"MY REDEEMER LIVETH"
CONTINUALLY have I spoken to the reader concerning Christ
crucified, who is the great hope of the guilty; but it is our
wisdom to remember that our Lord has risen from the dead and
lives eternally.
You are not asked to trust in a dead Jesus, but in One who,
though He died for our sins, has risen again for our
justification. You may go to Jesus at once as to a living and
present friend. He is not a mere memory, but a continually
existent Person who will hear your prayers and answer them. He
lives on purpose to carry on the work for which He once laid down
His life. He is interceding for sinners at the right hand of the
Father, and for this reason He is able to save them to the
uttermost who come unto God by Him. Come and try this living
Saviour, if you have never done so before.
This living Jesus is also raised to an eminence of glory and
power. He does not now sorrow as "a humble man before his foes,"
nor labor as "the carpenter's son"; but He is exalted far above
principalities and power and every name that is named. The Father
has given Him all power in Heaven and in earth, and he exercises
this high endowment in carrying out His work of grace. Hear what
Peter and the other apostles testified concerning Him before the
high priest and the council:
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and
hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be
a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and
forgiveness of sins ( Acts 5:30 , 31 ).
The glory which surrounds the ascended Lord should breathe
hope into every believer's breast. Jesus is no mean person--He is
"a Saviour and a great one." He is the crowned and enthroned
Redeemer of men. The sovereign prerogative of life and death is
vested in Him; the Father has put all men under the mediatorial
government of the Son, so that He can quicken whom He will. He
openeth, and no man shutteth. At His word the soul which is bound
by the cords of sin and condemnation can be unloosed in a moment.
He stretches out the silver scepter, and whosoever touches it
lives.
It is well for us that as sin lives, and the flesh lives,
and the devil lives, so Jesus lives; and it is also well that
whatever might these may have to ruin us, Jesus has still greater
power to save us.
All His exaltation and ability are on our account. "He is
exalted to be," and exalted "to give." He is exalted to be a
Prince and a Saviour, that He may give all that is needed to
accomplish the salvation of all who come under His rule. Jesus
has nothing which He will not use for a sinner's salvation, and
He is nothing which He will not display in the aboundings of His
grace. He links His princedom with His Saviour-ship, as if He
would not have the one without the other; and He sets forth His
exaltation as designed to bring blessings to men, as if this were
the flower and crown of His glory. Could anything be more
calculated to raise the hopes of seeking sinners who are looking
Christward?
Jesus endured great humiliation, and therefore there was
room for Him to be exalted. By that humiliation He accomplished
and endured all the Father's will, and therefore He was rewarded
by being raised to glory. He uses that exaltation on behalf of
His people. Let my reader raise his eyes to these hills of glory,
whence his help must come. Let him contemplate the high glories
of the Prince and Saviour. Is it not most hopeful for men that a
Man is now on the throne of the universe? Is it not glorious that
the Lord of all is the Saviour of sinners? We have a Friend at
court; yea, a Friend on the throne. He will use all His influence
for those who entrust their affairs in His hands. Well does one
of our poets sing:
He ever lives to intercede
Before His Father's face;
Give Him, my soul, Thy cause to plead,
No doubt the Father's grace.
Come, friend, and commit your cause and your case to those
once pierced hands, which are now glorified with the signet rings
of royal power and honor. No suit ever failed which was left with
this great Advocate.