“The Freest Gift”

The old hymn sings it beautifully. “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”

The Scriptures state it even more beautifully. “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God… For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:12; 14).

Our Savior apprehended the gift of salvation for us by the sacrifice of Himself in order that we may freely appropriate such marvelous grace by faith. He worked so that we might believe. Indeed, the redemption of the Lord Jesus is the freest gift even given, paid for by highest price ever remitted. Thus, the born again believer unapologetically proclaims the sublime beauty of yet another hymn, “Nothing in my hand I bring, only to Thy cross I cling.” Or, as the Apostle Paul wrote to Titus, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:5).

The more such grace and mercy illuminates our hearts, the more the love of God and love for God will grow in motivation and magnitude. Indeed, Love begets love. “We love Him because He first loved us” (I John 4:19). So many of the hymns of our faith tell the story, the wondrous story of the God who did for us that which we could not do for ourselves. Even more, the Bible promises that as we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Christ who “paid it all,” we shall grow also in faith, faithfulness, and a life that truly honors the One worthy of more glory than even eternity will allow Him to receive. Yes, the love known and received that began our Christian life is the same love increasingly known and received that perpetuates it, even as the Apostle Paul proclaimed…

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.” (Colossians 2:6)

“More Than Memories”

In recent years, we’ve returned on several occasions to the matter of our memories serving not simply as a means of recollection, but of praise and thanksgiving.

“I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember Thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all Thy work, and talk of Thy doings. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?” (Psalm 77:11-12).

If God is as pointedly involved in our lives as the Bible declares, and if “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights,” remembrance of the past offers continual opportunity for the expression of gratitude to our Heavenly Father (James 1:17). God privileges His trusting sons and daughters in Christ to journey down memory lane, as it were, not simply to recollect with our minds, but to commune with Him in our hearts. Are there things God has done in our past for which we’ve never given thanks? Doubtless, there are. Are there things He has done for which we have given thanks, but which we’d like to express gratitude yet again? Our Heavenly Father certainly won’t be bored by hearing another “Thank You.”

We do well to include both the pleasures and the pains of life in our offering of gratitude. Again, an all-involved God who works all things together for good to those who love Him can justifiably receive thanksgiving for the rose and the thorn. In our present existence, we require the experience of both in order to know the Lord and to be changed into the likeness of Christ. Remembrance of both blessing and buffeting therefore offers opportunity for the gratitude that reflects faith in the God who wastes nothing in our lives as He fulfills His good and loving purposes in our lives.

This is written as yet another reminder to my own heart, and perhaps to yours. Our capacity for remembrance exists not simply to enable us to function, but also to worship. Our recollections become more than memories as our journeys through the past remind us not simply of people, events, blessings and difficulties, but of the God who was graciously and actively there in all.

“In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (I Thessalonians 5:18)

“Lower Than the Angels”

It is a wondrous thing that the Lord Jesus Christ took humanity upon Himself in order to redeem us from our sins. “Great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh” (I Timothy 3:16).

It may be even more wondrous, however, that our salvation required the Lord Jesus to adopt a nature even beneath another class of created beings. “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man” (Hebrews 2:9).

Great indeed is the mystery. Accordingly, I’m not sure it’s a worthy or productive endeavor to attempt too much understanding of how an infinite God could become “lower” than a finite race made by His own creative fiat. Such truth simply is what it is, and it exists without jeopardizing the Divinity or place of Christ as God the Son, and as the Maker and Sustainer of our being. The Lord Jesus is no less God because He is man. Nor is He any less man because He is God. Great indeed is the mystery!

I do believe it to be a worthy and productive endeavor that One glorious beyond imagining would willingly humble Himself beyond even more imagining. I am quite certain when we get to Heaven that the truth of God’s greatness will bring us to our knees in awe. However, His lowliness may even more astound us with the wonder our Lord’s wonder. “I am meek and lowly in heart” declared the Savior, who also confessed, “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise” (John 5:19). Add to this the humility of the Holy Spirit, who “shall not speak of Himself,” and a sublime display of triune character presents itself beyond all fathoming (John 16:13).

In the book of Revelation the Apostle John was told to “behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” He looked, and “beheld… a Lamb as it had been slain” (Revelation 5:5-6). Christ is to be feared as the Lion, no doubt, by those who reject Him, and even by those who love Him as we realize the full magnitude of who and what He is. This elicits the proper respect of God that must fill our devoted hearts. However, our Savior must also be known as the Lamb, whose character will forever amaze us with lowliness. This fosters in us the love of God, and love for God that must occupy the foremost place in our hearts. A little lower than the angels? Yes, and the realization causes in us a view of Him higher than the heavens, and far more glorious than even eternity will fully unveil.

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11).