Christ’s Persevering Love

The days of commemoration of the Lord Jesus’ suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension, but also of the fulfillment of His promise that He would send another Comforter, are behind us again. What were the fruits of these facts of salvation in our lives? Did we see something of that marvelous love toward enemies, rebels, and also to an unfaithful, wandering people after received grace? The Apostle John may testify of it, “having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.”

Incomprehensible is such a love for such a people! Who are the objects of His love? We see them sitting there at the supper. There is a highly privileged people in this upper room. The room is prepared; the Passover lamb is there, having been roasted with fire. No bone of it is broken. There are the unleavened breads, the wine, and a plate with bitter herbs. There is also a basin with water, and a towel for the washing of feet. Nothing is missing; no wonder, for the Lord Jesus is the Host and all things are ready.

However, there is a conflict among the disciples, a dispute as to which of them is the greatest. They are sitting at the table with unwashed feet. How painful for the Lord Jesus! With what desire He had desired to eat this Passover with them! But nobody washed Jesus’ feet. This is the reward for His three years of instruction and for this Passover which He as the Host offers to them.

“Peter, you have confessed Me as the Son of God. Do you allow your Master to sit here with unwashed feet?”

“James and John, you who wanted to sit at My left and My right hand, will you not serve Me here?”

“Thomas, this is not a dying with Christ. And you refuse to wash His feet.”

“Nathanael, did you forget the fig tree where the Lord called you?”

Yet He loved them. He loved His own people. He testified in the High-Priestly prayer: “Thine they were and Thou gavest them Me” (John 17:6).

They are given Him out of the world.

There is no difference in them; they also belonged to that fallen race of rebels and enemies in Adam. They are not of the world anymore as He is not of the world; therefore the world hates them. Yet they are sent into the world and Christ prays that they should be kept, preserved, from evil in this world. They are the objects of His love. They are His own:

• by the election of the Father;

• by Christ’s own redemptive rights —for He paid the price; He bought them. “Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it; and

• by the effectual call of the Holy Spirit, making them new creatures.

High and great privileges were given to the disciples, and not only unto them, but unto all God’s children. There was no worthiness in them. It was only the good pleasure of the Lord.

Christ departed out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, but He loves them also unto the end. Herein we see the extent of His love.

He loved them unto the end of their earthly pilgrimage. Their way leads through a valley of tears. It is a path of cross-bearing, strife, loneliness, and affliction. But He will show unto them: “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.”

He loved them unto the greatest extent of their need and of His grace. He knew how foolish and unfaithful they would be, that all would forsake Him, that Peter would deny Him, that Thomas would doubt Him. He loves us unto the end of our miserable failures, our wanderings and backsliding, our un-worthiness, and our deep need.

He loved them to the end of His bitter suffering. He loved them while He suffered the full punishment of sin, enduring the wrath of God in Geth-semane as a worm and no man, on Golgotha where He descended into hell. He was in darkness, being forsaken by God. “He loved them unto the end” and He could say, “It is finished.”

“He loved them unto the end” until He had reached the goal, the purpose of His coming on earth. For this is what the original word also means. The subjects of His love had become “missers” of the mark, of the goal. Instead of glorifying God, serving and worshipping Him, they became slaves of Satan and sin. Their only desire by nature was to please and promote self and to live according to the desires of the flesh.

Christ “is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” He arrived at His goal. Therefore He could testify, “It is finished.” The goal was reached.

“Missers” of the mark will again be restored into the blessed fellowship with God and will serve and glorify Him again. There will be a people that will show forth His praise. Christ loved them by laying down His life for His sheep. He loved them in spite of their unfaithfulness, in spite of their foolishness and ignorance. Oh people of God, do we not have reason to admire His gracious, undeserved mercy? For He says, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” (Jer. 31:3).

Christ loved them after His resurrection also, in the state of His exaltation. And how did He reveal that love? At the resurrection day He turned His hand upon the little ones and He visited His scattered sheep.

Christ loves them also after He has received the place at the right hand of the Father in glory. There He reveals His love in teaching and guiding His often wandering sheep. He is the heavenly Advocate for them, the great Intercessor in the heavenly sanctuary. He delivers, reigns, protects, and preserves them. They “are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Oh, blessed, privileged people whose God is the Lord and who are made an object of the extent of this love! For this love is higher than the high mountains of guilt and impossibilities. It is deeper than the depth into which they can ever fall or have fallen, for Christ stooped down so deeply, to pick up His jewels from the bottom of hell. This love is as wide as the ocean. “Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

This is not a love of words only, but a love revealed in deeds and in actions. We can see this also in the examples which He displayed in this upper room. It was an example with such a powerful testimony of what He is and does for His sheep. The apostle describes this in verses 4 and 5. There we see seven actions of the Savior, actions which are testimonies and evidences of His self-denying, self-sacrificing love.

1. He riseth from supper, the place of fellowship, harmony, rest and peace. But did not Christ also leave the place of harmony, peace, glory, and fellowship of the Father in order to seek those wretched runaways who had chosen the service of Satan, sin, and the world?

2. He laid aside His garments. Christ came upon earth, “made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant,” and concealed His divine glory behind the veil of His human nature.

3. He took a towel. He was fully equipped and qualified to do the work He had undertaken to perform, that of His Father’s servant.

4. He girded Himself. He was a willing Servant who did not hesitate to go the way of His deep humiliation. He did not yield to the enemy, neither did He flee when they came in the garden of Gethsemane. But He said, “If therefore ye seek Me, let these go their way.” He is the willing Servant, in Psalm 40, “Mine ears hast Thou opened…. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me.”

5. He poured water into a basin. With that water He would wash the feet of those who were unwilling to do it themselves. Christ shed His blood which cleanseth from all sins upon this earth. And the prophet says in Isaiah 53:12, “because He hath poured out His soul unto death.” He gave Himself for the Church “….even as Christ also loved the Church….That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word” (Eph. 5:25,26).

6. He began to wash the disciples’ feet. Not only did He pour the water into the basin, but He also applied it unto the filthy feet of His followers. Is Christ not also a Mediator who shed, but also by His Spirit applies, His blood unto the hearts of His people? They need to be washed wholly in that blood. They also need a daily cleansing in it. We cannot wash our own feet; we are totally incompetent for the saving of our souls, and also for the cleansing of our defiled walk.

7. He wiped them with the towel wherewith He was girded. Thereby He completed the work He began. He did not leave His work unfinished or half done. As a perfect Servant He not only washed the disciples’ feet, but He wiped them as well. If, by faith, the Church of God may see something of this complete work, they will sing: “He will finish perfectly what He for me has undertaken.” They are not able to finish the work He began, but Paul could say by faith in Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

“He loved them unto the end.” That means until His ultimate goal is accomplished, when the Bridegroom is united with His bride and the Father with His children. Then there will be one flock under one Shepherd. Therefore, because He loves them unto the end, He is—also after His resurrection and ascension—still active in His place of heavenly glory to the profit of His Church. From there “He pours out heavenly graces upon His members, and by His power He defends and preserves us against all enemies.”

Do we know something of this everlasting love? Do we need such a ministering Servant? We read in this same chapter of one who had been so close to Him, who had even preached in His Name, but “he went immediately out: and it was night.” Oh, how terrible it will be to have neglected so great salvation! It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah and for Tyre and Sidon than for those who heard His Word but repented not. May the Lord open our blind eyes before it is too late. May our enmity be broken by His love and mercy.

People of God, do not grieve this loving Servant of the Father by your careless, slothful, worldly walk. Seek to live close to Him, following Him in the way which He, in His love and wisdom, has appointed for you. Hope on Him, “For the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day.”

Therefore He will bring you at the end of your pilgrimage where He is. Then you will not defile your feet anymore, nor will you need to be washed daily, but then He will use the towel for another purpose. Not to wipe your feet but to wipe away all tears from your eyes. Then there shall be no more sin, no more death, neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall there be any pain. To be with Him is far better. Then you may give unto Him who alone is worthy all the honor and praise for what He has done and given.

Rev. C. Vogelaar is pastor of the Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.

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