When I turn to look at the thoughts and counsels of God, I see His
"Delights Were With the Sons of Men."
His "good pleasure" was not in angels; they are witnesses of His keeping a creature unfallen, but we are witnesses of His redeeming a creature who has fallen. There is no purpose about angels; He did not take them up, but He became a man. Now we get the moral character of the world tested by Christ. He came in goodness, not requiring anything from men, but bringing goodness to them. If you look at His life, He came in a power which removed all the present effects of sin. Death disappeared before Him; devils, disease, sickness, all fled away. He comes in a power sufficient to remove all the effects of Satan's power; and He does it in grace. That is the character of Christ's work; there was no miracle that was not the expression of meeting a need in man, or of setting aside Satan's power. The cursing of the fig tree is the only exception; there, responsibility was in question. He cursed the fig tree, and it is the judgment of man. Israel was under the culture of God. He looked for fruit, found none, and says, "Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever." The flesh is judged, set aside, and my heart is brought to own it—brought to the acknowledgment of its sentence at the cross.
Let us look at the Lord, the second Man, coming into the world. I see the place that He gets in this world; but when the angels begin to celebrate His praises, they go much further. What is the sign of the Son of man coming into this world? First, of course (but on that I do not now dwell), the promises to Israel must be fulfilled; but this is the sign (Luke 2:1212And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. (Luke 2:12)), "Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."
An Inn is the Place Where a Man is Measured; it touches the pride of man. The first floor for the rich, the garret for the poor; there was no room for Him! No room in the great inn of this world! He could go into the manger when He was born, to the cross at the end, and meanwhile have not where to lay His head. Is that the way you estimate the blessed Lord Jesus Christ? We are accustomed from education to exalt Him, but that is the world's estimate still—there is no room for Him! The world is never changed till the heart is changed; it is just what it was then, with the addition since of the rejection of Christ. Is this then your moral estimate of the world, that the Son of God got no place in it? That here He began with the manger, and ended with the cross, and meanwhile had no place to lay His head?
The Son of God comes in grace, and that is what sounds from heaven when the angels praise. It is beautiful to see them delighting in man's blessing, though they themselves were passed by. They are celebrating His praise—"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Do our hearts understand and estimate this, that God's heart was delighting in the sons of men, not by a general mercy, but by His being a man? There I have the object, the Person, before God's eye. He has come down into such scenes as these, and God says, Sinner though you are, I want your heart to trust Me; and that you may do so, there is My Son come down, and as a babe. God's love was beyond a human thought. Why do they say, "Glory to God in the highest"?
It is Because His Son has Become a Man.
It was not in the fact of the angel's glory, but when I get this lowly babe that has not a place in the world, then the angels come out with this acclamation.
There is nothing like this wonderful fact, "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." I get the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, present with me, a poor sinful man, that I may know how God reached me first where I was. He has come down to me as a man, and to prove God's good pleasure in men. The result, "peace on earth," is not seen yet; but you have "glory to God in the highest." I have now this blessed truth; I have learned where and how God has met me. If a man was a leper, He touched him, when another would
have been defiled; He used His holiness in grace to reach the most defiled.
At the end of Matt. 3, He takes up this wondrous place for us: Jesus comes to be baptized of John, and says, "Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." He takes this place the moment the Word of God has met the hearts of these poor sinners; and He says, I must go with them, because the Spirit of God has wrought in their hearts. It is that which defines the place of the Person.
He Takes His Place Among Us;
and mark—He was always the same Person from the manger, at twelve years old, and all along His path. But now He cannot let His people take one step, in what God had wrought in their hearts, without saying, I go before, I go with you. The Christ that could tell the woman all that ever she did was not there for judgment. If a person was convicted of sin, the Lord had been there. What for? To judge me? No, to bring me to Himself in grace. Now mark the wondrous bringing out of this place: "And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water; and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him; and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
The Heaven Opened!
There was never a person there before on whom heaven could be opened, and to whom a voice, the Father's voice, could say, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." There was not a thing in Him, but what heaven could delight in. This to me is a wondrously blessed truth. In this world is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Man in whom is the Father's necessary, perfect delight, and He owns Him as His beloved Son; and then the Holy Ghost comes down to seal and anoint Him. I have the place man must have according to the counsels of God, and heaven is opened on the world.
Another thing comes out, if possible still more wonderful—man gets into this place which is in the thoughts and counsels of God for him. It is then that Satan is fully manifested. And here
I get the full revelation of the Trinity; but it is when man gets into this relationship, with the thoughts and actings of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, all in connection with man, and heaven opened; and it is that all the counsels of God might not only be in counsel, but in fulfillment and manifestation. To think that Christ the Son of God should thus come, not for a judgment on sinners,
But to Open Heaven for Sons!
It is the pattern place of the saints. When He had thus publicly taken His place in grace with us, then God says, I will own you as My Son, and the Holy Ghost comes down and seals and anoints Him. And "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts."
But whatever the grace, you will always find that the Person of Christ is maintained secure. Heaven is opened to Stephen, and he looks up and sees Christ there; he is full of the Holy Ghost, and he looks up to heaven. But heaven looks down on Christ. Here Stephen had an object, but Christ was the object of heaven. His Person is always maintained and secured. Thus we are brought into the same wondrous place as this wonderful One. We always find the Person of Christ pre-eminent, but we find the saints brought into a place where He can take us and call us the "fellows" of the Son of God, with whom we are brought into fellowship.
Take another example of this, the mount of transfiguration. Moses and Elias are shown in exactly the same glory as Christ,
But the Person and Place of the Son of
God are Most Fully Maintained.
Peter thought it a great thing for his Master to be like Moses and Elias; but when he says, "Let us make three tabernacles," the voice from the cloud says, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him." Again, in the case of the tribute money, Jesus says to Peter, "Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?" "Of strangers." He was the great King of the temple; and yet, lest He should offend them, He disposed of creation to find money to give, and says, "for Me and thee," thus bringing man into association with Himself. His Person is maintained, but this blessed Son of God cares to win the confidence of our hearts.
But though thus in association with man, He was there alone. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone" (John 12:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (John 12:24)). There are three glories that are His brought out there. He is Son of God (chap. 11); He is owned as Son of David, riding upon an ass; then the Greeks come up, and the Son of man must be glorified—that is the revelation of Psalm 815The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. (Psalm 9:15). But if He was to be the Son of man, He was to be over all the works of God as man—"He left nothing that is not put under Him. But now we see not yet all things put under Him " As yet He is seated on His Father's throne, not on His own. He is Son and Heir. What He is doing now is gathering out the joint heirs. He is only waiting for that, and when they are all gathered He will come. And the thing that we are all waiting for is that He should come. Then we shall be like Him, and with Him in the glory. But He was alone until, as the corn of wheat, He fell into the ground and died. But the moment redemption is accomplished, He can say, "Go to My brethren." And, "I ascend unto My Father, and your Father."