Evening, June 4
Go To Morning Reading
“Received up into glory.”
1 Timothy 3:16
We have seen our well-beloved Lord in the days of his flesh, humiliated
and sore vexed; for he was “despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief.” He whose brightness is as the morning, wore the sackcloth of
sorrow as his daily dress: shame was his mantle, and reproach was
his vesture. Yet now,
inasmuch as he has triumphed over all the powers of darkness upon
the bloody tree, our
faith beholds our King returning with dyed garments from Edom, robed
in the splendour of
victory. How glorious must he have been in the eyes of seraphs, when
a cloud received him
out of mortal sight, and he ascended up to heaven! Now he wears the
glory which he had
with God or ever the earth was, and yet another glory above all—that which he has
well earned in the fight against sin, death, and hell. As victor he
wears the illustrious
crown. Hark how the song swells high! It is a new and sweeter song:
“Worthy is the
Lamb that was slain, for he hath redeemed us unto God by his blood!” He wears the
glory of an Intercessor who can never fail, of a Prince who can never
be defeated, of a
Conqueror who has vanquished every foe, of a Lord who has the heart’s allegiance of every subject. Jesus wears all the glory which the
pomp of heaven can bestow upon him, which ten thousand times ten thousand
angels can minister to him. You cannot with your utmost stretch of
imagination conceive his exceeding greatness; yet there will be a
further revelation of it when he shall descend from heaven in great
power, with all the holy angels—“Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.” Oh, the splendour of that glory! It will ravish his people’s hearts. Nor is this the close, for eternity shall sound his praise,
“Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever!” Reader, if you would joy in Christ’s glory hereafter, he must be glorious in your sight now. Is he so ?