HE believer, who has been brought into the enjoyment of God's love, is an astonishment to himself, and as he ponders the former feelings of his heart, he can but wonder at what God has wrought in bringing him into fellowship with the Father and the Son.
This wonderful work proclaims the glory of the Lord Jesus. Once we were strangers to God, with hearts and minds estranged from Him, and enemies of Him by wicked works, We did with a will the things which God hates. His Name, His character, His glory, were but the occasion of our scorn, or of the calling out of our indifference. Yet, despite all, of every believer the word stands, "You.... NOW HATH HE RECONCILED.”
And as the Lord upon the throne on high looks down to this earth, it is to His honor and glory that, in the midst of this world of enmity to God, there should be men and women who enjoy the blessings and love of the reconciliation.
In the natural hardness of our hearts, we once regarded God as a severe Being frowning upon us from the inaccessible heights of His heavenly dwelling, and it was practically no easy truth to believe that God reconciles man to Himself. Hence there was a variety of expedients resorted to in order to try to win God's heart towards us, such as prayers and good works, and earnest efforts to improve the heart, so that it could be worthy of God's love. But what was the result? Instead of gaining a sense of reconciliation, we gained the knowledge that in us (that is, in our flesh) dwelleth no good thing. Instead of acquiring an understanding of God, we simply discovered that our hearts were really what God describes them to be.
But when by faith we at length received the truth of a reconciling God, that truth, as a precious seed planted in our hearts, grew up into a tree bearing the fruit of love to God.
The love-token of God to us is such that, when eyes are opened by the Spirit to see it, our natural enmity cannot resist the grace. God breaks down the walls of our will by His own kindness. God's love-token to man is nothing less than His own Son, crucified for sinners. Through the body of His flesh, "through death" we are reconciled.
The alien feelings of our minds are overcome by the sight of His death. Who is there in the whole world who, having seen the Son of the Father giving Himself a sacrifice, and shedding His blood to cleanse his sins, can after that sight hate God? The bands of unbelief are burst asunder, and the soul enters into the liberty of God's love.
Present peace, present joy and present reconciliation, are the believer's portion, and his future is to be according to God's great thoughts of love. And this, too, shall redound to the honor of the Son, for the perfect state of each one of His people in eternity shall proclaim His glory.
“HOLY, UNBLAMABLE, UNREPROVEABLE
in His sight "—in God's sight—will be the wonderful result of the Lord's work for His own. In this state of moral perfection every believer will be presented to God by Christ.
The nature of God is holy. The triumph of the Lord's work for us will be complete in that day when in God's sight there will no longer exist in His children the corrupting nature of sin. Then God will see in the family what He now beholds alone in His Son. "I In Christ" marks our present standing and acceptance before God; but sin remains in us; we have a sinful nature. Then all will be holy.
The Lord was ever unblameable and unreproveable in God's sight; He ever did those things which pleased God. Every step of His path was perfect. We, alas! are continually doing wrong; our path is marked by falls. But the day is at hand when we shall not require to mortify our members which are upon the earth, for we shall be unblameable before God, without any evil tendencies. In resurrection, the life of Christ will be perfectly and wholly manifest in all His people. All who are washed in the blood of Jesus will be perfect before God.