L. M. Grant.
At a time when human wisdom and philosophy is trying hard to add to or to modify the revealed truth of the Word of God, and this kind of thing becomes attractive to many minds, I want to urge every believer with all my heart to spend much time considering the most simple, vital facts of Christianity. If we have grown up with the knowledge of these things, our tendency is to take them for granted without vitally taking to heart and enjoying the great significance of every detail of what God has revealed in the person and work of His beloved Son. There is marvelous power in the right appreciation of all these things, power that only a child of God can know.
Take time to meditate upon the wonder of the incarnation of the living God in the lowly person of the Lord Jesus. Though Himself the infinite, eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God of the universe, He has become Man in marvelous grace (Phil. 2:5-7), a Man of perfect dependence and faith, whose every act and word and thought was beautiful for its simplicity, with grace and truth wonderfully blended in every detail of personal life and of His dealing with others.
Think also of the amazing wonder of the willing sacrifice of this Lord of glory, when He was "led as a lamb to the slaughter," Everything connected with that unique death of Calvary is worthy of our deepest consideration and meditation, whether it is His humble dignity in submitting to the bitter enmity of mankind against Him, or in the more astounding, awful bearing of the outpoured judgment of God against our sins (the details of our guilt — 1 Peter 3:18) and against sin (the root principle of evil personified as the horrible enemy of God — 2 Cor. 5:21). Consider too that that sacrifice has totally cleansed every believer from his guilt (1 John 1:7), and has liberated him from the cruel bondage of sin (Romans 6:22). This deliverance is not understood by many Christians, though they have perfect title to it, and none of us properly take in the fullness of its significance.
Another matter for our attentive contemplation is that all believers are "accepted in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:6). Christ is the Beloved of God, who has been raised from the dead and exalted to God's right hand, and "in Christ" every believer is just as perfectly accepted and beloved as He Himself is before God. Let us take time to think deeply of His exaltation and our acceptance in Him. Yet let us refuse utterly the common teaching today of "self-love," self-esteem," and "self-worth." This is merely confidence in the flesh. "In the flesh" man is worthless: "they that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Romans 8:8). But "in Christ" you are of great value to God, for this is a position of absolute perfection.
Connected with this is the wonderful fact of the Spirit of God having come to actually indwell every child of God in this present age of grace, to give understanding (1 Cor. 2:12) and power (Acts 1:8) for true Christian life and testimony. This fact and all that is involved in it is worthy of our time to give it greatest consideration.
How good to be reminded too that Christ is our Great High Priest at God's right hand, who cares for us in perfect grace, preserving believers from danger, trouble and evil (Hebrews 4:14-16). Also He is our Advocate with the Father, mercifully restoring us if we sin (1 John 2:1). We greatly need His intercessory work, yet may too easily forget its significance.
Let us also greatly rejoice that not only are individual believers so greatly blessed by these things, but that Christ also is "the Head of the body the Church" (Colossians 1:18). He is keenly interested in every member of His body, and we ought to be too. He has united believers together in a unity that can never be broken, and expects us also to act on this established truth, having real love for His assembly and understanding the significance of all that is involved in His headship of the body.
What sweet meditation too may be ours at the promised prospect of the coming of the Lord Jesus (John 14:3). This should be just as real to us as those things that are already accomplished facts, for it is just as certain. Its significance and attendant circumstances may well occupy our grateful reflection. If you are not glad to think of welcoming His coming at any moment, then search your heart before the Lord, and have every hindering thing banished, so that you can "rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:2).
In all these simple facts of living truth (and in many more that have not been mentioned here) there is such power as to vitalize and stimulate the believer to wholeheartedly follow and serve the Lord Jesus. We need the pure truth of God for this. Timothy, a young man, was told by Paul, "Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all" (1 Timothy 4:15 — NKJV).
It is clear that at the most we have very little time left us in which to truly serve the Lord; and to be a true witness for Him we ought to know well the facts concerning which we witness.
L. M. Grant.