OUR blessed Lord Jesus Christ has many titles, many offices, and many names. The Christian would be sorry to miss the force, the order, and the instruction of any one of them. Christ is Prophet, Priest, and King. He is God’s Anointed, Son of David, Son of Adam, Son of Man, Son of God, and much more besides. We are not limited entirely to language in the New Testament Scriptures to express His Lordship.
In the 2nd Psalm we read―
“Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little.”
Or, as it may be read, “for His wrath will soon be kindled.” Kissing the Son has the force of rendering homage to Him, and to the Son as such. Does it not mean seeing and owning this particular relationship of Son which He is seen in this passage to sustain? In this 2nd Psalm Christ by the Spirit makes Himself known as Son, and, further, that He is Son by the express decree of Jehovah.
“I will declare the decree, Jehovah hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee.”
This particular passage, no doubt, applies to Christ being Son of God as man in His incarnation, for His eternal Sonship is unmeasured by time, and is before all decrees, being from everlasting. But His Sonship in its divine and human aspects is blended in Scripture, and not separated so as to be defined.
God owns Christ, with a voice from the excellent glory, as His Son; yea, as His beloved Son. Christ is glad to confess this relationship, and not content to let it remain as an unexpressed secret in His own breast. Thus we read― “I will declare the decree.”
This language, “Thou art My Son,” and again, “I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son,” must have filled, yea, must ever fill the bosom of Christ with the profoundest love and joy.
In the 2nd Psalm the declaration of the decree “Thou art My Son,” follows what is said about the kings of the earth setting themselves, and the rulers taking counsel together against the Lord, and against His Anointed. And while Peter applies this last scripture in Acts 4:25, 26, to Herod, Pontius Pilate, and the Gentiles gathered together against Christ, Paul, from the commencement of his ministry, proclaimed that Jesus is the Son of God. In this respect the order of presenting Christ’s glory in the Book of Acts answers somewhat to the order of this Psalm.
As in this Psalm, so in the Book of Acts. Men may be allowed in the wisdom of God to oppose for a time the setting up of the earthly kingdom of Christ, nations may rage and seek to throw off divine authority, opposing for a time the Son of Man from coming into the possession of His earthly visible inheritance, but in the scene where His rejection and the wrath of man are displayed, Christ falls back upon the still higher relationship of Son of God. “I will declare the decree, Jehovah hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son.” This means infinitely more than being God’s king upon His holy hill of Zion. The expression “My Son,” is something higher than Son of Abraham, Son of David, or Son of Man. And man’s rejection of Christ could not for a moment rob Him of the felicity, the communion, the dignity, or the glory of this higher relationship.
“We see not yet all things put under Him,” but “the Father loveth the Son.” Man loses blessing in so far as deliverance has not yet come to the groaning and travailing creation, but meanwhile God is well pleased with His beloved Son. The Son knows this, and the brightest days of millennial glory, destined in God’s time to dawn, cannot compare with the fellowship ever existing between the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
Is not the declaration of the decree, “Thou art My Son,” the answer of Christ to the opposition and rejection of men? If the Jew will not yet say to Christ, “Thou art my King,” and if many sinners will not say to Him, “Thou art my Saviour and Lord,” God has said to Him, “Thou art my Saviour and Lord,” God has said to Him, “Thou art My Son.” Oh the sweet and holy consolation of these words to Christ in the day of His fullest rejection! They speak of the inward calm communion of the heart, when outwardly everything is as a raging, angry sea. In the same way the Christian, conscious of His relation to Christ, may be calm when the day of Christ’s outward triumph may seem far distant.
But if God has said to Christ, “Thou art My Son,” is He not indeed worthy of our homage and praise? It is the will of God that all should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. Besides, God calls upon the angels to worship Christ.
“When He bringeth in the first begotten into the world He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him” (Heb. 1:6).
It is not some of the angels, but all of them that are thus directed to pay homage. Angels of high as well as low degree are thus summoned to render the highest honor to God’s firstborn. The worship, praise, and adoration of the Son of God are His natural rights in the world and from creatures which He has made. During the days of His life on earth the time came when children’s voices were raised to utter spontaneously the blessedness of Christ, who came in the name of Jehovah. He came as sent of Jehovah, but surely not only this for His name is Jehovah.
But not only the children,
“The whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of Jehovah” (Luke 19:37, 38).
These disciples at this moment were made to see and feel His blessedness, and they could but utter His praise. They could not help speaking forth His honor in the way they did. Are there not times when Christians are like the disciples in this, as they cry out from the depths of their hearts concerning the Son of God, “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name.”
But, “as vinegar to niter, so is he that singeth songs to one of heavy heart.” The praises of these disciples were “as vinegar to niter” to the Pharisees. They could not bear to hear Christ praised. It is something like Michal, David’s wife, who could not join her husband in dancing before the Ark of the Lord, but despised him for doing so.
“Some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto Jesus, Master, rebuke Thy disciples,”
Yet, disciples are only in their becoming element when they are praising Christ. But the Pharisees did not know the Lord of Glory.
There was, however, One present, unseen alike by Pharisees, little children, and disciples. That One was the Holy Ghost. He it was that “out of the mouth of babes and suckling’s perfected praise.” Praise is perfected when it is offered to the Son. It was the Holy Ghost who opened the mouths of the children, and of the whole multitude of the disciples too. And praise was forthcoming from the whole multitude. Apparently no lips of the disciples were silent. It was a volume of praise to Christ which could not be stopped―
“Jesus answered and said unto them” (the Pharisees), “I tell you that if these should hold their peace the stones would immediately cry out.”
Consider these words! Are they not marvelous? Nothing, nor no one shall rob Christ of His glory. If men on that occasion had not shown forth His praise, the stones would have cried out. Does not all this teach us something of the blessedness of Christ to the Father and to the Spirit of God? Nowadays when we think of His love, of His glory, of His dying for us, of His present intercession, of His coming to take us to be with Himself forever, of His mercy to lost sinners like ourselves, can we be silent?
Christ “received from God the Father honor and glory,” and this not only on the Mount of Transfiguration.
“Unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Heb. 1:8).
In these words God calls Christ “God” in the language of direct address, and asserts the eternal duration of His throne. No wonder that all are exhorted to render homage to the Son.
Further, God owns Christ as Creator―
“Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thy hands” (Heb. 1:10).
All this is addressed by God Himself to the Son. As we read scriptures like these, let us ponder and contemplate the heart of the Eternal, enlarged infinitely, and filled with the divine greatness, glory, and moral loveliness of Christ.
Blessed, indeed, are those who praise Him, and, “Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.”
T. H.