Where is it that we get daily strength, but in tracing the love and the glory that can be only seen in the Father's righteous Servant, whose service was both to the Father and to us? Every step so traced will unravel the depths of that grace which has given the heart its peace, and assured it of everlasting glory. And it is this that the Holy Ghost does engrave day by day, deeper and deeper, on the willing heart of the believer, showing him his Lord-Him Who was in the beginning with God, and was God, and Who became flesh, and dwelt among us marking the circumstances of evil which surrounded Him from His birth onwards, and so the untiring love which could not be overcome by those circumstances, but which shone the brighter, and showed its depths the more, as it was scorned and trampled on, while pressing on in its might through them all to finish that work which alone could meet the necessities of the sinner. It is not the cross only, but the character of the evil, which in its power overwhelmed the Lamb of God, and the unconquered compassion which ever shone forth from Him on the darkness which surrounded and would have quenched it the every day's pitying endurance of the " contradiction of sinners against Himself," even to the moment when the readiness of His heart to bless was seen in the prompt reply of forgiveness to him who had reviled Him during His bitterest agony on the cross. (Compare Matt. 27:4444The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. (Matthew 27:44) with Luke 23:4343And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43).) It is this that shows the depth of God's love, a love that existed ever, a love that ordained the victim, that gave the victim (and that victim His only Son) to and for those who hated and disregarded both the giver and gift.
He who delights to trace the steps of Jesus in this grief-stricken world, will see in every step the holiness, the moral glory, and the love of the unseen God, made manifest to him in a form that he can apprehend.
Oh yes, it is knowing God in Jesus, in all the exquisite detail of His most dignified yet condescending love a love that could, and that did, descend to the depths of degradation and shame, to minister its sweet consolation to the wretchedness of its object; that came into a world of sin and sorrow, not to be ministered unto, but to minister; to be the lowest and the poorest; to be associated with the most needy and despised of men the leper, the publican, and the Samaritan-giving His back to the smiters, His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; learning " obedience by the things which He suffered; " taking part in our sufferings that, when perfected in His lesson of love, He might be a sympathizing Intercessor for those whose companion in sorrow He had become. It is this, the weakness of Jesus, the poverty of Jesus, the depths of poverty both of spirit and circumstance, that shows us how far His love can reach, and what that love would do to bless its object that shows us God.
Upon the ground of the soul's present and perfected salvation by the blood of Jesus, the believer stands to meet the practical question of following Him, as made even now by His gratuitous grace, free and ready to serve Him in love, as having but one object, that of showing forth His praises in the world that rejected and still rejects Him. There will be no singularity in the confession of the name of Jesus in heaven; none will be ashamed of Him or His words there; He will be fully glorified and admired there. But it is here in " this present evil world," in the midst of a crooked and perverse people, that the sinner, separated by the blood of the Lamb to all blessing, is called on to stand forth and declare how Jesus " gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."