All the revelation of God in Creation and Providence carries the same
message, but it is often there hard to decipher, like some
half-obliterated inscription in a strange tongue. In Jesus the writing
is legible, continuous, and needs no elaborate commentary to make its
meaning intelligible. But we may note that what the Apostle founds on
here is not so much Christ in Himself, as that which men receive in
Christ. As he puts it in another part of this epistle, it is 'through
the Church' that 'principalities and powers in heavenly places' are made
to 'know the manifold wisdom of God.' It is 'His kindness towards us' by
which 'to the ages to come,' is made known the exceeding riches of
grace, and that kindness can be best estimated by thinking what we were,
namely, dead in trespasses and sins; what we are, namely, quickened
together in Christ; raised up with Him, and with Him made to sit in
heavenly places, as the immediately preceding clauses express it. All
this marvellous transformation of conditions and of self is realised 'in
Christ Jesus.' These three words recur over and over again in this
profound epistle, and may be taken as its very keynote. It would carry
us beyond all limits to deal with the various uses and profound meanings
of this phrase in this letter, but we may at least point out how
intimately and inseparably it is intertwined with the other aspect of
our relations to Christ in which He is mainly regarded as dying for us,
and may press upon you that these two are not, as they have sometimes
been taken to be, antagonistic but complementary. We shall never
understand the depths of the one Apostolic conception unless we bring it
into closest connection with the other. Christ is for us only if we are
in Christ; we are in Christ only because He died for us.
God's kindness is all 'in Christ Jesus'; in Him is the great channel
through which His love comes to men, the river of God which is full of
water. And that kindness is realised by us when we are 'in Christ.'
Separated from Him we do not possess it; joined to Him as we may be by
true faith in Him, it is ours, and with it all the blessings which it
brings into our else empty and thirsting hearts. Now all this sets in
strong light the dignity and work of Christian men; the profundity and
clearness of their religious character is the great sign to the world of
the love of God. The message of Christ to man lacks one chief evidence
of its worth if they who profess to have received it do not, in their
lives, show its value. The characters of Christian people are in every
age the clearest and most effectual witnesses of the power of the
Gospel. God's honour is in their hands. The starry heavens are best seen
by reflecting telescopes, which, in their field, mirror the brightness
above.