" Ye are come to... Jesus." Heb. 12: 22, 24.
What a wondrous theme is this of surpassing glory and grace! " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." " The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth." " No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him."
Faith discerns, in Jehovah's possessed (acquired) One, the true heir and the blesser of the whole inheritance of glory. Eve said of her firstborn son " I have gotten a man from the Lord," and named him Cain, meaning ' acquired ' or ' appointed,' thinking that in him she had the promised deliverer. But the true Seed of the woman (in whom was the promise of life) was yet to come.
In Proverbs, chapter 8, we hear His words, the full expression of divine wisdom, " I was daily His ( Jehovah's) delight, rejoicing always before Him and My delights were with the sons of men." He in whom all the counsels of the Godhead centered, became God's gift, not to angels but to men-to those who were alienated and enemies in their mind by wicked works. Coming into the world, He said, " Lo, I come... I delight to do Thy will, 0 My God." Again, as the dependent Man, He says " 0 My soul, Thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art My Lord; My goodness extendeth not to Thee, but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all My delight." Psa. 16: 2, 3.
He has glorified God in His path of humiliation and obedience unto death, and has accomplished redemption. Raised from the dead by the glory of the Father and now Himself glorified, He has sent down the Holy Ghost to engage the hearts of wisdom's children with Him where He is and to fashion them according to His image.
The Holy Spirit directs our hearts to that lowly path of love here on earth, in which every beauteous grace shone. His delight was to bless and He, the true Seeker, became the true Finder, and yearning hearts were satisfied. Joy and gladness attended His steps. Yet He was the Man of sorrows, refused and rejected by the world He had come to bless. He, the Blesser, the Healer, had not where to lay His head.
The woman of Samaria discovered in Him, as He sat by the well, wearied with His journey, the giving God. Here was One who knew all her history, all her wretchedness and sin and who could invite her to ask the living water, that ever endures to the satisfying of the heart. He brought before her the giving God who delights to bless and her needy heart gladly received the gift, a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
His path of love ended at the cross. He could say " I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." No creature can ever fathom what He passed through or what it involved for Him to stoop from Godhead glory to the contradiction of sinners against Himself and to Calvary's shame and woe. " Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor "-what poverty!-" that ye through His poverty might be rich." Well may we who are so enriched, re-echo the apostle's cry " Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift! " " Unspeakable " here implies " beyond all tracing or searching." So too we read " No man knoweth the Son but the Father."
Now seated on the right hand of God, He waits the appointed time when He will come to claim His own. Before He comes forth to vindicate the majesty of God in judgment on this Christ-rejecting, sin-possessed world, He will descend from heaven to raise the dead in Christ and change the living. He will take His ransomed to Himself, according to His promise " I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself that where I am, there ye may be also." What ecstatic joy will ours be then-to be forever with Himself in fullness of bliss. Then shall each body of humiliation be fashioned and formed by Almighty power according to His body of glory and all shall be fully conformed to His image.
He has promised " Surely I come quickly " and glad expectant hearts reply, " Even so, come, Lord Jesus."
" Oh I what were the glory without Thee,
Thou Son of the Father's delight!
Thyself—not the radiance about Thee—
We own as the Star of the night.
That radiance be brighter, more glorious;
The diadems over Thy brow
Be many, 0 Savior victorious!
Yet only our Object art Thou "