What soul in nature ever thought it worth while to sit down and muse over the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? But a quickened soul knows that face to be covered with glory. Oh, when one turns and sees the radiancy of the light of the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus, one must have something of the divine mind, or one could not enter into it. It is God who has given the power to the believer to see the glory of God in that face.,
The Apostle Paul felt it was a great thing to keep saints in occupation with that glory, beholding it with open face. Are you occupied with it? Surely Christians have their world as well as the men of the earth-a world in which that face of Jesus Christ is seen unveiled; and there is no disappointment connected with it as the heart's object. That face entirely satisfied the heart of Paul. He was one of all others who had the greatest sight of that unveiled face. The light of the glory of that face never passes away. Having had it unveiled, it leaves something in the soul as a deposit. It shines into the heart that we may be changed into the same glory from glory to glory. A certain assimilating power is put forth, so that the soul-as He unfolds and develops it-passes from glory to glory. A seed will germinate after two thousand years, and we may see the plant unfolding; and the glory of the plant is quite a different thing from the seed. What is given to the believer is the incorruptible seed, which, after it is received; gives perfect rest for eternity to the soul; but it has to work and it goes on gradually unfolding in the believer what was received from Christ, changing him into the same image from glory to glory. Not by his own faithfulness, but the faithfulness of that Christ, watching the seed of His own planting, and gradually unfolding that which He had communicated, to make the expression of what He had given, the rule of the life.
He was the One to fill the woman of Samaria's heart, but it is He who must supply the water springing up into eternal life. That is His present work among His people, and the certainty that they have Him working with them is one of their greatest securities as they go through the world. To be able to say, I have received of Him the incorruptible seed which nothing can destroy or pluck out, and He Himself is watching over it night and day. What a thought, that there is One at God's right hand dealing with poor things down here, because He has pledged His word that all who believe in Him have eternal life, and that none shall pluck them out of His hand. They shall not come into judgment. Can the head judge,-the members? My feet may get soiled by my careless walk down here, and they ought not to be so; Christ will wash them again and again, but He does not judge me. I have been quickened and raised up together with Him, and that identifies me with heaven and the center of heaven itself, for it makes me a part of His body.
We want something to link our hearts up there with the Lord-the constraining power which Paul felt. The love of Christ should be the constraint upon us as to our walk, and this is the simple doctrine of being co-planted with Christ.