Exhortations to Increase in Love Toward Jesus

from The Christians Reasonable Service by Wilhelmus á Brakel

Love is imperfect here, and we are therefore continually in need of exhortations. Therefore you who desire to become more abundant in your love toward the Lord Jesus, consider these matters:

First, consider Jesus in His preciousness. After the bride had described Him from His head to His feet, she concludes, “His mouth is most sweet: yea, He is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem” (Song 5:16). According to His divine nature He is the brightness of His Father's glory and the express image of His person. He possesses all divine perfections to an infinite degree. According to His human nature He is perfectly holy. He who delights in holiness must find delight in Him. As Mediator He is crowned with honor and glory, and He is most benevolent, friendly, compassionate, and loving. Grace and love are poured out upon His lips, and He is full of grace, truth, righteousness, and benevolence, so that He is simultaneously majestic and lovely. If there is therefore anything that will beget and stir up love within you, it must be the Lord Jesus—that is, if He would but reveal Himself to you and you could but behold the King in His beauty.

Secondly, love begets love. Jesus, however, loves you with the greatest love imaginable. Since He is love, He can therefore love those that are not loveable, and delight Himself in blessing His beloved ones. His love toward you is an eternal love, and thus without beginning and without end; it is a most intimate and vehement love. Meditate for a moment upon all in which he manifests His love toward you.

(1) He came into the world for your sake, assumed your nature, and became like unto you in all things, sin excepted. He even took upon Himself the form of a servant. He thus put Himself in your place, became your Surety, took your sins away from you, took them upon Himself as if He had committed them, and bore the punishment due upon your sins. “Even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it” (Eph. 5:25).

(2) How He has been despised and what griefs He has borne! Everything was against Him; God was angry toward Him, and poured upon Him His righteous wrath against your sin. Go to the manger and follow Him to the cross. Behold Him there in His utmost distress and anxiety, and imagine that in His deepest sorrow He were to address you as follows: “Look at Me, My elect, My beloved. Love to you brought Me into this condition. My love is so great that I would be willing to suffer a thousand times more before I would allow you to perish.” In love He paid your ransom, accomplished eternal redemption for you, reconciled you with God and established peace between Him and you, and led you to Him as a reconciled Father.

(3) You are still bound upon His heart. He continually thinks upon you, prays for you, is your Advocate with the Father, and His eye is upon you to preserve you.

(4) Consider in what a lovely manner He has drawn you to Himself. For your sake He sent the gospel to the locality where you were to be born, and when your time came He called you, allured you, and, while knocking, stood before your heart waiting for you to open to Him. When you were averse to His way and disobedient, He bore you with longsuffering, He regenerated you, illuminated you, gave you a heart that fell in love with Him so that you yourself sought Him and ran after Him.

(5) How frequently He has spoken to your heart! How many kisses of love has He given you! How frequently has He comforted you in your sorrow, delivered you in your perplexities, and encouraged you in your discouragements! With how much longsuffering has He borne with your weaknesses! Time and again He has manifested His goodness to you, as if you had not sinned against Him at all!

(6) He will at last bring you unto Himself into heaven in order that you may be eternally with Him. There He will glorify you; there He will cause you to rejoice; there He will cause you to be perfect in love. He will thus be with you eternally and you with Him, to eternally satiate you with love. Meditate upon this, and believe this, for if this cannot stir up your heart to love in return, you are indeed void of love. Therefore stir up your love.

Thirdly, there is joy in love, and the heart of man is inclined toward joy. There is no joy in the world for you. That which is most delightful grieves you when Jesus has departed. You will have to acquiesce in a song I once made about the month of May:

How sweet is the time of songs and flowers,
in which animal and man rejoice!
Yet it is nothing but sorrow to me
as long as I miss the love of Jesus.
But if He would but speak to my soul,
“Thou art Mine and I am Thine eternally,”
And cause my sinful life to disappear—
then it is for me the time of songs and flowers!

If the soul may sit in the shadow of the love of Jesus, and if her love sweetly issues forth to her Beloved, she has a heaven full of joy, and only then is she in her element. Then she wishes that this love would never be disturbed—just as the bride expressed it, “I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till He please” (Song 2:7). Jesus rejoices in the expressions of His love to you. “As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee” (Isa. 62:5). Likewise a loving soul also rejoices in the expressions of her love to Jesus, and in the sensible enjoyment of Jesus' love toward her. “The King hath brought me into His chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in Thee...the upright love Thee” (Song 1:4).

Fourthly, consider attentively how Jesus is the object of the love of the Father, the angels, and believers.

(1) The love of the Father goes forth to Jesus; God loves Him. “For the Father loveth the Son” (John 5:20); “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 17:5).

(2) The holy angels love Him, rejoice in beholding Him, worship Him reverently (Heb. 1:6), and are ready to serve Him (Matthew 4:11)—as seen at His birth, in His suffering, and at His resurrection. At His coming unto judgment they will accompany Him with joyful willingness and love.

(3) Believers on earth love Him, their hearts go out after Him, and He is the focal point of the passions of their love. “Therefore do the virgins love Thee” (Song 1:3). The bride continually has the word Beloved in her mouth. Just consider how each believer mourns when Jesus is absent; how they long for His coming to them; and how delighted they are when they may sweetly enjoy His fellowship. All their asking, crying, and weeping is for Jesus. In Jesus only do they find all their satisfaction. What beautiful expressions we find in the meditations of believers! “It is much better for me to die for Jesus than to rule over the world—My love is crucified—If you were to cut my heart in a thousand pieces, on each piece you would find the name Jesus written with golden letters—Lord Jesus, I love Thee more than my possessions, than my loved ones, and than myself—Money must perish (with all those who love possessions more than fellowship with Jesus for one day),” etc. Shall the heart of each believer bring forth a flame of love, and shall your heart then also not be set aflame? Come, join yourself to all who love Jesus, and say with them, Jesus, sweet Jesus—Jesus is the most eminent of all who I can find delight in. Jesus, if Thou dost desire to have me, I desire to have Thee and desire none other than Thee. To all creatures I say, “No!” If Jesus were to ask you, “Lovest thou Me?” would you then not answer, “Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee”? Therefore hold fast to this and continually immerse yourself in this love. Let it give you wings to render you fit to run your course with joy. Let the love of Jesus compel you to live a life pleasing to Him, in order to glorify Him here, and patiently wait until He takes you to be eternally with Himself.