What do we see when Christianity, that unspeakable gift of God, was introduced into this world? We see in Jesus, that Man who did not lift up His voice in the streets! A testimony which was His, purely and profoundly moral and divine, in the midst of a world which had its own ways; a testimony, a life, a person, introducing into this world the light of God Himself, the consolation, the brightness, the power morally independent, which proceeded from Him; and that in a humility which made them penetrate in love wherever there was a broken heart, degraded perhaps in men’s eyes, which had need of it; a humility which opened the road to a love before which nothing was found too low for God to descend to it in grace. Oh what need this poor world had of it!
Did He borrow anything from the circumstances which surrounded Him? No, the contrary was the entirety of His life. He came into the midst of these circumstances to reveal God there, because all was opposed to Him, and because, consequently, all was miserable. God in love came to them there in that grace which much more abounds where sin abounded. Did Jesus meet with the concurrence of helpful circumstances? Certainly not. “His timing” was when man was “ungodly and without strength.” This work must have been the work of God.
O how happy are we to have a work which is a manifestation of Him in this poor world! God has made these circumstances fulfil His plan. Yes, all conspires after its way: not that He arranges circumstances to falsify the character of the testimony, as if this testimony were not of God, or as if man were not opposed to Him. Whatever might have been the height of the wall that man opposed to His entrance, to Him, Jesus, the porter opened, and the sheep heard His voice.
J. N. Darby (adapted)