"The Greatness of Another"

"The Greatness of Another"  

  

    Recent events have reminded me of these words, written by the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1818.

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. 

Near them, on the sand,

half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

tell that its sculptor well those passions read

which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear:

'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away."

    

   Shelley reminds us of the fleeting nature of our earthly lives, including those who aspire to greatness and may even seem to achieve a bit of their goal.  Such aspirants, however, all come to the same sad end, their achievements soon forgotten as time reveals the wicked foolishness of human pride and bluster.  

   "I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 2:9-11).

    God gave to Solomon greatness and riches.  More importantly, he gave to Solomon the wisdom to realize the vanity of greatness and riches.  Few who tread the golden and gilded path reach a destination and destiny of anything other than destruction.  Humanity exists for the greatness of Another, to extol the wonder and spiritual riches of the Lord Jesus Christ.  "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord" (II Corinthians 10:17).  Only those who humble themselves before Him and before people find the narrow path that leads to life.  Christ Himself is that path, the Great One who "made Himself of no reputation", and who now dwells forevermore as King of kings and Lord of lords.  "Before honor is humility" (Philippians 2:7; Proverbs 15:33). 

    The masses follow dust unto dust.  Believers in the Lord Jesus follow the Savior unto life everlasting.  The former way shines brightly, but momentarily, with the best that humanity can muster in temporal appearance, achievement, and accolade.  The latter way is Blood-stained and paved by humility.  "That colossal wreck" - or the eternal glory of the crucified and risen Christ.  These are the paths, the narrow path of life and the broad path "boundless and bare".

"Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted."

(Matthew 23:12)

Weekly Memory Verse

     Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

(Hebrews 12:11)

   

    

    

"The Cost of Access"

"The Cost of Access"

    

    It is not required that we consciously think about it every time we pray.  However, we do well to often remember that the cost of our access to God through the Lord Jesus Christ involved the Savior's loss of that access as He suffered and died on the cross of Calvary.

   "Let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).

   "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46).

   To the degree the Lord Jesus was abandoned by God on the cross, born again believers will never be without the Divine presence.  The promise of "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee" assures us because the Father and the Holy Spirit turned away from Christ when He was "made to be sin for us" (Hebrews 13:5; II Corinthians 5:21).  Rather than the devoted fellowship He had always known with His Father - "Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world" - the Savior knew the furies of Divine wrath and forsakenness - "We did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted" (John 17:24; Isaiah 53:4).  We cannot imagine the unspeakable agony of such torment, save to realize that the Lord Jesus knew loneliness to a measure that no other sentient being has ever or ever will experience.  Thus, in inverse proportion to His forsakenness, the trusting sons and daughters of God in Christ can "draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith" (Hebrews 10:22).

   We may not understand this sublime truth (indeed, if we think we do, we deceive ourselves).  Somehow, the fellowship of our hearts means so much to God that on Calvary, He stripped away His presence and communion from His Son.  Our salvation required such an extreme degree of mercy in order to grant to us the eternal delight of grace, indeed, the realization of God's delight in us.  Little wonder that the Apostle Paul concluded that "the love of Christ passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19).  Most surely it does, and thankfully, the understanding of such blessed wonder is not required.  Faith rather receives the gift, namely, the awareness and reception of the Truth that proclaims your heart and mine as being precious to God, and our fellowship with Him as being worth the withdrawal of fellowship with His Son.  I know of only one response to such truth, and I'm sure you will join me on your knees in order to please our Father through the conscious communion of our hearts with His.

"Through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father."

(Ephesians 2:18)

"But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus."

(Ephesians 2:4-7)

Weekly Memory Verse

     Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

(Hebrews 12:11)

   

“Crucified? Crowned!"

"Crucified?  Crowned!"

    

    Scripture calls us to expect God, that is, to anticipate His loving, detailed, and applied involvement in our lives based on the truth that "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

   "I will look for Him… My expectation is from the Lord" (Isaiah 8:17; Psalm 62:5).

    Scripture, however, also counsels us to realize that we will not always perceive or understand the way in which God will work in His active devotion to us.  We know that He will act on our behalf.  We frequently don't know how He will do so.  

    "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9).

    Israel long awaited her Messiah.  He came, but not as she expected in His first advent.  "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give His life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28).  Thus, the Lord's chosen earthly nation crucified rather than crowned her king.  "Ye killed the Prince of life" declared the Apostle Peter, raising the personal question for us all: are there graces of Christ's presence and involvement in our lives that do not fit our concept of how we expect God to work?  Do we thus resist, as it were, the coming of the Messiah to us?  We can figuratively nail the Lord Jesus to a tree no less than Israel literally did so when "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not" (John 1:11).  If He comes in ways we do not expect, or that are unpleasant to us, the temptation to reject His working lies before us in alluring enticement.  Let us therefore open our eyes, even as we bow our heads in seeking our Lord in this vital matter:

   "Heavenly Father, are there blessed bestowals of Christ in our lives that we rather view as intrusions of irritation, misery, and despair?  Has the Lord Jesus come unto His own again, only to again be rejected rather than received?  Are we failing to remember that the Savior still often comes in the servant's garb rather than the warrior's mail?  Are You revealing Christ in our lives in some way and manner that we completely fail to see?  If so, open our eyes, convict and convince our hearts, and lead us to crown rather than crucify the Lord Jesus.  We pray in His blessed Name, Amen."

    We rightly expect the fact of God's loving involvement.  We must also rightly realize that His ways are not ours, and that much of His working in our lives still reflects the light of Christ's first coming rather than the second.  "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our  body" (II Corinthians 4:10).  Let us state the truth in its most stark terms: had the Messiah come as His people desired, in regal royalty rather than suffering servitude, we would have been condemned to a lost eternity.  In similar fashion, if the Lord Jesus came to us now in ways always pleasing to our flesh, so very much of God's faithful provision and working to conform us to the image of Christ could not happen.  We presently need the nature of the First Coming at least as much, if not more, than the power of the Second.  Thus, let us expect God.  And let us expect that He will often work in ways known only to those who trust His heart when they cannot understand His hand.

"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment."

(John 7:24)

Weekly Memory Verse

     Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

(Hebrews 12:11)