Great Encouragement in CHRIST JESUS ~ 20 October, 2023 A.D.

"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 1:11 [KJV]

The parting of dear friends is very grievous and affecting; but sorrow is alleviated from expectation of meeting again. O the joy of meeting our dear friends in glory, who are gone before! but what will heighten all, will be sight and enjoyment of our best Friend and dearest Saviour. The disciples were looking stedfastly to heaven, after their dear Master ascended to glory, when they received this assurance: they saw His human form, the same dear man, their beloved companion with whom they had so often eat and drank and taken sweet counsel, and who was lately crucified, dead, and buried; this very man Jesus they saw ascend; the Son of God came from heaven in Spirit; He assumed a body of flesh and blood; He lived in it on earth; and having "finished the work His Father gave Him to do, He took the same body with Him to glory: this same Jesus shall so come again in like manner." 

Every eye shall see Him in the last day in His human form. Thus in all the transactions of Jesus by faith, we "behold the MAN." View Him in His birth, an outcast babe in poverty; in advanced years of life, "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, despised and rejected of men:" in death He died as another man; yea, an accursed death, as a malefactor; in His resurrection and ascension with a human body like our own; such was thy Saviour, believer, a man "like unto thyself in all things, but without sin;" and having perfectly expiated and atoned for all our sins, He is now at the right hand of God, the glorified MAN, still in human form pleading our cause. 

"And He is able to save them to the uttermost who come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession."—Hebrews 7:25. God is in Christ; thou canst not come to the Deity but through the humanity of Jesus: mind that. Who can tell the uttermost of Jesus' salvation? It is unto all manner of perfection both of soul and body. How sweet and encouraging is this to faith, that our Saviour, our Brother, our Friend, is in our nature before the throne! "He ever lives; He is able to save." And canst thou ever doubt of His love and willingness? O, remember Calvary! think of His agony and blood-shedding there. 

And canst thou want a proof of His love, poor sinner? If thou, whilst an enemy, wast redeemed and reconciled to God by His blood, how much more, being reconciled shalt thou be saved by His life! It is thy happiness to be ever looking upon and unto Jesus as the man and Mediator by Whom thou comest to God; be looking for Him to see Him in His glorified form. "He shall come again in like manner," "to be glorified IN His saints and to be admired IN all them who believe."—II Thessalonians 1:10.

-preacher William Mason (1724-1797 A.D.)