THE Lord will give grace and glory;" and never more so is this seen than in the divine character He bears as Shepherd.
" They (the sheep) have all gone out of the way: they have together become unprofitable; and yet, notwithstanding their unprofitableness, He, as "The Good Shepherd,” “leaves the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and goeth after that which is lost UNTIL HE FIND IT; and when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing." This is grace.
"Not of works." What works could be done by an unprofitable and helpless sheep, "without strength,” on the shoulders of "The Good Shepherd"? All it could do was to be quiet and lie still, content that it was at last secure and safe.
“Jesus... saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd." Such was the unwearied love and compassion of " The Good Shepherd," that although He" had no leisure so much as to eat," " began to teach them many things;” and then, bidding them " to sit down upon the green grass," gave them to eat;" and they did all eat and were filled "(Mark 6.).
“I am the good shepherd.... As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.... Therefore cloth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again." As "The Good Shepherd,” then, He died, thus fully meeting all the claims of divine justice in regard to sin, and expressing to believing sinners not only His own unbounded love, but the unfathomable love and one of the deep secrets of His Father's heart concerning them. As such also He went down into the very " dust of death," that by rising therefrom the lost, unprofitable, and helpless sheep might be " brought up out of the horrible pit, and out of the miry clay; " and that, as "The GREAT Shepherd," He might watch over and care for them, for whose transgressions He was wounded, whose iniquities He bore, and for which He was so sorely bruised.
“He is risen indeed" (for Redemption's toil is finished), and “shall feed his flock like a shepherd, and gather the lambs with his arms, and carry them 'in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. All is rest and peace,—must be so where Jesus is. The shoulder and the breast of the peace offering—the divine strength and affections—are now enjoyed for, " you were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls; "and" the God of peace, which brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that GREAT Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant," will" make you perfect to do his will." Well may the joyful faith of the redeemed one, brought back, “made nigh by the blood of Christ," exultingly exclaim, —
THE LORD is MY Shepherd, I shall not want (perfect satisfaction).
HE maketh me to lie down in green pastures (perfect rest).
HE leadeth me beside the waters of quietness (perfect peace).
HE restoreth my soul (full communion).
HE leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake (perfect walk).
HE anointeth my head with oil (fully consecrated).
My cup runneth over (" in his presence is fulness of joy").
How tenderly too did the Lord Jesus, "that Great Shepherd of the sheep," think of His own before taking His departure from this wilderness world, when, in restoring the soul of His erring disciple Peter, He commanded him, "Feed my lambs," “Shepherd my sheep," "Feed my sheep." His precious grace thinks of the weakest (the lambs), giving to them the first consideration. And this “feeding the flock of God," over which Peter was thus constituted an overseer, is to characterize the path, "Follow Me,” “Follow thou Me," "till I come." All this is grace, wondrous grace; but He will “give grace AND GLORY." For," Yet a little while, He that shall come will come, and will not tarry; “as He Himself has said, "Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to every man according as his work shall be.”
So if, as "The GOOD Shepherd," He died for the sheep, and, as "The GREAT Shepherd," He rose again to watch over them, He will, as " The CHIEF Shepherd," come again, and upon His under-shepherds—those who truly pastor His sheep in this day of their humiliation—shall He bestow " THE CROWN OF GLORY, that fadeth not away," as the answer of the deep deep love of His heart for their faithful service thus rendered to Him in His absence. And every act—every wish—which has been towards Him by any of His own, He will duly recompense in that clay; for not "a cup of cold water" shall in any wise lose its reward.
“How shall. I meet those eyes?
Myself on Him I cast,
And own myself the Saviour's prize,
MERCY FROM FIRST TO LAST!”
Dear reader, do you know Jesus as the Good, Great, and Chief Shepherd? He says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:2727My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (John 10:27)). N. L. N.