God says, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"; "Mine elect in whom My soul delightest"; and working these (His) thoughts into my soul, I too see Jesus to be precious, and find my delight in Him. Thus, He who was crucified for me, who "bare our sins in His own body on the tree," is precious to God and precious to me.
God could find no rest save in Jesus. We may look throughout the world, we shall find nothing which can satisfy our hearts but Jesus. If God looked for truth, for righteousness, all He could desire He found in Jesus; and He found it in Him for us. Here is that which gives comfort to the soul. I see Jesus "now in the presence of God for us," and God is satisfied; God delights in Him.
It is Christ Himself in whom God rests, and will rest forever; but then Jesus, having borne and blotted out my sins by His own blood, has united me to Himself in heaven. He descended from above, bringing God down to us here; He has ascended, taking up the Church in union with Himself there. If God finds Jesus precious, He finds me (in Him) precious also.
Jesus, as man, has glorified God on the earth. God rests in that. As man, and "the head of His body the church," He "has passed into the heavens, now to appear in the presence of God for us"; it is this which gives abiding rest to our souls, and not what our thoughts about ourselves may be. Faith never thinks about that which is within ourselves as its ground of rest; it receives, loves, and apprehends what God has revealed, and what are God's thoughts about Jesus, in whom is His rest.
It is not by human knowledge or intellect that we attain to this. The poor ignorant sinner, when enlightened by the Spirit, can understand how precious Jesus is to the heart of God as well as the most intellectual. The poor dying thief could give a better account of the whole life of Jesus than all those around him, saying, "This man hath done nothing amiss"; he was taught by the Spirit.
Are we much in communion with God? Our faces will shine, and others will discover it though we may not be conscious of it ourselves. Moses, when he had been talking with God, wist not that the skin of his face shone; he forgot himself; he was absorbed in God. As knowing Jesus to be precious to our souls, our eyes and our hearts being occupied with Him, they will be effectually prevented from being taken up with the vanity and sin around; and this too will be our strength against the sin and corruption of our own hearts.