Revised notes of an address by R.D.
Scriptures read: portions from Proverbs 8; Luke 1 – 4; Psalm 16; Hebrews 12.
The Scriptures we have read bring before us the greatness of the Person Who stepped from eternity into Manhood. This is clearly seen in our first Scripture where the Lord Jesus is viewed before time began. He "was set up (anointed) from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was." From eternity, God had before His mind a system of glory and blessing of which Christ, His anointed, was to be the centre. According to God's eternal counsels, the Son would come into the creation He had brought into existence, to be found a Man among men. When the earth was being prepared He was by Him, as One brought up with Him, and His constant delight. He was "the nursling of His love," dwelling in the tender affections of the Father's bosom; the One in Whom alone He could find perfect response to all that He was, and on Whom His heart was set. Here we find One Who ever lived for the Father's pleasure; the object of His affections, and Who remains in this unique place for all eternity. Among these wonderful unfoldings there is the secret that God had in His thoughts the forming of a company of men who would be forever associated and brought into relationship with His Son. Because of this we hear the Son say, "My delights were with the sons of men." He could look forward to the time of His coming, and rejoice "in the habitable part of His earth," where He would gather around Him those the Father gave Him out of the world.
In the Gospel of Luke we find the One we have been considering in eternity as a little Babe in time; and before His birth the divine word concerning Him is, "He shall be great" (Luke 1:32). He was about to come into circumstances of humiliation; to be born in a stable, cradled in a manger, and to have not where to lay His head; but He was great, and as Man would be great. In Him would be brought glory to God in the highest; He would bring peace to men; and in Him was found God's good pleasure in man. God had come forth in Him to approach men in grace, and in Him all God's purposes of blessing for men would be secured for His pleasure and glory. What is purposed in eternity, and brought out in Proverbs 8, is about to be accomplished in Him Who has come into Manhood as the Babe of Bethlehem.
At twelve years of age we see this wonderful Person sitting in the temple among the doctors of the law, hearing them, and asking them questions. His earthly parents, not understanding Him, were amazed at finding Him with the doctors of the law; nor could they understand when He said, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business." None but Himself knew at this time the divine purpose of His coming, even to carry out His Father's will for His pleasure and glory. What deep joy there must have been for the Father's heart to see Him grow as a child, waxing "strong in spirit, filled with wisdom and the grace of God upon Him;" then to see Him increasing "in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man" (Luke 2:40, 52).
In Luke 3, at the time of His baptism, the Lord Jesus is in the attitude of prayer, in accordance with the attitude of dependence in which He is presented in Psalm 16, where He says "Preserve me, O God: for in Thee do I put my trust." While in this dependent attitude before God, the heavens were opened, and a voice came from heaven, which said, "Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased." Where the Lord is expressing to the godly remnant of Israel that He had come to be identified with them, God is expressing His deep joy and satisfaction in the One Who has thus come into Manhood for His pleasure.
The next chapter in Luke shows this blessed Person led by the Spirit into the wilderness. His first great test is to face the enemy in the wilderness, and afterwards He meets him in the Garden of Gethsemane. For forty days He eats nothing, and afterwards He hungers, and while hungry, the devil says to Him, "If Thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread." But He would not use His divine power to relieve His sufferings as Man; nor would He act in any way without a command from God. Utterly dependent upon God, and subject to His will, every word of God directs Him in His passage through this world. Each temptation is met by the word of God, by which He binds the "strong man," and returns from the Jordan, full of the Holy Spirit, to spoil the strong man of his goods.
Psalm 16 brings the blessed Lord before us as living before God in constant dependence and subjection, relying on God to preserve Him through the path of life. All His joys and delights are found in Jehovah, for He says, "Jehovah is the portion of my cup." Jehovah maintains His lot, sustaining Him in every step of His pathway, so that this blessed Man may glorify Him in all His ways. No matter what trials or sufferings He had to bear, even if surrounded by enemies manifesting their malice and wickedness, He can say, "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places." All lay for Him in the will of God, and it was this that made the rough places pleasant for Him; His heritage was goodly. Directed in obedience to God's will, He blesses the LORD Who gives Him counsel; and as in the knowledge of God's will through the divine counsel received, His reins instruct Him in the night seasons. None but He could say "I have set the Lord always before me;" as never for one moment was He deflected from the way of perfect obedience. Thus obedient, Jehovah was ever at His right hand to sustain Him, so that He should not be moved, no matter what lay before Him. Passing into death as the dependent Man, death could not hold Him; and He reaches the place "where there is fulness of joy," and pleasures for evermore.
Jesus is the Author and Finisher of the path of faith in Hebrews 12; what commenced down here in Manhood ended for Him at the right hand of God. As we run the race, our eyes do not rest on the great cloud of witnesses, but on Jesus at God's right hand. Unless our eyes rest on Jesus we can never go on in the race. In Him we see One Who endured the cross and despised its shame; One Who endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself; and occupied with Him we are strengthened and encouraged in the race.
Looking unto Jesus on the Father's throne,
Crowned with highest glory, object for His own.
Pleasures deep, eternal, there for us are given;
Joys so full for pilgrims on their way to heaven.