Spurgeon: April PM
* 04/23/PM
"Lo, in the midst of the throne . . . stood a Lamb as it had
been slain."
--Revelation 5:6
Why should our exalted Lord appear in His wounds in glory?
The wounds of Jesus are His glories, His jewels, His sacred
ornaments. To the eye of the believer, Jesus is passing fair
because He is "white and ruddy" white with innocence, and ruddy
with His own blood. We see Him as the lily of matchless purity,
and as the rose crimsoned with His own gore. Christ is lovely
upon Olivet and Tabor, and by the sea, but oh! there never was
such a matchless Christ as He that did hang upon the cross.
There we beheld all His beauties in perfection, all His
attributes developed, all His love drawn out, all His character
expressed. Beloved, the wounds of Jesus are far more fair in our
eyes than all the splendour and pomp of kings. The thorny crown
is more than an imperial diadem. It is true that He bears not
now the sceptre of reed, but there was a glory in it that never
flashed from sceptre of gold. Jesus wears the appearance of a
slain Lamb as His court dress in which He wooed our souls, and
redeemed them by His complete atonement. Nor are these only the
ornaments of Christ: they are the trophies of His love and of
His victory. He has divided the spoil with the strong. He has
redeemed for Himself a great multitude whom no man can number,
and these scars are the memorials of the fight. Ah! if Christ
thus loves to retain the thought of His sufferings for His
people, how precious should his wounds be to us !
"Behold how every wound of His
A precious balm distils,
Which heals the scars that sin had made,
And cures all mortal ills.
"Those wounds are mouths that preach His grace;
The ensigns of His love;
The seals of our expected bliss
In paradise above."