From Richard Sibbes' invaluable work, A Description of Christ:
Does God delight thus in Christ, in his person, or considered mystically? I answer; both. God loves and delights in Christ mystical, that is, in Christ and his members, in whole Christ. 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,' not only with whom alone by himself, but 'in whom,' in him as God, in him in body and soul, in him as head of the church, in him mystically, in all that are under him any kind of way. God delights in him, and all his.
Is it possible that he should delight in the head, and refuse the members? that he should love the husband, and mislike the spouse? Oh no; with the same love that God loves Christ, he loves all his. He delights in Christ and all his, with the same delight. There is some difference in the degree, 'that Christ in all things may have the pre-eminence,' (Col. 1:18) but it is the same love; therefore our Saviour sets it down excellently in his own prayer, he desires 'that the same love wherewith his Father loved him may be in them that are his,' (John 17:20) that they may feel the love wherewith his Father loves him, for he loved him and his members, him and his spouse, with all one love.
This is our comfort and our confidence, that God accepts us, because he accepts his beloved; and when he shall cease to love Christ, he shall cease to love the members of Christ.
Is it possible that he should delight in the head, and refuse the members? that he should love the husband, and mislike the spouse? Oh no; with the same love that God loves Christ, he loves all his. He delights in Christ and all his, with the same delight. There is some difference in the degree, 'that Christ in all things may have the pre-eminence,' (Col. 1:18) but it is the same love; therefore our Saviour sets it down excellently in his own prayer, he desires 'that the same love wherewith his Father loved him may be in them that are his,' (John 17:20) that they may feel the love wherewith his Father loves him, for he loved him and his members, him and his spouse, with all one love.
This is our comfort and our confidence, that God accepts us, because he accepts his beloved; and when he shall cease to love Christ, he shall cease to love the members of Christ.
