Chapter 4: The Living Christ

The Lord's Jewels

Goldsmiths make exquisite forms from precious material: they fashion the bracelet and the ring from gold. But God makes His precious things out of base material. From the black pebbles of muddy streams He has taken up stones, which He has set in the golden ring of His unchanging love, to make them gems that sparkle on His finger forever.

Memorials of Jesus

The love of the Church extends beyond the person of the Bridegroom and reaches to everything connected with Him. "All Your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made You glad" (Psalm 45:8). His very robes are precious in her eyes. She rejoices to sing of Him in His priestly garments. Arrayed in His royal robes, He is no less glorious in her sight: she loves to see His crown and acknowledge her King.

There is not a word His lips have spoken, nor a place where His feet have walked, nor a vessel His hands have held, that is not wholly sacred in her eyes. We are no worshippers of the tattered relics so fondly hoarded by Rome, but we have other and far better memorials — holy things of inestimable worth. His written Word, over which we even now see that loving hand moving as it did when, long ago, it wrote each line. The echo of His voice, not yet buried in silence. His communion cup, not yet empty. His blood still flowing, and His blessing still breathing peace upon us. All these still remain, and are valued beyond all price.

We treasure His ordinances and we take joy in His teaching, however the world's intellectuals may look down on it. His service is our delight; to stand at His gates is honor, and to run before His chariot is joy. As for His people, we greet them as saints, we call them our brothers and sisters, and they are most near and dear to us for His sake. The humblest beggar in His Church is of more importance to us than the proudest monarch outside it. "Because he belongs to Christ" is always a sufficient reason for the outpouring of our love, for all that is His is dear to us.

Freely Give

Christian, whenever you are inclined to hold back selfishly from the Church of God, think of your Savior giving up all that He had to serve you! Can you then — when you see self-denial so noble — can you then be selfish, and consider your comforts of more importance than their needs, when the claims of the poor of the flock are pressed upon you? Remember Jesus. Imagine Him looking at you and saying, "I gave Myself for you — will you withhold yourself from Me? For if you do, you do not know My love in all its heights and depths, its lengths and breadths."

Religion — a Present Enjoyment

Religion has its present enjoyments. Speak, you who know them, for you can tell — yet you cannot recount them all. Would you give up your faith for all the joys that earth calls good or great? Tell me, if your immortal life could be snuffed out, would you give it up even for all the kingdoms of this world?

You who know poverty — has not faith been a candle to you in the darkness? Has it not lightened you through the heavy shadows of your hardship? You who know hard labor — has not faith been your rest, your sweet relief? Have not the testimonies of God been your song in the house of your pilgrimage? You children of sorrow, racked with pain — has not faith been a soothing comfort in your suffering? Is it not worth having in the sickroom?

And you busy people — speak for yourselves. You have hard struggles to get through life. Sometimes you have been driven to the edge, and whether you would make it or not seemed to hang by a thread. Has not your faith been a joy to you in your difficulties? Has it not calmed your mind? When you have been anxious and troubled about worldly things, have you not found it good to enter your quiet place, shut the door, and tell your Father in secret all your cares?

And you who are wealthy — can you not bear the same testimony, if you have loved the Master? What would all your riches have been without a Savior? Can you not say that your faith has made your gold gleam brighter and your silver shine more? For everything you have is sweetened by this thought: you have all these things and Christ too.

Was there ever a child of God who could deny this? We have heard of many unbelievers who grieved over their unbelief when they came to die. But did you ever hear of anyone on their deathbed looking back on a life of holiness with regret? Never. We have never known a Christian who regretted his faith. We have seen Christians suffering so greatly that we wondered how they survived — so poor that we marveled at their hardship — so full of doubts that we pitied their struggle. But we never heard them say, even then, "I regret that I gave myself to Christ." No — with their dying grasp, when heart and body were failing, we have seen them hold this treasure to their chest, still feeling that this was their life, their joy, their everything.

If you would be happy, if you would be saved, if you would line your path with sunshine and pull up the thorns — "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" (Matthew 6:33). Do not seek happiness first; seek Christ first, and happiness will follow. Seek the Lord first, and then He will provide for you in this life and crown it with everything that is glorious in the life to come.

Our Lord Jesus

Whatever blessed results flow from the perfect obedience, the finished atonement, the resurrection, ascension, or intercession of the Lord Jesus — all are ours by His own gift. On His breastplate He is now wearing our names, and in His authoritative pleading at the throne He remembers us and argues our cause. The advantages of His exalted position, His dominion over principalities and powers, and His absolute majesty in heaven — He uses all of it for the benefit of those who trust in Him. His exalted state is as much at our service as His condition of lowliness was. He who gave Himself for us in the depths of suffering and death does not withdraw the gift now that He is enthroned in the highest heavens. Christ has no honor He will not use for our exaltation, and no authority He will not exercise for our defense. Christ, everywhere and in every way, is our portion, forever and ever, most richly to enjoy.

Providence

The boundless stores of providence are committed to the support of the believer. Christ is our Joseph, who has granaries full of wheat — but He does not treat us as Joseph did the Egyptians, for He opens the door of His storehouse and tells us to call all its bounty our own. He has placed upon His estate of providence a permanent charge of a daily portion for us, and He has promised that one day we will clearly see that the estate itself has been managed on our behalf and has always been ours. The axle of the wheels of the chariot of providence is infinite love, and gracious wisdom is the eternal driver.

The Intercession of Christ

The Lord Jesus has led captivity captive, and now sits at the right hand of God, forever making intercession for us. Can your faith picture Him? Like the high priest of Israel He stands with outstretched arms: there is majesty in His bearing, and with authority He pleads. On His head is the bright shining crown of His priesthood, and on His chest are glittering the precious stones on which the names of His people are everlastingly engraved.

Listen as He pleads — can you hear what it is? Is that your prayer He is mentioning before the throne? The prayer you offered this morning, Christ is now offering before His Father's throne. The commitment you just made, He is now presenting there. He is the Altar and Priest, and with His own sacrifice He perfumes our prayers.

And yet, perhaps you have been praying long and had no answer. Poor, weeping one! You have sought the Lord and He has not seemed to hear you, or at least not answered to your heart's desire, and you are full of darkness and heaviness because of this. Look to Him and be encouraged. If your prayers do not succeed, His will. If your intercession is unnoticed, His cannot be dismissed. If your prayers can be like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up, His prayers are not like that — He is God's Son. He pleads and must prevail. God cannot refuse His own Son what He now asks — He who once purchased mercies with His blood. Be of good courage! Continue your prayers, for Jesus "always lives to make intercession" for you (Hebrews 7:25).

Holiness

Holiness is the blueprint upon which God builds up His living temple.

The New Heart

God does not promise that He will improve our nature or that He will mend our broken hearts. No — the promise is that He will give us new hearts and right spirits. Human nature is too far gone ever to be repaired. It is not a house that is just a little run-down, with a slate blown from the roof here, and a piece of plaster cracked from the ceiling there. No — it is rotten throughout. The very foundation has been undermined. There is not a single timber in it that is sound. It is all decay from top to bottom, and ready to collapse.

God does not attempt to patch it up. He does not prop up the walls and repaint the door. He does not decorate and beautify. He determines that the old house shall be entirely demolished, and that He will build a new one. It is too far gone to be repaired. If it were only a little damaged, it might be restored. If only a wheel or two of that great machine called "humanity" were broken, then He who made us might put the whole thing right — He might replace a cog here and a wheel there, and the machine might work again. But no — the whole of it is broken down. There is not one lever that is not snapped, not one axle that is not bent. "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores" (Isaiah 1:5–6). The Lord, therefore, does not attempt the repair of this thing, but says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you" (Ezekiel 36:26).

The Christian's Daily Cross

Believer, Christ Jesus presents you with your crosses, and they are no small gifts.

Joy over the Repenting

The angels know what the joys of heaven are, and therefore they rejoice over one sinner who repents. We talk about pearly gates and golden streets, white robes and harps of gold, and crowns that never fade. But if an angel could speak to us of heaven, he would smile and say, "All these fine things are but a child's picture book. You are little children, and you cannot understand the greatness of eternal joy. God has given you a simple alphabet in which you may learn the first rough letters of what heaven is — but what it truly is you do not know. Mortal, your eye has never yet seen its splendors; your ear has never yet been filled with its melodies; your heart has never been transported by its matchless joys."

Yes, we may talk, and think, and guess, and dream, but we can never measure the infinite heaven which God has prepared for His children. But the angels know its glory — and that is why they rejoice over the repenting sinner who has become heir to such an inheritance.

God's Tender Care

How careful God is of His people! How concerned He is for them — not only for their survival but for their comfort. Does He say, "Strengthen My people"? Does He say to the angel, "Protect My people"? Does He say to the heavens, "Drop down food to feed My people"? All that, and more. His tender care secures it for them. But to show us that He cares not only about our needs but also about our happiness, He says, "Comfort, yes, comfort My people!" (Isaiah 40:1). He would have us not only His living people, and His protected people, but His happy people too.

He is glad to feed His people, but more than that, He delights in giving them rich and satisfying things to make their hearts glad. He will not only give them bread, but honey too. He will not simply give them milk, but wine and milk as well. "Comfort, yes, comfort My people" — it is the Father's yearning heart, attentive even to the small things in the lives of His children. "Comfort" that one with a tearful eye. "Comfort" that child of mine with an aching heart. "Comfort" that poor grieving one. "Comfort, yes, comfort My people, says your God."

The Christian's Crown

Do Christians have a crown? Oh yes — but they do not wear it every day. They have a crown, but their coronation day has not yet arrived. They have been anointed as monarchs; they have some of the authority and dignity of monarchs — only they are not crowned monarchs yet. But the crown is made. God will not have to order heaven's craftsmen to fashion it later: it is made already, hanging up in glory. God has "laid up for me a crown of righteousness" (2 Timothy 4:8).