Christ loved to his spouse. This sermon was originally preached on September 5th in the year 1886 by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The text for this morning comes from the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25. Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

The love of Jesus What a theme it is. The Apostle said that it surpasses knowledge. And if it surpasses knowledge, then it must surpass any description that can be given of it. The heart may feel it better than the tongue can speak it. If there is one subject more than another, which I always wish to speak on, it is the love of Christ. But if there is one subject which completely baffles me and makes me walk away from this pulpit utterly ashamed of my poor, feeble words and of the tongue which has uttered them, it is this subject.

This love of Christ is the most amazing thing under heaven, if not in heaven itself. How often have I said to you that if I had heard that Christ pitied us, I could understand it. If I had heard that Christ had mercy on us, I could comprehend it. But when it is written that he actually loves us, that is quite another and a much more extraordinary thing. Love between mortal and mortal is quite natural and comprehensible. But love between the infinite God and us poor, sinful, finite creatures, though conceivable in one sense, is utterly inconceivable in another. Who can grasp such an idea? Who can fully understand it? Especially when it comes in this form, He loved me and gave himself up for me. This is the miracle of miracles.

I feel very embarrassed with my subject at the very start of it. because this love of Christ is here positively likened to the love of a husband to his wife, and is so likened to it as to be made the model of what the husband's love to his wife should be. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. I would never have dared to draw the comparison, nor should any man have drawn it But because the Holy Spirit Himself moved the pen of Paul to write it, and this being the case, we shall not be intruding into the secret places of the Most High if we now enter upon the consideration of this wondrous theme.

Truly I say, as the Apostle does in the 32nd verse, this is a profound mystery, but I am talking about Christ and the Church. It is a mystery, a subject far too deep for the mere intellect to dive into its depths, and too sacred for us to think of or speak of except with the utmost solemnity of heart. How shall I order my speech in the presence of such a subject as this? How shall I be free and yet be guarded? How shall I take you to the edge of this great sea of truth and even venture into it without getting in too deep.

Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her. A parallel is drawn between poor mortals like ourselves who occupy the position of husbands and our glorious Lord who is God over all, forever praised. In boundless condescension he stoops to occupy the same kind of place in reference to his church which he calls his bride, he himself being the bridegroom who is soon to come. Again I say that I would never have thought of such a comparison had not the Holy Spirit himself put it before us and invited us to consider it.

So dear friends, With great reverence, let us think, first, of how Christ loves the Church. Then, secondly, how He has proved His love by giving Himself for the Church. And then, thirdly, let us ask the practical question, how should we respond to this wondrous love of Christ?

First, how does Christ love His Church? How does Christ love His Church? I cannot help beginning by saying that Christ loves His church in a very special way. There would be no parallel between the husband's love to the wife and Christ's love to the church if there were not something very special about it. Christ is love itself. He is full of kindness and benevolence. In that sense, he loves all mankind. But that cannot be the meaning of the text, for it would be a very strange kind of exhortation to the husband if that were the case.

No, the husband's love to his spouse is something special and distinct, and it stands quite alone and all by itself. That love which he lavishes on his wife, he must give to nobody else in the world. It is certainly so with our blessed Lord. Free and rich and overflowing in loving kindness, yet he made a special choice of his people from all others in the world. And having chosen them because of his love, he loves them because of his choice. And that love is distinctive, special, remarkable, preeminent love such as he bestows upon no one else in all the human race. It must be true or else the passage would be completely incorrect.

There is then a special love which Christ has towards his own church, towards all believers, towards his chosen people, towards those whom his Father gave him, of whom he says, they are mine. I invite each of you who are included in these descriptions to drink in the sweetness of that gracious text. I have loved you with an everlasting love. That means I have loved you with a special and distinctive and distinguishing love. And each of us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are distinguished by the enjoyment of that love which is all our own.

Dear fellow Christians, let us never forget this amazing love. And as Christ loves us in such a special way, let us feel that we are bound to love Him in a special way too. Let us give to Him all our heart's affection, for He is a jealous Savior, and He must have our entire love. So let us give it to Him not of compulsion, but with joyous willingness. Love dies in the presence of compulsion. It will wear no chains except its own silken chains, but it flies, oh, how swiftly, on its own strong wings when it once perceives its beloved object.

Christ loves his church in a most special way. As John Kent sings,

He loved the world of His elect
with love surpassing thought.
Nor will His mercy ever neglect
the souls so dearly bought.

And next, I ask you to notice what is not always the case with regard to the husband and the wife, and that is that the Lord Jesus loves His church unselfishly. The Lord Jesus loves His church unselfishly. That is to say, He never loved her for what she has, but what she is. No, I must go further than that and say that He loved her, not so much for what she is, but what He makes her as the object of His love. He loves her not for what comes to Him from her, or with her, but for what he is able to bestow upon her. His is the strongest love that ever was, for he has loved the unlovely till he has changed her into beauty. He has loved the sinner till he has made him a saint. He has loved the foul and filthy till he has washed them with water by the word. and presented them unto himself without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. We love because of loveliness seen or perceived, but Christ loves because he would impart his own loveliness to the object of his choice. Even the best of men, doubtless, love in some measure from selfish motives. There is some mixture of self-interest in all human love. But Christ had nothing to gain by loving His Church. He is the very God of the universe, the adored of the angels, and the beloved of the Father. Yet He fixes the eyes of His love, and note this, not of His pity merely, but of His love. Yes, he fixes the eyes of his love upon those whom he has chosen out of the entire race of men and women. He loved them, not for anything that he could ever gain from them, for he had all things in himself, but because of what he would impart to them. They had nothing good in themselves and were only fit to be loved by Christ because, like empty vessels, Their very emptiness fits them to be receivers of His fullness. In no other sense are we ever fit to be loved by Christ. As the sun chased the darkness away from the world and still prevents it from going back into the darkness, so did Christ love a poor, fallen, darkened company of mortals and love them into light and love and joy and still loves and enlightens them and keeps them where they are. Oh, what a wondrous love this is! Therefore, let our souls rejoice and be glad. Further, my brethren, as Christ's love to His Church is a special love of choice and of marvelous unselfishness, therefore, I believe Although I do not understand how it can be so, that it is a satisfying love. It is a satisfying love. The husband's love to his wife is not the love of a parent to a child. It is not the love of a good-hearted person to the object of distress that it relieves. It is something very different from either of these forms of love. It may be that the husband confers benefits upon his wife as the result of his love, and he should do so. But still, the love of the husband to the wife puts them somehow on a level with one another. She finds satisfaction in him and he finds satisfying delight in her. If a husband only loved his wife with a feeling of pity towards her, With only the notion of meeting her material needs and so forth, that would be a very poor kind of relationship. And though I speak with bated breath as I say it, I do believe that the Blessed Lord Christ gets satisfaction from His people. That we should delight ourselves in Him is very easy to understand, but that He should delight Himself in us Oh, the very thought of it is ravishing to my heart. Even in the Old Testament scripture our Lord said to his chosen people, you will be called Hephzibah, that is, my delight is in you. Is it really true? Is it really true that the infinite God takes delight in his chosen people? Here is another passage to confirm it. Proverbs 8.31, I delighted in mankind. Does Jesus find delight in men and women? Yes, he does. And you know what he said to the apostles, those who were the representatives of his church in his lifetime on earth? He said, I have called you friends. And he did seem to find comfort in their company. Even when he had risen from the dead and had no more work to do for their redemption, yet he came to them that he might enjoy their company. Poor, fallible, half-instructed men as they were, yet Jesus found his pleasure in them. He used to speak of them in this way, I will declare your name to my brothers. Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters, and in that rapturous song of songs, which is the very holy of holies of our blessed Bible, he does not hesitate to speak of his beloved as his spouse, and to use all those endearing terms which prove that he takes great delight in her.

Think of it, my soul. that Jesus takes great delight in you? He became a man and it was not good even for such a man to be alone. He could not rest till he had found you and had courted and won you. Will you ever deny him your company? Will you refuse him your heart of hearts? Will you hide from him the secret of your soul? If so, you commit a very grievous wrong against him who has agreed to stoop from the throne of his eternal glory to take delight in the company of his creatures, men and women.

I have looked throughout the world and have seen all kinds of beautiful birds and intelligent beasts, yet I have never seen any, any towards which I would stoop to make them my intimate acquaintances. and marry them in the heart of my love. No, we would not stoop even that little distance, but we were infinitely below the Son of God, yet He has chosen us. He felt that He could link His destiny with ours. I do not put it too strongly, for that is what He has really done. He has become the head of His body, the Church, He has become the husband of his chosen bride. He has, as it were, entered into the same boat with his people. He has made a household where we are the companion parts, himself the husband and his church the spouse.

Oh, who can explain it all? I only touch the surface of this boundless sea as with a swallow's wing. Happy are you if you dare to plunge into its depths.

There is, then, between Christ and His Church, to make a parallel between the love of the husband to his wife, there is a satisfying love. In being a satisfying love in such a case as this, there is an intense love of sympathy, an intense love of sympathy. The true husband and wife are so united that they share each other's joys and sorrows without making any effort to do so. It comes naturally to them. They cannot avoid it.

And oh, let us speak of this great truth. The sympathy between Christ and His people is absolutely perfect. If he sees us in sorrow, he feels it in his heart. He himself was able to sympathize with our weaknesses when he was here, and he was tempted in every way, just as we are, that he might know all the trials of the church he loved. And now in heaven, as he has shared our sorrows, he decrees that we shall share his joys. He wishes us even now to let our hearts beat in sympathy with his triumph and his victory. I wish we would do so. Why shouldn't we? Our husband is on the throne. Then let us begin to reign with him. God has raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.

then let us have faith enough to claim what is really ours in Him. Remember that quaint verse of which good old Roland Hill was so fond of?

But this I do find, we too are so joined. He'll not be in glory and leave me behind.

Better still, Remember that word of power which fell from our Lord's blessed lips while here below. Father, I want those you have given to me to be with me where I am and to see my glory.

Jesus has a perfect sympathy with us and we should have a light sympathy with him. Blessed be His dear name, that He should ever have entered into such bonds of love with such poor creatures as we are. Nor is that all. While it is very blessed to know that Christ has this love of sympathy, He has further a love of communion, a love of communion. Without this, There could be no parallel with married life, which includes much happy communion and loving conversation.

A fellow minister said to me the other day, when we were talking with one another about what the gospel has done for men and women, he said this, did you ever think what a wonderful thing the gospel is? that it has made possible such happiness as you and I enjoy in our marriage relationships?" And of course, I heartily responded to that remark, for if there is anything that is a miniature picture of heaven on earth, it is a pair of Christians happily united, whose children grow up in the fear of the Lord and render to them increased comfort and joy every day.

Oh, how much some of us owe to the gospel for the happiness of our homes. There could, however, be no such happiness in married life if there were no conversation and no communion. Our Lord Jesus Christ so loves His church that He often converses with her. He loves each one of His people so much that, if we are only willing to allow it, We may walk with him, and we may talk with him, and he will speak with us as a husband speaks with his wife.

O my friend, if you do not live every day in communion with Christ, whose fault is it? Not his, but yours. For he loves you so that he would never let you be away from him if you were not so wayward and so easily turned aside by little things. Yes, Jesus manifests himself to us in a way that he does not to the rest of the world. I am not going to tell here all that he says, all the ways in which he manifests himself to his people. We could not tell all the ways. But there are times of such real delight and fellowship with the Lord Jesus that we can only say with Isaac Watts,

my willing soul would stay in such a frame as this and sit and sing herself away to everlasting bliss.

The substance of all that I have said, and I have much more to say than time will permit, is just this. It is an extraordinary thing that Christ has entered into positive unity with His people. Unity, mark you, for that is the essence of the marriage bond. We are one with Christ who made Himself one with His people. Have you ever realized this? even you who are the best tutored of the children of God? Have you ever taken a firm hold of this great truth and gripped it so tightly that you would never let it go?

Come back to what I said a little while ago, that Christ has linked his destiny with yours, his honor with yours, his life with yours, his happiness with yours. You must be in heaven, or else he will suffer loss. You must be in heaven, or else he will be imperfect. You are a member of his body, and if he should lose one of his members, then his body would not be perfect, nor the head either. You are joined to the Lord, and you are one spirit with him. And you may bravely say, who shall separate us? For such is this eternal union that there is no separation between Christ and the soul that is joined to Him.

The Lord, the God of Israel, says that He hates divorce. In the olden times, the husband might give his wife a letter of divorce and send her away. But God says that He hates divorce and He will never Never divorce those who are joined to him. What a marriage this is. Do you know, dear friend, what I am talking about? I cannot speak of it as I would, but it is true, and that is the wonder of it. It is no fiction, no myth, no mere figure of speech, but it is really so in action and in truth. For this reason Christ left His Father and became one with His Church, that from now on they should no more be two but one. And now we who have believed in Christ Jesus are one with Him now and for all eternity. His love has made it so, and we may paraphrase those precious words and say, What manner of love the bridegroom has bestowed on us that we should be called the spouse of Christ? I have imperfectly spoken on this part of my subject, but I must not linger any longer on this most delightful theme. I now ask you briefly to notice how the Lord Jesus proved His love to His church. how the Lord Jesus proved his love to his church. Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. I will not at first restrict the meaning of this text to what is the real essence of it, but I will just observe that Christ gave himself for his church when he was born into the world. when he did not scorn the virgin's womb, but was born of Mary, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger. The angels have never ceased to wonder at this great mystery of godliness. The God who made the heavens and the earth, the God who holds all things together by the word of his power, lay as an infant in the manger of Bethlehem, because there could be no manifestation of His love to His people unless it could be said that they were one flesh with Him. So He became bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, most surely and truly man, with all the sinless infirmities of our nature, and subjected Himself even to death in order to be fully one with us. Oh, how he really gave himself up for us when he thus became a baby, a child, and a man. That being done, he gave all his life here on earth for us. He gave all his life here on earth for us. Christ did nothing for himself. It was all for us, for his church. His whole life was for her righteousness, for her example, for her teaching, and for her awakening. He loved her with no view but the glory of the Father by the salvation of His chosen ones. Nor was that all. It was indeed only the beginning. Having given His Godhead by the assumption of our humanity, having given his life by spending it all for us, Christ gave himself up to death for our sins. Christ gave himself up to death for our sins. He went up to the criminal's gallows, the cross of Calvary, and there he gave his hands and feet to the nails and his heart to the spear. laying down his body for us, but at the same time laying down his soul and spirit, he suffered that dreaded doom of being forsaken by his God. So that he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? There, when you see his pale and bruised body, When you see the holy men and women wrapping Him in spices and laying Him in Joseph's tomb, you understand how He loved us and gave Himself for us, dying in our place a substitute and atonement for our sins. He loved us so much as to die for us. He could not have died had He not become man. but being found in appearance as a man and partaking of our human nature, it was possible for him to prove the utmost extent of his love by laying down his life for us. Oh, could you not kiss those dear cold feet? Do you not half wish that you could have been there to wrap him in the spices and fine linen and to lay him in the grave But remember that he now lives. Our heavenly lover lives. He has proven his love by giving up his life, but now he has his life back again. And he has gone home to his father. He has gone back to the royalties he left and put on once again all the splendor which for a little while he had laid aside. Yet he does not love us any less for he still gives himself for us. He acts the part of intercessor for his church. For Zion's sake he does not hold his peace, and for Jerusalem's sake he does not rest. Nor will he. He is crowned that his church may be crowned. He is enthroned that she too may come to the throne, and he will further prove his love in time. For he has so given himself for us that he has promised to come again to bring his wife home when she is prepared for him and when the heaven above is prepared for her. Then shall he come in all his glory and she shall be brought to him in a beautiful wedding garment in all the splendor of his righteousness. and forever and ever there will be nothing but joy and blessedness." What I am driving at and what I want every Christian here to get at is this thought. Whatever Jesus Christ is, and you do not know half of what he is, even you who know most of him, whatever Christ is in any relationship and from any point of view, He has given himself to us. Not merely has he given his thoughts and his actions and his wisdom and his power and his wealth, but he has given himself to us. He has given himself to us. Oh, I do like to think of this. All that I imagine Christ to be must still fall far short of himself. It is he that we love, and I would sooner have Christ than have heaven. It is he that we love, and I would sooner have Christ than his crown. It is he that we love, and I would sooner have Christ than all the golden streets. It is he that we love, and it is he that belongs to us. not merely the sight of his eyes, but his eyes themselves, not only the love of his heart, but his heart itself, himself, his Godhead and his manhood, the complex person of Christ of God is given to his church. I feel as if I do not know how to talk at all about this great truth. Some brother cried out this morning when I was speaking and I noticed that somebody else immediately followed him. But oh, if ever there is a time for crying out. And yet, on the other hand, if there ever is a time for being struck with silence, it is when we get on this topic of Christ's love to his people. Right now I feel as if I want to run away from this pulpit and just go home and shut the door and sit down and weep to the praise of this mighty love. And then I would want to get up and run back here again and say, what a fool I was not to tell you all that I could tell you about it. May God the Holy Spirit help you to realize it. That you are loved by anyone is a joy, for love is a precious thing, whoever gives it. But you, believer, are loved by Christ. You are so loved by Christ as not merely to be engaged to Him, but united to Him in eternal wedlock. You are joined to Him in such a way that you must in time be with Him in all the glory of His royal estate. For the king will bring his queen home, and he will bring you home to dwell with him forever and ever. I am very sorry. I am very sorry for those who do not know anything about this great love. I am truly sorry for you outsiders. His worth, if the nations knew, Surely the whole world would love him too. If they could only imagine the sweetness of the love of Christ, they would never allow rest to their eyes until they had looked to him by faith and so had learned it and known it for themselves. If such is the love of Jesus and the way in which he has proved it, How should we respond to it? How should we respond to it?

I hardly need suggest to God's people anything about this, for you know it already. Your own hearts have outrun my words. How should we respond to the love of Christ? Why, with the deepest gratitude, with the deepest gratitude.

Oh, how could you love me, my Lord, you whose eyes outshine the light of the morning? How could you love me, you who can make the most beautiful of all things with a wish of your heart? How could you love me in whom there was nothing lovely, nothing worthy of your love? Yet I do bless you for it. Don't all of you who love him say in your hearts, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name, that He should ever love me.

It is not His benefits that you have to think of just now, though they are innumerable. It is not His mercies that you have to think of at this moment, though they are immeasurable. But it is that He has loved you, and that He still loves you, and that he has given himself to you and for you. That is the point. Don't you bless him? Don't you feel as if you could lie at his feet and love the very dust that he walked on when you think that he should ever love you?

Very well then, return to Christ your gratitude. But that is not half enough. The next thing is, render to Him your obedience. Render to Christ your obedience. Doesn't the scripture say that the wife is to be obedient to her husband? Well, in this case, shall we not prove our gratitude to Christ by a complete obedience to Him?

Is there anything that He commands you to do Can you neglect it after such love as this? Will you not obey the least of His commands? The smallest of His precepts will you not regard them? Is there a word of His lips that you dare to despise? Is there a wish that He has expressed in the scriptures that you would fail to carry out? I hope not.

Such love as Christ has given to us ought to be received from us without any exhortation, a complete and perfect obedience even to every jot and tittle as far as we could ever understand them. I do not understand that love to Christ which makes men pick and choose when they come to the Bible. and say things like, I will not submit to that verse, for that is a non-essential. I will do this, I'll do what that verse says. I believe that verse is wrong, but still, I dare say it doesn't matter much.

No, no, no. True wives do not act that way to their husbands. There is no wish of a loving husband which a loving wife would not regard. No, in fact, she anticipates his wishes. She delights to make him happy. And so should it be with my heart towards my Lord. I should be looking out for what I can do for him. I should be hunting high and low to find something that would give him pleasure.

And above all, Since Jesus says, if you love me, you will obey what I command, my heart should answer, your commands are not burdensome, my Lord. It is my delight to do your will, oh my God and my Savior. That is the spirit in which to act towards Christ.

Once more, there is a text which says, The wife must respect her husband. I have sometimes thought that must be somewhat difficult for some wives to do. There has not been very much to respect in their husbands. Still, they are commanded to do it as far as it is possible.

In the case of Christ, there is everything to respect in our beloved. Everything about him deserves our profoundest respect. Such a person as he, whose very name has music in it, whose very person is the delight of the seraphim and cherubim, he the Christ, whom none can conceive of in all his fullness but the Father, we must respect him, and bow before him, and extol him.

I grow angry, I confess it. I grow angry when I hear some men speak of Christ They talk of my Lord in these days as if he were some common person, and they have comparative religions in which they compare him with I know not whom. I love my Lord so well that I must boil over with indignation when his name is belittled.

Our hymn says, stand up, stand up for Jesus. It is almost too commonplace an expression in reference to him. Still, what it means, let us do. Let us be ready, like the armed men who were around the bed of Solomon, ready to defend our king against all enemies.

For if he loves us so much, we must love him in return. And what else shall we say? If such is the love of Christ, how shall we respond to it but in a way of holiness? Let us seek to be like Christ. Let us try to fulfill His will, that He may purify us and sanctify us by the washing of water by the Word, that we may be holy as He who has called us holy. Let us think of this love by striving after sanctification.

And let us think of this love above all by rendering to Him, now and as long as we live, the full love of our heart. We cannot love Him without being moved to love Him more. We can love more by thinking a great deal of the person towards whom our hearts are drawn. So think continually of my Lord Think of him every day. Get to be familiar with him. Frequently read the story of his life and death. Get alone as often as you can with him and picture him before your eyes until you find your heart exclaiming, I love you, dearest Lord. You know all things. You know that I love you.

I find it a profitable form of devotion sometimes to sit quite still and not say a word, but just only think of Him. My heart has burned within me while doing that, and I believe that it is not lost or wasted time, but time most profitably spent, for I come out of my room and feel now I am ready for the service of life or for its suffering. For I have seen the well-beloved, and the glances of his countenance have charmed away my griefs, and prepared me to take up my cross and follow him wherever he goes.

Oh, love the Lord, you His saints! And as long as you live, love Him more and more. Love Him to the very utmost, till you die of love. Forever blessed be his holy name. Amen and amen.