these pages. Blessed and inexhaustible it is. And now a still
greater theme is before our hearts. The Love of Christ. The heart
almost shrinks from attempting to write on the matchless,
unfathomable love of our blessed and adorable Lord. All the Saints
of God who have spoken and written on the Love of Christ have never
told out its fulness and vastness, its heights and its depths. "The
Love of Christ which passeth knowledge" (Ephesians iii:19). And yet
we _do_ know the Love of Christ. While we cannot fully grasp that
mighty, eternal Love our hearts can enjoy it and we can ever know
more of it. And He Himself whose Love is set upon us wants us to
drink constantly of the ocean of His never-changing Love and receive
new tokens, new glimpses of it. Surely His own blessed Spirit,
though one feels so insufficient for such an object, will guide us
in our meditation. He is with us and in us to glorify Him and take
of the things of Christ to show them unto us. The Love of Christ,
the Holy Spirit ever longs to make known and to impart to our poor
and feeble hearts.
The Love of our Lord is an eternal Love. It is not a thing of time.
It antedates the foundation of the world.
"His gracious eye surveyed us
Ere stars were seen above."
He as the Son of God in the bosom of God was the object of Love.
"Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world" (John xvii:
24). And then He knew us and His Love was even then set upon us,
before we ever were in existence. He knew our sinfulness, our
enmity, our vileness, and in Love which passeth knowledge He looked
forward to the time, when He would manifest this Love to us His
fallen creatures. "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is
high I cannot attain unto it" (Psalm cxxxix:6).
It was Love which brought Him down from the Glory, which He had with
God. What Love to come into this dark, sin-cursed world, a world
full of enemies. What Love to leave that bright and glorious home
and appear as man, made of a woman entering this world He had called
into existence. And there was no room for Him in the inn. It passeth
knowledge.
And then that life, which He lived on earth, was lived in that
mighty Love.
"A love that led Thee here below
To tread a lonely path in grace,
To pass through sorrow, grief and woe,
The portion of a ruin'd race."
What Love we see in Him, in every step of that lonely path! What
compassion, what tenderness in every action in every word we
discover, ever new and fresh, in that blessed life of God's
unspeakable gift. Wherever we look we behold that Love. Loving
compassion rested upon the multitudes; with Love He compassed the
poor, the sinful, the oppressed, the heartsick and the outcast. Love
carried the weak and failing men, who had believed on him, His
disciples. A blessed word it is, which stands in the beginning of
the thirteenth chapter in the Gospel of John. "Having loved His own
which were in the world, He loved them unto the end." His Love for
His own was expressed by serving them. He pleased not Himself but
had come to minister. He then girded Himself and began to wash the
disciples' feet. What humiliation! Yet it was the fruit of Love. All
He did was born of Love. His was on earth a constant, a never-tiring,
an enduring Love. All the selfishness of His disciples could
not quench that Love. Nothing could quench His Love for His own.
Nothing will ever quench it. Peter denied Him. "And the Lord turned
and looked upon Peter" (Luke xxii:61). Was it a look of reproach?
Was it a frown of displeasure which Peter saw in that beloved face?
Far from it. Love in its divine perfection shone out of the eyes of
the Son of God. And after His resurrection that Love was still the
same. There was no reproach connected with the restoration of Peter
to service. In the greatest tenderness and Love He committed to His
disciple, who had so shamefully denied Him, the lambs and sheep so
dear to His own loving heart.
Again we say, that Love passeth knowledge. How could man's
imagination and invention ever have produced such a loving Person as
our Lord, revealing the perfection of divine Love!
But there is greater Love than the Love which we behold in His
blessed Life on earth. The greater Love is manifested when He laid
down His life. He came into the world to die, to be the propitiation
for our sins. He came to take our place on the cross. He came to
drink the cup of wrath in our stead and suffer the awful penalty of
our sins.
"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for
the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet
peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. _But God
commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us_."
God in Love gave thus His Son, and He gave Himself in Love. From
shame to shame, from suffering to suffering, from pain to pain and
agony to agony that Love went on to plunge into the deepest sorrow,
to reach at last the place where His loving lips had to cry "My God,
My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"
"To death of shame Thy love did reach,
God's holy judgment then to bear;
Ah, Lord, what human tongue can teach
_Or tell the love that brought Thee there_."
Ah! what human tongue can teach or tell the Love that brought Thee
there! It passeth knowledge. But with loving, praising hearts, in
worship and adoration we can look up to that cross on which the
Prince of Glory died and say with Paul, "He loved me, He gave
Himself for me." And again we join with the innumerable hosts of His
own redeemed in the Glory song. "Unto Him that loveth us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood and hath made us Kings and priests
unto God and His Father, to Him be Glory and dominion forever.
Amen." And beloved reader, that Love which knew you and us all
before we ever existed, that Love which came from Glory for you,
that Love which went into the jaws of death, endured the cross and
despised the shame, that Love which gave so willingly, gave as we
can never give, that Love is still the same. It changes not. His
Love knows no fluctuations. That perfect Love cannot grow cold or
indifferent. We all had our first love; when first we saw Him with
the eyes of faith, how our hearts were enraptured. How soon that
Love began to grow cold and decreased instead of increased. Then our
walk and service became affected for thus it must ever be when the
heart is not responding to His Love and not in living, loving touch
with Himself. Oh! the weeks and months and years of our Christian
experience spent without the full enjoyment of His Love and
Presence. But has this changed His Love? Has our unfaithfulness, our
waywardness, our failure and backsliding affected His Love? No. He
is the same loving Lord, the same loving Christ who has borne us and
yearned over us, who has prayed for us and kept us. Whenever we turn
to Him with broken hearts, confessing our sins, when in shame we
hide our faces and tell Him all our failures, we find Him still the
same loving Lord as He was when His loving eyes rested upon Peter.
Oh! how He must love us! How He must love us, with that Love which
passeth knowledge. What treasures that Love contains! Exhaustless it
is ever flowing full and free towards His own.
How it must grieve Him to see us so indifferent, neither hot nor
cold. How it must grieve Him that we enjoy this Love so little that
we permit that Love so little to serve us and give Him so little
opportunity to manifest His mighty Love towards us. Alas! We even
mistrust that Love. When suffering and loss overtake us, when
instead of prosperity adversity is our lot, we doubt that Love.
Fears and anxieties are nothing less than an impeachment of the
Love, which passeth knowledge. His Love will never fail. He will see
us safe home. Let the forces of the enemy roar, let trials and
troubles come, His Love will keep us. His Love is our eternal
portion.
"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord."
And soon He will have us with Himself. The church He loved, for
which He gave Himself, the church He sanctified by the washing of
water, this church He will present to Himself a glorious church
(Eph. v:24-27). Even while on earth He made known His loving
purpose, for He prayed, "The Glory, which Thou hast given me I have
given to them."
It is His Love which will make us sharers of His own Glory and
Inheritance. What that Love will do then! How we shall drink deeper
of that Love, than we ever could drink here! Oh the depths of the
Love to be fathomed in all eternity! Oh the length and breadth and
height to be measured! It can never, no never be exhausted.
O, child of God, is not thy poor wandering heart beginning to be
warmed? Is the warmth of His Love, the Love of Christ refreshing
your soul? Thank God for it. It is but a demonstration of His Love.
And do we not want more of it? Do we not need it?
All our indifference, our cold heartedness, our prayerlessness, our
self indulgences, our inactivity and all else which mars our
Christian lives, is because we do not have the Love of Christ before
our hearts. If we were constantly enjoying His Love and this mighty
Love would constrain us, what self-sacrificing lives we would live!
How we would love one another and in love serve one another. What
peace there would be among those of like precious faith. With a
better heart knowledge of the Love of Christ, what joy would be ours
in all trials and suffering and with what boldness we would approach
the throne of Grace and make constant use of our God-given
privilege, prayer.
The Love of Christ would lead us on and on in love for souls, in
service untiring, and yet the same Love too will make us long and
pray for His coming. Oh God our Father, grant unto us all and to all
Thy people throughout this world a greater, a deeper, a more real
knowledge of the Love of thine ever blessed Son, the Love of Christ,
and fill us through it with all the fulness of God. Amen.
The Joy of the Lord.
IT is written "the joy of the Lord is your strength." Every child of
God knows in some measure what it is to rejoice in the Lord. The
Lord Jesus Christ must ever be the sole object of the believer's
joy, and as eyes and heart look upon Him, we, too, like "the
strangers scattered abroad" to whom Peter wrote shall "rejoice with
joy unspeakable and full of glory" (1 Pet. i:8). But it is upon our
heart to meditate with our beloved readers on the joy of our
adorable Lord, as his own personal joy. The Blessed One when His
feet walked on the earth spoke not only of "My Peace," but He also
spoke of "My Joy." While He imparts peace and joy and is the peace
and joy of our hearts, He also possesses His own Peace and His own
Joy.
"The Joy of the Lord." There was a time "when the morning stars sang
together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job xxxviii:7).
It was in the beginning when the heavens and the earth were created
by Him, who is before all things and by whom all things consist, the
Son of God. With what joy He must have beheld what was called into
existence by Him and for Him (Col. i:16). But even before the
foundation of the world He had joy. With God, in the bosom of the
Father Love, Glory and Joy were His eternal portion. All was known
to Him from the beginning. The fall of Satan, the fall of man
through Satan, the entrance of sin with all its results, the cost
price of redemption, the suffering in the flesh on the cross for the
redemption of the creature, the multitudes, whom no man can number,
redeemed through His work, believing in Him, brought to God, united
with Him, Sons and Heirs with Him, the ultimate victory over all
enemies, so that God would be "all in all"--all was known to Him.
What joy must have filled Him when at His incarnation He announced,
"Lo I come to do Thy will O God" (Heb. x:5, 6). And then He came and
took upon Himself the form of a servant, the first word the heavenly
messenger spoke, sent to the virgin to announce the incarnation, was
a word of joy. Never before had Gabriel been sent with such a
message. "Hail" our English version has it; but the greeting means
"Joy" or "Oh the joy!" And the angel later announced "good tidings
of great joy." And that blessed life which was lived upon earth to
the Glory of God, was a life which knew joy. All along the way from
Bethlehem to Golgotha He had joy before His heart. It is true He
wept, He had sufferings, He was tempted, He was ill-treated, cast
out, maligned, accused of evil and rejected, but joy filled His
heart. His God and Father was His joy, yea, His exceeding joy. To do
His will, who had sent Him was His constant joy. His joy was to walk
in confidence, in dependence on Him. His Father's love and delight,
which rested upon Him were His joy. "Whom have I in heaven but Thee?
and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee" (Ps.
lxxiii:25). This beautiful word must have been His constant
declaration; and that is joy. "I have set the Lord always before me"
(Ps. xvi:8) is another utterance of God's Spirit concerning the holy
life of God's well beloved Son. And that meant joy. The seventy He
had sent forth had returned again with joy, because the demons were
subject unto them. That is sinful man in carnal rejoicing! some
power manifested, some great success fills our proud hearts with
joy. But His words told them of a different joy. They were not to
rejoice that the spirits submitted to them, but that their names
were written in heaven. "In that hour Jesus _rejoiced_ in spirit,
and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that
Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, and
hast revealed them to babes; even so Father; for so it seemed good
in Thy sight. All things are delivered to Me of My Father; and no
man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is,
but the Son, and to whom the Son will reveal Him" (Luke x:21, 22).
Thus _He_ rejoiced. In the parable of the treasure in the field He
speaks of His joy. The man who has found the treasure, for joy
thereof goeth and selleth all he hath, and buyeth that field ( Matt.
xiii:44). The man in the parable is the Lord Himself and the field
is the world. With joy He gave up all and came down here to buy us
back. And all His suffering from man and from Satan, the
persecutions He suffered from His own people to whom He came were
borne by Him with joy. He told out His own blessed character in the
beatitudes and in speaking of those who are reviled and persecuted,
He said, "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad." Thus He must have borne
it all with joy. And then the cross. The cross in which He who knew
no sin was made sin for us. He was troubled in His holy soul when He
looked towards the cross (John xii:27). In the garden He saw the
cross. "And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly; and His
sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the
ground" (Luke xii:44). And yet it is written "who for the joy that
was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is
set down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. xii:2). All
the suffering put upon Him by man, acting under satanic impulses and
the shame connected with the cross, He despised, the cross itself He
could not despise, but He endured that. The joy was that He saw and
knew the full and glorious result of all His work He had come to do.
He saw then the travail of His soul and was satisfied. But in that
cross there was that suffering, which is unfathomable. God's own
hand rested upon Him. All His sorrowful complaints as predicted by
His own Spirit were then fulfilled. "_Thou_ hast laid me in the dust
of death." "All _Thy_ waves and billows go over me." "_Thine_ hand
has pressed me sore." "_Thy_ wrath lieth hard upon me." "_Thy_
fierce wrath goeth over me." "_Thou_ hast laid me in the lowest
pit." Thus He suffered from God--smitten and afflicted of God. It
pleased the Lord to bruise Him. Then from that cross there came that
loud and triumphant cry when He gave His life "It is finished!" Oh!
what joy must have filled then His soul, when He knew the work is
done, all is accomplished. And with equal joy God answered the cry
of His well beloved Son, when He rent the veil from top to bottom.
The risen Lord in meeting His disciples greeted them, with the
greeting of joy, which Gabriel had used. "All Hail"--literally, _Oh
the joy!_ (Matt. xxviii:9.) What joy must then have filled His
loving heart as He met His own again. Oh the joy! thus they had
mocked Him when they crowned Him with a crown of thorns and bowed
the knee and in derision shouted "All hail"--"Rejoice"--"King of
the Jews." But in the resurrection He shouts "Oh the Joy!" The
victory is won. Satan, Sin, Death and the Grave are vanquished. And
what joy is His now! What joy will be His ere long! With a shout He
went up (Ps. xlvii:5). What a joy when He passed through the heavens
and as the glorified man He entered the Holy of Holies! What a joy
when the Father had the well beloved with Him again, and He took His
seat at His own right hand. What joy for Him and the heavens when
Glory and Honor was put upon Him and He was proclaimed throughout
the depths of the universe as Heir of all things! What joy! All
power in heaven and on earth is His. Oh the joy! as sinners are
saved by Grace, whom He redeemed by His blood. And as His body is
building He rejoiceth as the bridegroom over the bride. In
unspeakable joy He carrieth on His loving, tender, priestly work in
behalf of those for whom He died. His joy and delight, as well as
His love and His power is with them, who are His.
But there is greater joy in the future for Him, the Man in Glory.
Though even now He _is_ "anointed with the oil of gladness above all
His fellows." His joy will increase and be full in the future.
Another glad shout will be heard when he leaves the Father's throne
and descends into the air. A shout of triumph and joy it will be,
which will open the graves of the Saints, which will summon those
who remain to meet Him in the air. Oh the joy at last the travail of
His soul will be brought into His presence. Oh the joy! He will have
us then and we will be with Him. With _exceeding joy_ He will
present us faultless before the presence of His Glory (Jud. 24). In
joy and a glorious triumph He will bring many sons to glory. What
joy it will be when He leads forth from heaven's glorious mansions,
those who are "God's workmanship created by Christ Jesus!" Then all
the world will know and angels shout once more for joy in the full
and glorious revelation of the new creation.
Oh! the Joy for Him! when Israel cries out "Blessed is He that
cometh in the name of the Lord!" Oh the joy! when creation sings her
songs of praise to Him, whose pierced hands have removed the curse.
Oh! the joy! when nations hear war no more but sing the worth of the
King of Kings and lay their gifts at His feet.
If we could measure all which was accomplished on Calvary's cross,
then we could also measure His joy, the joy of the Lord.
Reader! If you are saved by Grace, one with the Lord, then all this
is yours. The joy in the Lord and the joy of the Lord is to be your
portion now and in the day of His joy and glory. Murmuring,
discouraged, tempted, complaining, bereaved, downhearted,
halfhearted child of God, ponder over these words. Let God's Spirit
lead you into them. The joy of the Lord is to be your portion. It
will dispel your gloom. It will end your discouragement. It will
give you songs in the night. It will lift you into a holy walk. The
joy of the Lord can do this. He wants you to possess His joy. "These
things have I spoken unto you, and that your joy might be full"
(John xv:11). Let the Holy Spirit, who is given to you of God, make
the Lord Jesus Christ a greater reality in your life. Let the joy of
the Lord be your joy. Rejoice in God, the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Let your joy be to do His will. Accept all from His
hands. Rejoice in all things. "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again
I say, Rejoice" (Phil. iv:4). Rejoice and glory in tribulation.
"Count it all joy when ye fall in divers temptations" (James i:2).
Having Christ, brought nigh to God, a perfect access into His
presence, yea the right to come with boldness, a rejoicing and
praising spirit should be manifested by us.
And look at the joy which is set before us. How it ought to lift us
over all the present day trials and temptations and give us victory
over the cares and anxieties, the pleasures and deceitful riches of
this present evil and fast closing age. "Enter thou into the joy of
_Thy_ Lord." This _is_ our blessed and glorious future. We shall
share His future joy as we shall share His glory. And it is but a
little while longer and weeping, which endured for the night, will
give way to the _joy of the morning_.
"This Same Jesus."
"AND He led them out as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up His
hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them,
He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they
worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were
continually in the temple, praising and blessing God" (Luke xxiv:50-53).
Something else is reported in the first chapter in the book of
Acts in connection with the Return of our blessed Lord to the
Father. "And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went
up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said,
Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? _This same
Jesus_, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in
like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven". (Acts i:10-11).
This blessed message must have been the reason why they returned to
Jerusalem with _great_ joy. Instead of tears and sorrow at that
parting there was joy, because they knew and believed that He who
had said "I will come again and receive you unto myself," this same
Jesus would come for them. What a blessed truth it is that the same
Jesus, the same Lord who walked on earth, who spoke such words of
infinite love and tenderness, who wept, healed the sick, raised the
dead and commanded the demons, who calmed the storm, who had gone to
the cross to die that awful death in our stead--that this same
Jesus, raised from the dead, is now in the presence of God for us
and our Advocate with the Father. It is the same loving, tender,
caring, mighty Lord and Saviour, who is there and this same Jesus,
not another, will come again. The reality of this filled the
disciples with joy. They knew He had left them, they knew He lived
and that He would come again. This knowledge gave them power to
witness and to walk in holiness. The reality of this fills still the
believing heart with joy and leads as well as keeps in the blessed
faith life of fellowship with Himself, into which we have been
called by the Grace of God. The heart of the believer under the
control of the Holy Spirit has but one desire. It is to know Him and
know Him better. Other desires for blessings may come up, but that
life which is in the believer ever reaches out after Himself who is
our life. "That I may know Him" was the passion of that wonderful
man, who knew Him so well (Phil. iii:10). And it is just heart
knowledge of this same Jesus in His loveliness, His patience, His
power, His glory, in all His blessed fullness, which we need the
most and through this all other needs are met.
Look up then in faith, child of God, He who is altogether lovely,
whose perfect ways of love and grace, were so blessedly made known
in His life down here, this same Jesus, with all the tenderness of
infinite love, the love that never grows cold, is with the Father.
Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday, to-day and forever. The disciples
heard Him pray His great prayer before He went to the cross (John
xvii). As they listened to His words addressed to the Father, they
learned as never before, how dear they all were to Him. How He loved
them, cared for them, what He had done for them, would continue to
do and what their future would be. And whenever we read these words
in His high priestly prayer, we can hear Him still pray. We know
that love for us cannot change; that prayer to keep does not fail;
that concern, so deep and gracious, in all who belong to Him is
unchanged, for it is "this same Jesus," who intercedes for us, whose
loving eyes watch our going in and our going out, our walk down
here.