Sermon: By This We Know Love!

#1589
Martin G. Collins
Given 27-Mar-21; 62 minutes

Throughout His ministry on earth, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ moved in and out and among the people of Israel to be examined by them—by friends and enemies alike. None could find sin in Him. In fact, He was a Man of love and mercy in all that He did.

On the evening before His crucifixion, Jesus was meeting with His disciples, sharing with them some of the most intimate truths of His entire ministry. And as He did, as He discussed the love of the Father and His love for His disciples, He declared,

John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."

And though they did not realize it at the time, the disciples were only hours from the practical realization of this statement of truth. John adds in,

I John 3:16 By this we know love, because He [Jesus] laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

The beginning of that verse is the title of this sermon. I have never told the title before in any sermon that I remember. But it is, "By This We Know Love."

Was it easy for Jesus to lay down His life for us? It seems like a rhetorical question. Did He have any anxiety about it? Even though He had a full measure of God's Spirit, what He went through is beyond our full comprehension. One thing we do know is that He was motivated by love.

Please turn with me to Luke 22, verse 44. As Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciple and physician Luke noted that Jesus was greatly traumatized by something so horrible that He sweat blood.

Luke 22:44 And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great droplets of blood falling down to the ground.

Many have thought that the idea that someone could sweat blood is ridiculous. But this was written by the physician, Luke, a well-educated man and a careful observer by profession. Luke is also the only gospel writer to mention the bloody sweat, possibly because of his interest as a physician in this rare physiological phenomenon that resulted from the intense agony Jesus felt. Although this medical condition is relatively rare, it is fairly well understood and there have been quite a few documented cases of it.

The clinical term is hematohidrosis and it is the clinical name for sweating blood. Around the sweat glands there are multiple blood vessels in a netlike form and under the pressure of extreme physical or emotional stress, the vessels constrict. Then as the anxiety passes, the blood vessels dilate to the point of rupture. The blood goes into the sweat glands and the sweat glands are producing a lot of sweat. It pushes the blood to the surface which comes out as droplets of blood mixed with sweat.

So what was the source of Jesus' great anguish that would cause this much to appear on His body? Obviously, He was in intense mental agony. Being the Son of God He would know the details of everything that was about to happen to Him. He knew that He was physically facing one of the most horrible forms of capital punishment ever devised by the evil thoughts of men. And His body was human and He would feel everything at least as intensely as any other human would.

Please turn with me to Hebrews 12, verse 2. Was this the source of His severe stress? There was some anxiety in this because of the natural human dislike of pain, but that was not His primary cause of concern. Jesus was not sweating blood because He was afraid of the physical pain of the cross. In fact, the book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was looking beyond His crucifixion to the pleasure and will of God.

Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The great weight upon Jesus was the knowledge that He would soon bear the terrible trauma of taking the guilt of all of our sins upon Himself. Now, He knew that under the weight of sin, He would be separated from His Father and as a result, He would endure mental as well as physical anguish for all sinners. His crucifixion would be the first time He was separated, completely cut off from His Father and God.

Turn with me, if you will please, to Isaiah 53, verse 5. Now as powerful as Jesus is, He could easily have avoided all of this and simply disappeared or He could have brought down a legion of angels to protect Him. He could have made His skin impenetrable. He could have anesthetized His pain so that He felt nothing. But He chose to do none of these things. Rather, He willingly chose to be wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, so that He could truly pay for our sins and suffer human death. And He was driven in all of this by His love for His creation with His Father.

Isaiah 53:5-7 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.

At Passover, the emphasis is on Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God, as you well know, slain for the sins of the world. And the emphasis is on the Lamb of God, not our sins. I will emphasize that: the emphasis is on the Lamb of God, on Jesus Christ, not our sins. The emphasis is on His great love, but we should be aware of our sins as a contrast to the sinless, unblemished Lamb. We must first and foremost give glory to the unique Christ who makes our deliverance possible.

Our sins are not the focus, but they do serve to emphasize the tremendous sacrifice of our loving Savior. What greater contrast could there be between Jesus Christ and human beings in the way and how they were perfect or not perfect.

Now, God begins the the systematic redemption process of saving humanity with the Passover feast. And His primacy and meaning makes it the most important of all the feast days. Because if there were no Passover, if Jesus never died for humanity, then we might as well forget about all the rest of the feast days because they all tie in together and their strength is on the Passover feast. They would not be able to be fulfilled, every feast that follows Passover is totally dependent on it, and our Passover is Jesus Christ.

As we see throughout the entire Bible, for over three decades Jesus lived a sinless life, but He was still tested in every area of life. The hours before His crucifixion, He suffered great physical and mental pain for our healing.

Jesus was nailed to the stake and remained faithful to God and in a different sense remains faithful to us.

Jesus' sinless blood was shed for all humanity, to save everyone, for our justification and reconciliation. It satisfies the holy requirements of God the Father. So God demands holiness and He cannot allow within Himself even the smallest amount of sin or unrighteousness. Humanity is unholy because of the sins against God and His laws, and these sins keep people separate from God. The Passover brings God and converted human beings together.

Throughout each of these examples and each of these things in the Bible, we see comparisons where God is compared to man and man is shown to be more than wanting. After we were called and repented of our sins and accepted Jesus as our personal Savior, His blood covered our sins, which justified us to the Father. In other words, our sins are blotted out, covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, and then we are clean with respect to God the Father.

Simultaneously to our being justified and washed clean from our sins, we are also reconciled or restored to the Father, having been made at-one with the Father through Jesus Christ. Jesus' sinless blood began the process of salvation for us and all mankind. No part of the overall process of our salvation could proceed any further without this vitally important event and glorious gift.

God confirms the primacy of the Passover and the fact that Jesus as our Passover begins our journey and passage into life eternal. And secondarily, our annual observance of the Passover memorial begins God's annual feasts.

Although this primary gift of justification and reconciliation begins the salvation of human beings, there is another great gift that concludes or finishes it: the vibrant life of a resurrected Christ who now sits at the Father's right hand. So both great events are important. One cannot happen without the other and they are interdependent.

So the New Covenant was ratified with the shedding of Christ's blood and is symbolized in the Passover service. Paul restates Jesus' instruction to His disciples during the Passover service in,

I Corinthians 11:25 "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

Jesus Christ is the focus, not you or me or our sins. I wanted to establish that very clearly as we go through the sermon because later on I think you will see why.

The New Covenant began with the shedding of Christ's blood and becomes operative only through the indwelling of the Spirit that imparts new life, enabling us to fully meet the righteous requirements of the law. So as we think of the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we are reminded that nothing less, nothing else could provide salvation.

God gave the law; He sent His prophets and patriarchs; He raised up great moral and devoted men and blessed them—and still there was no true salvation without Jesus Christ's sacrifice. The best men had failed to keep the law perfectly. The whole world was and is guilty before God and all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Yet Christ did not in one aspect, in any way, shape, or form commit sin.

In the first two chapters of John's first epistle, John writes about our fullness of joy as Christians, about our fellowship with God, and how that fellowship is to be maintained. Then in the third chapter, John is dealing with the whole position of the believer as the child of God. Please turn with me to I John 3, verse 4. Now, John emphasizes the importance of righteousness and of living God's way of life. And he says, you know that Jesus was manifested to take away our sins and in Jesus there is no sin. John says it is an essential part of our whole standing and position as Christians.

I John 3:4-7 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.

As there are heresies that might lead us astray about our Savior and His work, so also there are heresies regarding sin, and that is the subject with which John deals with in this section of his letter.

I John 3:8-9 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God is manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

It is important to realize that John's method of handling the subject of holiness and righteousness is typical of the way the other New Testament writers handle it. We are inspired to express the call for holiness and how it is always in terms of doctrine. Holiness must never be isolated. It is always deduced from something that has gone before. And holiness is a matter of working out what we claim to believe and therefore failure in practice does suggest a failure to truly understand doctrine, and it is an indication that there is something essentially and fundamentally wrong.

The failure with which John is concerned is the failure to really understand the true nature of sin. There are many tendencies regarding this and John dealt with the danger of the inadequate view of sin that allows people to think that they are already perfect. That is, that they think that they do not have sin.

Now, the people the apostle John was warning against in his first epistle only saw the letter of the law and were unable to see the spirit of the law. In other words, they regarded sin in terms of specific actions and so failed to realize its power within their minds. (We just heard about something similar to that in the sermon at today.)

Here in the I John 3, John is pointing out a different danger and a heresy regarding sin. It has to do with regarding it lightly, that is, dismissing it in some inadequate way as if it were something that really does not matter all that much if one is a Christian. Verse 4 shows that John is guarding very carefully against that. He says, "whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness." John's emphasis here is that sin is the breaking of God's law, rebellion against God, disobedience, a failure to live our lives as God would have us live them.

It must not be thought of as a kind of weakness or failure on our part. It must not be regarded as some kind of inhuman past that we have not yet shrugged off. Sin is the breaking of the law. It is disobedience to God and His holy will with respect to us. I mention this because if we just shrug off the severity of sin, we devalue Christ's loving sacrifice.

I want to change gears at this point and briefly show that Jesus was declared innocent by the secular authorities on Passover. One of the subtle evidences of the supernatural origin of the biblical text is that astonishing events are often described in extremely brief ways. And this is perhaps best illustrated in the matter of fact way in which the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the most pivotal event in the history of the universe, is described in the Gospel accounts.

In what is virtually the last official word pronounced on earth concerning Jesus, the Roman Procurator Pilate, comes forth in opposition to the determined will of the Jews and even careless nature of his own conscience to declare Jesus innocent. And he does it three times.

First, at the conclusion of the official Roman trial. In this trial, Jesus had been accused of making Himself to be Christ, a king, and thus an enemy of Caesar, and Pilate found the charge unwarranted. After a careful examination of Jesus as to the nature of His supposed kingdom, he appealed to the crowd.

John 18:38 Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?" And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, "I find no fault in Him at all."

The second declaration of Jesus' innocence was after Pilate had sent Jesus to Herod and had received Him back condemned.

Luke 23:13-15 Then Pilate. . . said to them, "You have brought this Man to me, as one who misleads the people. [that is another thing Jesus had never did, He never misled anyone] And indeed, having examined Him in your presence, I have found no fault in this Man concerning those things of which you accuse Him; no, neither did Herod, for I sent you back to him; and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by Him."

Then the third and last occasion was after Pilate had caused Jesus to be flogged, hoping by this act to satisfy the outrageous and vicious mob.

Luke 23:22 Then he said to them the third time, "Why, what evil has He done? I have found no reason for death in Him."

Now, in John's account of this in John 19:6, the apostle John's recollection is, "Pilate said to them, 'You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.'" So at last, Pilate, being unwilling to risk a riot and thus the loss of his own position, gave Christ over to death even though he found Him innocent.

It is as one un-condemned and, in fact, declared to be blameless, that Christ is sacrificed. But the fact that Pilate declared Him blameless is not enough alone to qualify Jesus as sinless. There is much more to it than that, that only dealt with the law of the land. So in the eyes of the officials of the land, He was innocent and declared that.

The horrifying events of the next six hours were preceded by the simple words in John 19:16, "Then he [Pilate] delivered Him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led Him away."

From this point on, I am going to mention law and commandments very often. However, my focus is not on the law. My emphasis is that the incarnate Jesus was able to keep God's laws perfectly while all other humans have never been able to keep God's law even partially.

Please turn with me to Romans 8, verse 3. The problem of human beings with respect to God is not only the problem of the guilt of sin. Merely to be forgiven is not enough, so to speak. We have to live by the law of God. Notice how Paul puts it here.

Romans 8:3-4 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

So we have to keep that law. But prior to our conversion, we have not kept it and we cannot do it on our own. We can only keep it if Christ dwells in us through His Spirit. Without God's Spirit to empower us to keep the law, we cannot keep it properly in the spirit of the law. We may be able to stab at it in the letter of the law, meaning not commit adultery or not steal and so on, but what about what Christ came to elaborate on and show us in the spirit of the law: Thou should not hate either.

Hebrews 9:22 tells us that without shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin and the sacrifice and offering had to be perfect, it had to be without blemish. And that was all a type and a shadow of the perfect Offering. It must be human and it must be a man, and here is the perfect sacrifice for sin because "in Him there is no sin" and that was critically important.

While the law demands perfection, it cannot admit blemish and we cannot offer a perfect sacrifice for sin if there is any defect at all. So if Jesus had sinned even once, He could no longer have been the perfect offering for our sins. But since He has always been sinless, He is the perfect sacrifice. And what a contrast that is to the efforts we have to make with God's help to overcome sin. But He never had that problem as far as that He did not do it. He did it every time, He resisted sin, He resisted temptation.

John the Baptist looked at Jesus at the beginning and said, as recorded in,

John 1:29 "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!"

But it was the law that demanded it; that would never have happened were it not for the law and that is why we should never regard sin as something light and trivial. It is something very serious. That is why we should never refer to it as some sort of weakness. Sin is the breaking of the law. It is such a terrible thing that it led to the death of Jesus and one sin is enough to demand that.

It is amazing though how often people shrug off sin. I had one man in the world tell me once that he had never sinned. And I said, "Well, I don't know where to start." So I did not say anything else.

The apostle John says, let no one deceive you. People who do not see that if they are wrong in their outlook on sin, it just means that they have never seen the enormity of it. They have never seen the problem it has created for humanity and, in a sense, for God Himself.

Now this holy law, this expression of God's being and character, totally condemns sin because the combination is death and without the sacrificial atonement, there is no forgiveness. So those who truly understand that cannot regard sin lightly at all. They cannot say that a righteous life is a matter of indifference. A righteous life is required for unity with God in His church. So of course, it is extremely important, as you well know.

Those who really believe this and are governed by it and who are truly living righteously, are not righteous just because they believe it is a good life. Maybe the terrorists believe it that way, but certainly not God's truly converted people. They see it all in the light of the law of God and of the life and teachings and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ who came as the Lamb of God.

When the apostle John says, "He was manifested to take away our sins" in I John 3:5, he is not stopping at the guilt of our sins, because salvation goes beyond that. We are delivered from the penalty of sin, which is death. He also delivers us from the power of sin.

Turn with me to Titus 2, verse 11. We are growing in grace and knowledge of God and we are increasingly being made to conform to the image of His Son and we are in the process of being delivered. The glorification is coming when we go through the whole process of salvation so that we will be blameless and faultless and perfect in His holy presence. The apostle Paul in writing to Titus says of Jesus:

Titus 2:11-14 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

So it is a matter of this law that condemns us and from which God delivers us through His Son Jesus Christ, and by the gift of eternal life and salvation. Christ went to the cruel death on the stake not only so we could have forgiveness, which does come out of it, of course, very importantly, but He also did it to separate out, to sanctify a people for Himself as a special treasure and possession.

Paul says, we must be zealous for good works and must live a righteous, holy life. And he writes that we are a people who must be a demonstration and manifestation to the whole world and to the principalities and powers in heavenly places of this wondrous Son of God who has been able to do so much. We glorify God and we glorify Jesus Christ by living God's way of life.

It is impossible for the world to truly keep God's law because of its hatred against God. But the loving Jesus, even while human, did. No other human could ever do that perfectly.

People's essential trouble is that they are guilty and condemned by the law of God. Sin was introduced into this world by Satan and it spread to human beings when he played on their weaknesses at the very beginning and tempted the man and the woman to disobey God. He tempted man to break God's holy law and foolish man made the decision to listen to him and do the same. Of course, human beings bear responsibility in this. We always have a choice whether to keep or break God's law. There we were, under the wrath of God, meriting and waiting punishment.

So if sin is not seen for the despicable thing it is, then we cannot understand anything else because our Savior was manifested—appeared—in this world because of that.

Now please turn to I John 1, verse 1. John makes two statements regarding the object of the coming of Christ, one in I John 3, verse 5, "You know that He was manifested to take away our sins," and the other in I John 3, verse 8 which says, "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil."

I John 1:1-2 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life [Jesus]—the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us [it is in the form of Jesus Christ].

Why was He manifested? That is the question that John answers in his epistle, especially in chapter 3, which we will go to later.

View this from a negative perspective first. Our Savior did not only come to give us a revelation of God, though that is a major part of His purpose. In John 14:9 Jesus said, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father." We also read in John 1:18, "No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him."

But that is not all. Though He has revealed the Father and has come to do that, there is also, of course, the example of His life, an unprecedented and matchless one. But He has not come only to give us an example of how we should live in this world. He is not just a teacher or a moral example or a standard. He has not come only to give us a picture as to the nature and being of God—all that is there. But that is not the primary reason He came to deliver us.

There is a fundamental problem behind it all and that is our relationship with God in light of God's holy law. Everyone is or has been under the penalty of the law because of sin, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We know that sinless Jesus was manifested to take away our sins. So sin must be understood in terms of the law if we are to understand why our Savior had to shed His blood while being crucified on the stake.

Christ is the object of the Bible, which includes God's law. And this law is an aspect that represents the plan of salvation for humanity. It describes God's righteousness. The purpose of the law is found in,

Ephesians 4:13 [you are very familiar with this] Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

So Jesus came because He had to come if we were to be delivered, and He came because there was no other way for us to be redeemed and rescued. This is an immensely personal, loving act on His part.

Luke 19:9-10 Jesus said to him, "Today salvation [that is, the Savior] has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost."

That is why we are able to access what He has offered us as a result of His sacrifice.

He came because of this whole issue of what sin has done to us and the position in which He has landed us with respect to God and His holy law. In I John 3, John puts all that to us very pointedly. When we compare humanity's actions to Jesus Christ, we see a tremendous difference. People are full of flaws and Jesus Christ is perfect.

So why was there no sin in Jesus Christ? What has God done regarding this predicament in which we find ourselves?

The first thing John tells us is that we cannot understand our Savior Jesus Christ's uniqueness as sinless properly, apart from ourselves and our sinful condition, apart from this whole issue of the law. It is compared to Christ and falls so far short that we are nothing but worms when we are committing sin. So the first statement John makes is that Christ Himself is without sin. There was no sin in Jesus Christ. He was perfect, spotless, and blameless. He was born without sin.

The Holy Spirit came upon Mary and He was born. He became man; He took to Himself human nature, and still was without sin. In the miracle that took place, He received a full measure of the Holy Spirit which enabled Him to conquer and control His human nature.

Turn with me, if you will please, to I John 2, verse 22. "In Him there is no sin." We have to start with that and there can be no true view of salvation of the redemption that is possible for us in our Savior Jesus Christ, unless we are right about the person. And that is why John used such strong and pointed language in chapter 2 of his epistle when he talked about those people who were leading them astray by denying the person and teaching of Jesus Christ. So John also warns that those antichrists are liars and they must be called that openly because they are trying to rob us of our salvation.

I John 2:22-23 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

So if we are wrong about the person and his teachings, we will be wrong everywhere else.

Turn over to Hebrews 4, verse 15. So as we look at this person, we are reminded also in Hebrews 4 that here is One who has been in this world of ours with all its sin and all its shame, but who was without sin.

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Jesus fulfilled the law because He perfectly exemplified God's will in everything He did. So he remains unique and separate, far above anything man could possibly hope for without God's Holy Spirit and that miraculous change that we are in the process of.

He is the Son of God and He is not just a great moral teacher nor just a great religious genius. He is not one who has gone a little bit further than all others in His quest for God and for truth. He is the Son of God made flesh. Jesus is the standard to which we are to strive. "In Him is no sin." But not only was there no sin in Him and in His birth, He committed no act or thought of sin and He always honored God's holy law. He obeyed it fully and carried it out perfectly.

God gave His immutable law to humanity. He intended that that law should be carried out and it should be honored and obeyed. No one can ever be with God and spend eternity with Him unless he has honored the law. God's law must be kept, and without fulfilling it, there is no fellowship with Him and no hope of spending eternity with Him. And there is only One who has kept the law perfectly who lived in this world.

Even though we have God's Holy Spirit, we still have attributed Christ's righteousness to us. And we are so very thankful for that because as human beings, we can never be totally righteous ourselves. We can only perform righteous acts and and thoughts. And as we use God's Holy Spirit and work with God and obey Him, He makes that more possible with every day that we work with Him to do that. But God does it through His Holy Spirit.

Please turn with me to Galatians 5, verse 14. Jesus has fulfilled the law of God, which means He actively and positively obeyed it, and lived it fully. How has He done this? Basically, the answer is revealed in three passages. It is revealed elsewhere, but these are the three that I have chosen.

Galatians 5:14 [Paul writes] For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Serving one another in love fulfills, that is, satisfies the requirement of the law.

Far from God's way of life being enslaving, it is the only way to resist the various slavery offered by the world. Now, this does not mean that we can go do whatever we feel like doing, which itself is another form of slavery. Instead, serving and loving others is the route to escape slavery and accomplishing the ultimate intent of the law. Jesus did it perfectly and because He did, He can help us to do the same. We should always pay what is owed, fulfilling whatever repayment agreements have been made. The debt we never cease paying is the obligation to love the Father and the Son, and to love one another. This is what Jesus Christ's sacrifice meant. It was an act of love beyond all others.

Go with me now to John 15, verse 9 for the next verse. Now, obedience to God's law must not be equated with agony. It is all about joy. God threatened judgment if His people would not serve Him joyfully from the heart, just as Jesus had great joy in obeying His Father, even amid opposition. So Christians will have joy in obedience.

John 15:9-13 [quoting Jesus] "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."

In verse 9, Jesus expresses the measure of that love because He says, "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you." Jesus says that He has loved us, not with an imperfect or even a perfect human love, but rather with the greatest love there is, but it is precisely the love which has existed within the nature of God from all eternity and which will exist to all eternity. It is the love of the Father for Him and His love for the Father.

This love is without beginning or end. It is without measure. It is without change. And it is according to the measure of this great love, and consequently with that love itself, that Jesus loves us. Now, we have the challenge of love here in these verses which is, in this case, to continue in it. If we continue in His love, then we will be remaining in Him and prove faithful and fruitful.

In verse 10, we find that obedience is an element contributing to God's glory. Though it is expressed in a challenge to keep Christ's commandments, it says that if you keep or obey My commandments, you will abide, that is, remain, in My love, just as I have kept My father's commandments and abide, that is, remain in His love.

Now, love is the purpose and intent of the law of God. It is His will. It is not enough to have a law that we are required to follow only by the letter—only in action. The world can do some of that. But the Pharisees extensively expanded God's law producing a monster of slavery. Thousands of volumes elaborating on what God supposedly intended. Their additions were painstaking details regarding what actions could and could not be done. And they even got down to the point of establishing how many steps you could take on the Sabbath and that type of thing.

The true effectiveness of the law is found in its purpose and intent, not in its letter. And in a general sense, the purpose and intent of a biblical instruction is called a spiritual principle. Also, we can say that the purpose and intent of God's written law is the spirit of the law.

So we learn essential principles about God's way of life by keeping the Ten Commandments. Ancient Israel halfheartedly tried to keep them, but without the help of the Holy Spirit, they were unable to keep them for very long, if at all.

And when we keep the commandments, we learn to think like God thinks, we begin to develop the character of God, and as we learn more of God's plan for humanity, we discover that our own future responsibilities in the future government of God on earth depend to a large extent on our teaching and using God's law wisely. Jesus came to show us the law's purpose and intent by living it perfectly and He was murdered for doing it. Are we willing to keep it to the point of being murdered for it? Christ took that upon Himself out of love and we must have the same love as Jesus Christ.

Please turn with me to Matthew 12, verse 9. Now, for baptized members of God's church, the blind spots are mostly in the areas of the spirit of the law. Since adherence to the letter of the law should be obvious in its application, the key to truly keeping God's law is to learn to keep the law as Jesus did, in the spirit of love.

Matthew 12:9-13 Now when He [Jesus] had departed from there, He went into their synagogue. And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath"—that they might accuse Him. Then He said to them, "What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath." Then He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other.

What did Jesus say here just before this miraculous healing? "Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath?" So this was a moment of revelation because here Christ pointed to the spirit of the law and this means God's original intent and purpose behind the law, which is love. And when God designed the Sabbath, He intended it to be a blessing to all human beings. He designed it to be a refreshing rest and an opportunity both to recuperate physically after six days of work and to draw close to God in love and worship, as well as draw closer to the brethren in love.

So it shows why it is crucially important to fellowship with one another. Jesus knew and understood the spiritual intent of the Sabbath commandment and He also knew that the split second of His own divine effort of performing the miracle of healing was a valid use of the time and effort on the Sabbath and was within its intent and purpose. Love in action results in freedom from spiritual slavery. It results in liberty.

And because of Jesus' insight into the divine purpose behind the Sabbath, the crippled worshipper was freed from his burden and he experienced a wonderful and exciting blessing. God's law of love is always a blessing to those who recognize its purpose and intent.

Turn with me now to Romans 3, verse 8. The law remains as the rule of life for all humans. It is the defining law of the standard of righteousness by which we must live. Jesus exhibited love by living a life of absolute physical and spiritual service. Jesus Christ's righteousness attributed to us by way of the Holy Spirit is the only way to produce the righteousness that God requires. And our new life as members of God's church is a life of absolute spiritual service, and it includes physical service as well.

Romans 13:8-10 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear false witness," "You shall not covet," and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

So love is the essence of the spirit of the law of God. And when we love, we fulfill or achieve the true principle of obedience. Paul sums it all up in love, "for he who loves another has fulfilled the law." So we who have received the love of Christ and live in His love, see the law not as a stern condemning taskmaster, but as an appealing, bright vision of understanding and blessing.

We see the law of love personified in Christ, and our response to Christ involves obedience to God's law. But we fulfill the law not simply as a standard outside ourselves, but as a living principle within. Acting according to the dictates of the way of love, our lives conform to the image of Christ as we conform to the law in this way. Love is the fulfillment of the law.

Jesus Christ is our Passover because of His and His Father's love.

Please turn with me to James 1, verse 22. James had nothing but good to say about the law. As a result of Christ's teaching James exalts the law—he glorifies it and he identifies it with the gospel. In James 1, James speaks of the word and the importance of hearing and doing it. And in the same breath, he spoke of looking into the perfect law of liberty and verse 22 says,

James 1:22-25 But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

So the gospel shows the law in its spiritual and practical application as the guide of the true Christian who has conformed to the spirit of it.

Now, as Psalm 119 specifically shows, it is possible for spiritually-minded people to see the beauty of the law and find delight in its principles. The psalmist wrote, "Oh, how love I thy law" and "Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble."

The whole law is the will of God. To break any of it is to disobey God's will. And even under man's law, a person becomes a criminal when he has broken even one law. In contrast regarding Jesus Christ, "in Him there is no sin." He did not even break one law.

James 2:8-10 If you really fulfill the royal law according to Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.

Jesus has never stumbled in even one point! That alone should put us in awe of Him. Just take that thought a moment. Jesus Christ never sinned! Think about how hard it is for us to go even one minute or one hour or two through the day without some wrong thought popping into our mind. That is amazing to me that Jesus Christ was able to do that. He had the same temptations we do.

Now, James spoke of the royal law, meaning the Ten Commandments, since he cited the specific requirement, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." In other words, loving others is the sum of the law and its true fulfillment.

James verifies the solidarity of the law so that a breaking of it in one specific place is a breach of the whole, therefore making a person guilty of all. A person may seem to be good in almost all aspects, but he may have one sinful fault. He may be moral in what he does, upright in what he says, meticulous in his commitment. But he may be hard and self-righteous, rigid and unsympathetic. If this is the case, his "goodness" is flawed.

The apostle Paul expressed this principle using other words when he quoted Deuteronomy 27:26 in Galatians 3:10, "Cursed is everyone who continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them."

James 2:11-13 For He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who would be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Mercy is a manifestation of love that Jesus exemplified. James exhorts us to speak and act as those who are to be judged by a law of liberty. So there is no limit to the range of the law. In James 4:11 He warns us by implication against speaking against the law or judging the law, that is, assuming the place of judge instead of a doer of the law. James could not have used such language unless he had a profound conviction of the perfection of the law. And it is the perfection of the law as the rules of life for the saints that James considers it. Therefore, we can call it the perfect law of liberty or the royal law.

Turn with me to I John 3. Now all sin is lawlessness, as I John 3, verse 4 states. In contrast, the purpose of all lawkeeping is love of God and love of the brethren. This is the desired result for which Christ kept the law.

I John 3:10-11 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

I John 3:14-16 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer [or hater, I will add] has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

This was the emphasis that John heard Jesus teaching them on that Passover evening. We are children of God and therefore, in that sense, like Jesus Christ, the Son of God; and being like Him, we must live as He lived. He lived in this world, which was extremely cruel to Him, without faltering, without failing, because of the joy that was set before Him.

Think how angry we get when somebody does something against us or says something, or how many times have been almost hateful to the point of anger at the leaders that we have for the idiocy that is going on in the higher echelons. His faithful and obedient personal relationship with His God and the knowledge of the promises of God, enabled Him to have the right perspective. He always did His Father's will. His life was a life of full of obedience. As a Son, He always lived with perfect obedience to God's will.

Well, the Father raised Jesus from the dead and in that way proclaimed that His sacrifice was sufficient and that the penalty of the law was satisfied. And we do not begin to know anything about the love of God until we see that, if Christ had not died on the stake in that way, God could not forgive sin or would not have a sacrifice to cover it.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

John 3:16 [which everyone knows] For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

That is God's way of making forgiveness. Because without the doctrine of atonement, we cannot understand the love of God. As a result of what Christ has done, God forgives us for our sins. By His death we are reconciled to God in Him. And we have redemption through His blood and by His resurrection, we have hope of eternal life.

That is what God has done for us in His love through Christ: pardon, forgiveness, peace, reconciliation, and new life. We have begun to live in a new world and we see new possibilities. We know something of His loving work in us, and the power which operates in us. That is how the love of God is manifested. He sent His Son and His Son has taken hold of us.

"Not that we loved God, but that He loved us." He was moved by His great attribute of love—His own self-generated love. Though we are what we are, God is love and His great heart of love, despite all that is in us, unmoved by anything except itself, is working a great creative work in us.

Now, how can we look at these things and believe them and not feel that we owe all and everything to Him and that our whole lives must be given to express our gratitude and praise in our thanksgiving?

Please turn with me to Exodus 12, verse 41. We are going to shift gears once again as we conclude here. Passover set the stage for us to come out of the world and overcome sin. It is the event that makes it possible for us to begin the process of our sanctification. The Days of Unleavened Bread memorialize the second step in salvation, that is, sanctification.

These days, beginning at sunset this evening, are a memorial to God's law and to His powerful deliverance from Egypt and bondage. Tonight, we will be observing the commanded Night To Be Much Observed, which symbolizes the beginning of a time of spiritual liberty.

Exodus 12:41-42 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years—on that very same day—it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night of solemn observance to the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations [speaking of what we call the Night To Be Much Observed].

When God called us out of the world, justified us, and sanctified us, He set us on a course of perfect spiritual liberty. The Night To Be Much Observed sets the stage for the covenant between Abraham and his physical and spiritual descendants of liberty and land. It represents God's preservation of us by keeping us, securing us, and guarding us.

The Days of Unleavened Bread picture God's people putting away sin and striving to obey God's commandments. Our part under God's guidance requires that we maintain a loving relationship with Him. Our relationship with God is our salvation and we cannot have salvation without this relationship because we would still be estranged from God. Once established, this relationship must be developed and continued. It is made possible only through Jesus Christ.

Our loving Jesus Christ committed no sin and therefore the standard of righteousness we must reach is to love one another, so that no sin is found in us either.

"By this we know love, because He laid down his life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."

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