Wisdom for the Weekend [1]

"Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles." (Matthew 12:18)

There was no such love as Christ's to become a servant, there was no such misery as we were in, out of which we were delivered by the abasement of Christ becoming a servant. So it is wondrous in that regard, springing from the infinite love and mercy of God, which is greater in the work of redemption and reconciliation that in the creation of the world...

[F]or the distance between and something was less than the distance between sin and happiness. For nothing adds no opposition; but to be in a sinful state there is opposition. Therefore it was greater love and mercy for God, when we were sinful and so obnoxious to eternal destruction, to make of us sinners not only men, but to ... make us heirs of heaven out of a sinful and cursed estate...

[H]ere His mercy triumphed over that which is opposite to God, over sinfulness and cursedness... Therefore there is mercy above all mercy and love above all love, in that Christ was a servant.

Richard Sibbes, A Description of Christ