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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. Please
won't you 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 you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him
God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and
Savior, 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
[right or privilege] 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 opens, and no man shuts. 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 His abundant 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 to
Jesus?
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. |
