To Live Is Christ

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."
- Philippians 1:21 -

The believer did not always live to Christ.

He began to do so when God the Holy Spirit convinced him of sin, and when by grace he was brought to see the dying Savior making a propitiation for his guilt.

From the moment of the new birth the man begins to live to Christ.

He is willing to part with all that he has.

The Lord Jesus Christ has completely won his love.

To His glory he would live.

In defense of His gospel he would die.

Paul's words mean more than most men think.

They imply that the aim and end of his life was Christ.

His life was for Jesus.

Jesus was his very breath, the soul of his soul, the heart of his heart, the life of his life.

Can we honestly say that for us to live is Christ?

Many carry out this principle in some measure.

But how many dare to say that he has lived wholly for Christ as the apostle did?

Yet, this alone is the true life of a Christian.

Let us present ourselves to our Lord Jesus Christ, to live only in Him and to Him.

The Savior Is Ours

"In the time of my favor I will answer you,
and in the day of salvation I will help you;
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people,
to restore the land
and to reassign its desolate inheritances."
- Isaiah 49:8 -

Jesus Christ is Himself the sum and substance of the covenant.

He is the property of every Christian believer.

Has He power? That power is ours to support and strengthen us, to overcome our enemies, and to preserve us to the end.

Has He love? There is not a drop of love in His heart which is not ours.

Has He justice? It is ours, for He will by His justice see to it that all which is promised to us in the covenant of grace shall be secured to us.

All that He has as perfect man is ours.

As a perfect man the Father's delight was upon Him.

He stood accepted by the Most High.

God's acceptance of Christ is our acceptance.

The love which the Father set on a perfect Christ, He now sets on us.

For all that Christ did is us.

That perfect righteousness which Jesus wrought out, when through His stainless life He kept the law and made it honorable, is us, and is imputed to us.

Christ is in the covenant.

What a blessing to know that the Savior is our!

The Life Of Christ

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
- Galatians 2:20 -

When the Lord in mercy passed by and saw us in our blood, He said, "Live."

This he did first, because life is the most essential thing in spiritual matters.

Until life is bestowed, we are incapable of partaking in the things of God.

This life which grace confers upon the saints at the moment of their quickening is the life of Christ.

The life of Christ runs into us, and establishes a living connection between our souls and the Lord Jesus.

Faith is the grace which perceives this union, having proceeded from it as its first fruit.

Faith joins the body of the Church to its all-glorious Head.

Faith lays hold upon the Lord Jesus with a firm and determined grasp.

She knows His excellence and worth.

No temptation can induce her to repose her trust elsewhere.

The Lord Jesus is delighted with this heavenly grace.

He never ceases to strengthen and sustain His people by the loving embrace and all-sufficient support of His eternal arms.

Here is a living, sensible, and delightful union which brings forth streams of love, confidence, sympathy, complacency, and joy.

Then, the heart is as near to heaven as it can be, and is prepared for the enjoyment of the most sublime and spiritual kind of fellowship.

The Lord Jesus Became Poor

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. - 2 Corinthians 8:9 -

The Lord Jesus Christ was eternally rich, glorious, and exalted.

Yet for our sakes He became poor.

It was impossible for our Divine Lord to have fellowship with us unless He had imparted to us His own abounding wealth, and had become poor to make us rich.

Had He remained upon His throne of glory, and had we continued in the ruins of the fall without receiving His salvation, there would be no communion with Him.

It was necessary that the righteous Saviour should give to His sinning brethren His own perfection.

It was necessary that we, the poor and guilty, should receive His fulness of grace.

Only then could we be able to embrace each other in true and hearty fellowship.

Jesus must clothe His people in His own garments before He can admit them into His palace of glory.

He must wash them in His own blood, or else they will be too defiled for the embrace of His fellowship.

Here is love!

That for our sake the Lord Jesus became poor that He might lift us up into communion with Himself.

Come, Come to Me

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:28 -

The cry of the Christian religion is the gentle word, "Come."

The law was a dispensation of terror; the gospel draws with bands of love.

Jesus is the good Shepherd going before His sheep, bidding them to follow Him, and ever leading them onwards with the sweet word, "Come."

The law repels; the gospel attracts.

The law shows the distance between God and man; the gospel bridges brings the sinner across it.

From the first moment of our spiritual life until we are ushered into glory, the language of Christ to us will be, "Come, come to me."

As a mother puts out her finger to her little child and woos it to walk by saying, "Come," even so does Jesus.

He will always be ahead of us, bidding us to follow Him.

He will always go before us to pave our way, and clear our path, and we shall hear His voice calling us after Him all through life.

In the solemn hour of our death, His sweet words shall usher us into the heavenly world with "Come, come to Me."

As His voice to us is "Come," our response to Him will be, "Come, Lord, and abide with me. Come, and occupy alone the throne of my heart. Reign there and consecrate me entirely to Your service."