Were the whole realm of nature ours,
That were an off’ring far too small;
Love that transcends our highest powers
Demands our soul, our life, our all.
And then once more the heart said, How true! Marvelous sight the Lord of Glory on that cross for me! Forsaken of God, paying the penalty of my sins, drinking the cup of wrath, untasted by me. Such love surely demands our soul, our life, our all. But is it so? How often we sing these blessed truths and our lives are strangers to them. God grant that we may live out the truth of the cross in our lives. May the deliverance, the victory, the power of His cross be manifested in our lives. Dead to the world and the world dead to me.
[His Legacy.]
BLESSED and ever precious are the words, which came from the lips of our loving Lord, before he went to the cross. His own were gathered around Him; before He ever comforted them and poured out His loving heart, He manifested that love by serving them. He arose from the supper, laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. What a sight the Son of God girded! “After that He poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded” (John xiii:5). It was a great symbolical action. He who stooped so low to wash the feet of His sinful creatures is the same who declared in the Old Testament “Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities” (Isaiah xliii:24). The washing typifies the service our beloved Lord renders to His saints in cleansing them from defilement; it is “the washing of water by the Word.” And thus He continues in loving service till at last all His redeemed people are brought home into the presence of the throne and “the sea of glass like unto crystal” (Rev. iv:6) where no more defilement is possible and no more washing is needed.
Many and blessed are the words, which then flowed from His lips, after Judas had gone out into the dark night. Only He could speak thus. Thousands upon thousands, countless multitudes have been fed upon His gracious, comforting words and have been strengthened and upheld. Their careful and refreshing power is undiminished. Like Himself His Words are eternal and inexhaustible. The Father’s house with its many mansions, the fact of His personal return, the gift of the other Comforter, who came to abide with and in His own, the promises concerning prayer and assurance that the Father Himself loves them and many other precious truths were spoken by Him ere He left the world to go to the Father. At that time He gave His blessed legacy. “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you” (John xiv:27). And the last word He spoke to His disciples before He uttered that marvelous high priestly prayer, contains also the assurance of peace. “These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer I have overcome the world” (John xvi:33).
The adorable Lord came to this poor sin cursed earth, a world of sinners and enemies of God by wicked works to make peace. The great work of reconciliation was effected on the cross. By His death on the cross the enemies of God, believing in Him, became reconciled to God. He made peace through the blood of His cross (Col. i:20). As believing sinners we are justified and have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Not our walk or service, not our faith or repentance or anything we have done or are doing is the ground of peace with God, but what Christ has done for us. Yea He Himself is our peace. And because He is our peace, it is a peace which can never be undone or unsettled.
Oh, the peace forever flowing