When the Lord Jesus Christ was a man upon earth, He was surely a test for man—for those among whom He walked down here in that wonderful path of light and love and blessing, every step of which told out what God was for man, and only brought with it as an answer, the hatred that was in the heart of fallen man for God. But He who was the Son of God and Man of sorrows, went on unswervingly in that path, not only because there were poor lost sinners to be saved, but because, first of all, there was the outraged glory of the God from whom and for whom He came, to be vindicated. Everything in which the first man who sinned and came short of the glory had failed; every responsibility taken up by him, only to show how hopeless and helpless was his state, and how absolute the impossibility for him to meet the requirements of a holy God, must be made good, or that God would have been dishonored without remedy in the world of His own creation, and by the creature of His own hands.
More than that, the man that had sinned must himself disappear from the scene, to make way for the second Man, who would forever be the center of a new creation, which neither sin nor death could stain or darken. But in order to be this, He must first pass through this scene where all is blighted by the failure of the first man—pass through it for the glory of God—and He could not be here without being a test to those among whom He was. Hence we find that in whatever company He found Himself, He made Himself the test. In men, in their ignorant speculation as to who He was, could only surmise that He must be either John the Baptist risen from the dead, or Elias, or Jeremias, or one of the prophets, He turns to His own with the searching question, "But whom say ye that I am?" To the poor sinner at Sychar's well, it is Himself revealed to her. To the outcast whose eyes He had opened, He is the Son of God. At the grave of Lazarus it is what He is in His own blessed Person as "the resurrection and the life." It is always in Himself. If it is a question of eternal life, He must be the object of faith. If He is lifted up from the earth, He will draw all men unto Him. And then the path on earth comes to its close, but even in its closing scene there must come out what He was for God; and the two simple words, "I thirst," are the fitting close to a life-of devotedness that could not be ended till the word of His God was vindicated to the very letter. And in the death that came to Him when all was finished and when He, whose life none could take away, yielded up His spirit to God, the life and history that belonged to us as associated with the man of sin and death is closed, closed forever by the God who has written finis to a volume, every page of which was dark indeed, save those illuminated by the blessed path of Him who was the corn of wheat that would not abide alone.
Then there opens out to us another volume, beginning with the resurrection life of the Man who had been obedient unto death for the glory of God.
And, blessed be His name, that volume can never come to an end. Its title page may be found in the wonderful message given to one in whom and for whom, He had broken the power of Satan, and who had a heart devoted to Him who had done it: "Go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God." And where do we see Him next? The Son of man is in the glory of God, and everything there for us, and filling everything there for God. He is the Man, the one Man, now before God. God looks upon the face of His anointed. And every blessing we have is in Him. Is not He our life, our peace, our righteousness? Was He not raised for our justification? Is it not by Him we are reconciled? Are we not accepted (taken into favor, if you will) in the Beloved? Is not His -love ours? Is not His glory to be ours (John 17:22, 2322And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:22‑23)), to be known and enjoyed in bodies of glory like His own? Where can we stop (not speaking of course of His own intrinsic glory as "God over all, blessed forever") when we begin at -that glorified Man; the accomplisher of the purposes, the delight of the heart of -God? And yet He ever stands supreme—"Object supreme of all, by all adored." If we are His brethren, He is the firstborn among us. And just as we are able, through grace, to see Him where He is, and measure all by Him, we can well afford to lose sight of these poor worthless selves, gone forever before God in His death, -buried in His grave, and to give up our poor _thoughts of what we are before God, because Christ is everything.
Again I ask, Have we anything apart from "the Person of Christ"? If we had, or could have, would it not tend to make something less of Him, and to detract from the glory due to Him who finished for God and for us, that glorious work given Him to do? And surely in this day of man's doctrines, and creeds, and theology, the test and the remedy for all is the Person of Christ in glory—the one blessed reality that is a necessity for our peace, our deliverance, our joy, our hope, our strength, in a path of difficulty, distress, and perplexity down here. It was "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," that enabled Paul to overcome all that was against him in the wilderness path, and to bear about in the body "the dying of the Lord Jesus." It is the light of that same knowledge of that same blessed Person that will carry us through all, and keep us humble indeed, while it enables us to test every theory and doctrine by Himself, the only true test now as He ever was, and to refuse all that will not bear that test. Yes, beloved brethren, bring all to that test, doctrine and walk, and we may have to refuse a great deal as to both; but we shall "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
Can anything be more blessed than that, till we are with Him and like Him forever? And does the exaltation of His glorious Person detract from His glorious work? Surely, the very contrary, for He is where He is because of what He has done—done for the glory of God and for our blessing. It is to His "precious blood" (as the Holy Spirit has written) that we owe all we are or have in Him. And is not all summed up in those words at the head of this paper, "Of Him [God] are ye in Christ Jesus"? Can anything be better calculated than these words of our God for us, words which tell of the place we have before Him in His own beloved Son, to draw our hearts out in adoring praise and true devotedness, to the Christ to whom we owe it all?