(4.) He stays not here, but (for the consummation of all that went before) for their sakes he becomes obedient to death, the death of the cross. So he professeth to his Father, John xvii. 19, “For their sakes I sanctify myself;” — “I dedicate myself as an offering, as a sacrifice, to be killed and slain.” This was his aim in all the former, that he might die; he was born, and Heb. ii. 14, 15.lived, that he might die. He valued them above his life. And if we might stay to consider a little what was in this death that he underwent for them, we should perceive what a price indeed he put upon them. The curse Gal. iii. 13. of the law was in it, the 2 Cor. v. 21.wrath of God was in it, the loss of God’s Ps. xxii. 1.presence was in it. It was a Matt. xxvi. 39.fearful cup that he tasted of, and drank of, that they might never taste of it. A man would not for ten thousand worlds be willing to undergo that which Christ underwent for us in that one thing of desertion from God, were it attended with no more distress but what a mere creature might possibly emerge from under. And what thoughts we should have of this himself tells us, John xv. 13, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” It is impossible there should be any greater demonstration or evidence of love than this. What can any one do more? And yet he tells us in another place, that it hath another aggravation and heightening, Rom. v. 8, “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” When he did this for us we were sinners, and enemies, whom he might justly have destroyed. What more can be done? — to die for us when we were sinners! Such a death, in such a manner, with such attendancies of wrath and curse, — a death accompanied with the worst that God had ever threatened to sinners, — argues as high a valuation of us as the heart of Christ himself was capable of.