Last month, we started a series called “Looking Unto Jesus Till Glory Shines.” I spoke about this as an important biblical duty for spiritual progress from Hebrews 12. This isn’t a mystical yoga exercise. The Bible clearly talks about a type of spiritual looking, not through our physical eyes. We saw that Hebrews 12 clearly commands us to look to Jesus. In Ephesians 1:18, Paul prays that “the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.”
It is a biblical spiritual exercise: through faith and through the eyes of our mind, we are to have a persevering look unto Jesus. This is not a glance, a quick turn, or a “Jesus save me” once in a while before you sleep. It’s an intense, persevering focus of the mind that continues until it stirs up affections in the heart, and the effects are felt in my soul, reviving our dull spirit. It is “looking unto Jesus till glory shines from Him, till the virtue and grace flows from Him to me to strengthen me to run the race set before me.” I spoke about the wonderful blessings we can receive if we learn this practice.
Now, with that goal in mind, if we are to make this a regular spiritual practice, we have to learn deeply about Jesus. Only when we have a deep understanding of who Jesus is will we be able to turn our thoughts to deeply focus on Him. So, as a continuation of the same theme, we are going to look at Jesus starting from pre-creation, before creation, and then Jesus in the history of the Old Testament. We will then look at Jesus at His birth, life, and ministry; His death, resurrection, ascension, and session; and His present ministry as prophet, priest, and king, including His intercession. Finally, yes, we will look at Jesus at His second coming. From the right to the left spectrum, it will be like watching a film where all we see is Jesus. If I try to preach on all of that today, the next communion in July will come before we finish, because we will need more than a month to cover it all. So we’ll focus our attention part by part, starting with pre-creation, then the Old Testament, and then the New Testament.
The goal of this devotional practice, as we look at Jesus in the mirror of the scriptures, is to have the eyes of our hearts enlightened by the Holy Spirit so that we can see Christ’s glory, admire Him, increase our esteem of His worth and value in our thoughts, and through faith receive grace upon grace as we worship. You can see this is a very apt study for communion meditation. How did our Lord command us to observe it? “In remembrance.” In remembering Him in all His glory, by looking unto Him, communion becomes a wonderful means of grace. So, are you ready for an exciting lifetime journey? We’re starting our travels with Jesus from past eternity to future eternity, with our focus on Him. You should be, because in Paul’s words, compared to the excellency of knowing Christ, everything else is garbage.
Today, in the first part, we will look at Jesus at His pre-creation state—not before He became a man in the Old Testament, but Jesus even before the world was created. I thought it might be very experiential if we sense ourselves being in that place and look at Jesus with our imagination, with our mind’s eyes. We will probably have to get into a time travel machine from June 2024 and go back 2,000 years to see Christ crucified. You keep going back to the silent 400 years, the 70 years of Israel’s captivity, the time of the Old Testament prophets and kings, David, Moses, Abraham, and then Adam and the six days of the creation of the world. Then, go into eternity before any day started. If you go as far as your mind can go, you will find no heaven, no earth, no universe, no man or angels created yet. But there was only one: God, with all His divine fullness. For infinite ages upon ages, He was God. That God was the Trinitarian God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—perfectly happy and independent within themselves.
Our focus will be to look at Jesus in this state. Oh, if the Holy Spirit can open our eyes and just show us a glimpse of the glory of the eternal Son of God in that past glorious state, it will blow us away to know how high, how glorious, how great, and how worthy He is. It will be so ravishing and sanctifying for us. One person said, “Oh, one view of the glorified Savior will make me joyfully die ten thousand deaths on flames of stakes for Him. One sight is worth 10,000 deaths.” We can only see dimly in this sinful body and babble for a while. We may have to die and go to heaven to behold it fully with a pure soul and body.
But I think with the Holy Spirit’s help, we can get a glimpse of that because you know Jesus prayed for this. John 17:24 says, “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me before the creation of the world.” Yes, this is talking about when we go to heaven, but the great Puritan John Owen says this also has an application of seeing His glory by faith now.
When we look at Jesus at pre-creation, let us understand it under three headings: First, His glorious state. Second, His relationship with the Father. Thirdly, the eternal covenant they both made at that time.
First, Jesus’ Glorious State Pre-Creation
What does the Bible reveal to us about Jesus in that pre-creation state? John introduces his Gospel with a majestic tone and a sense of ecstasy, with the air of a man who is conscious of the sublime glory of Jesus. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
“In the beginning was the Word.” The eternity of Christ is here emphatically declared. “The Word was with God.” Not with angels, not with men; but before men and angels were created, Jesus was with God essentially, and then amazingly, he says the “Word was God.” This was His glorious state. John 17:5 says, “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” What is this glory? In Philippians 2, we studied that He was equal with God with all the attributes of God. Think of the essence of Jesus’ state before creation. He was God. What does that mean?
The glory of the supreme being. Before the world was created, He had the glory of His eternal deity, of His majesty and greatness, the glory of infinity, the glory of eternity, the glory of immutability, the glory of sovereignty, the glory of being almighty, the glory of holiness, and the glory of justice. He was filled with the majesty, splendor, worthiness, and greatness of His deity. He was ever blessed, infinite in love and happiness in the fellowship of the Trinity, existing absolutely, self-existent, and forever, never having come into being! He was, and is, and always will be: “I am who I am.” He is the only eternal reality, complete and perfect and without any defect or any need, not dependent on anyone.
“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” He is infinite in greatness, beauty, and value. There is no comparison. “I am God. To whom will you compare me?” The lowest comparison we can make is to this universe. He is greater than all the universe in the way a man is greater than a small speck of dust. He is more beautiful than all the beauty of the universe, just as the reality of Niagara Falls is more beautiful than a painting of the falls. He is real beauty. He is more valuable than the universe, which is less than nothing before Him.
It is good to be still and know that Jesus is God and let this sink in. The universe, by comparison with God’s greatness, beauty, and worth, is insignificant. Jesus is equal to God, having all the glory. And in 2 Corinthians 8:9, it says He was rich. His riches were no less than all that God the Father has. John 16:14 says, “All that the Father has is mine.” He was in a glorious state, a state of being equal to God, to have all the glory and symbols of the majesty of God.
Until this pre-creation glory of Jesus sinks in, virtually everything the Bible says about Jesus will be wrongly and inadequately understood. This is where we start to look at who Jesus is. If we fail to grasp this, we won’t be able to grasp biblical doctrines in their proper proportions and relations. We have an imbalanced view of Jesus, with an over-focus on the humiliation state of Jesus. Look at Him in His pre-creation glory; fix this in your mind. Here, He is not a man. He is not called “Jesus”—that was a human name. He was the eternal Son of God, with no weakness or humiliation of manhood, but fully God. He did not empty Himself, but was with complete divine fullness and glory. He is not under law, but He is the lawgiver for all. He was in such glory, dwelling in a light no man can approach. Any creature coming near would turn to ashes. He did not know any sorrow, pain, or shame. He had no temptation from the devil for all eternity. He was never for a split second away from the Father’s communion. He never knew anything about His Father’s anger or wrath because He was perfectly holy. All these things were very new to Christ; He was above them all until, for our sakes, He voluntarily subjected Himself to them.
Second, His Relationship With the Father
John says He was with God. John 1:18 says, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” “Bosom.” What does it mean? It is not talking about Jesus sleeping as a baby. It is a human expression of the greatest dearness and intimacy between two humans that we know and understand, like a baby coming out of its mother’s womb and lying on her bosom. It is such a strong bond. So it talks about the intimate, close union between the Father and the Son. Think of the joyful state of Jesus. Allow this to sink in.
He was with God in such a close relationship. Do we know what it means to be with God? God, you know, is the fountain; He is an infinite, inexhaustible ocean of all delights and joys. Psalm 16:11 says, “In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” This great fountain and source of all happiness, blessedness, and love was letting out all its fullness so directly and fully, and everlastingly, upon this only begotten darling of His soul, as it never did communicate itself to any. Judge what a state of transcendent happiness this must be. Great persons have great delights. Oh, what intimate dearness, nearness, and oneness of those great persons with one another! What joy and bliss!
Proverbs 8:30 shows us a glimpse. It is taking about wisdom, which is a personification of Jesus. “I was day by day His delight, rejoicing always before Him.” The original is strong. “I was fullness of delight, the perfection. I was all His delights. I was His delight itself.” Imagine. Now Jesus Christ was not only near and dear to God but one with Him. He was God. Can you imagine what a blissful state of happiness it was to be the only loved object of the eternal God, to be one with that God, and to be God!
Oh, what matchless delights and bliss must necessarily flow from such a blessed union! We can never imagine such fellowship. All fellowship and closeness in this world are tainted with sin and selfishness, but a pure, holy Father embracing a holy, pure Son with a most holy delight and love! Oh, what bliss! A sea of bliss. Think of the duration of this delight. It was from everlasting, from eternity; it never suffered one moment’s interruption. These two great and glorious persons of the Trinity with infinite essence were delighting in one another, letting forth their fullest pleasure and delight each into the heart of the other. Their delight knew not a moment’s interruption or diminution. They were enjoying pleasures of fellowship unspeakable and inconceivable. A dim reflection is what we see when sometimes parents delight to see their children playing before them, or a lover sees her love. So did the Father delight in beholding this darling of His bosom. Oh, what can we understand of the joy of the immortals!
Try to look at Jesus in your mind in this glorious state, in His person equal with God, and in His relationship as the eternal delight of the Father for all eternity. The truth we have to fix in our mind is this doctrine: Jesus was in a state of the highest and most unspeakable delight and pleasure, in the enjoyment of His Father. We always look at Him in a manly, humiliated state. Let your thoughts rise today. The world was created 6,000 years ago. No mind can estimate how many past eternity years there were. All billions upon billions of eons, when God was there. There is no beginning. From a period we cannot imagine, if the infinite God’s greatest delight, supreme affection, adoring love, and entertainment, which He always enjoyed without a single blink, was this Son of God, Jesus, He was the greatest darling and delight of God’s heart. If so, can you imagine how glorious, adorable, desirable, wonderful, valuable, and amazing a person Jesus would be? What a treasure! What a pearl of great price He must be! Does your estimate of Jesus go up? The infinite God needed nothing but His Son for all eternity. His infinite measure, infinite capacity, and infinite abilities were fully satisfied and found a suitable object in the perfection of the divine Being, His begotten Son. He was fully satisfying the great God’s heart from eons. He was the darling, the sweetheart of God, making Him eternally happy. Oh, what a person Christ must be! We don’t know anything about Him. Even when He came to earth, the Father tore the sky and spoke with a loud voice, testifying three times, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Thirdly, The Covenant Between Father and Son
At that time, scripture says there is something the Father, the Son, and the third person in the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, did. This self-existent God, for no other reason than for His pleasure and glory, decided to create heaven and earth. And as they saw in their all-knowing knowledge the fall of man and how that would affect all men, how they would become depraved sinners, God decided to permit that fall for His own glory. Scripture and our confession reveal that there was a covenant that was made between the Father and the Son in eternity. This is called the Covenant of Redemption, an eternal covenant.
This is a very important topic. Spurgeon said all false teaching and wrong understanding of the Bible comes because we fail to understand the concept of a covenant. It is one concept that runs through the entire Bible and unites the entire Bible. The Bible itself is a covenant book; the Old Testament and the New Testament are nothing but a covenant. All the covenants we see in the Bible had their cause in the covenant that was made between the Father and the Son and even the Holy Spirit before the world began. A covenant, in our terms, is an agreement, like a rental agreement we make. God is so big and sovereign that He can do anything He wants and is not bound to anyone, but He humbles Himself and binds and promises to do some things in the form of a covenant.
Theologians differentiate the covenant between God and man as two covenants: the covenant of works and the covenant of grace made with humans. But this covenant that was done between the Father and the Son is called the Covenant of Redemption. All the covenants God makes after the fall of Adam, with Adam, Noah, Moses, David, and then the New Testament covenant, are all the fruit or consequence of the Covenant of Redemption that happened between the Father and the Son. New people may not understand this now, but maybe you will slowly. Make a note that the covenant is very important.
The Bible says this covenant was made in eternity between the Father and the Son and even the Holy Spirit. Where does the Bible say this covenant? We know only about the covenants with Abraham, Moses, and the New Testament. Many verses in the Old Testament allude to this. Let us look at two verses. Second Timothy 1:9 says, “who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus… before time began.” Titus 1:2 says, “in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.” To whom was this promise made? “but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior.”
Okay, what were the terms and conditions of this covenant? We make a rental agreement where the owner will give this house with so many rooms, and the tenant will pay so much rent. What were the conditions of this covenant?
- The glorious doctrine of election was part of this covenant. That God, out of all the children of Adam who would be born as fallen, depraved sinners, eternally sets His love on them and chooses to redeem them from their sins, calls them, justifies them, sanctifies them, transforms them to the image of His beloved Son Jesus, and glorifies them eternally to be His children. Their names were listed in the book of life. This is called the great doctrine of election or predestination. The people who are chosen by God as the elect. This was done in eternity before creation. To do this in a way that doesn’t bring any dishonor to God’s justice and righteousness, God decreed a redemptive plan.
- In this redemptive plan, the Father planned and architected redemption, the Son has the work to accomplish the redemption, and the Holy Spirit will apply that redemption.
- God lays down certain conditions to redeem the elect sinners. Once the Son fulfills that, the Father gives certain promises. We saw in Isaiah 53:10, “if thou wilt make thy soul a sinner offering,”
- Since the first man, Adam, sinned and failed, the Son has to become man, as a second Adam, a representative of man, a federal head of this covenant for His people. He has to live a perfect life and purchase righteousness and bear all the sins of all the elect on His body, and atone for their sins on the cross and pour out His soul as a guilt offering. When the Son fulfills this condition by making the full payment for all sins and satisfying God’s justice,
- Then the Father promises to redeem all those for whom Christ will die and pour out blessings such as justification, sanctification, adoption, glorification, and eternal life, as we saw in Isaiah 53.
- This is a tremendous work for the Son to do in His humanity and requires the greatest sacrifice. So, as part of the covenant, in passages like Isaiah 42:6, a lot of details are given, like the Father promises that He will “uphold and support your humanity, when it is overweighted with the burden and ready to sink down under it,” and keep Him in this most difficult work.
- God also promises the full success of this work. Isaiah 53:10 says, “He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” His suffering and work will not go in vain.
- God promises to restore His Son’s glory with His humanity with additional mediatorial glory as an eternal priest, prophet, and king.
So this transaction happened in eternity. One Puritan beautifully writes this as a conversation between the Father and the Son. The Father says, “My Son, here is a company of poor, miserable souls that have utterly undone themselves, and now lie open to my justice! Justice demands satisfaction for them or will satisfy itself in their eternal ruin. What shall be done for these souls?” And thus Christ returns, “O my Father, such is my love for and pity for them that rather than they shall perish eternally, I will be responsible for them as their surety. Bring in all your bills, that I may see what they owe you; Lord, bring them all in, so that there may be no after-reckonings with them. You shall require it at my hand. I will rather choose to suffer your wrath than they should suffer it. Upon me, my Father, upon me be all their debt.”
The Father says, “But, my Son, if you undertake for them, you must reckon to pay the last mite; expect no abatements. If I spare them, I will not spare you.” The Son responds, “I am content, Father, let it be so; charge it all upon me. I am able to discharge it, and though it prove a kind of undoing for me, though it impoverish all my riches and empty all my treasures (for so indeed it did, as 2 Corinthians 8:9 says, ‘Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor’), yet I am content to undertake it.”
Blush, ungrateful believers! Oh, let shame cover your faces. Ask your consciences, how you shrink in serving such a worthy Lord. Judge in yourselves now what honor and service Christ deserves from you, that you should shrink at a few petty difficulties and complain, “This is hard,” and “That is harsh.” Oh, if you knew the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in this His wonderful condescension for you, you could not do it.
So as we travel back and went to pre-creation and “L2J,” we looked at: first, His glorious state pre-creation; second, His relationship to the Father; and third, the covenant between the Father and the Son.
Now let us come back and see what graces and applications we can receive from this vision for today’s life. As we intently look at this pre-creation glory of Christ,
- As we come to the communion table, let us think about why we are gathered here. All of you who have believed in Jesus Christ, from different cultures, different religions, why did someone come and tell you about Jesus when many of our friends and relatives did not believe? Why did you believe? When so many come to church and stop, why did you come regularly, hear God’s voice here, and grow joyfully in truth, and become a member, and today take communion? How wonderful to think this is not an accident or chance, or your own decision, but all this is an effect of something that happened in eternity. Why did you alone come? Not others? Not because you are smarter or wiser, but can you imagine that even before you were born, before the world was created, there was an eternal covenant made on your behalf. At that time, you were particularly in the mind of God, and He loved you and chose you.
Can I say we are here as a result of election? We are expecting our national election results this week. Once the results are out, what a celebration! I will tell you that the greatest celebration for those who believe in Christ is that we are elected by God not in time but in eternity, not for five years but for all eternity, not on the basis of what we did or how good we are, but on the basis of God’s sovereign grace. Chosen for what? To be part of this joyful, blissful eternal family, to be made like Jesus and become children of God, and to enjoy eternal bliss with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for all coming eternity.
Have you thought about what a glorious honor and privilege it is to be the elect of God? One lottery for 100 crore is a huge jump, but the most blessed lottery is to be elected by God. We will jump if we know the joy. The worth, honor, and excellency of a “chosen generation, a peculiar people,” a “peculiar treasure unto me above all people.” Out of billions upon billions of people who lived before us, and who live now, and who will live after us, we are the elect of God in Jesus Christ. Out of all of them, God set His love upon me. And His love is like Himself: causeless, changeless, and endless. “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” The great God, the blessed and only potentate, that He should choose such poor, contemptible, worthless, and vile creatures as we are, surpasses all knowledge.
The blessedness of election appears in the comparative fewness of the elect. “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” His design was to show eternal, greater mercy to a few, while all others have only material and temporal things as their portion. The Old Testament types showed that the elect are few. In Noah’s ark, only eight were saved, while the whole world perished!
As we look at Jesus in His pre-incarnate glory, remember that it is only through Christ and what He will do for us, not through anything in us, that we were chosen. The Covenant of Redemption fixed it so that all of the blessings we receive from God come to us “in Christ.”
Do you see what a great salvation this is? This is something beyond you, something beyond the world, time, and history. It has its roots in eternity and a decree between the Father and the Son.
Dear believer, may the truth of election give you all the grace you need today. It gives us grace in every step of the Christian’s progress to Heaven. God not only decreed Christ’s work, but He decreed that Christ will call you, justify you, sanctify you, transform you to the image of His Son, and glorify you. When we are discouraged and backslidden, tossed to and fro by worldly trials and remaining sin, what truth revives us? It is the confidence that my salvation is not based on my works but on God, who chose me in eternity. It fills us with the precious assurance that “He which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). There was nothing in us that moved God to choose us, so there is nothing I will do that will reverse that election. “Whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (Romans 8:30). Predestination guarantees glorification and therefore guarantees the supply of the elect’s every need between the two.
Election should be a great motivator for holiness. According to the divine decree, God chose us to be holy. God writes His law upon our hearts, and we are made partakers of the divine nature. The Bible calls us to make our election and calling sure by holy living. Child of God, as you look unto Jesus, whatever situation or difficulties you may be facing, realize now that one of the greatest spiritual blessings that God has given to us is that He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him.
The Love of the Father and the Son
Secondly, this vision of the Father and the Son teaches us about their love for us. Here we are in time, in June 2024. According to this eternal covenant, Jesus did come into the world 2,000 years ago, atoned for all our sins, and went to heaven. The Son accomplished redemption. Through the Holy Spirit, God made us hear the Gospel, brought us to church, and now we are gathered here, and the Father is fulfilling His promise before our eyes today. We are here today because of that.
Do you doubt whether the Father loves you? What an astonishing act of love this was for the Father to give the delight, the darling of His soul, out of His very bosom, for poor sinners! All tongues will falter and pause when attempting to express this love. Jesus Himself couldn’t fully express it, saying, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16).
Which of us would deliver our child, no matter how rebellious, to the greatest inheritance in the world? What tender parent can endure a parting pull with such a child? Jesus was the only child of the Father’s delights. He didn’t give Him up for the greatest wealth, but to a horrible, shameful, and cursed death.
How Hagar couldn’t bear to see her child dying. She sat over against him far off and lifted up her voice and wept. What an outcry did David make, even for a rebellious Absalom, wishing he had died for him. Oh, it was hard to part! What a hole the death of some children has made in the hearts of some parents, which will never be closed up in this world! Yet all the love we have is but a reflection of the Father’s love.
How difficult it was for Him to give up a child like His only one, the Son of His delights, and that to a cursed death for sinners, for the worst of sinners. Oh, the admirable love of God to men! Matchless love! A love past finding out! Let all people, therefore, in the business of their redemption, give equal glory to the Father with the Son (John 5:23). If the Father had not loved you, He would never have parted with such a Son for you.
Inferences from God’s Love
Corollary 1: If God has given His own Son for the world, then it follows that those for whom God gave His own Son may warrantably expect any other temporal mercies from Him. This is the apostle’s inference in Romans 8:32: “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all; how shall he not, with him, freely give us all things?” And so in 1 Corinthians 3:21-22: “All is yours, for you are Christ’s.” That is, they hold all other things in Christ, who is the principal and most comprehensive mercy.
- No other mercy you need or desire is, or can be, so dear to God as Jesus Christ is. He never laid any other thing in His bosom as He did His Son. As for the world and the comforts of it, it is the dust of His feet; He values it not. Ten thousand worlds and the glory of them all are but the dust of the balance if weighed with Christ. If God has so freely given the greater, how can you suppose He should deny the lesser mercies?
- If God has given you this nearer, greater, and all-encompassing mercy when you were His enemies and alienated from Him, it is not imaginable that He should deny you any inferior mercy when you are in a state of reconciliation and have become His child.
Inference 2: On one side, the Father’s love is a wonder. What do we say about the Son? As we look to Jesus, we are forever astonished at the love of Jesus Christ for poor sinners; that He should ever consent to leave such a bosom and the unspeakable and ineffable delights that were there, humbling Himself and taking the form of a slave for such poor worms as we are. What will we return?
Which of us, if we get into a comfortable, best position in the world, would leave that place for anyone? If you ever found by experience what it is to be in the bosom of God by divine communion, you would never be persuaded to leave such a bosom for all the good that is in the world. And yet Jesus Christ, who was embraced in that bosom in a way we can never imagine, freely left it and laid down the glory and riches He enjoyed there for your sakes. And as the Father loved Him, even so, believers, has He loved you (John 17:22). What manner of love is this! Who ever loved as Christ loves? Who ever denied himself for Christ, as Christ denied himself for us? Oh, the heights, depths, lengths, and breadths of unmeasurable love!
Inference 3: If we understand this vision, I hope it gives a vision of how high Christ is. He was the only delight for the Father for all past eternity. This should teach us that believing, loving, obeying, and worshiping Christ is the true way to heaven and the Father. Do you desire God’s blessing, favor in your life, and pleasure? Do you want God’s presence? Do you want God to welcome you into heaven and bless you eternally?
Be careful how you treat Christ. Oh, believe, love, and worship Christ! Think much of Christ. Give Him the highest place in your heart. Look to Jesus. If the Father’s all delight is in Jesus Christ in past eternity, now, and for all future eternity, do you understand why Jesus said, “I am the way to the Father, no one can come to the Father but through me”?
We understand in the world that many things happen through recommendation and networking. People rise in this world as they are befriended; preference goes by favor. Joseph’s brothers, though they were shepherds abhorred by Pharaoh, were raised to a high level because of Joseph. So it is in heaven. People are preferred according to their interest in the beloved (Ephesians 1:9). Christ is the great favorite in heaven. His image upon your souls and His name in your prayers makes both accepted with God.
Do you understand? The only reason God accepts us sinners, forgives, and adopts us is because of Christ. We are accepted in the beloved (Ephesians 1:6). He is beloved, and accepted for Himself. Everything we do is accepted, and God delights in us not for ourselves but because of His delight in Christ.
Inference 4: If Christ be the beloved darling of the Father’s soul, think what a grievous and unbearable thing it is to the heart of God to see His dear Son despised, slighted, and rejected by sinners. Truly, there is no such thing that cuts to the heart of God and angers His heart in the whole world than the act of rejecting and not believing Christ.
Those of you who still do not believe Christ, realize what a horror it is to reject God’s only beloved Son. Heaven itself raises against you; the wrath of heaven is on your head. This is why God will throw you into eternal hell. He who does not believe the only Son is already condemned. It is written on your forehead, like Cain: cursed and condemned. What a horror not to believe Jesus Christ.
Unbelievers, imagine how much more punishment will come upon you. When He is preached in the Gospel, He came from heaven to bear your sins, and what did He do? You hear all that, yet you trample upon God’s darling, you tread underfoot Him who eternally lay in God’s bosom, and you reject Him. Do you realize what this means? Hebrews 10:28-29 says, “Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing?”
When you smite the apple of His eye, how will God bear this? In all the parables, in Matthew 21:37-40, about the vineyard and the marriage supper, the king was patient for all they did. But when they touched his son, he immediately and miserably destroyed such wretched sinners.
If you would want the worst punishment in hell, worse punishment than the homosexuals of Sodom and Gomorrah, worse than all the terrible sins in central jail today, to anger God in the biggest way, the only thing you have to do is reject the Father’s only Son. What a dismal word is that in 1 Corinthians 16:22: “If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha,” which means, “Let the worst great curse of God lie upon that man until the Lord comes.”
Oh, you know it says, let the worst great curse of God lie upon that man until the Lord comes. Imagine what will happen to him when Jesus comes. O sinners! Unbelievers! You shall one day know the big price of this sin; you shall feel what it is to despise and reject Jesus. Oh, that you would slight Him no more! Oh, that this day your hearts might fall in love with Him! There is nobody who loves you like Jesus, who did what He did for you. It is the basest ingratitude to reject Him.
See what He has done for you in the Gospel. Whatever you are, however worst sins you have done, whatever guilt is in your conscience, if you can just believe Him, you shall be as dear to God as the holiest and most eminent believer in the world. But if you still continue to despise and neglect such a Savior, sorer wrath is treasured up for you than for other sinners. Oh, that these discoveries and offers of Christ may speak to your heart and bring you to Christ.
Inference 5: Believers, as we come to communion, remember Christ. If Christ lay eternally in this bosom of love and yet was content to forsake and leave it for your sakes, then (1) be ready to leave the comforts you have on earth for serving Christ if required. We see all great men doing this, achieving big things for Christ. Moses left all the glory of Egypt; Peter and the other apostles left all (Luke 18:28); Paul counted all as garbage. Tim left his family and native land and went on a missionary journey. Eph risked his life for the Gospel work. But what have we to leave for Christ in comparison to what He left for us? Surely Christ is the highest pattern of self-denial in the world.
(2) Let this confirm your faith in prayer. If He, who has such an interest in the heart of God, intercedes with the Father for you, then never doubt of an audience and acceptance with Him. Surely you shall be “accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). Christ was never denied anything that He asked (John 11:42). The Father hears Him always. Though you are not worthy, Christ is, and He ever lives to make intercession for you (Hebrews 7:25).
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 