Chapter 1—“God With Us”
“His name shall be called Immanuel, ... God with us.” “The light
of the knowledge of the glory of God” is seen “in the face of Jesus
Christ.” From the days of eternity the Lord Jesus Christ was one with
the Father; He was “the image of God,” the image of His greatness and
majesty, “the outshining of His glory.” It was to manifest this glory
that He came to our world. To this sin-darkened earth He came to
reveal the light of God’s love,—to be “God with us.” Therefore it was
prophesied of Him, “His name shall be called Immanuel.”
By coming to dwell with us, Jesus was to reveal God both to men
and to angels. He was the Word of God,—God’s thought made audible.
In His prayer for His disciples He says, “I have declared unto them
Thy name,”—“merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant
in goodness and truth,”—“that the love wherewith Thou hast loved
Me may be in them, and I in them.” But not alone for His earthborn
children was this revelation given. Our little world is the lesson book
of the universe. God’s wonderful purpose of grace, the mystery of
redeeming love, is the theme into which “angels desire to look,” and it
will be their study throughout endless ages. Both the redeemed and
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the unfallen beings will find in the cross of Christ their science and
their song. It will be seen that the glory shining in the face of Jesus is
the glory of self-sacrificing love. In the light from Calvary it will be
seen that the law of self-renouncing love is the law of life for earth and
heaven; that the love which “seeketh not her own” has its source in the
heart of God; and that in the meek and lowly One is manifested the
character of Him who dwelleth in the light which no man can approach
unto.
In the beginning, God was revealed in all the works of creation.
It was Christ that spread the heavens, and laid the foundations of the
earth. It was His hand that hung the worlds in space, and fashioned
the flowers of the field. “His strength setteth fast the mountains.” “The
sea is His, and He made it.”
Psalm 65:6
;
95:5
. It was He that filled the
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