THROUGH HIM — IN HIM — WITH HIM

The glorious manhood of our Lord Jesus Christ is absolutely indispensable to us in whatever situation we, as believers in Him, may be found.

Every blessing bestowed upon us by God reaches us through Him, everything is in Him and is to be enjoyed in His blessed company.

Not only so but He is the Man of God’s counsels, as it is said, “according to the purpose of the ages which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Eph. 3:11.)

He is the One who is mighty, upon Whom God has laid help. (Psa. 89:19.) He is the One to whom is the obedience (or gathering) of the people. (Gen. 49:10.) He is to be apprehended now as the Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, the Center of the universe of glory as also the One whose glory we shall behold when we are with Him and like Him for eternity.

Through Him we have peace with God; through Him we have now received the reconciliation and are thus enabled to joy in God (See Rom. 5:1–11.)

Moreover, every blessing that is in Him is inviolate and unchanging. In the Epistle to the Romans the redemption which is in Christ Jesus is the basis of all God’s operations in grace, but in Ephesians Paul says “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”

This may be regarded as the initial blessing of the Gospel, but the enjoyment of it lays the foundation in our souls for all true Christian liberty. At the same time the constant reminder that all is through His blood maintains us in the continuing sense of God’s righeousness and holiness both of which are moral safeguards so long as we shall need such protection.

The enjoyment of forgiveness is necessary if we are to be maintained responsive to the wondrous love of God which has been and is now the motivating power of His glorious plan and of His dealings with His own. (John 3:16.)

Not only are our blessings in Him but we ourselves are given a standing in Him by divine grace and can say “There is now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:1.)

This is the way of deliverance and sets us free for what God has purposed for His own pleasure, for He has chosen us in Him before the world’s foundation.

As apprehending this blessedness, we find all is to be enjoyed as “with Him.” Our gracious Lord’s promise to the one who hears His voice and opens the door does not stop at “I will sup with him,” but opens a vista of glory in the words “he with me.”

May the earnest desire be awakened to be with Him in His precious interests here until that moment when we shall see Him face to face according to His own desire expressed in John 17:24 “that where I am they also may be with Me, that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me, for Thou lovest Me before the foundation of the world.”

While we await that moment of actual glory may we give greater scope to the Holy Spirit who takes of His things and shows them to us, remembering always that His things are the Father’s things.

Those who desire to be available to the Lord in this moment of testimony are called necessarily to bear many a sorrow and endure many disquietudes but are to be able to retire through Christ and by the Spirit into the realm of the Father’s things where all is eternally stable.

H. D. Thomas in “Things Concerning Himself”

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