'God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us.'--ROMANS v. 8.
We have seen in previous sermons on the preceding context that the
Apostle has been tracing various lines of sequence, all of which
converge upon Christian hope. The last of these pointed to the fact
that the love of God, poured into a heart like oil into a lamp,
brightened that flame; and having thus mentioned the great Christian
revelation of God as love, Paul at once passes to emphasise the
historical fact on which the conviction of that love rests, and goes
on to say that 'the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the
Holy Ghost which is given to us, _for_ when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.' Then there rises
before him the thought of how transcendent and unparalleled a love is
that which pours its whole preciousness on unworthy and unresponsive
hearts. He thinks to himself--'We are all ungodly; without
strength--yet, He died for us. Would any man do that? No! for,' says
he, 'it will be a hard thing to find any one ready to die for a
righteous man--a man rigidly just and upright, and because rigidly
just, a trifle hard, and therefore not likely to touch a heart to
sacrifice; and even for a good man, in whom austere righteousness has
been softened and made attractive, and become graciousness and
beneficence, well! it is just within the limits of possibility that
somebody might be found even to die for a man that had laid such a
strong hand upon his affections. But God commendeth His love in that
while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.' Now, when Paul says
'commend,' he uses a very significant word which is employed in two
ways in the New Testament. It sometimes means to establish, or to
prove, or to make certain. But 'prove' is a cold word, and the
expression also means to recommend, to set forth in such a way as to
appeal to the heart, and God does both in that great act. He
establishes the fact, and He, as it were, sweeps it into a man's
heart, on the bosom of that full tide of self-sacrifice.
So there are two or three points that arise from these words, on
which I desire to dwell now--to lay them upon our hearts, and not
only upon our understandings. For it is a poor thing to prove the
love of God, and we need that not only shall we be sure of it, but
that we shall be softened by it. So now let me ask you to look with
me, first, at this question--