Our Lord Jesus Christ - Beautiful and Glorious!
"In
that day shall the Branch of the LORD
be beautiful and glorious."
-ISAIAH
4:2 [KJV]
Where
in heaven or on earth can there be found such a lovely Object as the
Son of God? "What is thy beloved more than another beloved?"
ask the companions of the Bride. But she answers, "My
beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand."
If, then, you have never seen any beauty in Jesus, you have never
seen Jesus; He
has never revealed Himself
to you; you never had a glimpse of His
lovely face, nor a sense of His
presence, nor a word from His
lips, nor a touch from His
hand. But if you have seen Him
by the eye of faith, and He
has revealed Himself
to you even in a small measure, you have seen a beauty in Him
beyond all other beauties, for it is a holy beauty, a divine beauty,
the beauty of His
heavenly grace, the beauty of His
uncreated and eternal glory, such as no earthly countenance can wear,
nor man or woman, no, not Adam, in all His
unfallen innocency, nor his fair partner Eve, with all her virtue,
grace, and dignity, ever could shew, for it is the beauty of the
glorious Son of God, which He
for ever wears as the Son of the Father in truth and love.
And as He is "beautiful," so is He "glorious." Oh, what a glory does faith see sometimes in His eternal Deity, in His divine Sonship, in what He is in Himself as the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His Person, and in what He is as made unto us wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption! How glorious does He shew Himself to be in His atoning blood and dying love. Even as sweating great drops of blood in Gethsemane's gloomy garden, and as hanging in torture and agony upon Calvary's cross, faith can see a beauty in the glorious Redeemer, even in the lowest depths of ignominy and shame. Was there not a glory in His meek obedience, in His suffering patience, in His submission to His Father's holy will, in His uncomplaining resignation to the heaviest strokes of vindictive justice, in bearing our sins in His own body on the tree, and thus putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself? But more especially does faith see Him glorious as rising from the dead and going up on high, and sitting down at the right hand of the Father, crowned with glory and honour, and all things put under His feet.
And as He is "beautiful," so is He "glorious." Oh, what a glory does faith see sometimes in His eternal Deity, in His divine Sonship, in what He is in Himself as the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His Person, and in what He is as made unto us wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption! How glorious does He shew Himself to be in His atoning blood and dying love. Even as sweating great drops of blood in Gethsemane's gloomy garden, and as hanging in torture and agony upon Calvary's cross, faith can see a beauty in the glorious Redeemer, even in the lowest depths of ignominy and shame. Was there not a glory in His meek obedience, in His suffering patience, in His submission to His Father's holy will, in His uncomplaining resignation to the heaviest strokes of vindictive justice, in bearing our sins in His own body on the tree, and thus putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself? But more especially does faith see Him glorious as rising from the dead and going up on high, and sitting down at the right hand of the Father, crowned with glory and honour, and all things put under His feet.
-Gospel
report by preacher J.C. Philpot (1802–1869 A.D.)
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