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The assertions of Christ as to His relation to God are very different from those of Old Testament saints. Not once did they call God Father — this Jesus always does; and the Father acquiesces. "This is My beloved Son." Here Christ seems to found His Father's love on something He is about to accomplish on earth. But a stranger having rescued a child from drowning and restored it to its parent might say, "Therefore doth the Father love me." And so some infer that Christ was related to God only in virtue of His obedience to death. Not so. God is love; but love cannot exist without an object, and this object must be co-existent with the eternal affection. So Christ is the eternal object of an eternal love, and the text only states an additional reason for that love. A king has a beloved son and a revolted province. The latter he could crush, but prefers to accept a voluntary mission of the former to win the rebels by privation, forbearance, and kindness. This succeeds. The king expresses his satisfaction, and the son says, "Therefore doth my father love me." The idea of the text is similar. What were the elements in Christ's death which drew forth the love of Christ?

I. PERFECT SPONTANEITY IN THE OBEDIENCE HE RENDERED. Not that His sufferings or death were in themselves well pleasing to the merciful Father. All men die, and by Divine appointment; but God does not love them for this, else the wicked would be loved as well as the righteous. It was the Divine principle that prompted it — obedience. It was not snatched from Him, nor did He yield it in idle passivity; He laid it down of His active free will, and so revealed the Father's will, developed the plan of redemption, and is therefore the object of God's intensest love.

II. FAITH. There would have been no merit in His death had He sacrificed Himself without assurance of resurrection. It might have been from despair. Nor could it have taken place without this assurance. The extinction of such a one could not be permitted in the government of a righteous God. Knowing that He was sinless, He must have known that death, the wages of sin, had no power over Him. Hence He never spoke of His death apart from His resurrection. The taking up was as much in the Divine plan as the laying down. He was confident of the successful issue, and God loved Him because of this. Conclusion:

1. If God finds a new reason for loving His Son in the moral qualities He displayed, He will love us if we strive to live as Christ lived. Wherever He sees men obedient and self-sacrificing He will love them.

2. We should do our duty in spite of con. sequences, or rather with regard to the remoter consequences. Lay down our lives that we may take them again. "Whosoever loseth his life for My sake shall find it."

(T. James, M. A.)

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KJV: I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

WEB: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.