearly brought out in Romans 8:32-39.  What that love is from which there can be no “separation,” is easily perceived from the design and scope of the immediate context: it is that goodwill and grace of God which determined Him to give His Son for sinners.  That love was the impulsive power of Christ’s incarnation: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16).  Christ died not in order to make God love us, but because He did love His people.  Calvary is the supreme demonstration of Divine love.  Whenever you are tempted to doubt the love of God, Christian reader, go back to Calvary.

Here then is abundant cause for trust and patience under Divine affliction.  Christ was beloved of the Father, yet He was not exempted from poverty, disgrace, and persecution.  He hungered and thirsted.  Thus, it was not incompatible with God’s love for Christ when He permitted men to spit upon and smite Him.  Then let no Christian call into question God’s love when he is brought under painful afflictions and trials.  God did not enrich Christ on earth with temporal prosperity, for “He had not where to lay His head.”  But He did give Him the Spirit “without measure” (John 3:34).  Learn then that spiritual blessings are the principal gifts of Divine love.  How blessed to know that when the world hates us, God loves us!

From The Attributes of God.

Edited by Teaching Resources, 2003. May be reproduced without permission for ministry purposes.

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Precious Death by A. W. Pink

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”  Psalm 116:15

This is one of the many comforting and blessed statements in Holy Scripture concerning that great event from which the flesh so much shrinks.  If the Lord’s people would more frequently make a prayerful and believing study of what the Word says upon their departure out of this world, death would lose much, if not all, of its terrors for them.  But alas, instead of doing so, they let their imagination run riot, they give way to carnal fears, they walk by sight instead of by faith.  Looking to the Holy Spirit for guidance, let us endeavor to dispel, by the light of Divine revelation, some of the gloom which unbelief casts around even the death of a Christian.

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” These words intimate that a dying saint is an object of special notice unto the Lord, for mark the words “in the sight of.”  It is true that the eyes of the Lord are ever upon us, for He never slumbers nor sleeps.  It is true that we may say at all times “Thou God seest me.”  But it appears from Scripture that there are occasions when He notices and cares for us in a special manner.  “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).  “When thou passeth through the waters, I will be with thee” (Isaiah 43:2).

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” This brings before us an aspect of death which is rarely considered by believers.  It gives us what may be termed the Godward side of the subject.  Only too often, we contemplate death, like most other things, from our side.  The text tells us that from the viewpoint of Heaven the death of a saint is neither hideous nor horrible, tragic or terrible, but “precious.”  This raises the question, Why is the death of His people precious in the sight of the Lord?  What is there in the last great crisis which is so dear unto Him?  Without attempting an exhaustive reply, let us suggest one or two possible answers.

1. Their persons are precious to the Lord.

They ever were and always will be dear to Him. His saints!  They were the ones on whom His love was set before the earth was formed or the heavens made.  These are they for whose sakes He left His Home on high and whom He bought with His precious blood, cheerfully laying down His life for them.  These are they whose names are borne on our great High Priest’s breast and engraven on the palms of His hands.  They are His Father’s love-gift to Him, His children, members of His body; therefore, everything that concerns them is precious in His sight.  The Lord loves His people so intensely that the very hairs of their heads are numbered: the angels are sent forth to minister unto them; and because their persons are precious unto the Lord so also are their deaths.

2. Because death terminates the saint’s sorrows and sufferings.

There is a needs-be for our sufferings, for through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22).  Nevertheless, the Lord does not “afflict willingly” (Lam. 3:33).  God is neither unmindful of nor indifferent to our trials and troubles.  Concerning His people of old it is written, “In all their affliction, he was afflicted” (Isa. 63:9).  “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him” (Ps. 103:13).  So also are we told that our great High Priest is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Heb. 4:15).  Here, then, may be another reason why the death of a saint is precious in the sight of the Lord—because it marks the termination of his sorrows and sufferings.

3. Because death affords the Lord an opportunity to display His sufficiency.

Love is never so happy as when ministering to the needs of its cherished object, and never is the Christian so needy and so helpless as in the hour of death.  But man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.  It is then that the Father says to His trembling child, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness” (Isa. 41:10).  It is because of this that the believer may confidently reply, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”  Our very weakness appeals to His strength, our emergency to His sufficiency.  Most blessedly is this principle illustrated in the well-known words “He shall gather the lambs (the helpless ones) with his arm, and carry them in his bosom” (Isaiah 40:11).  Yes, His strength is made perfect in our weakness.  Therefore is the death of the saints “precious” in His sight because it affords the Lord a blessed occasion for His love, grace and power to minister unto and undertake for His helpless people.

4. Because at death the saint goes direct to the Lord.

The Lord delights in having His people with Himself.  Blessedly was this evidenced all through His earthly ministry.  Wherever He went, the Lord took His disciples along with Him.  Whether it was to the marriage at Cana, to the holy feasts in Jerusalem, to the house of Jairus when his daughter lay dead, or to the Mount of Transfiguration, they ever accompanied Him.  How blessed is that word in Mark 3:14, “He ordained twelve, that they should be with him.”  And He is “the same yesterday and today and for ever.”  Therefore has He assured us, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:3).  Precious then is the death of the saints in His sight, because absent from the body we are “present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8).

While we are sorrowing over the removal of a saint, Christ is rejoicing.  His prayer was “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory” (John 17:24), and in the entrance into Heaven of each one of His own people, He sees an answer to that prayer and is glad. He beholds in each one that is freed from “this body of death” another portion of the reward for His travail of soul, and He is satisfied with it.

Therefore the death of His saints is precious to the Lord, for it occasions Him ground for rejoicing. It is most interesting and instructive to trace out the fullness of the Hebrew word here translated “precious.” it is also rendered “excellent.”  “How excellent is Thy loving kindness, O God!” (Ps. 36:7).  “A man of understanding is of an excellent spirit” (Prov. 17:27).  However worthily or unworthily he may live, the death of a saint is excellent in the sight of the Lord. The same Hebrew word is also rendered “honorable.” “Kings” daughters were among thy honorable women” (Ps. 45:9).  So Ahasuerus asked of Haman, “What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor?” (Esther 6:6).  Yes, the exchange of heaven for earth is truly honorable, and “This honor have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord.”

This Hebrew word is also rendered “brightness.”  “If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness” (Job 31:26).  Dark and gloomy though death may be unto those whom the Christian leaves behind, it is brightness “in the sight of the Lord:” “at evening time it shall be light” (Zech. 14:7).  Precious, excellent, honorable, brightness in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.  May the Lord make this little meditation precious unto His saints.

From The Christian’s Comfort.

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