Christ’s Beauty (Octavius Winslow, 1808-1878)

There is no beauty like Christ’s beauty. We might expect that such divine glory, if ever it tabernacled on earth—the world’s resplendent Shekinah105—would be enshrined in a temple in all respects worthy of its dignity. We therefore find language like this: “Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me” (Heb 10:5). It was a body prepared by the Holy Spirit, of real, yet sinless flesh, in which the Son of God was to dwell. Hence, we find the inspired artist, in portraying Christ’s beauty as man, represents Him as “Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2). Himself the source and author of all beauty, His own beauty eclipses all.

We love to trace the creations of His beauty in the varied and endless forms of loveliness that still linger, adorning and enriching this fallen world. Those bright constellations—Christ created them; those burning suns—Christ kindled them; those snow-wreathed Alps, those cloud-capped hills—Christ raised them; those verdant106 valleys—Christ spread them; that blushing rose, that graceful lily, that exquisite fern, that curious sea-flower tossed upon the shore, that wayside violet that screens the dew-drop from the sun, that winding stream, that leafy grove—Christ formed and penciled it all! Christ clad that magnificent landscape with its robe of living green, scented the air with its fragrance, and hollowed out the depth of that expanding ocean dimpled107 with beauty by the gentle breeze or dreadful in its grandeur when trod by the giant storm. Truly, “He hath made every thing beautiful in his time” (Ecc 3:11). Oh! I delight to see the incarnate God, Who died to save, scattering from the opulence108 of His own boundless resources all this jewelry, making man’s sinful home so rich, so lovely, so attractive.

But His own beauty—who can describe it? His person so lovely, His nature so holy, His heart so fond, His spirit so gentle, His look so winning, His voice so soothing. His whole character, life, and demeanor so inlaid and resplendent with every human, spiritual, and divine perfection—truly, it was no imaginative picture, and it was no mere oriental imagery with which the church, in her just and lofty conception, described Him as “the chiefest among ten thousand” (Song 5:10) and “altogether lovely” (Song 5:16).

But Christ’s beauty is shared with all those who have union with Him. Washed in His blood, robed with His righteousness, and adorned with His graces, each believer is lovely through His loveliness put upon him. And there is more of wonder because there is more of God; there is more of beauty because there is more of Christ in that poor sinner who clings in penitence,109 faith, and love to the cross, looking up to God as a pardoned child, and pulsating with a life derived from the indwelling Spirit than in all this vast creation, enameled and sparkling with endless forms of loveliness.

Reader, has Christ’s beauty caught your eye, and penetrated your soul, transforming you—reflecting His image in your Christlike principles, your Christlike spirit, your Christlike walk, your whole Christlike life? Then, dim and imperfect as is the copy, before long, it will be complete, when you “shall see the king in his beauty” (Isa 33:17) and join the faultless throng who encircle the throne of God and the Lamb. Oh! then, be it your employment to contemplate, study, and reflect the beauty of Christ, for there is no beauty like His! “It is a finished portrait!” exclaimed an accomplished infidel, as the character of Christ was delineated to his view. It is a finished portrait—examine it, transfer it to yourself, and beware how you allow a creature’s beauty—a being of human loveliness and love to veil or shade a scintillation110 of Christ’s surpassing beauty from your eye.

From None Like Christ (New York: Anson D. F. Randolph, 1868), 21-27, in the public domain.

Wherein lies therefore that great communion of glory that shall be in heaven? It is in seeing the glory of Christ, Who is the image of the invisible God that is worshipped. As God Himself was invisible, He hath stamped His glory upon His Son.—Thomas Goodwin

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Christ’s Exaltation (Thomas Watson, c. 1620-1686)

Philippians 2:9

“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:” 

Wherein consists Christ’s exaltation? In His rising from the dead, His ascending into heaven, and sitting at the right hand of God the Father,88 etc.

In what sense hath God exalted Christ? Not in respect of Christ’s Godhead, for that cannot be exalted higher than it is. As in Christ’s humiliation, the Godhead was not lower, so in His exaltation, the Godhead is not higher; but Christ is exalted as Mediator—His human nature is exalted.

How many ways is Christ exalted? Five ways: God hath exalted Christ I. In His titles; II. In His office; III. In His ascension; IV. In His session at God’s right hand; V. In constituting Him judge of the world.

I. God hath exalted Christ in His titles. First title: He is exalted to be Lord: “The name of the Lord Jesus was magnified” (Act 19:17). He is Lord in respect of His sovereignty; He is Lord over angels and men. “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Mat 28:18). Christ hath three keys in His hand: (1) the key of the grave, to open the graves of men at the resurrection; (2) the key of heaven, to open the kingdom of heaven to whom He will; (3) the key of hell (Rev 1:18), to lock up the damned in that fiery prison. To this Lord all knees must bow: “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow” (Phi 2:10). Name is put here for person—to that “holy thing” Jesus (Luk 1:35), to the scepter of that divine person every knee shall bow. Bowing is put for submission—all must be subdued to Him as sons or captives and submit to Him as to the Lord or Judge: “Kiss the Son” (Psa 2:12) with a kiss of love and loyalty. We must not only cast ourselves into Christ’s arms to be saved by Him, but we must cast ourselves at His feet to serve Him.

Second title: Christ is exalted to be a prince: “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince” (Dan 12:1). Some think it was a created angel; but it was Angelus fœderis—“the angel of the covenant.”89 He is a great prince: “The prince of the kings of the earth” (Rev 1:5). They hold their crowns by immediate tenure90 from Him. His throne is above the stars, [and] He hath angels and archangels for His attendants. Thus, He is exalted in His titles of honor.

II. God hath exalted Christ in His office. He hath honored Him to be the Savior of the world: “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour” (Act 5:31). It was a great honor to Moses to be a temporal91 savior; but what is it to be the Savior of souls! Christ is called the “horn of salvation”92 (Luk 1:69). He saves from sin (Mat 1:21) and from wrath (1Th 1:10). To save is a flower that belongs only to His crown: “Neither is there salvation in any other” (Act 4:12). What an honor this is to Christ! How it makes heaven ring with saints’ praises! They sing hallelujahs to Christ their Savior. “And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” (Rev 5:9).

III. God hath exalted Christ in His ascension. If He be ascended, then He is exalted…But the Scripture is plain: He ascended into heaven, “far above all heavens” (Eph 4:10; Luk 24:51)—therefore above the firmament.93 He is ascended into the highest part of the empyrean heaven,94 which Paul calls “the third heaven” (2Co 12:2). Concerning Christ’s ascension, two things:

1. The manner of Christ’s ascension: (1) Christ, beginning to ascend, blessed His disciples. “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” (Luk 24:50-51). Christ did not leave His disciples houses and lands, but He left them His blessing. (2) Christ ascended as a conqueror in a way of triumph. “Thou hast led captivity captive” (Psa 68:18; Eph 4:8). He triumphed over sin, hell, and death; and Christ’s triumph is a believer’s triumph: Christ hath conquered sin and hell for every believer.

2. The fruit of Christ’s ascension: Christ’s ascension to heaven causeth the descension of the Holy Spirit into our hearts: “When he ascended up on high, he…gave gifts unto men” (Eph 4:8). Christ having ascended in the clouds, as His triumphant chariot, gives the gift of His Spirit to us, as a king at his coronation bestows gifts liberally to his favorites.

IV. God hath exalted Christ in His session at God’s right hand. “After the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God” (Mar 16:19). “He raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (Eph 1:20-21).

What is meant by Christ’s sitting at God’s right hand? To speak properly, God hath no right hand or left; for being a Spirit, He is void of all bodily parts. But it is borrowed speech—a metaphor taken from the manner of kings who were [in the habit of advancing] their favorites next to their own persons, seating them at their right hand. Solomon caused a seat to be set for his mother the queen and placed her at his right hand (1Ki 2:19). So, for Christ to sit at the right hand of God is to be in the next place to God the Father in dignity and honor.

The human nature of Christ, being personally united to the divine, is now seated on a royal throne in heaven and adored even by angels. By virtue of the personal union of Christ’s human nature with the divine, there is a communication of all that glory from the deity of Christ that His human nature is capable of. Not that the manhood of Christ is advanced to an equality with the Godhead, but the divine nature being joined with the human, the human nature is wonderfully glorified, though not deified. Christ as Mediator is filled with all majesty and honor beyond the comprehension of the highest order of angels: Christ in His humiliation descended so low that it was not fit to go lower; and in His exaltation, He ascended so high that it is not possible to go higher. In His resurrection, He was exalted above the grave; in His ascension, He was exalted above the airy and starry heaven; in His sitting at God’s right hand, He is exalted above the highest heavens far, “far above all heavens” (Eph 4:10).

V. God hath exalted Christ in constituting Him judge of the whole world. “The Father…hath committed all judgment unto the Son” (Joh 5:22). At the Day of Judgment shall Christ be exalted supereminently.95 “He cometh in the glory of his Father” (Mar 8:38). He shall wear the same embroidered robes of majesty as the Father; and He shall come with all His holy angels (Mat 25:31). He Who was led to the bar96 with a band of soldiers shall be attended to the bench with a guard of angels. Christ shall judge His judges; He shall judge Pilate that condemned Him! Kings must leave their thrones and come to His bar. And this is the highest court of judicature,97 from whence is no appeal.

Use 1. Of information: Branch 1: See Christ’s different state on earth and now in heaven. Oh, how is the scene altered! When He was on earth, He lay in a manger—now He sits on a throne. Then He was hated and scorned of men—now He is adored of angels. Then His name was reproached—now God hath “given him a name which is above every name” (Phi 2:9). Then He came in the form of a servant. And as a servant, [He] stood with His basin and towel and washed His disciples’ feet (Joh 13:4-5)—now He is clad in His prince’s robes, and the kings of the earth cast their crowns before Him. On earth He was a man of sorrow—now He is anointed with the oil of gladness. On earth was His crucifixion—now His coronation. Then His Father frowned upon Him in desertion—now He hath set Him at His right hand. Before He seemed to have no form or beauty in Him (Isa 53:2)—now He is in the brightness of His Father’s glory (Heb 1:3). Oh, what a change is here! “God also hath highly exalted him” (Phi 2:9).

Branch 2: Was Christ first humble and then exalted? Hence learn, the way to true honor is humility: “He that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luk 14:11). The world looks upon humility as that which will make one contemptible, but it is the ready way to honor. The way to rise is to fall, the way to ascend is to descend. Humility exalts us in the esteem of men, and it exalts us to a higher throne in heaven. “Whosoever…shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 18:4), viz.,98 he shall have a greater degree of glory in it.

Branch 3: Christ suffered and then was exalted. See hence that sufferings must go before glory. Many desire to be glorified with Christ, but they are not content to suffer forChrist. “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him” (2Ti 2:12). The wicked first reign and then suffer; the godly first suffer, and then reign. There is…no way to heaven, but through sufferings; no way to the crown, but by the way of the cross. Jerusalem above is a pleasant city—streets of gold, gates of pearl; but we must travel through a dirty road to this city—through many reproaches and sufferings (Act 14:22). We must enter glory as Christ did: first He suffered shame and death, and now [He] is exalted to sit at God’s right hand.

Use 2. Of comfort: Branch 1: Christ, being so highly exalted, hath ennobled our nature. He hath crowned it with glory and lifted it above angels and archangels. Though Christ, as He was man, “was made a little lower than the angels” (Heb 2:9), yet as the human nature is united to the divine and is at God’s right hand, so the human nature is above the angels. And if God hath so dignified our human nature, what a shame it is that we should debase99 it! God hath exalted the human nature above the angels, and the drunkard abaseth the human nature below the beasts.

Branch 2: Christ being exalted at God’s right hand, the key of government is laid upon His shoulders. He governs all the affairs of the world for His own glory. Do you think when Christ is so highly advanced and hath all power in heaven and earth in His hand, He will not take care of His elect and turn the most astonishing providences to the good of His church? In a clock, the wheels move cross one to another, but all make the clock strike. [Likewise,] Christ, being at His Father’s right hand, will make the most cross providences100 tend to the salvation of His church.

Branch 3: Christ being at God’s right hand, we may be assured He hath now finished the work of man’s redemption. “This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God” (Heb 10:12). If Christ had not fully expiated sin and satisfied God’s Law, He would not have sat down at God’s right hand but would still lie in the grave; but now He is exalted to glory—this is an evident token He hath done and suffered all that was required of Him for the working out of our redemption.

Branch 4: Though Jesus Christ is so highly exalted in glory, yet He is not forgetful of us on earth. Some, when they are raised to places of honor, forget their friends: when the chief butler was restored to his place at court, then he forgot poor Joseph in prison. But it is not so with Christ: though He be exalted to such glory in heaven, yet He is mindful of His saints on earth. Our high priest hath all the names and [needs] of His people written upon His breastplate. Art thou tempted? Though Christ be in glory, He knows how to pity and [strengthen] thee. “We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Heb 4:15). Dost thou mourn for sin? Christ, though in a glorified state, hears thy sighs and bottles thy tears (Psa 56:8).

Branch 5: Christ being exalted at God’s right hand is for the comfort of believers that they shall one day be exalted to that place of glory where He is. Christ’s exaltation is our exaltation. Christ hath prayed for this: “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am” (Joh 17:24). And He is said to go before to “prepare a place” for believers (Joh 14:2). Christ is called the Head; the church is called His body (Eph 1:22-23). The Head being exalted to honor, the body mystical shall be exalted too. As sure as Christ is exalted far above all heavens, so sure will He instate believers in all that glory that His human nature is adorned with (Joh 17:22). As here He puts His grace upon the saints, so shortly will He put His glory upon them. This is comfort to the poorest Christian. Perhaps thou hast scarce an house to put thy head in; yet thou mayest look up to heaven and say, “There is my house, there is my country, and I have already taken possession of heaven in my Head, Christ. He sits there, and it will not be long before I shall sit there with Him. He is upon the throne of glory, and I have His word for it: I shall sit upon the throne with Him” (see Rev 3:21).

Use 3. Of exhortation: Hath God highly exalted Christ? Let us labor to exalt Him. Let us exalt 1. His person, 2. His truths.

1. Let us exalt Christ in our hearts. Believe! Oh, adore and love Him! We cannot lift Christ up higher in heaven, but we may in our hearts. Let us exalt Him with our lips: let us praise Him! Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, our tongues must be the organs in these temples. By praising and commending Christ, we exalt Him in the esteem of others. Let us exalt Him in our lives by living holy lives…Not all the doxologies and prayers in the world do so exalt Christ as a holy life; this makes Christ renowned and lifts Him up indeed, when His followers walk worthy of Christ.

2. Let us exalt Christ’s truths. Bucholcerus,101 in his Chronology, reports of the nobles of [Poland] that whenever the gospel is read, they lay their hands upon their swords, intimating that they are ready to maintain the gospel with the hazard of their lives. Let us exalt Christ’s truths [by maintaining] the truths of Christ against error, the doctrine of free grace against merit, [and] the deity of Christ against Socinianism.102

Truth is the most orient103 pearl of Christ’s crown! Contend for the truth as one would for a sum of money that it should not be wrested104 out of his hand. When we exalt His truths, wherein His glory is so much concerned, Christ takes this to be an exalting of Him.

From The Select Works of the Rev. Thomas Watson (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1855), 137–140, in the public domain.

_______________________

Thomas Watson (c. 1620-1686): English Nonconformist Puritan preacher and author; possibly born in Yorkshire, England, UK.

Let every believing eye look through the thick darkness and behold Jesus as He sits this day upon the throne of His Father. Let every heart rejoice while it sees the many crowns of dominion upon His head. First and foremost, there sparkles about His brow the everlasting diadem of the King of Heaven. His are the angels. The cherubim and seraphim continually sound forth His praise! At His behest the mightiest spirit delights to fly and carry His commands to the most distant world. He has but to speak, and it is done. Cheerfully is He obeyed, and majestically doth He reign! His high courts are thronged with holy spirits, who live upon His smile, who drink light from His eyes, who borrow glory from His majesty. There is no spirit in heaven so pure that it does not bow before Him, no angel so bright that it does not veil its face with its wings when it draweth near Him. Yea, moreover, the many spirits redeemed, delight to bow before Him. Day without night, they circle His throne, singing, “Worthy is He that was slain and hath redeemed us from our sins by His blood. Honor, and glory, and majesty, and power, and dominion, and might be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever!” To be King of heaven were surely enough! Christ is Lord of all its boundless plains. He laid the precious stones upon which was built the city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He is the light of that city, He is the joy of its inhabitants, and it is their loving life evermore to pay Him honor.—Charles Spurgeon

That real view which we may have of Christ and His glory in this world by faith is inexpressibly to be preferred above all other wisdom, understanding, or knowledge whatever.—John Owen

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Christ’s Crucifixion (Charles H. Spurgeon, 1834-1892)

John 12:32

“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” 

Christ’s crucifixion is Christ’s glory.69 He uses the words lifted up to express the manner of His death. “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die” (Joh 12:32-33). But notice the choice of the word to express His death. He does not say, “I, if I be crucified, I, if I be hanged on the tree”; no, but “I, if I be lifted up.” And in the Greek, there is the meaning of exaltation: “I, if I be exalted—I, if I be lifted on high.” He took the outward and visible fashion of the cross, it being a lifting of Him up, to be the type and symbol of the glory with which the cross should invest even Him. “I, if I be lifted up.”

Now, the cross of Christ is Christ’s glory. We will show you how. Man seeks to win his glory by the slaughter of others—Christ by the slaughter of Himself. Men seek to get crowns of gold—He sought a crown of thorns. Men think that glory lieth in being exalted over others—Christ thought that His glory did lie in becoming “a worm, and no man” (Psa 22:6), a scoff and reproach amongst all that beheld Him. He stooped when He conquered; and He counted that the glory lay as much in the stooping as in the conquest.

Christ was glorified on the cross, we say, first, because love is always glorious. If I might prefer any glory, I should ask to be beloved by men. Surely, the greatest glory that a man can have among his fellows is not that of mere admiration, when they stare at him as he passes through the street and throng the avenues to behold him as he rideth in his triumph. The greatest fame, the greatest glory of a patriot is the love of his country—to feel that young men and maidens, old men and sires,70 are prepared to fall at his feet in love, to give up all they have to serve him who has served them.

Now, Christ won more love by the cross than He ever did win elsewhere. “O Lord Jesus, Thou wouldst never have been so much loved, if Thou hadst sat in heaven forever, as Thou art now loved since Thou hast stooped to death. Not cherubim71 and seraphim,72 and angels clad in light, ever could have loved with hearts so warm as Thy redeemed above, or even Thy redeemed below. Thou didst win love more abundantly by the nail than by Thy scepter. Thine open side brought Thee no emptiness of love, for Thy people love Thee with all their hearts.” Christ won glory by His cross. He was never so lifted up as when He was cast down; and the Christian will bear witness that though he loves his Master anywhere, yet nothing moves his heart to rapture and vehemence of love like the story of the crucifixion and the agonies of Calvary.

Again: Christ at this time won much glory by fortitude. 73 The cross was a trial of Christ’s fortitude and strength, and therein it was a garden in which His glory might be planted. The laurels of His crown74 were sown in a soil that was saturated with His own blood…Christ looked upon the cross as being His way to honor. “Oh!” said He, “Now shall be the time of My endurance: I have suffered much, but I shall suffer more; and then shall the world see what a strong heart of love I have!” How patient is the Lamb, how mighty to endure! Never would Christ have had such paeans75 of praise and such songs of honor as He now winneth, if He had avoided the conflict, the battle, and the agony. We might have blessed Him for what He is and for what He wished to do; we might have loved Him for the very longings of His heart; but we never could have praised Him for His strong endurance, for His intrepid76 spirit, for His unconquerable love, if we had not seen Him put to the severe test of crucifixion and the agonies of that awful day. Christ did win glory by His being crucified.

Again: Christ looked upon His crucifixion as the completion of all His work; therefore, He looked upon it as an exaltation. The completion of an enterprise is the harvest of its honor. Though thousands have perished in the arctic regions and have obtained fame for their intrepid conduct, yet, my friends, the man who at last discovers the passage is the most of all honored; and though we shall for ever remember those bold men who pushed their way through winter in all its might and dared the perils of the deep, yet the man who accomplishes the deed wins more than his share of the glory.

Surely the accomplishment of an enterprise is just the point where the honor hangs. And, my hearers, Christ longed for the cross because He looked for it as the goal of all His exertions. It was to be the place upon which He could say, “It is finished” (Joh 19:30). He could never say, “It is finished,” on His throne; but on His cross He did cry it. He preferred the sufferings of Calvary to the honors of the multitude who crowded round about Him; for, preach as He might, bless them as He might, heal them as He might, still was His work undone. He was straitened.77 He had a baptism to be baptized with, and how was He straitened until it was accomplished! (Luk 12:50). “But,” He said, “now I pant for my cross, for it is the topstone78 of My labor. I long for My sufferings because they shall be the completion of My great work of grace.” Brethren, it is the end that bringeth the honor; it is the victory that crowneth the warrior rather than the battle. So, Christ longed for this, His death, that He might see the completion of His labor. “Ay,” said He, “when I am crucified, I am exalted and lifted up.”

And, once again, Christ looked upon His crucifixion with the eye of firm faith as the hour of triumph. His disciples thought that the cross would be a degradation; Christ looked through the outward and visible and beheld the spiritual. “The cross,” said He, “the gibbet79 of My doom may seem to be cursed with ignominy, and the world shall stand round and hiss at the crucified. My name be forever dishonored as one who died upon the tree; and cavilers80 and scoffers may forever throw this in the teeth of My friends that I died with the malefactor;81 but I look not at the cross as you do. I know its ignominy, but I despise the shame—I am prepared to endure it all. I look upon the cross as the gate of triumph, as the portal of victory. Oh, shall I tell you what I shall behold upon the cross? Just when Mine eye is swimming with the last tear and when My heart is palpitating82with its last pang; just when My body is rent with its last thrill83 of anguish, then Mine eye shall see the head of the dragon broken (Gen 3:15); it shall see hell’s towers dismantled and its castle fallen. Mine eye shall see My seed eternally saved; I shall behold the ransomed coming from their prison houses. In that last moment of My doom, when My mouth is just preparing for its last cry of ‘It is finished,’ I shall behold the year of My redeemed come, I shall shout My triumph in the delivery of all My beloved! Ay, and I shall see then the world, Mine own earth conquered, and usurpers all dethroned, and I shall behold in vision the glories of the latter days, when I shall sit upon the throne of My father David and judge the earth, attended with the pomp of angels and the shouts of My beloved!”

Yes, Christ saw in His cross the victories of it, and therefore did He pant and long for it as being the place of victory and the means of conquest. “I,” said Jesus, “if I be lifted up, if I be exalted.” He puts His crucifixion as being His glory…

And now I close by noticing the last sweet thought: “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” Then Christ Jesus will draw all His people to heaven. He says He will draw them unto Himself. He is in heaven; then Christ is the chariot in which souls are drawn to heaven. The people of the Lord are on their way to heaven; they are carried in everlasting arms, and those arms are the arms of Christ. Christ is carrying them up to His own house, to His own throne. By-and-by His prayer—“Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am” (Joh 17:24)—shall be wholly fulfilled. And it is fulfilling now, for He is like a strong courser84 drawing His children in the chariot of the covenant of grace85 unto Himself. Oh! Blessed be God, the cross is the plank on which we swim to heaven; the cross is the great covenant transport that will weather out the storms and reach its desired heaven. This is the chariot, the pillars wherewith are of gold and the bottom thereof silver; it is lined with the purple of the atonement86 of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And now, poor sinner, I would to God [that] Christ would pardon thee. Remember His death on Calvary; remember His agonies and bloody sweat—all this He did for thee, if thou [knowest] thyself to be a sinner. Does not this draw thee to Him?

Though thou art guilty He is good,
He’ll wash thy soul in Jesus’ blood.

Thou hast rebelled against Him and revolted; but He says, “Return, ye backsliding87 children” (Jer 3:22). Will not His love draw thee? I pray that both may have their power and influence, that thou mayest be drawn to Christ now, and at last be drawn to heaven. May God give a blessing for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

From a sermon delivered on July 5, 1857, at the Music Hall, 
Royal Surrey Gardens.

At this time, there is a coal of burning love in the breast of Christ. This fire was indeed from everlasting, but the flames are as hot this day as ever. Now it is that Christ loves and lives, and [why does He live] but only to love us and to intercede for us? Christ makes our salvation His constant calling; He is ever at His work: “Yesterday, and to day, and for ever’’ (Heb 13:8). There is not one hour in the day, nor one day in a year, nor one year in an age, in which Christ is not busy with His Father in this heavenly employment of interceding for us. He loved us before He died for us, His love being the cause why He died for us; and He loves us still in that now He intercedes for us. It is as much as to say, “Christ hath loved us, and He repents not of His love.” Love made Him die for us; and if it were to do again, He would die over again. Yes, if our sins had so required that for every elect person Christ must die several deaths, love, love would have put Him willingly upon all these deaths. Oh, the love of Christ towards our poor souls…He carries us on His shoulders, as a man found his sheep, and “layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing” (Luk 15:5). Nay, I must yet come nearer; for Christ by His intercession sets us nearer yet: “his left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me” (Song 2:6). He wears us in heaven as a bracelet about His arms, which made the spouse cry out, “Set me as a seal…upon thine arm” (Song 8:6). He stamps and prints us on the palms of His hands, “Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands” (Isa 49:16), as if our names were written in letters of blood upon Christ’s flesh. He sets us as a seal upon His heart; that is the expression of the spouse too, “Set me as a seal upon thine heart” (Song 8:6). Nay, so precious are the saints to Jesus Christ that they lodge in heaven in His bowels and in His heart, for they dwell in Christ: “Hereby know we that we dwell in him” (1Jo 4:13). And they dwell in God, and dwell in love: “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God” (1Jo 4:16). I know not what more to say. You know, the manner of the high priests was to carry the names of the children of Israel into the holy of holies on their shoulders and on their breasts; but was it ever heard that any high priest—besides the great “High Priest of our profession” (Heb 3:1)—should carry the names of thousands and millions on his shoulders, on his arms, on his hands, on His bosom, and on his heart…as a memorial before the Lord? Oh, unmatchable love!—Isaac Ambrose.

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Christ’s Humiliation (William S. Plumer, 1802-1880)

Respecting the humiliation45 of the Savior, the language of Scripture is strong: He “made himself of no reputation,46 and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion47 as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phi 2:7-8). This is an outline of our Lord’s humiliation, which has long been and will forever be the wonder and the song of angels and redeemed men. The whole of our Lord’s history on earth was one series of acts of self-emptying and humiliation.

Let us begin with the humble circumstances in which He came into the world. The husband of His mother was an artisan,48 commonly supposed to be a carpenter (Mat 13:55). Both he and the mother of our Lord were descended from David (Luk 2:4). But this family was fallen so low that when Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem, their descent from David secured them no attentions or civilities;49 they were lodged in a house built for cattle. There the mother of our Lord brought forth her child, wrapped Him in swaddling clothes,50 and laid Him in a manger because there was no room in the inn (Luk 2:7). And when she brought Him to present Him to [God in the temple,] her offering was that of the poorest: “A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons” (Luk 2:24). The law of Moses admitted that offering for those who were “not able to bring a lamb” (Lev 12:8). Thus, the most highly favored among women was found in the depths of poverty and in great neglect. Her firstborn shared her lot. I have heard of but one child born in a stable—the holy child Jesus.

At His birth, our Lord had all the weakness of infancy. He was helpless and dependent like other children. The inspired history tells us that He “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luk 2:52). He had the trials of childhood.

No sooner was His birth known than Herod the Great, a cruel and bloody man, became intent on His death. He killed all the young children in one district of the land in the hope that he would thereby surely destroy Jesus. By timely warning from God, that infant Savior was rescued from the threatened evil; but only by flight into Egypt—Egypt, the “Rahab” and “Leviathan” of Scripture. The cruel, idolatrous, and degraded people of that land had a hereditary and inveterate51 hatred against the Jews; but now their country was a safer asylum to this blessed family than any city or village of Judea.

On their return from Egypt, they settled in Nazareth. By some means this place had been rendered odious.52 Even the guileless53 Nathanael shared in the common aversion and cried, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (Joh 1:46). Jesus spent the most of His life here until He was thirty years old. Nazareth is not once mentioned in the Old Testament, nor by Josephus.54 Prophecy said that Christ should be “despised and rejected of men” (Isa 53:3)…

Nazareth was probably infamous for the fierceness and brutality of its people (Luk 4:16-30). It was not the seat of any famous school. As a place of residence, it had the advantage of privacy; and its geographical position was truly beautiful. Here our Lord lived and wrought at the same craft as Joseph; for His own countrymen said, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?” (Mar 6:3). If there was any school at Nazareth, Jesus does not seem to have attended it; for the Jews said, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15). Another part of Christ’s humiliation consisted in His being tempted (Heb 2:18; 4:15). True, the prince of this world found nothing in Him (Joh 14:30). In His holy soul was no fuel to be kindled by the fiery darts; but it must have filled Him with anguish to have so foul suggestions made to Him. So far as we know, His first great conflict with the adversary was in the wilderness. It lasted forty days (Luk 4:2). Christ was about to enter on His public ministry and retired to the wilderness under the best desires to commune with God. But Satan annoyed Him continually. The temptation grew worse and worse to the close. The adversary then tempted Him to use His miraculous power to prove His deity to Satan and to satisfy His own hunger, as He had eaten nothing for forty days. The wicked one also tempted Him to an act of presumption by throwing Himself from the pinnacle of the temple. Finally, he offered Him immense possessions and great honors, the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, if He would commit one act of idolatry. It added not a little to the power of these besetments55 that they were urged on Christ in His solitude. Although each assault was an utter failure, yet the devil departed from Him but for a season (Luk 4:13). The Savior was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin (Heb 4:15).

As Jesus was born, so He lived and died poor. He said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Mat 8:20). During His ministry, He seems to have chiefly subsisted upon the charity of some poor, pious women. Well did He know what it was to suffer hunger and want. When a capitation56 tax was demanded of Him, though it was but half a crown57 for Himself and Peter, He could not pay it without a miracle.

Another element of Christ’s humiliation was His liability to affliction. Above all that ever lived, He was the “man of sorrows” (Isa 53:3). He was subject to disappointment, grief, vexation, a sense of wrong, a sense of the ingratitude of men, and the pangs arising from a disregard of all the principles of friendship. His holy soul was filled with anguish by His cruel rejection. “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (Joh 1:10-11). None of the princes of this world knew Him (1Co 2:8). “We hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isa 53:3). Those countless annoyances, called slights, must have pierced Him deeply. The people of the city where He had been brought up were so offended at His first sermon in their synagogue that they attempted to destroy His life by casting Him down from a high rock (Luk 4:16-30). And when He claimed existence prior to Abraham, the Jews took up stones to cast at Him (Joh 8:59). For saving two men from the most frightful torments, followed by the loss of some swine, the whole city of the Gergesenes “besought him that he would depart out of their coasts” (Mat 8:34). They preferred their swine, madmen, and devils to the Prince of Peace. Afterwards, on His trial, the Jews cried, “Away with him, away with him” (Joh 19:15). They preferred to have a murderer turned loose on their community, rather than that the Son of God should longer teach His heavenly doctrines. Their cry was, “Not this man, but Barabbas” (Joh 18:40). During His whole ministry, the leaders among His foes denied that God had sent Him (Joh 10:24-26). Never was mission so well attested. Never were attestations58 so malignantly set aside.

And never were hard names and opprobrious epithets59 so heaped upon any one. His enemies said He was a deceiver (Joh 7:12), gluttonous and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners (Mat 11:19). They said He was in league with the prince of the devils and that by satanic power He wrought miracles. Surely above all others, He endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself (Heb 12:3). Nor were these things without their dreadful effects on His refined and tender nature. “His visage60 was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men” (Isa 52:14). Speaking in His name, the prophet said, “Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none” (Psa 69:20). The same prophet had elsewhere said in His name, “I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head” (Psa 22:6-7).

The annals of our race furnish no parallel to His history in the lack of sympathy under amazing sufferings. No terms of derision, no taunts in the midst of His agonies were deemed indecent by His enemies (Mat 27:40-43). In His greatest trial, when He most needed the offices of friendship, His “disciples forsook him and fled” (Mat 26:56). The very boldest of all His followers denied Him thrice, and even with oaths and curses (Mar 14:71). Never by countenance did friend express such surprise, regret, and reproof, as when Christ looked on Peter after the cock crew.61

He was not only denied by one disciple; He was betrayed by another in a manner full of base hypocrisy, even with a kiss (Luk 22:48). The general motive for His betrayal was the depravity of Judas. The special motive was covetousness. Yet the son of perdition sold Him for the paltry sum of thirty pieces of silver, the amount fixed by the law of Moses as the price of a slave, to be paid to his owner if his death had been brought about by the goring of a neighbor’s ox (Exo 21:32). In prophetically speaking of this sum, Zechariah ironically calls it a goodly price. He cast the amount in scorn to the potter in the house of the Lord (Zec 11:13).

Another element in our Lord’s humiliation was the character of the testimony on His trial. The witnesses were all suborned.62 The Jews “sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death; 60 But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none” (Mat 26:59-60). That is, the law required two concurring witnesses, and they found not two who agreed. “At the last came two false witnesses, And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days” (Mat 26:60-61). These witnesses lied, for they had not heard Him say anything about destroying the temple, and what He did say was quite unlike what they alleged. “Destroy this temple”—i.e., kill this body—“and in three days I will raise it up” (Joh 2:19). The thing charged was absurd and frivolous as well as false. No wonder Jesus held His peace and answered nothing. The Jews evidently felt that they had made good no serious charge; for they tried to get from Him a confession that He was the Christ, the Son of the Blessed. Our Lord [thought] it was a right time to speak, whereupon He made that “good confession” (1Ti 6:13), so precious in the church ever since. He said He was the Christ.

The course of the judge who sat on His trial, while it was a disgrace to himself, was a deep humiliation to Jesus. If history can be trusted, Pilate was a monster of perfidy, avarice, cruelty, and obstinacy.63 Previously, he had fallen on some poor Galileans and butchered them while they were making their prescribed offerings, thus mingling their blood with their sacrifices (Luk 13:1). No decency of life, no solemnity of religion could restrain him. Over and over again did he confess that Jesus had violated no law, had committed no offence. His wife warned him to do nothing against that just man. He knew that the chief priests had delivered Him up for envy. He was afraid that he would lose his place if he did not give sentence against Jesus. Instead of abiding by his own clear convictions, he turned to the malignant enemies of the innocent sufferer before him and asked them what the sentence should be (cf. Mat 27:18-19, 24; Joh 19:12-16). Before yielding to the violence of the mob around the judgment seat, this mercenary and vacillating64 creature made a feeble effort to convince the Jews that the prisoner before him ought not to die, saying, “Why, what evil hath he done?” (Mat 27:23). This failing, he thought to save his popularity and the life of Jesus by working on their sympathies. So, he delivered Christ over to be scourged. This was a dreadful infliction. The back was made bare, the arms were drawn up, the scourge was applied first with the right hand and then with the left. Men often grew faint at the shocking sight. All this had been predicted by the evangelical prophet: “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting” (Isa 50:6). But all this had no effect in appeasing the rage of the malignant throng. Nor did it strengthen any just purpose in the bosom of the judge. So, he delivered His guiltless victim to be crucified (Mat 27:26). It is often asked, What became of Pilate? His murder of the Galileans and like acts of violence would probably have caused his dismissal, had not Tiberius65 died. He, however, fell under the displeasure of the successor of that emperor, was degraded from office, became a wretched outcast, and ended his days by committing suicide.

As the form of trial granted to Jesus was a mockery of all justice and decency, so mockery was kept up to the last. They spit in His face and buffeted Him. Others smote Him with the palms of their hands, and asked Him, “Who is he that smote thee?” They stripped Him, and put on Him a scarlet robe, as though He were a royal personage. But all was in derision. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head and a reed in His right hand; and they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit upon Him and took the reed and smote Him on the head. And after they had mocked Him, they took the robe off from Him, put His own raiment on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him (Mat 26:67-68; 27:28-31).

It would be wonderful66 indeed if so long and sleepless sorrow, such scourging and smiting, had not much exhausted His strength. And so we find it. At first by their bidding, He bare His own cross (Joh 19:17); but, as is supposed, growing faint under it, He could bear it no farther. They met a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Matthew says they compelled him to bear the cross. Luke says they laid the cross on him that he might bear it after Jesus (cf. Mat 27:32; Luk 23:26). Who this Simon was, friend or foe, or how he felt on the sad occasion is not certain; but he was probably suspected of leaning to the cause of Christ. It is not certain whether he bore the whole cross or only the hinder part of it.

As the procession advanced, there followed Him a great company of people and of women that also bewailed and lamented Him. But Jesus, knowing He should soon be through His troubles and seeing the glory that should follow, turning to them, said, “Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.” He then foretold the awful doom of the holy city (Luk 23:27-31).

Reaching the dreadful spot, Jesus was again stripped and nailed to the cross. Truly, this was the hour of darkness! A few days before, the Son of God was in tears. The night before, He had been in bloody sweat (Luk 22:44). Now He is on the cross, receiving at the hands of men a punishment reserved for the worst criminals and those slaves. Some think hanging on the cross produced dislocation. So they understand that phrase, “All my bones are out of joint” (Psa 22:14). Others think it is figurative language, descriptive of dreadful agony, as if all the bones were dislocated. Perhaps this is the more probable view. The theory of death by crucifixion was the extinction of life, not by strangulation nor by loss of blood, but by nervous distress. The extremities, the seat of very tender sensation, were wounded and lacerated. The distortions of the frame were dreadful. The sufferer was confined to one position, itself great torture if long continued. One may read the history of crucifixion until his feelings are petrified. The details are indeed lacerating. No doubt a graphic description of them in a large assembly would make many swoon away. But the object of this chapter is not to [rip up] sensibilities, but to show how Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Wondrous cross! Wondrous tree...But the efficacy of the cross is not in the wood, but in the blood shed by Him Who hung upon it…Every death by the cross was shameful. That of our Lord was peculiarly so. He was crucified between two thieves, and with every mark of ignominy.67

Such was the agony of death by the cross that, as a matter of humanity, it seems to have been customary to administer some powerful narcotic to produce insensibility. “Wine mingled with myrrh” was offered to our Savior, but He “received it not” (Mar 15:23). He drew His solace from another source. As He had despised their reproaches and cruelties, so He [despised] their proffered stupefying cup. Christ would end His days with an unclouded intellect. He would not leave the world in voluntary stupor. Yet even the offer of wine mingled with myrrh was soon followed by renewed derision (Mat 27:42-43).

The death of the cross is often called accursed. It was so indeed. Paul says: “It is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Gal 3:13). He refers to Deuteronomy 21:22-23: “And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.” These texts do not teach that eternal misery always followed this kind of death. We know this is not so. The penitent thief went from the cross to paradise…

Though the sentence given by Pilate was wholly unjust, and though it was with wicked hands that Jesus was crucified and slain (Act 2:23), yet, as He voluntarily and by God’s approval stood in our place, He bore “the curse of the law,” not for His own, but for our sins. No doubt the Mosaic law pointed to the death of Christ, for above all that ever lived, He was “made a curse” (Gal 3:13), though not for Himself, yet “for us.” He was not only forsaken of men, but of God. The bitterest cry ever heard came from the cross: “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”68 (Mar 15:34).

Not long after, our Savior cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost. The executioners admitted that He was dead, and neither friend nor foe doubted. The water that came from His side proved that He was dead and cold. But the Lord of heaven and earth had no sepulcher of His own. The love of one of His followers secured Him burial. Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable counsellor and a rich man, who had hitherto shown much timidity, went in boldly unto Pilate and craved the body of Jesus. He bought fine linen and took Him down, wrapped Him in the linen, laid Him in a sepulcher that was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulcher (Mar 15:43, 46). Here the Lord lay surrounded by a strong guard of Roman soldiers.

This was the end of His humiliation.

From Rock of Our Salvation, 179-197, Sprinkle Publications, www.sprinklepublications.net.

_______________________

William S. Plumer (1802-1880): American Presbyterian minister and author; born in Greensburg, PA, USA.

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Christ’s Love (Octavius Winslow, 1808-1878)

There is no love like the love of Christ. The association of contrast will aid us here. God, Who is love (1Jo 4:8), is the author of all human affection. Love is the creation of deity, the descendant of heaven, the reflection of God; and he whose soul is the most replete with divine love is the most like God. Paralyzed though our humanity is by the fall, tainted20 as it is by sin, the human heart is still the home of love in some of its loftiest and purest forms. It is impossible to behold its creations without the profoundest reverence. Who can stand, for instance, in the presence of a mother’s love and not be awed by its dignity, won by its power, and melted by its tenderness?

But there is a love that equals, a love that excels, a love that surpasses it—the love of Christ! Institute your contrast. Select from among the different relations of life the nearest and dearest; choose from those relations the deepest, purest, truest love that ever warmed the human breast, prompting to generous and noble deeds, to tender and touching expressions, to costly and precious sacrifices. Place it side by side with the divine love that chose you, the love that ransomed you, the love that called you, the love that soothes you, the love whose eyelid never closes, whose accents never change, whose warmth never chills, whose hand is never withdrawn—“the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge” (Eph 3:19); and it is the very antithesis21 of selfishness. The love of Christ stands out in the “history of the love” as the divinest, the holiest, the strongest of all love—unequaled, unparalleled, unsurpassed. Oh! There is no love like Christ’s love! Trace its features:

1. The love of Christ is a revealing love. It uplifts the veil from the heart of God and shows how that heart loves me. I would have known nothing of the love of my Father in heaven, but for the love of my Savior on earth. And that penitent, believing soul that feels the softest, gentlest pulse of Christ’s love throbbing in his breast, knows more of the heart of God, sees more of the glory of God, and understands more of the character of God, than were earth and sky and sea to collect all their wonders and lay them at his feet.

2. The love of Christ is a condescending22 love. No other love ever stooped like Christ’s love. Go to Bethlehem and behold its lowliness; and as you return, pause awhile at Gethsemane and gaze upon its sorrow, then pursue your way to Calvary and learn in the ignominy,23 in the curse, in the gloom, in the desertion, in the tortures, in the crimson tide of that cross, how low Christ’s love has stooped. And still it stoops! It bends to all your circumstances. You can be conscious of the becloudings24 of no guilt that it will not cancel, of the pressure of no sin that it will not lighten, of the chafings of no cross that it will not heal, of the depths of no sorrow that it will not reach, of the dreary loneliness of no path it will not illumine and cheer. Oh! Is there a home on earth where the love of Christ most loves to dwell, where you will oftener find, yes, always meet it? It is the heart—broken, contrite,25 and humbled for sin!

3. The love of Christ is a self-sacrificing love. “Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour” (Eph 5:2). What a laborious life, what a suffering death was His, and all was but the out-paying, outpouring of His love. He obeyed every precept of the broken Law, He endured every penalty of an exacting justice. The path that conducted Him from Bethlehem to Calvary wound its lonesome way through scenes of humiliation and insult, of trial and privation,26 the storm growing darker and darker, the thunder waxing louder and louder, and the lightning gleaming brighter and brighter until its central horrors gathered round the cross and crushed the Son of God! O marvelous love of Christ! What more could you do than you have done? To what lower depth of ignominy could you stoop? What darker sorrow could you endure? Where did another cross ever impale such a victim or illustrate such love?

4. Nor is there any love so forgiving as Christ’s love. Forgiveness of injury is an essential element of true affection. We cannot see how love can exist at the same moment and in the same breast with an unbending, unrelenting, unforgiving spirit. Real love is so unique and lofty a passion, so Godlike and divine in its nature and properties, we cannot conceive of it but in alliance with every ennobling, elevating, and worthy sentiment. Selfishness, malignity, revenge, uncharitableness, and all evil speaking are passions of our fallen and depraved humanity, so hateful and degrading, it would seem impossible that they should exist for an instant in the same atmosphere with true affection.

But a yet loftier form, a more sublime embodiment27 of love is presented to us in the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. God cannot love—we speak reverently—and not forgive. Those whom God loves, God pardons. That God regards every individual of the fallen race with a feeling of benevolence is unquestionable: “For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mat 5:45); but those to whom the love of God extends, His everlasting, His special, and His redeeming love—the gracious, the full, the eternal forgiveness of all sin—likewise extends. God could not love a being and give that being over into the hands of a stern, avenging justice. Divine love will never lose the lowest and unworthiest object of its affections.

If, my reader, you feel conscious that you love God, though your affection be but as a smoldering ember, as a glimmering spark, be sure of this: God first loved you (1Jo 4:19); and loving, He has pardoned you; and pardoning, He will preserve you to His heavenly kingdom that you may behold His glory and enjoy His presence forever.

We repeat the remark: there is no love so forgiving as Christ’s love. A human love may for an instant hesitate and falter; it may dwell upon the wrong inflicted, the injury done, the wound still bleeding; may, in its very muteness, speak in tones of inexpressible sadness, of confidence betrayed, of feelings lacerated,28 of friendship sported with,29 and the heart may find it difficult to take back the wrong-doer—the offender forgiven and the offense forgotten—to its embrace. But not so Jesus! He has canceled, obliterated,30 erased every shadow of a shade of His people’s sins, and they shall come no more into remembrance. “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven” (Mat 18:21-22).

Contrast this love, my reader—the forgiving disciple, the forgiving Savior—and then exclaim, “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy” (Mic 7:18).

There is no love, too, so gentle, so patient, so enduring, as Christ’s love. Again and again you have questioned it, wounded it, forsaken it; again and again you have returned to it with tears, confession, and humiliation and have found it as unchilled and unchanged as His nature. It has borne with your doubts, has been silent beneath your murmurings, has veiled your infirmities, and has planted itself a thousand times over between you and your unseen and implacable31 foe. It has never declined with your fickleness,32 nor frozen with your coldness, nor upbraided33 you for your backslidings, but all day long, tracking your wandering, winding way, it has hovered around you with a presence that has encircled you within its divine, all-enshrouding, and invincible shield.

Truly, there is no love like Christ’s!

From None Like Christ (New York: Anson D. F. Randolph, 1868), 
28-40, in the public domain.

_______________________

Octavius Winslow (1808-1878): Prominent evangelical pastor and author; born in Pentonville, England, UK.

As every knee must bow to the dominion of Christ, so every tongue must confess that Jesus is the Lord. (1) The devils and wicked men shall be forced at the last to acknowledge the power of Christ, Whose authority they have always rebelled against. And as Pharaoh and the Egyptians cried out, “Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the Lord fighteth against us” (Exo 14:25), so shall the stoutest-hearted sinners one day flee from the presence of Christ and call to the mountains to shelter them “from the wrath of the Lamb” (Rev 6:16). And all the implacable enemies of Christ shall be forced through spite and rage to gnaw their tongues, gnash their teeth, and say, as that cursed apostate Julian, “Thou hast overcome me, O Galilean.” (2) All the saints and angels shall with one consent own, acknowledge, and praise Jesus Christ as the Lord and as their Lord. They shall acknowledge Him to be the Lord their Maker and their Savior; and so they shall cry “Hosanna” to Him! And they shall acknowledge Him to be their Lord and Sovereign; and they shall cast down their crowns at His feet and with everlasting hallelujahs sing, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing” (Rev 5:12-13).—William Taylor

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