People quote this passage, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him,” to show how great these things of God are. They have not entered into the heart of man, “but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit:” such is the Scripture—just the opposite of the common use of it. You see God means us to know them, though we may have been bad scholars at the lesson. But He has given us a title—to what? Simply to be pardoned? Is that all? Is it nothing to say, I am come to God, the Judge of all; I can look down upon things that are for judgment, the reproach of Egypt being done away; I am in Christ, and see the glory of the Son of God and Son of man—the Son who earned God’s love? Yes; earned it1 for He says, “Therefore does my Father love me, because I lay down my life.” Is it nothing to see the Lamb slain? Have we not far more than pardon? And where is to be your place? You are going to be like Himself. Did you never think of this? “As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly;” “And we have received the Spirit, not which is of the world, but which is of God, to know the things which are freely given unto us of God.” It is not the redemption—though we must know that truly, and get clear as to it—it is more. Again I ask, Have your souls never tasted what it is to be where there is nothing but holiness—not a jar with what God is? What a delight! And all around not a flaw, not a thing that does not answer to the glory of God, as God and to the love of God, as love! Nothing. Christ is the center of it, and we, in a certain sense, so too, as in Him Are our souls living there? Well, you will get a white stone; but you say, Am I to have God’s approving delight upon me? Yes; and the new name. Ah, this will be a secret between you and Christ! Is there nothing in that? Is there nothing in His approbation so put upon us? Does it not come into your heart as that which is unspeakable joy? Again, “The glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” But if I see the Lamb in the midst of the throne, Ah! I say, now I am indeed at home; that is the sight that dazzles every other, and that is the sight which is for me. The Lord God and the Lamb are the temple there. We shall sit on Christ’s throne with Him—conferred glory surely, but none the less real. Will this be nothing? There will not be a thing in Christ’s heart that is not satisfied towards us, and is this nothing to us? And is it nothing to us to see the man that suffered for us glorified? Now the Spirit of God has taken these things and revealed them unto us that we may live in them.
J. N. D