Great Encouragement in the LORD JESUS CHRIST - 10 December, 2022 A.D.

"Behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him." -Isaiah 40:10 [KJV]

The whole scope of prophecy, as referring to the person and offices of Christ, was comprised in the two great branches of "the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." From everlasting, the work of Jesus was before Him. To His infinite and comprehensive mind, all that He had to do and to suffer for His church, was always in His view. He saw His church in all the glory and beauty that, in His comeliness, He would one day put upon her; He saw this before creation took place, when "His delights were with the sons of men;" and He saw His church also, in all the depths of guilt and pollution, into which, by apostacy, she would fall, and from whence He undertook to redeem her with His blood. Hence, "for the joy that was set before Him," it is said, "He endured the cross, and despised the shame;" and having, as well by His active as His passive obedience, both by doing and dying, finished the work in the fulness of time, which the Father gave Him to do, Jesus entered upon His reward.  

But who shall describe it, or what heart fully conceive it? Who shall say, What is the reward of Jesus in our nature, united to the Godhead, in beholding His Father's holy law thus magnified and honoured; the robbery done to God's honour completely restored; the loss man had sustained, more than repaired; and salvation bestowed upon millions of souls, by virtue of His blood and righteousness? Who shall describe it, in beholding the human nature of Jesus advanced above all created intelligence, either of angels or of powers? Who shall speak of the reward of Jesus, in giving out, day by day, grace to the infinite cases and wants of His church here below, and of glory, in all its varieties, to the church above?  

Precious Jesus! let such views ever encourage my poor soul to come to Thee for all I need; since it is Thy glory, and a part of Thy reward, Thou dearest Lord, to give out of Thy fulness, as the blessed Head of Thy church, to the wants of Thy people; and Thou wilt be more glorious to my view, the more Thou givest, and the more I receive from Thee. Jesus, I will say, loveth to give; may my soul delight to receive; that while I am receiving everlasting life from Thee, the Lord Jesus may be everlastingly glorified by me, and both Father and Son glorified in my salvation! 

-Robert Hawker (1753-1827 A.D.)