The True Christian's Love to the Unseen Christ

Loving the Unseen Christ

“Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Pet 1:8).

The life of Christianity depends greatly on our love for Christ. Without love for Christ, we are as devoid of spiritual life as a corpse, after the soul has departed, is devoid of natural life. Faith without love for Christ is a dead faith, and a Christian without love for Christ is a dead Christian, dead in sins and trespasses. Without love for Christ, we may bear the name of Christians, but we are wholly without the nature. We may have the form of godliness, but we are wholly without its power. “Give me thine heart” is God’s language to all humanity (Prov 23:26), and “Give me your love” is Christ’s language to all his disciples.

Christ knows the command and influence that true and strong love for him possesses. It engages all the other affections of his disciples on his behalf. If he has their love, their desires will be chiefly for him, their delights chiefly in him, and their hopes and expectations chiefly from him. Their hatred, fear, grief, and anger will be directed chiefly against sin because it offends him.

He knows that love will engage and employ all the powers and faculties of their souls for him. Their thoughts will be brought into captivity and obedience to him. Their understanding will be employed in seeking and discovering his truths, and their memories will serve as storehouses in which to retain them. Their consciences will be ready to accuse or excuse as his faithful deputies. Their wills will choose and refuse according to his direction and revealed pleasure.

All their senses and the members of their bodies will be his servants. Their eyes will see for him, their ears will hear for him, their tongues will speak for him, their hands will work for him, and their feet will walk for him. All their gifts and talents will be devoted to his service. If he has their love, they will be ready to do whatever he requires and to suffer whatever he calls them to endure. If they have great love for him, they will not consider it too much to deny themselves, take up his cross, and follow him wherever he leads them.

Since love for Christ is so essential to true Christianity, so earnestly sought by our Lord and Master, so powerful in commanding the soul and the whole person, and so influential in duty, I have chosen love for Christ as my subject. My chief endeavor will be to stir and provoke Christians to a lively and vigorous exercise of this grace of love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Such incentives are greatly and universally needed.

The letter containing my text was written by Peter, the apostle to the circumcision, and addressed to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, as stated in the first verse of this chapter. By these strangers, we are to understand the scattered Jews who lived as foreigners in these various countries.

We read in Acts 2 that many of these Jews came from these and other countries to worship at Jerusalem. In the temple, they heard the apostles speak in various languages used in the different places where they lived. The apostles spoke without human instruction, as the Spirit gave them utterance, and the hearers were amazed and perplexed. Afterward, they heard Peter preach, and through the wonderful power of the Spirit, three thousand of them were converted by one sermon to the Christian faith and added to the Christian church.

When the Feast of Pentecost was over, these converted Jews returned to the countries where they had their homes, families, and occupations. Since those countries were heathen and idolatrous, they undoubtedly encountered opposition and suffering because of the Christian religion, which they now zealously professed. They also suffered from their own countrymen, the unconverted Jews, who hated Christianity even more than the heathen did.

The apostle seems to have these people in view in this letter, in which he encourages them under their sufferings for Christ’s sake with many comforting arguments. In the second verse, he desires grace and peace to be multiplied in and toward them. Then, although their sufferings abounded, their consolations would abound much more.

In the third, fourth, and fifth verses, he blesses God for his abundant mercy toward them. God had begotten them to a living hope of the glorious and unfading heavenly inheritance reserved for them through his infinite grace. They themselves were being guarded for that inheritance through faith by God’s infinite power.

In the sixth and seventh verses, he tells them that although they were grieved through various temptations, meaning afflictions, which are the world’s left-handed temptations, these afflictions would last only for a season. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Their afflictions were necessary to humble and purify them, to crucify them to the world, and to conform them to their head, the Lord Jesus Christ.

These afflictions also tested their faith so that its truth might appear both to themselves and to others, and so that its worth might be shown to be far more precious than gold tested in the fire. Their faith, carrying them through their sufferings, would be found to their own praise and their Master’s honor at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

The apostle then takes occasion in the text to speak of the love they bore for Jesus Christ and of the unspeakable and glorious joy that results from believing in him, although they had not seen him. No trouble or affliction could overwhelm or hinder this joy: “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Pet 1:8).

From this, observe:

1. It is both the distinguishing property and the duty of true Christians to love Jesus Christ, whom they have never seen: “Whom having not seen, ye love.”

2. True Christians believe in an unseen Christ: “In whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing.”

3. True Christians do, or may, rejoice in believing with unspeakable and glorious joy: “In whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

Here are three great points to be considered:

1. The love of Christians for Christ.

2. The faith of Christians in Christ.

3. The joy of Christians in believing.

For the present, I will speak only about the love of Christians for Christ under the first doctrine. I may have an opportunity to address the other two afterward.

True Christians Who Love Christ

The doctrine is this: It is both the distinguishing property and the duty of true Christians to love the Lord Jesus Christ, whom they have never seen.

In handling this point, I will speak about:

1. The true Christians who love Jesus Christ.

2. Jesus Christ, whom they have never seen, as the object of their love.

3. The love they bear for this unseen Christ.

4. Why loving Jesus Christ, whom they have never seen, is a distinguishing property of true Christians.

5. Why it is their duty to love him.

6. How they ought to love him.

7. Why they love him, where I will give the reasons for the doctrine.

8. Some uses and applications.

First, consider the true Christians whose distinguishing property it is to love Jesus Christ, whom they have never seen: “Whom having not seen, ye love.” That is, you who are true Christians love him, being Christians in reality as well as in profession.

The apostle describes these true Christians who love Christ in the second verse. He calls them “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 1:2).

True Christians are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. According to the counsel of his own will, and according to his own purpose and grace, God chose them from all eternity to be a holy and distinctive people for himself. They were chosen to glorify him here on earth and to be glorified by him hereafter in heaven.

This election reveals itself in the sanctification of the Spirit. True Christians are sanctified, separated, and set apart from the rest of the world for God’s use and service. God has sealed them for himself and thereby distinguished them from all others. The inscription on this seal is, “Holiness unto the LORD.”

See how they are described in this respect: “If any man purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work” (2 Tim 2:21). They are cleansed from the defilement of sin, which pollutes and dishonors them. They are vessels of honor, like vessels of silver and gold in a great house that are adorned with pearls and precious stones. They are adorned with every sanctifying grace, which is worth more than the richest jewels. By these graces they are both beautiful in God’s sight and fit for God’s use, being prepared and enabled for every good work.

The apostle prays for this on behalf of the Thessalonians: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 5:23).

True Christians are sanctified wholly in their whole person, though they are not yet sanctified thoroughly. They are sanctified in every part, though they are not sanctified to the highest degree.

Their whole spirit is sanctified, meaning the higher faculties of the soul, namely, the understanding and the will. Their understanding is enlightened by the Spirit to discern good and evil spiritually, beyond what any natural person does or can attain. Their wills are bowed, or rather straightened and set right, being inclined toward God and his law.

Their souls are sanctified in the lower faculties and in all the affections belonging both to desire and aversion. Their approving affections of love, desire, delight, and hope are directed toward God, Christ, and the things above. Their disapproving affections of hatred, fear, grief, and anger are directed against sin.

Their bodies are also sanctified, being made members of Christ and instruments of righteousness. Their eyes, ears, tongues, hands, feet, and every other part are devoted to God and used for his glory. In this way, true Christians are sanctified by the Spirit.

They are sanctified unto obedience. The graces worked in their hearts by the Spirit appear in the obedience of their lives. The course of their lives is a course of obedience to the laws of Christ. They are sanctified unto obedience, and they are also sanctified unto the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. God has set them apart to be sprinkled with the blood of the spotless Lamb who takes away sin, so that they might be pardoned and saved. Such are the true Christians who love Christ, whom they have not seen.

The Love of True Christians

The Object of True Christians’ Love

Second, consider the object of true Christians’ love: Jesus Christ, whom they have never seen.

This Jesus Christ whom they love is the eternal Son of God, the second person in the glorious Trinity. In time he assumed our human nature and clothed himself with our mortal flesh. He lived like a servant in a humble condition and died like a criminal by the cursed death of the cross, all for our sake and for our sins. He rose again on the third day for our justification. After forty days he ascended into heaven, where he sits at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high, making intercession for us and preparing to receive us into the glorious mansions and eternal habitations in his Father’s house.

He is called Jesus from a Hebrew word that means to save, because “he saveth his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21). He is called Christ from a Greek word that means to anoint. The Father anointed him with the Spirit and with power to be mediator between God and man, and to be the great prophet, priest, and king of the church.

Christians have not seen this Jesus Christ with their physical eyes. Some Christians in the earliest times did see Christ in this way, including the apostles who belonged to his household and other disciples who frequently associated with him. But they saw him in his state of humiliation, when he was here on earth, not in his state of exaltation, as he is now in heaven.

Some also saw Christ after his ascension, namely Paul at his conversion and Stephen, the first martyr, before he died. Yet no one has had a perfect bodily sight of the glory upon Christ’s body. Its luster is so great that no one can behold it in this state of weakness and imperfection and live.

Whatever sight some Christians formerly had, no Christians now see Christ’s person. They have heard of him with their ears, but they have not seen him with their eyes. They have seen representations of Christ in the sacrament, but they have never seen the person represented. They have seen his image upon their fellow Christians, but they have not seen the original from whom that image was drawn.

Some Christians have been in Judea and seen the place where the Lord lived. They have been in Jerusalem and seen the place where the Lord died. They have visited the place of his tomb, where the Lord lay for a time, and they have seen the mount from which the Lord ascended. But no Christians now alive have been in Jerusalem and on Mount Zion above, to see where the Lord now is in his glory. This Jesus Christ, whom Christians have not seen, is the object of their love.

The Nature of True Christians’ Love

Third, consider the love that true Christians bear toward this unseen Christ.

Love is the heart’s going out toward the beloved object. The love that true Christians bear toward Jesus Christ is a grace worked in their hearts by the Spirit. Through a discovery and believing apprehension of Christ’s infinite loveliness and excellence, and of his matchless love, grace, and mercy, their hearts go out toward him in earnest desires for union and communion with him, in which they take their chief delight. This love is accompanied by yielding and dedicating themselves to his will and service.

1. Love for Christ Is a Grace Worked by the Spirit

The love of Christians for Christ is a grace worked in their hearts by the Spirit. It is a most sweet and fragrant flower, but no seed of it exists in any person’s nature since the fall. It is planted in the soul by the Spirit of God. Love for Christ is a divine spark that comes down from above, a fire kindled by the breath of the Lord, whose essence is love.

2. Its Ground Is a Believing Sight of Christ’s Loveliness and Love

The ground of this love for Christ is the discovery and believing apprehension of Christ’s loveliness and love. There must first be a discovery of Christ as a suitable object of love. This must not be merely a notion, but a believing apprehension that Christ is infinitely lovely and supremely excellent, and that his love toward the children of men is matchless and transcendent. They must apprehend that in him is a treasury and storehouse of every grace and of the richest and most necessary supplies. Otherwise, the heart will not go out to him in love.

3. It Desires Union and Communion with Christ

Christian love for Christ acts through desires for union and communion with him. It is the nature of love to desire union with the beloved object, especially in this love for Christ. Once this union is attained, the desires turn toward communion, companionship, and fellowship with Christ. No company is so desirable as that of the persons whom we love most dearly. When this communion is attained, the soul takes its chief delight in it, sweetly rests and reposes itself in Christ, and rejoices in his presence and love.

4. It Yields and Dedicates the Christian to Christ

True Christians’ love for Christ is accompanied by yielding and dedicating themselves to his will and service. Lovers give themselves to those whom they love. This accompanies the marriage union. Those who love Christ are betrothed and joined to him. They give themselves to Christ to be his and to be wholly at his disposal, as a wife gives herself to the direction of her husband.

Love for Christ Distinguishes True Christians

Fourth, it is the distinguishing property of all true Christians to love this unseen Christ.

True Christians are distinguished not only from all heathens and unbelievers, but also from all merely nominal Christians, by their love for Jesus Christ. It is characteristic of covetous people to love worldly wealth and riches. It is characteristic of ambitious people to love worldly honor and dignity. It is characteristic of pleasure-seeking people to love sensual pleasures and delights. It is characteristic of true Christians to love Jesus Christ, whom they have never seen.

None but true Christians love Christ, and all who are true Christians love him. Christ’s loveliness appears not to the physical eye, but to the eye of faith. Those who do not see him with this eye cannot love him, and those who see him with this eye cannot help but love him. If people do not love Christ, it is not because Christ lacks beauty, but because they are blind.

All true Christians have this eye of faith to discern Christ’s excellencies, and none but true Christians have this eye. The essence of Christianity consists in believing. Reason makes us human, but faith makes us true Christians. Since it is characteristic of true Christians to believe, it is also characteristic of them to love this unseen Christ.

The Duty to Love Christ

Fifth, it is the duty of all true Christians to love this unseen Christ. This is evident in John 21:15-17.

Peter was one of the boldest and most forward of all Christ’s disciples, but he was also too self-confident. This introduced and laid the foundation for his fall and his shameful threefold denial of his Master. A look from his Lord reminded him of what he had done and brought him to repentance, with bitter weeping for his sin as soon as it was committed.

After our Savior rose from the dead, he appeared to Peter with some of his other disciples. In this passage he asked Peter the same question in the same words three times: “Simon Son of Jonas, lovest thou me?” By this he silently reproached Peter for the great sin of denying him three times, which Peter would never have done had there not been a defect in his love. Christ also signified that love for himself is the great duty and the great thing he looks for in all his disciples.

How Christians Ought to Love Christ

Sixth, consider how Christians ought to love this unseen Christ.

1. With Sincerity

Christians ought to love Christ with sincerity: “Grace be with all them that Love our Lord Jesus Christ in Sincerity” (Eph 6:24).

It was Judah’s great sin “That she turned not to the Lord with her whole heart, but feignedly” (Jer 3:10). In the same way, it is a great sin to love Christ with a feigned and hypocritical love.

Christians’ love for Christ ought to be sincere in its habitual condition and inward workings. They must love him not only in outward show, words, and profession. Their love must be heartfelt, and so be love indeed and in truth.

Their love for Christ must also be sincere regarding its object. They must love Christ for himself and not chiefly for what they obtain through him. To love Christ only for temporal gain is hypocritical love. To love Christ chiefly for other gain is not so spiritual. To love Christ for his own excellencies and perfections is the most sincere and generous love. Everyone has a duty to love Christ with this sincerity.

2. With Supremacy

Christians ought to love Christ with supreme love. They must place him in the highest seat of their hearts. He is a great King, and he expects the throne. All creatures should be placed beneath him and stand at his footstool.

Our Savior says, “He that loveth Father or Mother more than mee, is not worthy of Me; he that loveth Son or Daughter more than Me, is not Worthy of Me” (Matt 10:37).

Christians may love father and mother, for the law of God and nature requires it. They may love husband or wife, for the Word of God commands a husband to love his wife as his own body and as Christ loved the church. They may love sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, relatives, friends, and even enemies, and they ought to do so. Yet they must love all these with a subordinate love, while loving Christ with their chief love. Otherwise, they are not worthy to stand in the relationship of disciples.

3. With Ardency

Christians ought to love Christ with ardent love. “And they said one to another, did not our Hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the Way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32). Christ kindled this burning love in the hearts of his disciples, and he requires this burning love from all Christians.

“Love is strong as Death; the coals thereof are coals of Fire which hath a vehement Flame. Many Waters cannot quench Love, neither can the Floods drown it” (Song 8:6-7). Christians should have such a strong, vehement, ardent, and flaming love for Jesus Christ that all the waters of affliction cannot quench it and no floods of temptation or persecution can drown or overwhelm it.

4. With Constancy

Therefore, Christians ought to love Christ with constancy. Having begun to love him, they ought to continue loving him and to love him to the end. As they ought to be constant in obedience and to persevere in their other graces, so they ought to be constant and persevere in this grace of love for Christ.