Evening, June 4
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
1 Timothy 3:16
"Received up into glory."
1 Timothy 3:16
We have seen our well-beloved Lord in the days of his flesh, humiliated
and sore vexed; for he was "despised and rejected of men, a man of
sorrows, and acquainted with grief." He whose brightness is as the
morning, wore the sackcloth of sorrow as his daily dress: shame was his
mantle, and reproach was his vesture. Yet now, inasmuch as he has
triumphed over all the powers of darkness upon the bloody tree, our
faith beholds our King returning with dyed garments from Edom, robed in
the splendour of victory. How glorious must he have been in the eyes of
seraphs, when a cloud received him out of mortal sight, and he ascended
up to heaven! Now he wears the glory which he had with God or ever the
earth was, and yet another glory above all--that which he has well
earned in the fight against sin, death, and hell. As victor he wears
the illustrious crown. Hark how the song swells high! It is a new and
sweeter song: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, for he hath redeemed
us unto God by his blood!" He wears the glory of an Intercessor who can
never fail, of a Prince who can never be defeated, of a Conqueror who
has vanquished every foe, of a Lord who has the heart's allegiance of
every subject. Jesus wears all the glory which the pomp of heaven can
bestow upon him, which ten thousand times ten thousand angels can
minister to him. You cannot with your utmost stretch of imagination
conceive his exceeding greatness; yet there will be a further
revelation of it when he shall descend from heaven in great power, with
all the holy angels--"Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory."
Oh, the splendour of that glory! It will ravish his people's hearts.
Nor is this the close, for eternity shall sound his praise, "Thy
throne, O God, is forever and ever!" Reader, if you would joy in
Christ's glory hereafter, he must be glorious in your sight now. Is he
so?