Chapter 7: The Fullness of Christ

The Joy of Pardon

What a joyous thing it is to have a ray of heavenly sunlight in the soul, and to hear the very voice of God as He walks in the garden of our hearts in the cool of the day, saying to us, "Child, your sins, which are many, are all forgiven." The whisper of that heavenly voice may raise our heart to a joy almost divine. It brings a happiness not to be matched by all the pleasures, the riches, and the enjoyments this world can offer. To receive the divine kiss of acceptance, to be robed in the best robe, to wear the ring on the hand and the shoes on the feet, to hear the heavenly music and celebration with which returning prodigals are welcomed to their Father's house — this, indeed, is joy and blessedness worth worlds to experience.

Inexhaustible Promises

God's promises are not used up when they are fulfilled, for once performed, they stand just as good as they did before, and we may expect them to be fulfilled again. Human promises, even at their best, are like a tank that holds only a temporary supply. But God's promises are like a fountain, never emptied, always overflowing. You may draw from them the full measure of what they seem to contain, and they will be as full as ever.

The Fullness of Christ

At our very best we are strangers to much of the incomparable sweetness of Christ. We will never exhaust His goodness by our praise, for He is always so fresh, and has so much of the dew of His youth, that every day He has a new song to sing. We will find Him a new Christ every day of our lives, and yet He is always the same. His surpassing excellence and inexhaustible fullness constantly renew our love. O Jesus! No one can guess how great is the least of Your qualities, or how rich the poorest of Your gifts.

True Blessing

Christ, when He blesses, blesses not in word only but in deed. The lips of truth cannot promise more than the hands of love will surely give.

Faith and Feeling

We are saved by faith, and not by feeling. Yet there is a relationship between holy faith and sacred feeling like that between the root and the flower. Faith is permanent, like the root that is always embedded in the soil; feeling is seasonal, and has its times — the bulb does not always send up the green stem, much less is it always crowned with flowers.

Faith is the tree — the essential tree. Our feelings are like the appearance of that tree during the different seasons of the year. Sometimes our soul is full of bloom and blossom, and the bees hum pleasantly and gather honey within our hearts. It is then that our feelings bear witness to the life of our faith, just as the buds of spring bear witness to the life of the tree. Soon our feelings gather still greater strength, and we come to the summer of our delights. But then perhaps we begin to wither into the dry and fading leaf of autumn. Sometimes the winter of discouragement and despair will strip away every leaf from the tree, and our poor faith stands like a bare trunk without a sign of life.

And yet, as long as the tree of faith is there, we are saved. Whether faith blossoms or not, whether it brings forth joyful fruit in our experience or not, as long as it is there in all its permanence, we are saved. Yet we should have the gravest reason to doubt the life of our faith if it did not sometimes blossom with joy and often bring forth fruit of holiness.

Near Home

The best moment of a Christian's life is the last one, because it is the one nearest heaven. And then it is that the believer begins to strike the opening note of the song that will be sung for all eternity. What a song that will be!

Beauty in Christ

There is a thing called beauty that wins the hearts of people. Many great men have bowed before it and paid it tribute. But if you want true beauty, look into the face of Jesus, for there you have the concentration of all loveliness. There is no beauty anywhere but in Christ. O sun, you are not radiant when once compared with Him. O beautiful world and grand creation of a glorious God, you are but a dim and dusky blur compared with the splendors of His face.

When we at last see Christ, we will be compelled to say that we never knew what loveliness was before. When the clouds are swept away, when the curtains that hide Him from our view are drawn aside, we will find that nothing we have seen or heard of — grand or graceful in the whole universe — will bear a moment's comparison with Him, who was once seen as "a root out of dry ground" (Isaiah 53:2), but shall soon fill heaven and earth with radiance and gladden all hearts with His glory.

The Savior's Legacy

"Peace I leave with you" (John 14:27). Our Savior here means peace with God and peace with our own conscience. Peace with God — for He "has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:18), and now there is "peace on earth" and "goodwill toward men." Christ has put our sins away, and therefore a real, substantial peace is established between God and our souls.

This, however, might exist without our clearly understanding and rejoicing in it. Christ has therefore given a further witness — peace in the conscience. Peace with God is the treaty; peace with conscience is the announcement of it. Peace with God is the fountain, and peace with conscience is the crystal stream that flows from it. There is a peace decreed in the court of divine justice in heaven, and then as a necessary result — as soon as the news is known — a peace follows in the smaller court of human judgment, where conscience sits on the throne to evaluate us according to our actions.

The legacy, then, of Christ is a twofold peace: a peace of friendship, of agreement, of love, of everlasting union between the redeemed and God; and a peace of sweet enjoyment, of quiet rest to the mind and the conscience. When there are no winds above, there will be no storms below. When heaven is calm, earth is quiet. Conscience reflects the satisfaction of God. "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).

Needless Poverty

Many a believer lives in the cottage of doubt when he could live in the mansion of faith.

The Sin of Unbelief

To doubt the lovingkindness of God is thought by some to be a very small sin. In fact, some have even elevated the doubts and fears of God's people into fruits and graces and evidence of great spiritual maturity. But to doubt the kindness, the faithfulness, and the love of God is a very serious offense. That can be no light sin which makes God a liar — and yet unbelief does, in effect, cast foul and slanderous suspicion upon the truthfulness of the Holy One of Israel.

That can be no small offense which charges the Creator of heaven and earth with breaking His word. And yet, if I distrust His oath and will not believe His promise — sealed with the blood of His own Son — I am treating the oath of God as unworthy of my trust. I am, in effect, accusing the King of Heaven of being false to His covenant and His oath.

Besides, unbelief toward God is the source of countless sins. As the dark cloud is the origin of many raindrops, so dark unbelief is the parent of many crimes. It is a sin that should be condemned by every believer, struggled against, and if possible subdued — and certainly it should be the object of our deep repentance and rejection.

The One Family

The universe of God is one. Heaven and earth are not so separate as unbelief has imagined. As the Lord has but one family, written in one book, redeemed with one blood, made alive by one Spirit, so this whole household lives in one dwelling place forever.

We who are in the body live in the lower room, which is sometimes dark and cold but bears clear marks that it is a room in God's house — for to the eye of our faith, it is often lit up with heavenly light, and we, even while we are still here, are by blessed foretastes made sharers in the inheritance of the saints in light. It is the same house, I say, but ours is the lower floor, while our glorified brothers and sisters are upstairs, where the sunlight streams in eternally, where no chilling winds or poisonous air can ever reach.

And to a great degree there is a likeness between the lower room and the upper room. As on earth we prepare for heaven, so the state of the saints on earth is heaven foreshadowed. In many ways the condition of the child of God on earth is a picture of his condition in heaven; and what the character of the saints is above, that should be the character of the saints below. We may safely take for our example those glorified spirits. We need not be afraid of being led astray by imitating them, by learning their activities, or by trying to share their joys. Surely the things in heaven are patterns for the things on earth, and as they are before the throne, so we ought to be. And so we will be, in proportion to how fully we live out our privileges and take on the likeness and image of our Lord Jesus Christ.