CHRIST FULFILLS THE LAW

I

The Word of God, and especially the life of Christ, is full of unfathomable depths and mysteries. It becomes manifest that it is an eternal word. In eternity, the full light shall shine upon it. We must always be ashamed and blush with shame because we know and understand so little of it. But thus it is also with respect to Christ Whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting. He is the true God and eternal life. He came into this world as the unspeakable Gift of God, and His whole life was vicarious and substitutional for His people. It is true, He was despised and He was not esteemed. But His admirable greatness and glory became evident from step to step in His deep humiliation. The world has not seen it, and will never see it, because their eyes are closed to it. And superficial religion may mention His name constantly, but in reality, He has no form nor comeliness for them.

No person is hidden from us as much as the Mediator of God and man. He must be declared in our heart, and we must receive eyes to behold His glory. Just think of the simple instances which we have in God’s Testimony. When Christ was brought into the temple, hundreds of people walked to and fro there, but only the old Simeon and Anna were favored to behold Him as the Son of God. Even the farthest advanced in grace will gladly acknowledge that their knowledge of Him is very slight. David prayed, “Open Thou my eyes, that I may behold the wonders of Thy law.”

No, God’s people will never get beyond that prayer, but the necessity of it shall become ever more manifest. It is not a very good sign if the need and the necessity are not constantly realized. That is proof that there is no constant discovery. God does not waste His grace. God must constantly make room for that Christ in our heart.

With each new revelation, our blindness and foolishness will become more evident, so that we say, “Oh God, how little do I really know about it.” Our want becomes ever greater as new and more revelations are granted to us.

Oh, what a benefit it is when it may be thus during our life. It is a sad sign when we think we know so much. With his speculative knowledge, one may speak as though led far, but it yields no profit and leaves us so empty. When in Matthew 16 Peter made that glorious confession, the Lord Jesus said unto him, “Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto you, but My Father which is in heaven,” and that is ever the main question. Only that shall deeply humble us before God and man, and shall also give us power and strength for all the trials we must experience in this life. But that shall yield blessed fruit, while all that superficial discussion always remains cold and without humiliation. We could say, “It is a truth without love,” and this will never awaken jealousy. Ah no, all that superficial talk does not compel respect. God’s quickened people must condemn it too, when they discover it in themselves; and for that reason they have no respect for it when they observe it in others. That which they so often disapprove of in self, they surely cannot approve of in others. Man only seeks himself with that, and God loathes it.

It is altogether different with the discovery of the glory of Christ in the heart of God’s favorites. That which we wrote above this article is full of learning and comfort, but also humbles us. It always becomes clear that the word spoken by the angel Gabriel was true: “Therefore, that Holy Thing which shall be born of you, shall be called the Son of God.” The whole life of Christ, from His crib to His cross, was a life of deep abasement. But yet time and again, the majesty and glory radiated from that eternal Son of God Who is one in essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Father had chosen Him to be His Servant, but He had also freely given Himself with His whole heart to do the will of Him that had sent Him. Everything gave evidence that He was without sin, and never was there any deviation during His whole life, from His vicarious ministration for the glorification of His Father, and for the salvation of His elect.

Joseph and Mary had lost the Lord Jesus. After three days they found Him in the temple. He allowed Himself to be found of that people who cannot live without Him, and they were permitted to experience, “Whosoever findeth Me, findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord.” Oh, what a joy that must have been for Joseph and Mary that they were favored to receive the Child Jesus again, but no less, when He went down with them to Nazareth. Christ did not remain in the temple because it was not His time yet. He still had to wait eighteen years before He could commence His public ministry, also with respect to this, He subjected Himself to all the laws which were valid in Israel.

He went down with them. The Lord Jesus does not leave His people t o travel alone through this life. He accompanies them in all their ways and paths.He fulfills His own promise.

“Thy going out, thy coming in,
Forever He will guide.”

We are safe in His company. That does not mean that we will be spared the difficulties of this life. Ah no, many are the afflictions of the righteous. But He is with His people to assist them through the difficulties of this life, yea, to find a solution for them in order that all things must work together for good for them. He is a safe Leader and a faithful Provider. “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” He cares both for them and for their goods. But He is also a faithful Counselor. Is His name not Counselor? During our life we are ever faced with great riddles and dark events. And besides, we are so blind in heaven’s ways. We are constantly faced with events in which we know not what to do. But He has promised His people, “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with my eye . “ It is true, also in this matter, He often tries His own, but never above that they are able to bear. What blessed instruction He constantly wants to give them.

The danger by the way are many, and our courage is so weak and our strength is small. Without God’s help, we would never be able to finish our course, and it would sure y go wrong with us. In us there is no might against this great multitude. At times there are such heights over which we must go and then again, there are such depths over which we cannot leap. The way is often so steep, so dark, and slippery; so narrow and full of holes. There are so many snares, and even more which we cannot see, than which we can perceive with our eyes.

If it were not that the Lord Jesus was with them, they would never get through. Joseph and Mary had a double benefit. He was with them physically and spiritually. He is always with His own. They were favored to see Him with their natural eyes, too. God’s people have the times and moments that they must say, “Behold, I go forward but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him.”

He is so hidden at times; sometimes for the trial of their faith, but it also happens that the sins of their own heart and life may cause a separation. O, that roaming and wandering of our heart causes us so much misery and robs us of that comfort which we would otherwise enjoy. We constantly give the Lord reasons to hide His face from us, but since He has loved His people with an everlasting and immutable love, He does not withdraw Himself entirely. Christ is with His church always, even unto the end of the world. He is with her and near her with His Godhead, majesty, grace, and Spirit. And that applies to all who are included in Christ. He will not leave such a soul helpless and will not forsake her. He brings them all safely home. If He should leave them to themselves only one minute, all would be lost. He remains the Faithful and Immutable One for all those that are His. They may lose everything, but He remains near them. Christ leads all His people through the wilderness of this life, and conveys them through the Jordan of death into the land of rest, unto Canaan above. He went down with them. Oh, what a wonder! For with whom does He go down; and who are they whom He takes along? They are creatures who in Adam’s fall have wilfully and voluntarily torn themselves away from God. Joseph was minded to put Mary away privily because he did not want to bear the reproach of Christ. Yea, later on, through thoughtlessness, Joseph and Mary had lost Christ! At that time it became manifest that they could not be entrusted with that unspeakable Gift of God. They were creatures who did not understand the word that Christ spoke to them. The people which are sealed by Christ are so unworthy in self. They will gladly acknowledge that they are but wandering sheep and are unsusceptible to learning and instructions, being foolish and blind in themselves. The wonder that He is not ashamed to call them brethren becomes ever greater to them, and also that He manifests Himself to be the Alpha and the Omega, and that He ever remains with them. When they consider their own actions, they so often thought that He would surely take leave of them. But that has never happened yet; and that will never happen. God Himself is their Leader, and of Christ they may sing:

“Thou art with me,
With Thy rod and staff to bless.”

Yea, moreover the riches of God’s poor people consist also in this that the Holy Spirit leads them. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the children of God.

“And He went down with them.”

Then the journey will have a good end. When the Triune God is with us and goes with us, then we need not fear. He goes before and His sheep have only to follow Him. He passes through fruitful and unfruitful fields; through suffering to glory. And thus it was with the Lord Jesus Himself, and in that way, all those must follow that are united to Christ by faith. Oh, how great is that, conscious of our union with Christ, we may declare, “For this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our Guide even unto death.”

Those people are traveling to Zion. One day they shall appear before God in Zion; not a hoof shall be left behind. The Lord Jesus assured His people, “And I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish.” But here it happens to God’s children, as it did to Joseph and Mary. They went to Jerusalem every year, but not to remain there. They had to return to Nazareth. Joseph and Mary resided there. As is known to all of us, at one time they had to take that journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem because the prophecy of Micah had to be fulfilled. They went to Jerusalem with the new-born King in order that He should be presented to the Lord. They experienced blessed moments while in the temple; but they returned to Bethlehem again. I imagine they would have liked to remain there, but, they received a message from heaven that they had to flee because Herod sought to slay the Child. That journey to Egypt was vicarious. To the Saviour, Egypt was the land of darkness and of death because there the covenant people had been in bondage and prison. They had sojourned there more than four hundred years, and it seemed as if it would become the grave of God’s Church. But God Himself delivered them from that land with a strong hand and a stretched out arm, as an example of what one day would happen to Christ, to the King of the Church. Christ had to sojourn there a while becuase we have sinned ourselves out of the light and liberty of Paradise. But God called His Son out of Egypt upon the ground of the deliverance and the blood of the Mediator, the church is drawn out of the darkness of sin and out of the power of death, and reinstated into the blessed communion with God. We have a perfect Saviour, and He only becomes valuable to a person who realizes to what he has become subject in the fall: to those people who have learned to know themselves as lying among the pots. Oh, to what a depth that Surety has been willing to humble Himself.

We can imagine that it was a glad tiding to Joseph and Mary that they with the Child could return again. Even though they had Christ with them, to them it was and remained a strange land. But we also know that it was not Joseph’s and Mary’s intention ever to return to Galilee. Their eye was fixed upon Jerusalem. They thought more of a palace and a throne, than of poverty and misery at Nazareth. Ah, what is man! It was a bitter disappointment to learn that the way to Jerusalem was broken up. And they had no desire to go back to Nazareth. No doubt, a lot went on in their heart when that one way was closed off, and they did not want to go the other way. I think they perferred to remain standing there. Those who have any experience of that know it. But God does not forsake His people. Warned of God in a dream, they departed to the parts of Galilee, and thus they came back to Nazareth again. At that place Christ made His residence in order that the prophecy, that He would be called a Nazarene, would be fulfilled. God’s thoughts and ways are always higher than ours. God always draws a line through our calculations, and fulfills His counsel. However, if we are led into the secret, then this becomes a cause for deep humiliation to us and also for grateful adoration.

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