A great combination of like moral glories in the Lord’s ministry may be traced, as well as in his character. And in ministry we may look at him in relation to God, to Satan, and to man. As to God, the Lord Jesus, in his own person and ways, was always representing man to God, as God would have him. He was rendering back human nature as a sacrifice of rest, or of sweet savor, as incense pure and fragrant, as a sheaf of untainted first fruits, out of the human soil. He restored to God his complacency in man, which sin or Adam had taken from him. God’s repentance that he had made man (Genesis 6:66And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. (Genesis 6:6),) was exchanged for delight and glory in man again. And this offering was made to God in the midst of all contradictions, all opposing circumstances, sorrows, fatigues, necessities, and heartbreaking disappointments. Wondrous altar wondrous offering A richer sacrifice it infinitely was, than an eternity of Adam’s innocency would have been. And as he was thus representing man to God, so was he representing God to man.
Through Adam’s apostacy God had been left without an image here; but now he gets a fuller, brighter image of himself than Adam could ever have presented. Jesus was leaving, not a fair creation, but a ruined, worthless world—knowing what God was, representing him in grace, and saying, “He that hath seen me, bath seen the Father.” He declared God. All that is of God, all that can be known of “the light” which no man can approach unto, has now passed before us in Jesus: And again, in the ministry of Christ, looked at in relation to God, we find him ever mindful—of God’s rights, ever faithful to God’s truth and principles, while in the daily, unwearied actions of relieving man’s necessities. Let human sorrow address him with what appeal it may, he never sacrificed or surrendered anything that was God’s to it. “Glory to God in the highest,” was heard over him at his birth, as well as, “on earth good-will to man;” and, according to this, God’s glory, all through his ministry, was as jealously consulted, as the sinner’s need and blessing were diligently served. The echo, of those voices, “Glory to God,” and “Peace on earth,” was, as I may express it, heard on ‘every occasion. The Syro-phoenician’s case, already noticed, is a vivid sample of this. Till, she took her place in relation to God’s purposes and dispensations he could do nothing for her; but then, everything.
Surely these are glories in the ministry of the Lord Jesus, in the relations of that ministry to God.
Then as to Satan. In the first place, and seasonably and properly so, the Lord meets him as a tempter. Satan sought, in the wilderness, to impregnate him with. those, moral corruptions which he had succeeded in implanting in Adam and the human nature. This victory over the tempter was the needed righteous introduction to all his works and doings touching him. It was, therefore, the Spirit that led him up touching this action. As we read, “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil.” Ere the Son of God could go forth and spoil the house of the strong man, he must bind him. (Matthew 12:2929Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house. (Matthew 12:29).) Ere he could “reprove” the works of darkness, he must show that he had no fellowship with them. (Ephesians 5: 11.) He must withstand the enemy; and keep him outside himself, ere he could enter his kingdom to destroy his works.
Jesus thus silenced Satan. He bound him. Satan had to withdraw as a thoroughly defeated tempter. He could not get anything of his into him; he rather found that all that was there was of God. Christ kept outside all that which Adam, under a like temptation, had let inside; and having thus stood the clean thing, he can go, under a perfect moral title, to reprove the unclean.
“Skin for skin,” the accuser may have to say of another, and like words that charge and challenge the common corrupted nature; but he had nothing to do, as an accuser of Jesus, before the throne of God. He was silenced.
Thus, his relationship to Satan begins. Upon this, he enters his house and spoils his goods. This world is that house, and there the Lord, in his ministry, is seen effacing various and deep expressions of the enemy’s strength. Every deaf or blind one healed, every leper cleansed, every work under his repairing hand, of whatsoever sort it was, was this. It was a spoiling of the goods of the strong man in his own house. Having already bound him, he now spoiled his goods. At last he yields to him as the One that bad” the power of death.” Calvary was the hour of the power of darkness. All Satan’s resources were brought up there, arid all his subtlety put forth; but he was overthrown. His captive was his conqueror. By death he destroyed him that had the power of it. He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. The head of the serpent was bruised; as another has said, that “death and not man was without strength.”
Thus, Jesus the Son of God was the bruiser of Satan, as before he had been his binder and his spoiler. But ‘there is another moral glory that is seen to shine in the ministry of Christ, in the relation it bears to Satan. I mean this, He never allows him to bear witness to him. The testimony may be true, and, as we say, flattering, good words and fair words, such as, “I know thee who thou art; the holy One of God,” but Jesus suffered him not to speak. For his ministry was as pure as it was gracious. He would not be helped in his ministry by that which he came to destroy. He could have no fellowship with darkness in his service, any more than in his nature. He could not act on expediency, therefore rebuke and silencing of him was the answer he got to his testimony. Then as to man, the moral glories which show themselves in the ministry of the Lord Jesus are bright and excellent indeed.
He was constantly relieving and serving man in all variety of his misery; but he was as surely exposing him, showing him to be a nature fully departed from God in revolt and apostasy. But further; he was exercising him. This is much to be considered, though perhaps not so commonly noticed. In his teaching he exercised people in whatever relation to himself they stood; disciples, or the multitude, or those who brought their sorrows to him, or those who were friendly, as I may call them, or those who as enemies were withstanding him. The disciples he was continually putting through exercises of heart or conscience, as he walked with them, and taught them. This is so common that it need not be instanced.
The multitude who followed him he would treat likewise. “Hear and understand,” he would say to them; thus, exercising their own minds, as he was teaching them.
To, some who brought their sorrows to him he would say, “Believe ye that I can do this?” or such like words. The Syrophoenician is an eminent witness to us how he exercised this class of persons.
Addressing the friendly Simon in Luke 7, after telling him the story of the man who had two debtors, “Tell me,” says he, “therefore, which of them will love him most?”
The Pharisees, his unwearied opposers, he was, in like manner, constantly calling into exercise. And there is such a voice in this, such a witness of what he is. It tells us that he was not performing summary judgment for them, but would fain lead them to repentance: and so, in calling disciples into exercise, he tells us that we learn his lessons only in a due manner, as far as we are drawn out, in some activity of understanding, heart or conscience, over them. This exercising of those he was either leading or teaching is surely another of the moral glories which marked his ministry. But further: in his ministry towards man we see him frequently as a reprover, needful so, in the midst of such a thing as the human family; but his way in reproving shines with excellency that we may well admire. When he was rebuking the Pharisees, whom worldliness had set in opposition to him, he uses a very solemn form of words: “He that is not with me is against me.” But when he is alluding to those who owned him and loved him, but who needed further strength of faith or measure of light, so as to be in full company with him, he spake in other terms: “He that is not against us is for us.”
We notice him again in this character in Matthew 20, in the case of the ten and the two brethren. How does he temper his rebuke because of the good and the right that were in those whom he had to rebuke? And in this he takes a place apart from his heated disciples, who would not have had their two brethren spared in any measure. He patiently sits over the whole material, and separates the precious from the vile that was in it.
So, he is heard again as a reprover in the case of John, forbidding any to cast out devils in his name, if they would not walk with them. But at that moment John’s spirit had been under chastening.
In the light of the Lord’s preceding word’s, he had been making discovery of the mistake he had coin witted, and he refers to that mistake, though the Lord himself had in no way alluded to it. But this being so, John having already a sense of his mistake, and artlessly letting it tell itself out, the Lord deals with it in the greatest gentleness. (See Luke 9:46-5046Then there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest. 47And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a child, and set him by him, 48And said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me: for he that is least among you all, the same shall be great. 49And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us. 50And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us. (Luke 9:46‑50).)
So as to the Baptist: The Lord rebukes him with marked consideration. He was in prison then. What a fact that must have been in the esteem of the Lord at that moment! But he was to be. rebuked for having sent a Message to his Lord that reproached him But the delicacy of the rebuke is beautiful. He returns a message to John. which none but John himself could estimate: “Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.” Even John’s disciples, who carried the message between him and the Lord, could not have understood this. Jesus would expose John to himself, but neither to his disciples nor to the world.
So further, his rebuke of the two of Emmaus, and of Thomas after the resurrection, each has its own excellency. Peter—both in Matthew 16 and 17— has to meet rebuke; but the rebuke is very differently ministered on each occasion.
But all this variety is full of moral beauty; and we may surely say, whether his style be peremptory or gentle, sharp or considerate; whether rebuke, on his lips, be so reduced as to be scarcely rebuke at all; or so heightened as almost to be the language of repulse and disclaimer; still, when the occasion is weighed, all this variety will be found to be but various perfections; All these his reproofs were “ earrings of gold, and ornaments of fine gold,” whether hung or not upon “ obedient ears.” (Proverbs 25:1212As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear. (Proverbs 25:12).) “Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil which shall not break my head.” (Psalms 141:55Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities. (Psalm 141:5).) Surely the Lord gave his disciples to prove this.
Conclusion.
I have now traced some of the features of the moral glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. He represented man to God, man as he ought to be, and God rested in him.
This moral perfectness of the man Christ Jesus, and God’s acceptance of him, was signified by the meat-offering, that cake of fine flour, which was baked either in oven pan or frying-pan, with its oil and its frankincense. (Leviticus 2)
When the Lord Jesus was here, and thus manifested as man to God, God’s delight in him was ever expressing itself. He grew up before him in human nature, and in the exhibition of all human virtues; and he needed nothing at any one moment to commend him but himself, just as he was. In his person and ways man was morally glorified, so that when the end or perfection of his course came, he could go “straightway” to God, as the sheaf of first-fruits of old was taken directly and immediately, just as it was, out of the field, needing no process to fit it for the presence and acceptance of God. (Leviticus 23: 10.) The title of Jesus to glory was a moral one. He had a moral right to be glorified; his title was in himself. John 13:21,3221When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. (John 13:21)
32If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. (John 13:32) is the blessed setting forth of this in its due connection. “Now is the Son of Man glorified,” the Lord there says, just as Judas had left the table; for that action of Judas was the sure precursor of the Lord’s being taken by the Jews, and that was the sure precursor of his being put to death by the Gentiles. And the cross being the completeness and perfection of the full form of moral glory in him, it was at this moment he utters these words, “Now is the Son of Man glorified.” Then he adds, “And God is glorified in him.”
God was as perfectly glorified then as the Son of Man was, though the glory was another glory. The Son of Man was glorified then, by his completing that full form of moral beauty which had been shining in him all through his life. Nothing of it was then to be wanting, as nothing from the beginning up to that late hour had ever mingled with it that was unworthy of it. The hour was then at hand when it was to shine out in the very last ray that was to give it its full brightness: But God was also glorified then, because all that was of him was either maintained or displayed. His rights were maintained, his goodness displayed. Mercy and truth, righteousness and peace, were alike and equally either satisfied or gratified. God’s truth, holiness, love; majesty, and all besides, were magnified in a way, and illustrated in a light, beyond all that could ever have been known of them elsewhere. The cross, as one has said, is the moral wonder of the universe.
But then again, the Lord adds, “If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself; and shall straightway glorify him.” This is his recognition of his own title to personal glory. He had already perfected the full form of moral glory through life and in death. He had also vindicated God’s glory, as we have seen. Therefore, it was but a righteous thing that he should now enter on his own, personal glory. And this he did when he took his place in heaven, at the right hand of the majesty there, as in company with God himself, and all that at once, or “straightway.”
God’s work—as Creator had been quickly soiled in man’s hand. Man had ruined himself; so that it is written, “God repented that he had made him”(Genesis 6) A terrible change in the Divine mind, since the day when God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good! (Genesis 1) But in the Lord Jesus, the Divine complacency in man was restored.
This was blessed and the more acceptable, as we may say, from the previous repentance. It was more than first enjoyments, it was recovery after loss and disappointment; and that, too, in a way exceeding the first. And as the first man, upon his sin, had been put outside creation, as I may say, this second man (being, as he also was, “the Lord from heaven”), upon his glorifying of God, was seated at the head of creation, as at the right hand of the majesty on high. Jesus is in heaven as a glorified man, because here on earth God had been glorified in him as the obedient One in life and death. He is there indeed in other characters. Surely, we know that. He is there as a Conqueror, as an Expectant, as the High Priest in the tabernacle which God has pitched, as our Forerunner, and as the Purger of our sins. But he is there also, in the highest heavens glorified, because in him God had been here on earth glorified.
Life and glory were his by personal right, and by moral title. One delights to dwell on such a truth, to repeat it again and again. He never forfeited the garden of Eden. Truly indeed did he walk outside it all his days, or amid the thorns and briers, the sorrows and privations, of a ruined world. But this he did in grace. He took such a condition upon him; but he was not exposed to it. He was not, like Adam, like us all, on one side of the cherubim, and the flaming sword, and the tree of life, and. the garden of Eden, on the other. In his history, instead of angels keeping him outside or beyond the gate, when he had gone through his temptation they come and minister to him. For he stood where Adam failed and fell. Therefore, man as lie was, verily and simply man, lie was this distinguished man. God was glorified in him, as in all beside he had been dishonored and disappointed.
In one sense, this perfectness of the Son of man, this moral perfectness, is all for us. It lends its savor to the blood which atones for our sins. It was as the cloud of incense, which went in to the presence of God, together with the blood, on the day of atonement. (Leviticus 16)
But, in another sense, this perfection is too much for us. It is high; we cannot attain to it. It overwhelms the moral sense, as far as we look at it in the recollection of what we ourselves are, while it fills us with admiration; as far as we look at it as telling us what he is. The personal judicial glory, when displayed of old, was overwhelming. The most favored of the children of men could not stand before it, as Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel; and Peter and John experienced the same. And this moral glory, in like manner exposing us, is overwhelming.
Faith, however, is at home in the presence of it. The god of this world blinds the mind to the apprehension and ‘joy of it; but faith welcomes it. Such are the histories of it here among men. In the presence of it, Pharisees and Sadducees together asked for a sign from heaven. The mother, through vanity, mistakes it, and the brethren of the Lord through worldliness. (John 2:77Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. (John 2:7).) Disciples themselves are under constant rebuke from it. The oil olive beaten for this light was too pure for any; but it was ever burning in the sanctuary, or “before the Lord.” The synagogue at Nazareth strikingly lets us learn the unpreparedness of man for it. They owned the gracious words which proceeded out of the Lord’s lips; they felt the power of them. But quickly a strong current of nature’s corruption set in, and withstood this movement in their hearts, and overcame it. God’s humbled, self-emptied witness, in the midst of a proud, revolted world, was discovered; and this would not do for them. Let “Joseph’s son” speak as he may, good words and comfortable words, he will not be accepted—he is a carpenter’s son. (Luke 4) It is wonderful—wonderful witness of the deep inlaid corruption. Man has his amiabilities, his taste, his virtues, his sensibilities, as this scene at Nazareth, in Luke 4, may tell us. The gracious words of Jesus„ raised a current of good feeling’ for a moment; but what was it all, and where was it all, when God tested it? Ah! beloved, we may still say, in spite of this, our amiability and respectability, our taste and emotions, that in us—that is, in our flesh “dwelleth no good thing.”
But again, I say, faith is at home with Jesus. Can we, I ask, treat such a one with fear or suspicion? Can we doubt him? Could we have taken a distant place from him who sat at the well with the woman of Sychar? Did she herself take such a place? Surely, beloved, we should seek intimacy with him. The disciples, who companied with him, have to learn their lessons again and again. We know something of this. They had to make discovery of him afresh, instead of enjoying him as already discovered. In the 14th of Matthew they had to cry out, “Of a truth, thou art the Son of God.” This was discovering him afresh. Had their faith been simple, they would have slept in the boat with him. What a scene it was, to their shame and his glory! They spoke insultingly or reproachfully to the Lord, as though he were indifferent to their danger, “ Master, carest thou not that we perish?” He awoke at the sound of their voice, and at once not them in safety. But then, he rebukes them, not however for the injustice their hard words had done him, but for their want of faith.
How perfect was this! How perfect, surely, was everything; and each in its generation! —the human virtues, the fruits of the anointing that was on him, and his Divine glories. The natures in the One Person are unconfused; but the effulgence of the Divine is chastened, the homeliness of the human is elevated. There is nothing like this, there could be nothing like this, in the whole creation. And yet the human was human, and the divine was divine. Jesus slept in the boat: he was man. Jesus quelled the winds and the waves: he was God.
This moral glory must shine. Other glories must give place till this is done. The Greeks, who had come to worship in Jerusalem at the feast, inquire after Jesus, desiring to see him. This savored of the kingdom, or of the royal glory of the Messiah. It was a sample of that day, when the nations shall come up to the city of the Jews, to keep holy day; and when, as King in Zion, he shall be Lord of all, and God of the whole earth.
But there was a secret deeper than this. It needs a juster sense of God’s way, then simply to be expecting a kingdom. The Pharisees needed that, when in Luke 17 they asked the Lord when the kingdom should appear. He had to tell them of another kingdom, which they did not apprehend—a kingdom within, a present kingdom, which had to be entered and known, ere the glorious manifested kingdom could appear. The disciples needed it in Acts 1, when they asked their Lord if he would at that time restore the kingdom to Israel. He had to tell them also of another thing, ere the restoration could take place; that they were to be gifted by the Spirit, for testimony to him all the world over.
So here in John 12 The Lord lets us know that moral glory must precede the kingdom. He will surely shine in the glory of the throne by-and-by, and the Gentiles shall then come to Zion, and see the King in his beauty; but ere that could be, the moral glory must be displayed in all its fullness and unsulliedness. And this was his thought now, when the Gentiles had inquired after him. “The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified.” This was his moral glory, as we have said before, in John 13:31,3231Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. (John 13:31‑32). It had been shining all through his ways, from his birth hitherto; his death was to be the completeness of it; and therefore, the hour was then at hand, when it was to shine out in the last ray that was to form it, and give it perfection. The Lord thus supplies or introduces on this occasion, as he did, as we have seen, in Luke 17 and in Acts 1, the truth, the additional truth, which needs the richer, juster sense of God’s ways to apprehend. The moral glory must be fully displayed, are Messiah can show himself in royal glory to the ends of the earth.
It is, however, his, and his only. How infinitely distant from one’s heart is any other thought When the heavens opened, in Acts 10, the sheet was seen descending ere Peter was commanded to have fellowship with it, or ere it ascended and was lost or hid again on high. The contents of it had to be cleansed or sanctified. But when the heaven was opened in Matthew 3, Jesus on earth needed not to be taken up to be approved there, but voices and visions from on high sealed and attested him just as he was. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
And when the heavens were opened again, as in Matthew 27, that is, when the veil of the temple was rent in twain, all was finished, nothing more was needed, the work of Jesus was sealed and attested just as it then was. All opened heaven at the beginning shone out in the full acceptance of his person—an opened heaven at the end shone out in full acceptance of his work.
And let me close in saying, that it is blessed and happy, as well as part of our worship, to mark the characteristics of the Lord’s way and ministry here on the earth, as I have been seeking in measure to do in this paper; for all that lie did and said, all his service, whether in the substance or the style of it, is the witness of what he was, and he is the witness to us of what God is. And thus, we reach God, the blessed One, through the paths of the Lord Jesus, in the pages of the evangelists. Every step of that way becomes important to us. All that he did and said was a real, truthful expression of himself, as he himself was areal, truthful expression of God. And if we can understand the character of his ministry, or read the moral glory that attaches to each moment and each particular of his walk and service here on earth, so learn what he is, and thus learn what God is, we reach God, in certain and unclouded knowledge of him, through the ordinary paths and activities of the life of this Divine Son of man.
(Continued from p. 64.)