The Lord of Glory. Gaebelein Arno Clemens
more and more day by day the absorbing object of your heart and life? Do you often weep over your coldheartedness, your lack of real devotion to Him and communion with your Lord? Do you appreciate Him more than ever before? Is the Apostle’s longing cry “that I might know Him” coming also from your heart? Dear reader, these are searching questions. A better knowledge of our blessed Lord, a deeper acquaintance with that worthy Name and greater devotion to Him, is the only true spiritual progress which counts. If you live but little in the reality of all this you lack that joy and rest which is true Christian happiness and the Spirit is grieved. Oh let Him unfold to your heart that worthy name and show you from His Word, His wonderful person, then His power will attract your heart more and more. This is what all God’s people need. “That worthy Name,” the Lord in all His blessed fulness and glorious reality is what we need.
And what the written Word has to tell us of “that worthy Name”! Oh, the titles, the attributes, the names, the glories, the beauties of Himself. And we have discovered but so few of these blessed things. Perhaps a few hundred of the descriptions of that worthy Name are known to God’s Saints; but there are hundreds, still hidden, we have never touched. Yes, God’s Spirit is ever willing to make them known to our hearts.
Just for a few moments think of some of the familiar titles and names of that Name which is above every other name. How these titles of our blessed Lord, what He is and what we have in Him should fill our hearts with praise and our lips with outbursts of praise, lift us above present day conditions and give us courage and boldness. “That worthy Name”; who is He?
The Son of God, the Only Begotten of the Father, the living God, the eternal Life; Emmanuel, the God of Glory, the Holy One; Jehovah, the everlasting God, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord of Peace, the Lord our righteousness, the Upholder of all things, the Creator, the Alpha and Omega, the express image of God. He is the Word, the Word of God, the Word of Life, the Wisdom of God, the Angel of the Lord, the Mediator of the better covenant. The good Shepherd, the great Shepherd, the chief Shepherd, the Door, the Way, the Root and offspring of David, the Branch of Righteousness, the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the valley, the true Vine, the Corn of Wheat, the Bread of God, the true Bread from heaven. He is also the Light of the world, the Day dawn, the Star out of Jacob, Sun and Shield, the Bright and Morningstar, the Sun of Righteousness. Thus we read of that worthy Name, that He is, the Great High-priest, the Daysman, the Advocate, Intercessor, Surety, Mercy Seat, the Forerunner, the Rock of Salvation, the Refuge, the Tower, a strong Tower, the Rock of Ages, the Hope of Glory, the Hope of His people, a living Stone. And what else? the Gift of God, the Beloved, the Fountain of Life, Shiloh, He is our Peace, our Redeemer, He is precious, the Amen, the Just Lord, the Bridegroom, the Firstborn from the Dead, Head over all, Head of all principality and power, Heir of all things. He is Captain of the Lord’s Host, Captain of their salvation, Chiefest among Ten Thousand, the Leader, the Counsellor, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Governor, Prince of Peace, the Prince of Life, the Prince of the Kings of the earth, the Judge, the King, the King of Israel, King of Saints, King of Glory, King over all the earth, King in His Beauty, King of Kings and Lord of lords.
All these names and attributes of that worthy Name are familiar. What dignity, what power, what grace and blessing for us for whom He died and shed His precious blood they express. Who can fathom these names? Who can tell out His worth? And hundreds more could be added, and many, many more, which are still undiscovered in the Word of God. What a Lord He is! We worship and adore Thee, Thou worthy One. Draw us O Lord and we will run after Thee. What a joy and delight it ought to be to follow Him, to exalt Him, to be devoted to such a One! Oh! our failures! And still He carries us in kindness and patience. And He also has a Name, which expresses the fulness of His work and glory. No one knows what that is. “He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself” (Rev. xix:12). That unknown Name may never be made known.
But oh! the blessedness which is before us His redeemed people. Of us it is written “They shall see His face”: That blessed, blessed face of that worthy Name, we shall behold at last. We shall see His face! Oh the rapture which fills the heart in the anticipation of that soon coming event. “And His Name shall be on their foreheads” (Rev. xxii:4). We shall be like Him, we shall be a perfect reflection of Himself.
The Doctrine of Christ
“WHOSOEVER transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed. For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds” (2 John 9-11). What then is the doctrine of Christ? It is the revealed truth concerning the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God, whom the Father sent into the world. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” This is the doctrine of Christ. Anyone who does not hold the doctrine of Christ that He is absolutely God, one with the Father come into the world, hath not God. He is without God and hope in the world. He is an Anti-christ. “Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God; and this is that spirit of Anti-christ, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world” (1 John iv:2-3). Such a denier of the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ is no christian at all and all fellowship even to the greeting must be denied to him. This seems severe and intolerant. But it is not if we consider what the denial of the Person of our holy and blessed Lord means. God grant unto us, who hold the doctrine of Christ, a divine jealousy for His honor and glory, manifested by separation from all who in any way deny the doctrine upon which all Christianity rests.
But how blessed to faith to see in the first Epistle of John the doctrine of Christ revealed and the blessings and comforts brought forth, which are for those who abide in this doctrine. In the Gospel of John the beloved disciple writes by the Holy Spirit about the Son of God, how He came from the Father and was in the world and how He left the world to go back to the Father. The Son of God is also the theme of the Holy Spirit in the first Epistle of John. “Our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (i:3). This fellowship means that we share the Father’s thoughts about His Son and to enjoy with the Son His own blessed and eternal relationship with the Father. In the measure our faith enters into the doctrine of Christ in that measure we shall have deeper fellowship with the Father and His Son. Is your cry, dear reader, for more reality in this fellowship? There is one way only which leads to this. It is an increase in the knowledge of the Son of God and as you abide there, you have the Father and the Son.
And now we shall call to our remembrance other passages in the first Epistle of John in which our blessed Lord as the Son of God is mentioned. They are sweet and precious to faith and if read in the Spirit they will bring the joy, the blessing, the peace and the comfort of the doctrine of Christ to our hearts.
“The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (i:7). That precious blood, His own blood, has cleansed us once and for all. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil” (iii:8). “And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another as He gave us commandment. And he that keepeth His commandments (which are: believing on Him and loving one another) dwelleth in Him and He in him. And hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us” (iii:23-24). “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son into the world to be the propitiation for our sins.” “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another” (iv:9-11). “And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God and God in him” (iv:14-16). “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” (v:5) “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the