HE that has the Lord Jesus Christ has all things; he wants nothing in addition. “Ye are complete,” writes Paul to the Colossian believers, “filled up in Him.” And this apart from all ordinances, ceremonies, religions acts whatever. Christ has died. The One in whom dwelt, and dwelleth, all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; who is the spring, the source of all good and blessing; the Eternal, the ever living God; Son of the Father; brightness of glory; outshining of God; the only One in whom God could be seen manifested. He, the Word, has been made flesh. He was the origin, the Maker, Creator of all things. Man was upright, reflecting God in his first estate, as far as creature could reflect His Maker, representing God, too, here below, as having dominion over the lower sphere, but all that was lost because he kept not his subject state: he did not obey; the only condition becoming a creature towards God. Transgression was ruin―the fall. Then the Lord God spake, traced the evil to its root, and judged it. (Gen. 3) The woman’s seed was the hope, the promise He spoke of. Christ was to come in the fullness of time. The Redeemer― all God’s counsels centered in Him, all man’s hopes. Infinite wisdom this―infinite love. To know Christ, therefore, is everything that man requires; and in this knowledge increasing ever, as it should be in the believer, is the truest happiness and peace. Christ is the Object set before the soul by God Himself― Christ in His person and in His work. Man thinks of his religion; God tells man of his sin―of his ruin. Man needs a Saviour from sin and ruin, and in Christ there is one―the seed of the woman. The cross is the expression of His love, His love unto death, devoting Himself as the sinner’s substitute, to die the sinner’s death, that man might live, and live in glory. Not indeed in his old life, for that was forfeited by sin, but in a new life, communicated by God the Holy Ghost, breathed from a risen, sent by an ascended Jesus, now at God’s right hand in heaven. For this blessed One, the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, is the substance which God has to offer, and does offer, for the food of His people, and that in contradistinction to, and beyond and above all ordinances, rites, and ceremonies whatever. In Judaism these things had their places as shadows; they were ordained of God Himself, and right and proper for their day. They were imposed on a particular nation, who were strictly kept under them. They pointed to One that was to come, the hope of Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour. At the time appointed God sent Him into the world―His own beloved Son; sent Him to Israel. They knew Him not, they crucified Him, they would not have Him to reign over them. But His death was eternal life to millions, it was the great sacrifice for sin, it was the atonement. Here the Holy Ghost would fix the sinner’s gaze―on Calvary. “Behold the man,” the man Christ Jesus! I do not think that Pilate said it (John 19) Read the 5th verse without his name. The Lord presented Himself, and, blessed for us poor Gentiles, He does so still. “Behold me, behold mine,” is His word to a people that was not called by His name.
“O grace divine! the Saviour shed
His life-blood on the cursed tree,
Bowed on the cross His sacred head,
And died to make His people free.”
“He that sitteth upon the circles of the earth, the inhabitants whereof are as grasshoppers, the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,” became a man, and died for men―for sinners. Do I repeat this too often? I want men to think. What must be the value of such an offering? Who would dare put anything beside it, couple anything with it as the ground of confidence before God? None who know themselves; and such are not tired of hearing of Jesus and His blood. But what becomes of shadows? In the light of eternity they vanish, and must vanish. God causes them that love Him to inherit substance, and He invites souls now to a substantial feast. In giving Christ He has given everything; and Christ is everything to the believer. Talk you of meat? He is the living bread that came down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. “My flesh is meat indeed,” He says. Of drink? “My blood is drink indeed.” “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6) The shedding of that blood was the full, the complete atonement for sin. Whosoever looks at it, drinks of it by faith, is saved, and saved forever. God so values the atonement made by His Son, He is so satisfied about sin thereby, that He forgives all trespasses, has forgiven all trespasses, to the one who believes in the Lord Jesus. I do not mean the cold historical belief that hundreds profess, but that which Romans a speaks of: “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” Righteousness is upon the believer. Christ is his righteousness; he needs no other, he has no other. Talk you of an holy day? Christ is the substance of them all. New moons, sabbaths, all had their answer, and have it still, in Him. He is the beginning of months—new life from the dead; He is the resurrection; He is the eternal life; He is the rest. God rests in Him, and man may rest. “Come unto me,” we hear Him saying, “all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” O that the still small voice may penetrate many hearts weary with the din, and the clamor, and the confusion all around. There is rest in Jesus. There is perfection in the Christ of God. Life and salvation, peace and blessedness, rest now and for eternity, all are in Him for “whosoever will.” The river of the water of life flows freely down. The blessed One still speaks from heaven. That same Jesus who went up in triumph from His work of love calls to the nations, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.”
FRIENDSHIP is one thing, the fellowship of God’s habitation another.
The truth of the Lord’s second coming tests the heart, and shows where the affections are.