Lamb of God, Thy faithful promiseSays, “Behold, I quickly come;”And our hearts, to Thine responsive,Cry, “come, Lord, and take us home.”Oh, the rapture that awaits usWhen we meet Thee in the air,And with Thee ascend in triumph,All Thy deepest joys to share!
Lamb of God, Thy faithful promise
Says, “Behold, I quickly come;”
And our hearts, to Thine responsive,
Cry, “come, Lord, and take us home.”
Oh, the rapture that awaits us
When we meet Thee in the air,
And with Thee ascend in triumph,
All Thy deepest joys to share!
THE Epistle to the Hebrews, this profound and blessed portion of the Holy Scriptures, unfolds a most wonderful vision of the Person, the Glory and the great Redemption work of our adorable Lord. The portion of the Epistle which is the richest in this respect is the Second Chapter. Here is a vista for the eyes of faith which is sublime. Our Lord in His Person, in His humiliation and exaltation, in His suffering and glory, stands out in a way which makes the believing heart rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of Glory. What He has accomplished for us, His present place in Glory and intercessory work, His future and dominion over the earth, all are mentioned by the Holy Spirit in this brief chapter. His humiliation by incarnation is mentioned in these words “Thou madest Him a little lower than the angels.” “Forasmuch, then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same.” And He is the One “by whom are all things” (verse 10).
His suffering and death and its blessed results are given in this chapter. “By the grace of God He should taste death for every man.” “That through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil.” He made “reconciliation for sins of the people.”
We read of the gracious relations into which all believing sinners are brought in virtue of His work on the cross. “For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” It is that blessed, deep, eternal relationship of being One with Him and One with God. Then we find here His presence as Man in Glory. “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor.”
In that attitude He is now “the merciful and faithful high Priest.” “For in that He Himself hath suffered, being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted.”
The ultimate result of His work is also stated. He is “bringing many sons unto glory.” And that glory will be His own glory. Not only now but in that future day of glory He will declare “Behold I and the children, which God hath given me.”
Furthermore we have the fact of His earthly dominion, that He is to have possession of the earth. “The world to come,” that is the habitable earth, not heaven, is to be put in subjection under Him. “Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet.” All these blessed truths are stated in this chapter of Hebrews.
In regard to a subdued earth we read: “But now we see not yet all things put under Him.” That was true when the Holy Spirit penned these words. This is still true and it will be true until the Father bringeth in the First begotten into the world, when not alone all the angels of God will worship Him (Heb. i:6), but when God will make His enemies the footstool of His blessed feet (Psalm cx:1).
However this coming triumph for Him who was made a little lower than the angels is not the glorious vision of this chapter. It is time by faith we may behold the glorious consummation as revealed in the prophetic Word, but here another vision for our present rejoicing and present help is put before us. While we see not yet all things put under His feet “we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor.”
This is the great vision for the present. This is what the Holy Spirit wants us to behold more than anything else. Of Stephen it is written: “He being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (Acts vii:55). And whenever the Holy Spirit fills us He will direct the vision of the eyes of our heart to Him who was made a little lower than the angels and who is now in heaven crowned with glory and honor. And only thepowerof the Holy Spirit filling us can make this great fact and vision a reality.
But what does this glorious vision mean tous?What does it teach us? Oh, much more than the weak pen of the writer can tell out.
The blessed One who is there crowned with glory and honor is the One who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death; He bore our sins on the cross and died for us. What a blessed, blessed proof then it is, as we behold Him there, that our sins are completely and forever gone!
But more than that. In seeing Him there we behold ourselves. The deliverer of our souls at the right hand of God, the second man, crowned with glory and honor, is the pattern and forerunner of all who belong to Him and whom He is not ashamed to call brethren. Grace has raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus (Eph. ii:5, 6).
Our eternal destiny, beloved in the Lord, is to be like Him, with Him and to share His marvelous inheritance as His co-heirs. That glorious vision is the evidence of our coming glory, when we shall be transformed into His image that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. As we gaze in the Spirit on Him who is crowned with glory and honor we can see ourselves.
And as the age darkens, as the Laodicean state becomes more prevalent, temptations and snares increase, the enemy’s powers and activities more marked, we need to open our eyes and hearts wider, to take in the vision of our blessed head in Glory. Only in this way can we be kept in these evil days. The only way of spiritual progress, spiritual enjoyment, spiritual worship is to “behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord,” and beholding that glorious vision we “are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. vii:18).
This glorious vision will keep us in the place of separation. It will make us heavenly-minded and produce in our lives the practical results of the cross of Christ “crucified unto the world and the world crucified unto me.” Why do real Christians, who know the truth and even know and speak of His Second Coming go along with the world and delight in its ways? It is because the heart is departed from Christ and has lost sight of the blessed and glorious vision. Years ago a saint of God, who is now present with the Lord, made the following statement:
“It sometimes happens that Christians have got so far away from Christ in heart, that they become engrossed in the affairs of this life, and some can even visit and enjoy the poor empty, tinselled shows of this world’s vanity. What could be more lamentable? They forget thatdeath’s stampis deeply graven on everything this side of resurrection. But such actions clearly prove that the heart must have been away from Christ for some time.”
Reader! if this means you return unto thy rest. Arise now and seek His face and behold your Saviour, who was made a little lower than the angels crowned with glory and honor.
May all our hearts, dear children of God, cry out with him, who knew Him so well, the prisoner of the Lord “That I may knowHim, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death” (Phil. iii:10). Soon we shall know Him and all His glory.
I see a Man at God’s right hand,Upon the throne of God,And there in seven-fold light I seeThe seven-fold sprinkled blood;I look upon that glorious Man,On that blood-sprinkled throne;I know that He sits there for me,The glory is my own.The heart of God flows forth in love,A deep eternal stream;Through that beloved Son it flowsTo me as unto Him.And, looking on His face, I know—Weak, worthless, though I be—How deep, how measureless, how sweet,That love of God to me.
I see a Man at God’s right hand,
Upon the throne of God,
And there in seven-fold light I see
The seven-fold sprinkled blood;
I look upon that glorious Man,
On that blood-sprinkled throne;
I know that He sits there for me,
The glory is my own.
The heart of God flows forth in love,
A deep eternal stream;
Through that beloved Son it flows
To me as unto Him.
And, looking on His face, I know—
Weak, worthless, though I be—
How deep, how measureless, how sweet,
That love of God to me.
OUR Lord Jesus Christ calls those for whom He died and who have believed on Him “My Brethren.” What a word it is! The Brethren of the Man in Glory! Brethren of Him who is at the right hand of God, the upholder and heir of all things! Pause for a moment, dear reader. Let your heart lay hold anew of this wonderful message of God’s Grace; Brethren of the Lord Jesus Christ! What depths of love and grace these words contain! What heights of glory they promise to us, who were bought by His own precious blood! His Brethren now; His Brethren forever. One with Him, one with His Father and His God. Sharers of His life, sharers of His Spirit, sharers of His glory and His inheritance. Blessed, glorious truth, He calls us His Brethren.
It is in the twenty-second Psalm where we find this truth revealed prophetically for the first time. That Psalm begins, as we have seen before, with the utterance of the deepest distress. It closes with the shout of victory and of triumph. He who was forsaken of God on the cross, the blessed sin bearer, has received glory. In the midst of the congregation, His redeemed people, He praises God, who has delivered Him and who gave Him Glory. In God’s own time, in the coming day of His visible manifestation, all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Him. Then the Kingdom will be the Lord’s.
He who suffered on the cross was heard “from the horns of the unicorn” (Ps. xxii:21). Resurrection was the answer from God; the power of God raised Him from the dead. At once, after the great work had been accomplished, there follows the triumphant declaration of Him whose voice had cried so bitterly in death, “I will declare Thy Name unto my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee.” And blessed was the fulfilment on that day of joy, when the tomb was empty and He had come forth, the risen Christ. To Mary Magdalene He said on that glorious resurrection morning, “But go and tellmy brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God” (John xx:17). What joy must then have filled His loving heart. From His gracious lips there bursts forth a message such as He never gave to His own before His resurrection.
The great work on the cross had been accomplished, sin had been put away by the sacrifice of Himself. The Only Begotten of the Father, God’s holy Son, one with God, became Man; then passing through death, in which He fully glorified God, God raised Him from the dead. And now He gives the blessed results of His own work for those who believe on Him. He has brought us into the same relationship with His Father and His God, which He Himself holds, as the Man Christ Jesus, raised from the dead. His Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is our Father; His God is our God. And again we pause as we write this. Let our hearts repeat it: “My Father, your Father; my God, your God.” He has brought us into fellowship with His Father; He has brought us to God and the place He has with the Father and with God, is the place God’s fathomless Grace has given to us. How little our hearts take it in! How little reality we possess of all this! And yet He wants us to enjoy it as He enjoys the fulness of joy in His Father’s and His God’s own presence. May the Holy Spirit work in us unhindered, that through His power we may lay hold in faith of this mighty truth and have it as apractical powerin our daily lives. My Father, your Father; my God, your God and Christ, who loved me and gave Himself for me, Christ, who loveth us, is with His Father and His God. In such relationship, brought to the Father and to God through the Lord Jesus Christ and kept there by His own Grace and Power, how happy we should be.
And because we possess now in virtue of Christ’s work this blessed relationship, He owns us joyfully as His brethren. Hebrews ii:11-12 puts this more fully before our hearts: “For both He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren. Saying, I will declare Thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee.” The Lord Jesus Christ is He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified by His great work and are in Him, are believing sinners, reconciled to God by His blood. Both He that sanctifieth and we are all of One and this One is God, the Father. Therefore He is not ashamed to call them brethren. It is true we possess this relationship with the Man in Glory, the Lord Jesus Christ, because we are born of God. We have eternal life, His own life, and that makes us One with Him. But this is not the truth in view here. It is the truth that He has identified Himself with us and through His death and resurrection we are identified with Him. And what it means “in the midst of the church will I sing praises unto Thee” we shall not follow at this time.
But let us keep it before our hearts a little while longer. The Lord of Glory calls us “My Brethren.” He who is there in the Father’s house, in the Father’s presence and on the Father’s throne is not ashamed to call us brethren. He knows all about us. He knows all the depths of sin in which we are by nature; that by nature we were enemies by wicked works and children of wrath, but He took it all upon Himself and has taken it out of the way and now He looks upon us and all who have accepted Him by personal faith as being one with Him and one with His Father; therefore He is not ashamed to call us brethren. What a comfort it should be to our hearts! What joy it should create in our souls! He Himself received from God, His heart’s desire and the request of His lips (Ps. xxi:2). And all His desire and request was in our behalf, that He might bring us, His many sons, to glory. And now He rejoices in us, for we are His inheritance. He wants us to rejoice in Him and with Him in an unspeakable joy and full of glory. Our souls entering into all this and rejoicing with Him in His salvation, enjoying the comfort of it; this honors Him and honors God.
It should end the discouragement and unbelief from which we so often suffer. Though we are weak and erring, imperfect in all our ways, yet He is not ashamed to call us brethren. Such a fellowship and relation into which we are brought once and, for all by the Son of God, should, if accepted in faith, dispel any doubt about ourselves and free us from all gloom and discouragement. Alas! how dull we are not to enter fully into the joy and comfort Grace has bestowed upon us!
And then think of the dignity and honor which is ours. Sons of God with Him; Heirs of God with Him; one with Him, perfectly identified with the blessed One in God’s presence. Therefore He is not ashamed to call us brethren. To walk worthy of the Lord is our calling; and worthy of the Lord we shall walk if we have the great fact of our fellowship with the Son of God as a reality before our souls. It is a sad state to speak theoretically of our position in Christ, to know all this with our intellects and not to manifest it in our lives and show forth the excellencies of Him, who has called us from darkness into his marvellous light.
He is not ashamed to call us brethren. It should strengthen the love for the brethren. Love one another. The weakest, the most imperfect believer, that one who appears to us so unlovable and so ignorant, is nevertheless owned by him. Just let us remember in looking upon all believers, that he is not ashamed to call them brethren, that no matter where they belong, what their knowledge in the Scriptures might be, they belong to Christ, and are equally beloved of God. How we need it in a day when Satan goes about dividing the people of God. Love for the brethren, a deep, real heart love, will possess us as our hearts feed upon the fact of our oneness with him and with His Father and His God.
He is not ashamed to call them brethren. It will be an incentive to witness for Him. Dishonored as He is, it falls upon us to honor Him by our personal witness. While in the Father’s presence He sings and is the leader of the praises of His people, we must sing of Him here and utter His praise on earth. He is not ashamed of us;how could we ever be ashamed of Him?What an honor to speak His worth, to tell out, though in feeble way, His glory and exalt His name. And yet we must beware of an unscriptural familiarity with Him, which the Holy Spirit does not sanction in the Scriptures. We must not address Him, as it is so often done, as “my brother,” or other sentimental terms, which our pen is reluctant to repeat. In all this we must not forget His dignity and glory. While He thus identified Himself with us and is not ashamed to call us brethren, He is nevertheless the holy Son of God, the Lord of all. As such we must adore and worship Him. Some blessed day we shall be just like Him. We are predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first born among many brethren (Rom. viii:29). That will be in the glorious day when we shall meet Him face to face. “We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (John iii:2). What it all will mean? What day of joy and triumph for Him, when He stands as the leader of all whom the Father has given unto Him, when all according to His prayer will be the sharers of His Glory. Then He will be glorified in His saints for they will bear His image and reflect His glory. What a destiny! Like Him and with Him. And this future of perfect conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ and possession of the wonderful inheritance, which, in its riches we cannot grasp now with out finite minds, is rapidly approaching. How soon it may burst upon us!
Oh, friends, beloved in the Lord! Do we all enjoy this now in faith? Is it so that the Lord Jesus Christ becomes daily more real and precious to us? Do we live in the power of all this?
“BUT the Lord direct your hearts into the Love of God and into thePatience of Christ” (2 Thess. iii:5). With these words Paul exhorted the Thessalonian believers. They had many trials and difficulties. They suffered persecutions and were troubled. False alarms had affected their patience of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. The inspired exhortation puts before their hearts the Patience of Christ. Comfort and joy, encouragement and peace, would surely come to their hearts and strengthen them, if they remembered and entered into the Patience of Christ.
And who can describe or speak fully and worthily of the Patience of our blessed Lord! It includes so much. All His moral Glory and Divine perfections are concealed and revealed in this Word. The word patience has a wide meaning. It means more than we generally express by it. Submission, endurance in meekness, waiting in faith, quietness, contentment, composure, forebearance, suffering in calmness, calmness in suffering; all and more is contained in the one word, Patience. And such patience in all its fulness and perfection the Son of God exhibited in His earthly life. Whenever we look in the Gospels, we behold this calm, quiet, restful patience. His whole life here on earth is but a continued record of patience. In patience His childhood was spent, and when in His twelfth year the Glory of His Deity flashed forth we read “He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them.” In patience, He whose mighty power had called the universe in existence, toiled on, content in Nazareth, submissive to the Father, till after many years the day would come, when the work He had come to do should be begun and finished. To describe that Patience during His public ministry from Nazareth, where He had been brought up, to Golgotha, would necessitate a close scrutiny of every step of the way, every act and every utterance which came from His holy lips. What discoveries of His Grace and moral Glory we make, if under the guidance of His Spirit we meditate on His life here below. Humility and submission under God, patient waiting on Him, utter absence of all haste, perfect calmness of soul and every other characteristic of perfect patience, we can trace constantly in that wonderful life. What patience is revealed in the forty days in the wilderness, when He hungered and was with the wild beasts (Mark i:13). When Satan tempted Him and asked for stones to be made bread, He exhibited still His patience. In His service, that marvellous service rendered by the perfect servant, no ambitiousness or ostentatiousness can ever be discovered. He pleased not Himself but Him who sent Him. He was constantly going about doing the Father’s will. His kindness and love were rewarded by rejection and insults, yet no complaint or murmur ever came from His lips. He was always trusting in God, perfectly calm, perfectly satisfied.
And how His patience shines out in dealing with men. What patience He had with His disciples and how He bore with them in love. They were slow learners. What patience and tenderness in his conversation with her, whom He had sought, the woman at Samaria’s well. And greatest above all His patience in suffering. He endured the cross. When He was reviled, He reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously. (1 Pet. ii:23). He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. All the buffetings, shame, dishonors, griefs, pains and sorrows He patiently endured. Oh! the patience of Christ, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame!
And into this patience of Christ our hearts are to be directed. It is to be the object of our contemplation and to be followed by us, who belong to Him. The patience of Christ must be manifested in our lives. For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps. His humility, submissiveness, contentment, calmness, patience in endurance, in doing and suffering the will of God, must be reproduced in our lives. But how little we know of it in reality. Impatience is the leading characteristic of the closing days of this present evil age. It is alas! but too prominently seen among God’s people who are influenced by the present day currents. How little true waiting on the Lord and for the Lord is practiced! How much reaching out after the things which are but for a moment and which will soon perish! In consequence there is but little enjoyment of that which is the glorious and eternal portion of the Saints of God. How great the haste and hurry of present day life! How little quietness and contentment! In suffering and loss, murmurings, fault-finding and words of forced resignation are more frequently heard than joyful songs of praise. Unrest instead of rest, discontent instead of contentment, anxiety instead of simple trust, self exaltation instead of self abnegation, ambitiousness instead of lowliness of mind are found on all sides among those who name the name of Christ and who carry His Life in their hearts. And why? Your heart, dear reader, is so often out of touch with Christ. You lose sight of Him. His Spirit is grieved and in consequence there is failure and the impatience of the flesh. Return, oh my soul, unto thy rest! Direct, O Lord, our hearts into the Patience of Christ.
The Patience of Christ. He is still the patient Christ. Rejected by the world He has taken His place upon the Father’s throne. There He waits until His enemies are made His footstool. Long ago, in our human reckoning, He entered there. Long ago the Father said to Him, “Ask of Me and I will give Thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost part of the earth for Thy possession” (Ps. ii:8). Up to now He has not yet asked the Father. When He asks it will mean judgment for this world. In infinite patience He has waited and waited in the presence of God. And all this time He has carried on His work as the Priest and Advocate of His people who live on earth. With what tenderness and patience He has dealt with all who lived in the past centuries. His mighty power kept them and now they are at home with Him. The same patience He manifests towards us. How often we have failed Him and walked in the flesh instead of walking in the Spirit. We came to Him and confessed and then we found Him so loving towards us. But ere long we failed again and in His loving patience His arms were again around us. And thus a hundred times. He changeth not. He is the same loving, patient Lord towards His own in Glory as He was on earth. “He shall not be discouraged,” the prophet declared. Even so His Patience knows no discouragement.
In all the dishonor done to His holy, worthy Name, He endures patiently. He is silent to all what is done by His enemies. The Patience of Christ. May the Lord grant us His Patience. John said to himself, “I am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom andpatienceof Jesus Christ” (Rev. i:9). To that kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ of which John speaks of belonging we belong. The martyrs belonged to it. Afflictions, persecutions and sufferings were their part. They are ours. In humility, in endurance, unflinching courage, in the patience of Christ, let us suffer with Him, share His reproach until His Glory is revealed.
THE heavens have long been silent. It is one of the leading characteristics of this present age, the closed, the silent heavens. But they will not be silent forever. “Our God shall come and shall not keep silence” (Ps. i:3). In His divine Patience the Lord has been at the right hand of God for nearly two thousand years. He will not occupy that place forever. It is not His permanent station to be upon the Father’s throne. He has the promise of His own throne, which He as the King-Priest must occupy. Nearly two thousand years have gone since He passed through the heavens and during that time He has been rejected by the world. Every possible dishonor, insult and shame has been heaped upon His holy head through the instrumentality of the enemy, the devil. Never before has the rejection of the Man in Glory been so pronounced, so radical, so blasphemous as now. Those who love the Lord Jesus Christ are constantly seized by an unspeakable grief on account of these awful denials of the Christ of God and an horror as well. And still He patiently waits. But He will not always wait. His Patience will some day be exhausted. He will pray His unprayed prayer in Glory and ask of the Father the nations and the uttermost parts of the earth. The Father will then send the Firstborn back to this earth. When He comes in visible Glory to this earth it will mean the day of vengeance. The vengeance of God will fall upon His enemies. All the Christ rejecters, the wicked men and women who received not the love of the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness, the enemies of the cross of Christ, though they lived amiable lives (one of Satan’s pet phrases), will meet Him not as the patient lamb, but the Judge, the lion of the tribe of Judah. What will it be when His Patience is ended? What will it be when the kingdom and the Patience of Jesus Christ give way to the kingdom and Glory of Jesus Christ? Rapidly the day is nearing when the Lord Jesus Christ will be completely rejected. As long as the true church is still here this complete rejection is an impossibility. But the church will some day leave this earth. Then conditions are ripe for the complete rejection of the Christ and the reception of Antichrist who will then appear. And when the beast is worshipped (Rev. xiii) and the world defies God and His anointed as never before, when the nations of apostate Christendom stand in battle array (Rev. xix:19), then He will come as the King whose patience is ended and claim His Kingdom. What will it mean when His Patience is ended? Who can describe it? What judgments will fall then upon a wicked world and be meted out upon the enemies of Christ? The day of vengeance is rapidly approaching. It is the day of vengeance for the world. It is the day of the Glory of Christ. It is the day of the Glory of the Saints. It is the day of your Glory as a believer.
Let us suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Let us be patient as long as He is patient. “Be ye also patient; establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned; behold the Judge standeth before the door” (James v:8, 9).
In His Patience pray for the unsaved. Preach the Gospel, give out the Gospel, send the Gospel, give for the Gospel, live the Gospel. A little while longer and His patience will end.
Trusting in the Lord thy God,Onward go.Holding fast His faithful word,Onward go.Not denying His worthy name,Though it brings reproach and shame,Spreading still His wondrous fame,Onward go.Has He said the end is near?Onward go.Serving Him with holy fear,Onward go.Christ thy portion, Christ thy stay—Heavenly bread upon the way,Leading on to glorious day—Onward go.
Trusting in the Lord thy God,
Onward go.
Holding fast His faithful word,
Onward go.
Not denying His worthy name,
Though it brings reproach and shame,
Spreading still His wondrous fame,
Onward go.
Has He said the end is near?
Onward go.
Serving Him with holy fear,
Onward go.
Christ thy portion, Christ thy stay—
Heavenly bread upon the way,
Leading on to glorious day—
Onward go.
THE Patience of Christ was recently the object of our meditation in these pages. Blessed and inexhaustible it is. And now a still greater theme is before our hearts. The Love of Christ. The heart almost shrinks from attempting to write on the matchless, unfathomable love of our blessed and adorable Lord. All the Saints of God who have spoken and written on the Love of Christ have never told out its fulness and vastness, its heights and its depths. “The Love of Christ which passeth knowledge” (Ephesians iii:19). And yet wedoknow the Love of Christ. While we cannot fully grasp that mighty, eternal Love our hearts can enjoy it and we can ever know more of it. And He Himself whose Love is set upon us wants us to drink constantly of the ocean of His never-changing Love and receive new tokens, new glimpses of it. Surely His own blessed Spirit, though one feels so insufficient for such an object, will guide us in our meditation. He is with us and in us to glorify Him and take of the things of Christ to show them unto us. The Love of Christ, the Holy Spirit ever longs to make known and to impart to our poor and feeble hearts.
The Love of our Lord is an eternal Love. It is not a thing of time. It antedates the foundation of the world.
“His gracious eye surveyed usEre stars were seen above.”
“His gracious eye surveyed us
Ere stars were seen above.”
He as the Son of God in the bosom of God was the object of Love. “Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world” (John xvii: 24). And then He knew us and His Love was even then set upon us, before we ever were in existence. He knew our sinfulness, our enmity, our vileness, and in Love which passeth knowledge He looked forward to the time, when He would manifest this Love to us His fallen creatures. “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high I cannot attain unto it” (Psalm cxxxix:6).
It was Love which brought Him down from the Glory, which He had with God. What Love to come into this dark, sin-cursed world, a world full of enemies. What Love to leave that bright and glorious home and appear as man, made of a woman entering this world He had called into existence. And there was no room for Him in the inn. It passeth knowledge.
And then that life, which He lived on earth, was lived in that mighty Love.
“A love that led Thee here belowTo tread a lonely path in grace,To pass through sorrow, grief and woe,The portion of a ruin’d race.”
“A love that led Thee here below
To tread a lonely path in grace,
To pass through sorrow, grief and woe,
The portion of a ruin’d race.”
What Love we see in Him, in every step of that lonely path! What compassion, what tenderness in every action in every word we discover, ever new and fresh, in that blessed life of God’s unspeakable gift. Wherever we look we behold that Love. Loving compassion rested upon the multitudes; with Love He compassed the poor, the sinful, the oppressed, the heartsick and the outcast. Love carried the weak and failing men, who had believed on him, His disciples. A blessed word it is, which stands in the beginning of the thirteenth chapter in the Gospel of John. “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” His Love for His own was expressed by serving them. He pleased not Himself but had come to minister. He then girded Himself and began to wash the disciples’ feet. What humiliation! Yet it was the fruit of Love. All He did was born of Love. His was on earth a constant, a never-tiring, an enduring Love. All the selfishness of His disciples could not quench that Love. Nothing could quench His Love for His own. Nothing will ever quench it. Peter denied Him. “And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter” (Luke xxii:61). Was it a look of reproach? Was it a frown of displeasure which Peter saw in that beloved face? Far from it. Love in its divine perfection shone out of the eyes of the Son of God. And after His resurrection that Love was still the same. There was no reproach connected with the restoration of Peter to service. In the greatest tenderness and Love He committed to His disciple, who had so shamefully denied Him, the lambs and sheep so dear to His own loving heart.
Again we say, that Love passeth knowledge. How could man’s imagination and invention ever have produced such a loving Person as our Lord, revealing the perfection of divine Love!
But there is greater Love than the Love which we behold in His blessed Life on earth. The greater Love is manifested when He laid down His life. He came into the world to die, to be the propitiation for our sins. He came to take our place on the cross. He came to drink the cup of wrath in our stead and suffer the awful penalty of our sins.
“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
God in Love gave thus His Son, and He gave Himself in Love. From shame to shame, from suffering to suffering, from pain to pain and agony to agony that Love went on to plunge into the deepest sorrow, to reach at last the place where His loving lips had to cry “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”
“To death of shame Thy love did reach,God’s holy judgment then to bear;Ah, Lord, what human tongue can teachOr tell the love that brought Thee there.”
“To death of shame Thy love did reach,
God’s holy judgment then to bear;
Ah, Lord, what human tongue can teach
Or tell the love that brought Thee there.”
Ah! what human tongue can teach or tell the Love that brought Thee there! It passeth knowledge. But with loving, praising hearts, in worship and adoration we can look up to that cross on which the Prince of Glory died and say with Paul, “He loved me, He gave Himself for me.” And again we join with the innumerable hosts of His own redeemed in the Glory song. “Unto Him that loveth us and washed us from our sins in His own blood and hath made us Kings and priests unto God and His Father, to Him be Glory and dominion forever. Amen.” And beloved reader, that Love which knew you and us all before we ever existed, that Love which came from Glory for you, that Love which went into the jaws of death, endured the cross and despised the shame, that Love which gave so willingly, gave as we can never give, that Love is still the same. It changes not. His Love knows no fluctuations. That perfect Love cannot grow cold or indifferent. We all had our first love; when first we saw Him with the eyes of faith, how our hearts were enraptured. How soon that Love began to grow cold and decreased instead of increased. Then our walk and service became affected for thus it must ever be when the heart is not responding to His Love and not in living, loving touch with Himself. Oh! the weeks and months and years of our Christian experience spent without the full enjoyment of His Love and Presence. But has this changed His Love? Has our unfaithfulness, our waywardness, our failure and backsliding affected His Love? No. He is the same loving Lord, the same loving Christ who has borne us and yearned over us, who has prayed for us and kept us. Whenever we turn to Him with broken hearts, confessing our sins, when in shame we hide our faces and tell Him all our failures, we find Him still the same loving Lord as He was when His loving eyes rested upon Peter. Oh! how He must love us! How He must love us, with that Love which passeth knowledge. What treasures that Love contains! Exhaustless it is ever flowing full and free towards His own.
How it must grieve Him to see us so indifferent, neither hot nor cold. How it must grieve Him that we enjoy this Love so little that we permit that Love so little to serve us and give Him so little opportunity to manifest His mighty Love towards us. Alas! We even mistrust that Love. When suffering and loss overtake us, when instead of prosperity adversity is our lot, we doubt that Love. Fears and anxieties are nothing less than an impeachment of the Love, which passeth knowledge. His Love will never fail. He will see us safe home. Let the forces of the enemy roar, let trials and troubles come, His Love will keep us. His Love is our eternal portion.
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
And soon He will have us with Himself. The church He loved, for which He gave Himself, the church He sanctified by the washing of water, this church He will present to Himself a glorious church (Eph. v:24-27). Even while on earth He made known His loving purpose, for He prayed, “The Glory, which Thou hast given me I have given to them.”
It is His Love which will make us sharers of His own Glory and Inheritance. What that Love will do then! How we shall drink deeper of that Love, than we ever could drink here! Oh the depths of the Love to be fathomed in all eternity! Oh the length and breadth and height to be measured! It can never, no never be exhausted.
O, child of God, is not thy poor wandering heart beginning to be warmed? Is the warmth of His Love, the Love of Christ refreshing your soul? Thank God for it. It is but a demonstration of His Love. And do we not want more of it? Do we not need it?
All our indifference, our cold heartedness, our prayerlessness, our self indulgences, our inactivity and all else which mars our Christian lives, is because we do not have the Love of Christ before our hearts. If we were constantly enjoying His Love and this mighty Love would constrain us, what self-sacrificing lives we would live! How we would love one another and in love serve one another. What peace there would be among those of like precious faith. With a better heart knowledge of the Love of Christ, what joy would be ours in all trials and suffering and with what boldness we would approach the throne of Grace and make constant use of our God-given privilege, prayer.
The Love of Christ would lead us on and on in love for souls, in service untiring, and yet the same Love too will make us long and pray for His coming. Oh God our Father, grant unto us all and to all Thy people throughout this world a greater, a deeper, a more real knowledge of the Love of thine ever blessed Son, the Love of Christ, and fill us through it with all the fulness of God. Amen.
IT is written “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Every child of God knows in some measure what it is to rejoice in the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ must ever be the sole object of the believer’s joy, and as eyes and heart look upon Him, we, too, like “the strangers scattered abroad” to whom Peter wrote shall “rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Pet. i:8). But it is upon our heart to meditate with our beloved readers on the joy of our adorable Lord, as his own personal joy. The Blessed One when His feet walked on the earth spoke not only of “My Peace,” but He also spoke of “My Joy.” While He imparts peace and joy and is the peace and joy of our hearts, He also possesses His own Peace and His own Joy.
“The Joy of the Lord.” There was a time “when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (Job xxxviii:7). It was in the beginning when the heavens and the earth were created by Him, who is before all things and by whom all things consist, the Son of God. With what joy He must have beheld what was called into existence by Him and for Him (Col. i:16). But even before the foundation of the world He had joy. With God, in the bosom of the Father Love, Glory and Joy were His eternal portion. All was known to Him from the beginning. The fall of Satan, the fall of man through Satan, the entrance of sin with all its results, the cost price of redemption, the suffering in the flesh on the cross for the redemption of the creature, the multitudes, whom no man can number, redeemed through His work, believing in Him, brought to God, united with Him, Sons and Heirs with Him, the ultimate victory over all enemies, so that God would be “all in all”—all was known to Him.
What joy must have filled Him when at His incarnation He announced, “Lo I come to do Thy will O God” (Heb. x:5, 6). And then He came and took upon Himself the form of a servant, the first word the heavenly messenger spoke, sent to the virgin to announce the incarnation, was a word of joy. Never before had Gabriel been sent with such a message. “Hail” our English version has it; but the greeting means “Joy” or “Oh the joy!” And the angel later announced “good tidings of great joy.” And that blessed life which was lived upon earth to the Glory of God, was a life which knew joy. All along the way from Bethlehem to Golgotha He had joy before His heart. It is true He wept, He had sufferings, He was tempted, He was ill-treated, cast out, maligned, accused of evil and rejected, but joy filled His heart. His God and Father was His joy, yea, His exceeding joy. To do His will, who had sent Him was His constant joy. His joy was to walk in confidence, in dependence on Him. His Father’s love and delight, which rested upon Him were His joy. “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee” (Ps. lxxiii:25). This beautiful word must have been His constant declaration; and that is joy. “I have set the Lord always before me” (Ps. xvi:8) is another utterance of God’s Spirit concerning the holy life of God’s well beloved Son. And that meant joy. The seventy He had sent forth had returned again with joy, because the demons were subject unto them. That is sinful man in carnal rejoicing! some power manifested, some great success fills our proud hearts with joy. But His words told them of a different joy. They were not to rejoice that the spirits submitted to them, but that their names were written in heaven. “In that hour Jesusrejoicedin spirit, and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed them to babes; even so Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight. All things are delivered to Me of My Father; and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and to whom the Son will reveal Him” (Luke x:21, 22). ThusHerejoiced. In the parable of the treasure in the field He speaks of His joy. The man who has found the treasure, for joy thereof goeth and selleth all he hath, and buyeth that field ( Matt. xiii:44). The man in the parable is the Lord Himself and the field is the world. With joy He gave up all and came down here to buy us back. And all His suffering from man and from Satan, the persecutions He suffered from His own people to whom He came were borne by Him with joy. He told out His own blessed character in the beatitudes and in speaking of those who are reviled and persecuted, He said, “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad.” Thus He must have borne it all with joy. And then the cross. The cross in which He who knew no sin was made sin for us. He was troubled in His holy soul when He looked towards the cross (John xii:27). In the garden He saw the cross. “And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke xii:44). And yet it is written “who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. xii:2). All the suffering put upon Him by man, acting under satanic impulses and the shame connected with the cross, He despised, the cross itself He could not despise, but He endured that. The joy was that He saw and knew the full and glorious result of all His work He had come to do. He saw then the travail of His soul and was satisfied. But in that cross there was that suffering, which is unfathomable. God’s own hand rested upon Him. All His sorrowful complaints as predicted by His own Spirit were then fulfilled. “Thouhast laid me in the dust of death.” “AllThywaves and billows go over me.” “Thinehand has pressed me sore.” “Thywrath lieth hard upon me.” “Thyfierce wrath goeth over me.” “Thouhast laid me in the lowest pit.” Thus He suffered from God—smitten and afflicted of God. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. Then from that cross there came that loud and triumphant cry when He gave His life “It is finished!” Oh! what joy must have filled then His soul, when He knew the work is done, all is accomplished. And with equal joy God answered the cry of His well beloved Son, when He rent the veil from top to bottom.
The risen Lord in meeting His disciples greeted them, with the greeting of joy, which Gabriel had used. “All Hail”—literally,Oh the joy!(Matt. xxviii:9.) What joy must then have filled His loving heart as He met His own again. Oh the joy! thus they had mocked Him when they crowned Him with a crown of thorns and bowed the knee and in derision shouted “All hail”—“Rejoice”—“King of the Jews.” But in the resurrection He shouts “Oh the Joy!” The victory is won. Satan, Sin, Death and the Grave are vanquished. And what joy is His now! What joy will be His ere long! With a shout He went up (Ps. xlvii:5). What a joy when He passed through the heavens and as the glorified man He entered the Holy of Holies! What a joy when the Father had the well beloved with Him again, and He took His seat at His own right hand. What joy for Him and the heavens when Glory and Honor was put upon Him and He was proclaimed throughout the depths of the universe as Heir of all things! What joy! All power in heaven and on earth is His. Oh the joy! as sinners are saved by Grace, whom He redeemed by His blood. And as His body is building He rejoiceth as the bridegroom over the bride. In unspeakable joy He carrieth on His loving, tender, priestly work in behalf of those for whom He died. His joy and delight, as well as His love and His power is with them, who are His.
But there is greater joy in the future for Him, the Man in Glory. Though even now Heis“anointed with the oil of gladness above all His fellows.” His joy will increase and be full in the future. Another glad shout will be heard when he leaves the Father’s throne and descends into the air. A shout of triumph and joy it will be, which will open the graves of the Saints, which will summon those who remain to meet Him in the air. Oh the joy at last the travail of His soul will be brought into His presence. Oh the joy! He will have us then and we will be with Him. Withexceeding joyHe will present us faultless before the presence of His Glory (Jud. 24). In joy and a glorious triumph He will bring many sons to glory. What joy it will be when He leads forth from heaven’s glorious mansions, those who are “God’s workmanship created by Christ Jesus!” Then all the world will know and angels shout once more for joy in the full and glorious revelation of the new creation.
Oh! the Joy for Him! when Israel cries out “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!” Oh the joy! when creation sings her songs of praise to Him, whose pierced hands have removed the curse. Oh! the joy! when nations hear war no more but sing the worth of the King of Kings and lay their gifts at His feet.
If we could measure all which was accomplished on Calvary’s cross, then we could also measure His joy, the joy of the Lord.
Reader! If you are saved by Grace, one with the Lord, then all this is yours. The joy in the Lord and the joy of the Lord is to be your portion now and in the day of His joy and glory. Murmuring, discouraged, tempted, complaining, bereaved, downhearted, halfhearted child of God, ponder over these words. Let God’s Spirit lead you into them. The joy of the Lord is to be your portion. It will dispel your gloom. It will end your discouragement. It will give you songs in the night. It will lift you into a holy walk. The joy of the Lord can do this. He wants you to possess His joy. “These things have I spoken unto you, and that your joy might be full” (John xv:11). Let the Holy Spirit, who is given to you of God, make the Lord Jesus Christ a greater reality in your life. Let the joy of the Lord be your joy. Rejoice in God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let your joy be to do His will. Accept all from His hands. Rejoice in all things. “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice” (Phil. iv:4). Rejoice and glory in tribulation. “Count it all joy when ye fall in divers temptations” (James i:2). Having Christ, brought nigh to God, a perfect access into His presence, yea the right to come with boldness, a rejoicing and praising spirit should be manifested by us.
And look at the joy which is set before us. How it ought to lift us over all the present day trials and temptations and give us victory over the cares and anxieties, the pleasures and deceitful riches of this present evil and fast closing age. “Enter thou into the joy ofThyLord.” Thisisour blessed and glorious future. We shall share His future joy as we shall share His glory. And it is but a little while longer and weeping, which endured for the night, will give way to thejoy of the morning.