Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Christ means for us to taste by faith how inestimably delightful His goodness is, then to be inflamed by His example to love the brethren. God could have redeemed us by a word, but instead spared not His own Son, that we might know the measure of His care for our salvation. Hearts not softened by such Divine love must be harder than stone.
AI summary
The Father loved Christ as Mediator and gave all things into His hand; Christ abode in that love by keeping His Father's commandments. As the Father has loved Him, so He loves us, and we abide in His love by keeping what He commands.
AI summary
Commenting on John 15:9-17
Christ's friends are all who love Him, believe in Him, and obey Him. By laying down His life for them He made them friends; they prove themselves so not through their obedience earning His favor, but by obeying His commands from love, constrained by sense of what He paid for them.
AI summary