The Word of God presents to us this very precious fact — not only do we find in the Word certain truths and doctrines, but we also find in it every relation between God and man fully developed on earth. It is a great mercy of God to have brought Him so near to us, so as to make known to us those relationships in the circumstances in which we ourselves are found. At bottom, the life of Jesus was like ours. He was in all things tempted in like manner as ourselves. He was indeed God manifested in flesh, but He was also a life perfectly acceptable to God.
In order to make progress in spiritual life, we must study the Lord Jesus, whether in the grace of His Person or in the circumstances of His life, or, lastly, in the glorious position He has near the Father, and which we shall, by and by, share with Him.
Tender and Mighty Friend
Jesus is to us a tender and mighty friend, and, while traveling through the wilderness, we know that at the end of the way will be found the glory in which He now is. That is what is said in Hebrews 12:1313And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. (Hebrews 12:13): “Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus ‘the leader and completer’ of faith.” As captain, He has gone before us; as shepherd, “He putteth forth His own sheep” and also “goeth before them.”
Jesus the Light
We shall see a little how the Spirit of God presents Jesus to us, at the beginning of His life. An important thing to remark is that He, the light, manifests all that is in man. Things were never brought to light under the law. God was, as it were, hidden behind a veil, and He allowed many things because of the hardness of their hearts, as Jesus told His disciples, for the full light was not yet manifested. But in Christ the light shone in the world.
Let us meditate upon Jesus, the Light upon earth, entirely separated from sinners, which constituted the perfect beauty of His life. On one hand, we see that He is alone, perfectly alone. He is the most isolated man that one can imagine. The disciples themselves know not how to sympathize with Him. He meets with no real sympathy in the midst of men. We feel that this was painful to Him, because He had a man’s heart and would have desired to find someone who could understand Him, but He found nothing anywhere. On the contrary, as to Him, we see that He has a perfect sympathy toward all. Jesus was the most accessible man, most within the reach of the simple, of the ignorant, and even of the most degraded of sinners. He manifested in His life something that had not its equal. No, in us there never was all that holiness and love, which is above all our thoughts.
There is so much selfishness in the heart of man that the love of God is to him an enigma still more incomprehensible than His holiness. No one understood Jesus, because He manifested God. I do not as yet speak of His work, but of what He was, when He was manifested in the midst of the world. Jesus alone manifested God as He is, and man also as he is.
The first thing God does is to lay us bare in His presence. He takes away everything. We stand before Him, such as we are. Well! That is what took place when Jesus was here below, and therefore He was unwelcome and found Himself in conflict with everyone.
What the Light Exposes
It is impossible that we could like to find ourselves in the presence of God, just as we are. A man accustomed to dirt does not know he is dirty, because his whole way of living is fashioned to it, but if he finds himself in circumstances which give him light as to himself, he will feel disgusted to see what his whole life has been. Such is the heart of man, but when the light of God shines in his conscience and in his soul, he sees himself such as he really is in the sight of God, although there be doubtless some defect in the perception of it. This is very humbling; one does not like it, for it is too painful.
John the Baptist preaches the testimony of repentance and of the kingdom about to be established. He presents himself in order to draw out every thought towards Jesus. After having announced the testimony of repentance, the Lord Jesus presents Himself to our hearts and souls.
The object of God is not only to cause sin to be felt, but to make Jesus known and to place the soul in the enjoyment of God Himself — to act in grace towards it in order that it may forget itself and be filled with the thought of Jesus. This is the way God does it. He presents the Lord “as a root out of a dry ground.” There is in Him no beauty for man, as there was in the temple — nay, nothing of that which attracts the flesh and might tempt it. It is on the contrary, a root that none “should desire.” To the eyes of flesh there is absolutely nothing to render Him lovely. Who is it then? It is a poor man who goes preaching! He “hath not where to lay His head.” He is a man condemned by every clerical authority, by all the wise men and all the Pharisees. The Sadducees condemn Him; the priests condemn Him. Thus was Jesus received. In Him is “no beauty that we should desire Him.” It was needful He should present Himself thus, that it might be shown if the heart could discern God, and because He would not supply food to fleshly feeling. He must put the heart to the test, to prove whether God is enough for the heart, and whether the moral beauty that is in God — His love, His holiness, His word that penetrates within the heart, and whether all that is infinitely precious in the divine nature — can be discerned by man.
When He comes as the light, He never adapts Himself to that which He is going to destroy in the heart: Man would do it, and he would call this religion, but it would only be to hide God, or to deny Him. Thus the Lord Jesus presents Himself without anything which could attract man. Of course, every testimony of grace and goodness, necessary to our poor heart, is there, but nothing to meet its desires. The testimony given by Jesus was perfect and placed before the heart the grace it needed, to be rendered capable of tasting the grace of God itself.
Emmanuel
It is God Himself, it is Jehovah, who comes as Saviour. “Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” What a great and precious truth — “God with us!”
It is God whom I first see in the Person of Jesus, but God in the circumstances which the flesh repels, because it is wicked. To know God, the flesh must be entirely mortified, and grace in our hearts must lead us to value the love of God in spite of the flesh. This is the history of Christian life.
Outwardly Jesus was only a poor Nazarene, but perfection was in His ways and in His heart, and it manifested itself in the midst of every difficulty, of all contempt, and of all that was false. Faith alone could discern the ways of Jesus through want and every misery. The broken heart saw this perfection of goodness manifesting itself in the midst of every care. It is necessary our hearts should see also, in that despised man, God Himself, who reveals Himself to our souls and takes His place in our midst.
If He is to us the most high God, the One who manifests all this light, He is there also as man, with us, believers, in all our misery and in all our circumstances.
Perfect Beauty
As man, Jesus was perfectly righteous, and although He placed Himself in the position of those poor sinners who drew nigh to God, He was none the less acceptable to God, and indeed never was Jesus so acceptable to God as when He bare our sins on the tree. It was at the moment of His death that He perfectly glorified God in all that He was as man, and that He also at the same time bore testimony to the perfect and infinite love of God towards sinners.
May God grant to us to value the perfect beauty of that Jesus who came to us! We know Him. Ah! how happy are we to be enabled to say, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him”!
May God show us all the perfection of Jesus, and that even in temptations, for we shall find the beauty of One who will not forsake us up to the time He will have placed us in the same glory with Him!
J. N. Darby, adapted from “Emmanuel”