Chapter 22: To the End

John 13:1 provides a beautiful description of the love Jesus had for His disciples (and, by extension, all those in Christ).

What we see in this and other passages that we will look to tonight is that Christ’s love does not stop when we sin. Christ’s love is infinitely different in degree and kind. Our love for family members and closer friends are but a sad echo of the love Jesus has for us.

John Bunyan describes it like this, “Love in Christ decays not, nor can be tempted so to do by anything that happens, or that shall happen hereafter.”

That is where we find ourselves in greatest need. For those who have not believed, they must feel the love of Christ drawing them into wonderful and free forgiveness. They need to be reminded that any sin can be forgiven through Jesus Christ.

But for those of us who have been saved for any length of time, we wonder could God forgive me of that sin? Or, God could never forgive that again? As we have noted several times before, we tend to think of God in our terms, and how we relate to others. This is sin, my brothers and sisters. We must submit our thoughts to Scripture lest we be guilty of breaking the second commandment.

Let’s look at this one verse, while considering others, and see the unimaginable love of Christ, and as a result relish this love!

I. The Coming Storm- 13:1a

John records these words, “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father...” The coming storm was the mock trial, the desertion of His disciples, His torture and His death. This is the storm that Jesus knew was coming. If you were to continue reading through John’s Gospel you would see the horrific experiences Jesus went through to free us from our sins.

Ortlund states this, “A three-year-old cannot comprehend the pain a spouse feels when cheated on. How much less could we comprehend what it meant for God to funnel the cumulative judgment for all the sinfulness of his people down onto one man…The righteous human wrath feel—the wrath we would be wrong not to feel—is a drop in the ocean of righteous divine wrath the Father unleashed.” (199-200)

Jesus knew what was coming. It is like us watching the Weather Channel when a bad storm is coming. We know what is coming, and it causes fear and anxiety. Imagine being Christ, who knew everything that was coming and knowing He would die for people who, in His greatest moment of need humanly speaking, would abandon Him.

If you have never read this book, Knowing Christ, Mark Jones does a marvelous job of presenting Christ primarily from the Gospels but from other Scriptures as well. In his chapter, “Christ’s Reading,” Jones writes this,

As one who read the Old Testament Scriptures, Jesus learned of his sufferings and glory. The Holy Spirit, aiding Christ’s mental and spiritual faculties, brought to life the words of God that foreordained Christ’s death.” (85) Jones goes on the write this, “He lived with the fullest knowledge one could have about his future sufferings. All the medical doctors in the world could not have prepared him for his physical and mental sufferings as the Word of God did.” (86)

Jesus knows everything. He knew every swing of the whip, every drop of blood that was drawn from His body, every punch that landed, every hair in His beard that was ripped out of His face.

We cannot begin to grasp the physical pain endured by Jesus, but Jesus knew everything. He knew fully and completely the Coming Storm, and that did not change His present love in any way.

II. The Present Love- 13:1b

John writes, “having loves his own who were in the world...” That is the disciples at the present. He loves them. Jesus loves His own. This statement in and of itself is marvelous. Jesus loves us. I have said it before, but one of my favorite songs is by Philip Bliss, “Jesus Loves Even Me.” In the third verse he pens these words,

“O, if there’s only one song I can sing,

When in His beauty I see the great King,

This shall my song for eternity be:

O, what a wonder that Jesus loves !”

We cannot miss this, because it is in the midst of Christ’s knowledge of His coming end that He loves His disciples. What is even more remarkable is what happens next, “He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” (13:4-5)

He loves His disciples. But what about after salvation? What if they sinned after being forgiven? That is where we need to remember the last phrase of 13:1.

III. The Perpetual Love- 13:1c

“he loved them to the end.” Ortlund contrasts human and divine love when he writes, “We love until we are betrayed. Jesus continued to the cross despite betrayal. we love until we are forsaken. Jesus loved through forsakenness.” (198)

John Bunyan, a baptist who suffered many years in prison, writes this,

“It is common for equals to love, and for superiors to be beloved; but for the King of princes, for the Son of God, for Jesus Christ to love man thus: this is amazing, and that so much the more, for that man the object of his love, is so low, so mean, so vile, so underserving, and so inconsiderable, as by the scriptures, everywhere he is described to be.

He is called God, the King of glory. But the persons of him beloved, are called transgressors, sinners, enemies, dust and ashes, fleas, worms, shadows, vapors, vile, filthy, sinful, unclean, ungodly fools, madmen.”

Jesus knows not only what we did, do, and will do, He knows who we were, are, and will be, and despite all of this, Jesus loves us. What a tremendous thought! Nothing, as Paul tells us, shall separate us from the Love of God in Christ (Rom. 8:31-39).

John Owen, another brilliant mind in Church history, writes, “There is not the meanest, the weakest, the poorest believer on the earth but Christ prizes him more than all the world.” (204)

Or, to put it like Paul does in Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Jesus loved us to the end. He is completely committed to the believer. Ortlund says Christ does not sign any prenuptial agreements.

What this means for us today:

1. We cannot allow past or present sins to cause us to question the love of Christ.

2. We cannot presume upon the love of Christ.

3. We can trust Christ’s love and faithful commitment to our growth