When we consider the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten, eternal, and beloved Son of God, we fill our minds with all that is truly beautiful, for He is "altogether lovely" (Song 5.16).
God with us
The Lord Jesus Christ is eternally holy. When He was in the womb of His virgin mother, Mary, the angel Gabriel said to her, "That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Lk 1.35). A demon testified of Him saying, "I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God" (Mk 1.24). God, His Holy Father, said concerning Him, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Mt 3.17; 17.5).
The Lord "knew no sin" (2 Cor 5.21), "did no sin" (1 Pet 2.22), and "in him is no sin" (1 Jn 3.5). It is a statement of an eternal truth to say that the Lord cannot sin. He glorified and honoured God His Father in His life and in His bleeding, suffering, and dying on the Cross. His life was like "a sweetsmelling savour" (Eph 5.2), arising to God continuously from this evil world. He was obedient to His Father, "obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil 2.8). In His life and substitutionary suffering and death He always pleased, glorified, and honoured His Father, and said, "I do always those things that please him" (Jn 8.29). Men said of Him, "Never man spake like this man" (Jn 7.46), and whereas the prophets would say, "Thus saith the Lord" (Is 10.24; Jer 2.2; Ezek 5.7), the Lord said, "But I say unto you" (Mt 5.22,28,34,39). He who created all things spoke with authority (Mk 1.22), and with the dogmatism of Deity (Jn 14.6), and yet He spoke so that "the common people" could understand Him (Mk 12.37). It is lovely to read that "all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth" (Lk 4.22).
The Lord Jesus Christ has revealed God to men. We read that "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him" (Jn 1.18). The Lord could say, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (Jn 14.9), for He is "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person" (Heb 1.3).
The Lord Jesus Christ "became flesh, and dwelt among us" (Jn 1.14, RV). He was "made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law" (Gal 4.4,5). He was a perfect man, having a body (Heb 10.5), a soul (Mt 26.38; Acts 2.31), and a spirit (Lk 23.46). He experienced those feelings a human being experiences, such as hunger (Mt 21.18), tiredness (Jn 4.6), and sorrow (Jn 11.35), but He never experienced those feelings which are a consequence of having committed sin. The Lord "came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tim 1.15). He came "to seek and to save that which was lost" (Lk 19.10). He became what He never had been before, that is man, but He never ceased to be what He always has been, is now and will be eternally, and that is God (Jn 1.1,2). He was God "manifest in the flesh" (1 Tim 3.16), "God with us" (Mt 1.23), and all the fullness of deity dwells in Him in bodily form (Col 2.9). All that God is, He is.
The Lord is "the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Tit 2.13), and in Him "are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col 2.3). He possessed two natures, deity and holy humanity, God and man in One Person. He is God in His being, personality, nature and essence. He is equal with God (Phil 2.6). He claimed equality with God (Jn 5.17,18), and that He was one with God. When He was being tried, the high priest asked Him, "Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am" (Mk 14.61,62). The bodily resurrection of the Lord (Mt 28.6; Acts 2.24) demonstrated that He is the Son of God, for it is written that He was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom 1.4). In Psalm 45.6 we read of God addressing His Son as "God", saying, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever" (cited in Hebrews 1.8).
On the Cross, the Lord, "knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst" (Jn 19.28). These were the only words He spoke while on the Cross which referred to His terrible physical suffering. In "knowing that all things were now accomplished" He showed His deity. When He said "I thirst", He fulfilled the prophecy found in Psalm 69.21, and showed His humanity. He was a real man (Heb 2.14,17), but He was not a mere man. His humanity was unique, holy humanity.
Our wonderful, glorious Lord and Saviour glorified and honoured His Father whom He loved (Jn 14.31). He "loved the church, and gave himself for it" (Eph 5.25), and each believer can say He "loved me, and gave himself for me" (Gal 2.20). He knows and understands the Father (Mt 11.27), and knows and understands man (Jn 2.25). He is the perfect Saviour, the "one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim 2.5). He now sits "on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Heb 1.3), and one day He is coming back for those of us who are believers to take us to be forever with Himself (1 Thess 4.16,17).
Worship and praise
We are told in Hebrews 12.3 to "consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds". When we "consider him", and meditate upon all that He is and has done, then we experience feelings of love, reverence, awe, wonder, devotion, and gratitude. These feelings produce an overwhelming desire to worship and praise. True worship prevents us from being self-centred and makes us God-centred. We will delight in, and be joyfully and completely absorbed by, the wonders, beauties, and attributes of God. We will worship, praise, and thank Him, not just for the blessings and gifts He graciously bestows upon us (Jas 1.17), but for all that He is in Himself and which has been fully revealed to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. True worship is a joyous thing, for "happy is that people, whose God is the Lord" (Ps 144.15).
Worship of God is both a privilege and a responsibility, and is the most wonderful activity in which a believer can be involved. Our worship of God depends upon our appreciation of God. God has revealed Himself in His written Word and in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. God is to be worshipped "in spirit and in truth" (Jn 4.23, 24), and with all the reverence of which the Spirit led believer is capable. As, by grace, we learn more and more of God, and serve Him in ways acceptable to Him, then our worship, led by the Holy Spirit and offered in and through the ame of the Lord Jesus Christ, will rise to heights we would never have thought possible. Let us then meditate on the One who has revealed God to men.
Let us consider Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the "image of the invisible God" (Col 1.15), and who is worthy to "receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing" (Rev 5.12). One day, every knee will bow to Him, "of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth", and every tongue will confess "that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil 2.10,11).
Concluded.
