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I. WHAT CHRIST HAS DONE FOR US.

1. Christ loved us. You all know, from the feelings of your own hearts, something of what it is to love, and likewise what it is to be the object of affection. Christ's love to His people surpasses in intensity and purity and disinterestedness anything that was ever felt by a human heart. There was no worth or excellence, no good thing about us. In His eyes we were unseemly and loathsome objects. We were altogether unable to render Him any service, or to make Him any compensation for the benefits He might bestow. His essential happiness and glory could neither be diminished by our ruin, nor increased by our salvation. And consider who it was that loved us in this manner; for we are in the habit of estimating the value of any expression of love by the character and condition of the individual from whom we receive it. Now He who thus loved us was not a mere man like ourselves, but He was the Eternal God, the Author and the Head of the whole creation; He was not an angel or an archangel, but One whom all the angels of God are commanded to worship; He was not liable to errors of judgment, or to mistakes of feeling, but He Was possessed of the Divine perfections, as well as the Divine nature and prerogatives.

2. "He washed us from our sins in His own blood." This was the first great step that was necessary in order to our deliverance and salvation, and this accordingly is mentioned as the first great manifestation of Christ's love that was poured out upon believers.

3. "He has likewise made us kings and priests unto God and His Father." Here the priestly character, as well as the "kingly" one, is but imperfectly developed, and its privileges but partially enjoyed. Here we see through a glass, darkly. But a time will come when all believers shall see face to face — when their intercourse with God shall be much more close and uninterrupted and delightful than it has ever been upon earth — when anything that can defile or annoy shall be taken away.

II. THE FEELINGS AND DESIRES WHICH THE CONTEMPLATION OF WHAT CHRIST HAS DONE FOR US OUGHT TO PRODUCE.

(W. Cunningham, D. D.)

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KJV: John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

WEB: John, to the seven assemblies that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from God, who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits who are before his throne;