Heads-Up: BY THE WORD OF HIS POWER

February 08, 2023

"Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." —Hebrews 1:3 [KJV]

What St. Paul says of the resurrection of Jesus,—II Corinthians 15, may, with equal truth, be applied to His divinity. If Jesus be not truly and essentially the self-existing God, 'all preaching is vain; all faith is vain;' all the saints of God must perish in their sins. But we have not so learned Christ, if so be we have heard Him, and know the truth as it is in Jesus. His eternal power and Godhead angels adore, devils tremble at, saints rejoice in, and only poor, blinded, proud sinners dare cavil against and deny.

That Jesus is both Lord and God, lies at the foundation of our faith. That He upholds all things by the word of His power, is the joy of our hearts. That, as man, He hath purged our sins, causes all our hope and comfort. That He is entered into heaven for us, and there pleads our cause, O this is the glory of our souls. For our hope entereth into that within the veil.

There Jesus our forerunner is FOR us entered. On this rock Christ's church is built, and neither the "powers of earth and sin, nor the gates of hell shall prevail against it." When the Spirit brings the soul up to Nebo, the mount of prospect and prophecy, it has glorious views of the inheritance; it speaks of it; it fructifies; the grace of faith, hope, love, peace, and joy, abound in the heart. But, alas! all is barren as a wilderness; unfruitful as a desert, while sin in its guilt and punishment is not known and believed to have been purged by the blood of Jesus. This is the only physic for sin-sick souls, the most reviving cordial for drooping spirits. The same blood, which was all-sufficient to purge away sin in the court of heaven, is also all-sufficient to cleanse the guilt of it from the conscience. Sweet consolation for the members of Jesus!

Their living Head, in His human form, is at the right hand of the majesty in glory; the blessed object to whom we are ever to look, through whom every comfort flows, and on whom is our hope in every soul-conflict with sin and Satan. This is the reasoning of faith: "If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, MUCH MORE, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."—Romans 5:10.

There's none can know the Father right But those who learn it from the Son; Nor can the Son be well receiv'd, But where the Father makes Him known.

Then let our souls adore our God, That deals His graces as He please, Nor gives to mortals an account, Or of His actions, or decrees.

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