PRINCESS ALICE, the greatly beloved daughter of Queen Victoria, was married to the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt. She had nursed her husband and daughters, the youngest of which, just a babe, had died, through the then greatly dreaded diphtheria, when her only son was sorely stricken. Though worn out by nursing, she insisted upon taking full charge of her suffering boy. One day, when the fever was at its height, he stretched his hands out to her and said, “Kiss me, mother,” and she, breaking through the restraints of prudence, pressed upon his parched lips a mother’s love kiss. That kiss cost her her life. God has stooped down to put the kiss of His love upon the world, but it cost Him the life of His Son; He knew that it would when He gave Him. “He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.” He sent Him into the world, not with flaming fire to judge it, but in lowly grace to put His kiss upon it to save it. The Son of God came forth from His Father with a commandment, and that commandment was to lay down His life and take it again. It was the only way. I will quote the very words of the Lord Jesus, for the Gospel story would be incomplete without them. He said, “I lay down My life for the sheep.... Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father” (John 10. 15-18).
Let no one think that it was an easy thing for the Father to give that commandment, or for the Son to carry it out. Nothing but infinite and divine love, the love of God, could have done it. In His agony in the Garden, Jesus cried, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.” It was not possible, the commandment must be carried out. It was the measure of God’s love to men; He so loved the world.
But see what these words of JESUS mean. “No man taketh My life from Me.” It was impossible for men to slay Him. In intent they did it, on their part no effort was wanting to bring Him down into death; their malice and cruelty knew no pity; they were indeed from that point of view His murderers, they slew the Holy One and the Just; and yet, when they had done their worst, He voluntarily laid down His life, a sacrifice for sin. He anticipated that spear thrust that ripped His side, and offered up Himself without spot to God in their mocking of Him, they cried, “Come down from the cross and we will believe on you.” He could have come down from the cross. It was not the nails that were driven through His hands and His feet that held Him there. I could not admit that, unless I am allowed to spell out one word upon them. Then the nail in His right hand shall be L, and the nail in His left hand shall be O, and the nail in the right foot shall be V, and the nail in the left foot shall be E. It was LOVE that held Him there, the love of a Saviour-God. He did not die by the violence of men, though they could not have been more violent; nor did He die from any natural cause. He cried, “It is finished,” with a loud voice and yielded up His own life. So that, when the soldiers came to finish the work of that brutal day, they marveled that He was dead already. One act on their part remained to be done, that the ancient word might be fulfilled, and that the sacrifice might be complete. One of them stepped back a pace and thrust his spear into the side of the dead body of the Saviour, and forthwith came there out blood and water. “And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true; and he knoweth that he saith true, THAT YE MIGHT BELIEVE” (John 19:3535And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. (John 19:35)).
He carried out His Father’s commandment by yielding up His life, He had the power to do it because of who He was; but He had also received commandment to take it again, and this He has done. And if He had not done this, God’s love would have been an impotent love, it could not have saved us. “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet it your sins.” If Christ be not raised, God has lost His Son forever, and we have no Saviour! But His resurrection is an integral part of the Gospel, for “Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; and was buried, and rose again from the dead the third day, according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3, 43For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: (1 Corinthians 15:3‑4)).
Death has met its Master, the power of the grave has been broken, and Jesus lives. HE has carried out His Father’s commandment and finished the work that He gave Him to do, and God has glorified Him with the glory that He had with Him before the world began. And all this is involved in our text; if that commandment had not been carried out, and that work had not been finished, sinners never could have felt the kiss of God’s love, and it never could have been said, “Whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Prince Ernest Louis would never forget that kiss of love that cost his mother her life, he would have been an unnatural, unfeeling son if he had; but the world cared nothing at the time for the love of God that made Him give His Son, and it cares nothing for it now. It is indifferent to the kiss of God’s love. Yet if any will hear and believe the story, to them flows the rich blessing that is the result of it. And multitudes have heard and believed it, and every one of them has been kissed by the kiss of forgiveness and love. Let no one suppose that when God gave His Son His love to the world ceased. The gift did not exhaust the love; it fills His heart now as ever it did, and when a sinner, weary of his sins turns towards Him, God sees him when he is yet a great way off―for the eyes of love are very keen; and He has compassion on him—for the heart of love is very tender; and He runs―for the feet of love are swift, and He falls on his neck and kisses him. Each sinner is kissed for himself and can say, as the love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost, that is given to him, “God who knows all, has forgiven all, and He loves me, yes, even me.”
And what has the devil to give in comparison with that? He lied to Adam and Eve in the garden. He told them that God did not love them, that He was withholding something from them that would exalt them and do them good, and if they would but listen to him he would make them happier and higher than God had made them; he would make them as gods, knowing good and evil. They listened to his lying words, and turned their backs upon God who did love them, and followed the devil who hated them, to their ruin 1 John 3:1616Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. (1 John 3:16) is the answer to the devil’s lie, and the truth of it dispels the darkness that lies as a black pall upon the souls of men. For when a man believes the Gospel, he is saved and set free, the Son makes him free, for the Son came to undo the works of the devil, and set his captives free. It is the kiss of God’s love that awakens dead souls to life, and that dissolves the shackles that bind them; they are no longer the dupes of the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience, but they know that God is rich in mercy, and they know His great love wherewith He has loved them, and they know that He has quickened them together with Christ (Eph. 216And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: (Ephesians 2:16).), and they know that they are united to the One who has died for them, and they know that they can never be separated from Him forever.