We can turn to Christ and say, " There is One whom we can trace from the manger to the cross, and never find, save on two occasions, the expression of His own will, and each time that expression was perfect. The first was when anticipating the cup which the Father had given Him to drink, and it would not have been perfect otherwise. Was it nothing to that holy undefiled One to think of being a Sin-bearer, and of bearing all the wrath of God for sin? He would not take the cup from man's hand, but from the Father. The second expression of His will is in John 18, Father, I will that they whom Thou has given me be with me where I am that they may behold My glory!" What a blessed expression of perfect satisfaction in these poor things! He wouldn't be alone in glory, He would have them sharers of it. You and I have wills that are constantly working. We must have our wills judged by the contrast between them and Christ, yet the beauty of His coming down without any will, saying, " Lo, I come to do Thy will, 0 God! " Paul had a will: he would go to Jerusalem, and had to go to Rome. But Christ said., " I shall go with you." No one will-less save Him whose only will was to be the perfect servant of God, and nothing else. And there He is in the glory now, still in the same character. How little our hearts think of it!
Paul thought a great deal of Him. Where could he get water enough to turn that wheel? Water enough to keep his heart fresher and fresher as he went on? Ah, it was from the fountain! It was Christ revealing Himself to him. That and that only, kept Paul's heart fresh.
What a thought that He is the eternal lover of souls! All that I have is in Him, and all given me by the Father, and He will keep it. The Holy Ghost sent down by Him seals it upon our hearts. God would have a people with all the freshness of the heart of Christ for them.
If God is working, there is no distance between the potter and the vessel; it is in the potter's hand fashioning it, and his hand is very close to the clay. It is very blessed to be a temple of the Holy Ghost, but we must take care to remember that it is God who is molding us and working in us, as He did in Paul.
There is nothing I may be doing that is bright to me now, which will continue to look bright in heaven unless Christ be the object of it. It is the expression of the life of Christ that you have to make manifest. One believer may be in bed sick, another may be running over the earth preaching; another in prison; each will be, no matter where, or in what circumstances, just where the life of Christ is to break forth in him, and shine the most brightly. If a believer had to take to his bed for six weeks, and came to Jesus saying, " Lord, fill this chamber with Thyself," what brightness there would be! Unhappily we don't find with many now that Christ is first, Christ second, and Christ third: that He is the rock whence all supplies are drawn. All is not handed up to Him as the One who is teaching His children to read. You don't find likeness to Christ coming out. Let Christ be inside (in the affections) and Christ will shine out. You will know that joy is when He can shine out.
If you see any beauty in Christ, and say, " I desire to have that," God will work it in you.
We are so horridly selfish-it is always, Where am I? What have I got? "I" starts up first, and that is the " old man." In the Father's house will it be " I"? What! is there nothing for the heart to be interested in, save things connected with self? Or will you there find Christ so completely the center of that scene, He so completely filling it up, and His love so precious, that you cannot have the least thought about self, being so wrapt. up in that Lord Christ Jesus, in the very light of His presence, that you can find no place for the I, the self, that fills up so much of the thoughts now?
Have you the thought of that, sinless unspotted One which carries the mind off from every thought of self, as its utter contrast? Oh what a blessed mercy for me is the thought of that sinless One! Do I prize it? Oh, I could not do without it. I prize it unutterably as the contrast to me, every imagination of whose heart is only evil continually. How, then, do I prize Him whom faith sees up there as the One who from that eternal glory was the giver of life to me a poor sinner! It is a precious thing to feel that one could not do without Him.
There is no place where a wearied creature can find a bit of light save in Christ, looking up and finding it nowhere else.
When we come to look at the work of Christ, it is the person who did it that gives it all its value. He in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead alone could have done it.
The Lord Jesus Christ at God's right hand is the Rest of our' hearts now. Can you say, just where'you are, cc Christ is to be magnified in. my body, whether by life`or death '?? Can you spread out all the details'of your life,,day by day, showing in everything that the present 'desire of Christ's heart is that which guides you?
Jf you have only a little ray of light, show out distinctly that you are for Him.