Spurgeon: June PM
* 06/04/PM
"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 for ever and ever!" Reader, if
you would joy in Christ's glory hereafter, He must be glorious
in your sight now. Is He so ?