us.' We have it in its transcendent
self-impoverishment, 'Though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became
poor.' We have it in its highest issue, 'That ye through His poverty
might become rich.' Let us look at those points.

I. Here we have the deepest motive which underlies the whole work of
Christ, unveiled to us.

'Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Every word here is
significant. It is very unusual in the New Testament to find that
expression 'grace' applied to Jesus Christ. Except in the familiar
benediction, I think there are only one or two instances of such a
collocation of words. It is 'the grace of God' which, throughout the New
Testament, is the prevailing expression. But here 'grace is attributed
to Jesus'; that is to say, the love of the Divine heart is, without
qualification or hesitation, ascribed to Him. And what do we mean by
grace? We mean love in exercise to inferiors. It is infinite
condescension in Jesus to love. His love stoops when it embraces us.
Very significant, therefore, is the employment here of the solemn full
title, 'the Lord Jesus Christ,' which enhances the condescension by
making prominent the height from which it bent. The 'grace' is all the
more wonderful because of the majesty and sovereignty, to say the least
of it, which are expressed in that title, the Lord. The highest stoops
and stands upon the level of the lowest. 'Grace' is love that expresses
itself to those who deserve something else. And the deepest motive,
which is the very key to the whole phenomena of the life of Jesus
Christ, is that it is all the exhibition, as it is the consequence, of a
love that, stooping, forgives. 'Grace' is love that, stooping and
forgiving, communicates its whole self to unworthy and transgressing
recipients. And the key to the life of Jesus is that we have set forth
in its operation a love which is not content to speak only the ordinary
language of human affection, or to do its ordinary deeds, but is
self-impelled to impart what transcends all other gifts of human
tenderness, and to give its very self. And so a love that condescends, a
love that passes by unworthiness, is turned away by no sin, is unmoved
to any kind of anger, and never allows its cheek to flush or its heart
to beat faster, because of any provocation and a love that is content
with nothing short of entire surrender and self-impartation underlies
all that precious life from Bethlehem to Calvary.

But there is anothe