The “Last Adam” has brought all who belong to Him now into this common place of blessing. We all with open, or unveiled, face (for this is the true force of it) behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord. A Christian, all the time he is here below, is, as far as the work of the Lord Jesus is concerned, one entitled to “draw near” (Jam 4:8) to the Father, to look into the glory, and to be there himself; the veil is gone. Christ without the veil. There was a veil but it is rent. Now there is none—none on the heart of the believer, none on the face of the Lord Jesus or on ours; it is completely gone. “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass (Word of God, esp. the Gospel of Christ, which is how we know how we are to look—NC) the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2Co 3:18).
What the Holy Spirit now ministers to us is not merely a Savior who came down into our woe and misery to bear our iniquities and sins, but that same Savior after the work of grace is done when He is gone up as the witness of its perfection into the presence of the Father; and we are invited by the Spirit to keep our eye fixed upon the Lord Jesus there, glorified according to the excellency of perfect redemption.
That will not make His grace in coming down here to be less valued; nor will it make redemption to be less prized, but much more. It will also imprint a heavenly character upon all our ways; and this, and nothing less, is our place. “As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly”; and, “As we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” Then it will be perfect; now it is only “partial,” and according to the measure in which we judge (discern its activities as much as it is manifested —NC) the old man.
What hinders the practical effect, the heavenly likeness being reflected from us, is the unjudged old man. Do we not know it? When is it we do wrong? When is it we form mistaken judgments, and become careless and worldly? Just I proportion as our eye is off the Lord Jesus as He is now at the Father’s right hand in glory. I grant you that He, anywhere before the soul, is a preserving means. Nevertheless, there is no such growth for overcoming the seductions of the world, and that which looks fair and religious; nothing will do it thoroughly but beholding the Lord Jesus in glory (being mindful we are now also as good as there—NC).
As far as leading out our souls in love and devotedness is concerned, learning of the Savior here below will do it. But the glorified Lord Jesus Christ extinguishes the light of earth’s best religion, and makes it appear deathly pale and tawdry in comparison to its surpassing brilliance. We are invited, we are called upon as believers, to behold Him in that glory continually now. The Lord give us to so walk, and we shall find the fruit of it: “changed from glory to glory.”
- Wm Kelly
MJS devotional for Oct. 19:
“Many Christians are bogged down between the nursery and the schoolroom; between the playpen and the workshop. These resist the weaning period; but the hungry-hearted are eager to have their feelings replaced by faith.
“It is true that the Father does take up those who are spiritually immature and permit them to speak His words years before they fully understand their import; but He does not wish any of us to stop there. We may go on that way for a while, but is it not true that from the time when He begins in us His work of formation through discipline and chastening, it growingly dawns on us how little in fact we know of the true meaning of what we had been saying?”
- Miles J Stanford
- http://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/
What the Holy Spirit now ministers to us is not merely a Savior who came down into our woe and misery to bear our iniquities and sins, but that same Savior after the work of grace is done when He is gone up as the witness of its perfection into the presence of the Father; and we are invited by the Spirit to keep our eye fixed upon the Lord Jesus there, glorified according to the excellency of perfect redemption.
That will not make His grace in coming down here to be less valued; nor will it make redemption to be less prized, but much more. It will also imprint a heavenly character upon all our ways; and this, and nothing less, is our place. “As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly”; and, “As we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” Then it will be perfect; now it is only “partial,” and according to the measure in which we judge (discern its activities as much as it is manifested —NC) the old man.
What hinders the practical effect, the heavenly likeness being reflected from us, is the unjudged old man. Do we not know it? When is it we do wrong? When is it we form mistaken judgments, and become careless and worldly? Just I proportion as our eye is off the Lord Jesus as He is now at the Father’s right hand in glory. I grant you that He, anywhere before the soul, is a preserving means. Nevertheless, there is no such growth for overcoming the seductions of the world, and that which looks fair and religious; nothing will do it thoroughly but beholding the Lord Jesus in glory (being mindful we are now also as good as there—NC).
As far as leading out our souls in love and devotedness is concerned, learning of the Savior here below will do it. But the glorified Lord Jesus Christ extinguishes the light of earth’s best religion, and makes it appear deathly pale and tawdry in comparison to its surpassing brilliance. We are invited, we are called upon as believers, to behold Him in that glory continually now. The Lord give us to so walk, and we shall find the fruit of it: “changed from glory to glory.”
- Wm Kelly
MJS devotional for Oct. 19:
“Many Christians are bogged down between the nursery and the schoolroom; between the playpen and the workshop. These resist the weaning period; but the hungry-hearted are eager to have their feelings replaced by faith.
“It is true that the Father does take up those who are spiritually immature and permit them to speak His words years before they fully understand their import; but He does not wish any of us to stop there. We may go on that way for a while, but is it not true that from the time when He begins in us His work of formation through discipline and chastening, it growingly dawns on us how little in fact we know of the true meaning of what we had been saying?”
- Miles J Stanford
- http://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/