“God With Us”
15
ashamed to call us brethren.
Hebrews 7:26
;
2:11
. In Christ the family
of earth and the family of heaven are bound together. Christ glorified
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is our brother. Heaven is enshrined in humanity, and humanity is
enfolded in the bosom of Infinite Love.
Of His people God says, “They shall be as the stones of a crown,
lifted up as an ensign upon His land. For how great is His goodness,
and how great is His beauty!”
Zechariah 9:16, 17
. The exaltation of
the redeemed will be an eternal testimony to God’s mercy. “In the
ages to come,” He will “show the exceeding riches of His grace in
His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” “To the intent that ...
unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be
made known ... the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal
purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Ephesians 2:7
;
3:10, 11
, R. V.
Through Christ’s redeeming work the government of God stands
justified. The Omnipotent One is made known as the God of love.
Satan’s charges are refuted, and his character unveiled. Rebellion can
never again arise. Sin can never again enter the universe. Through
eternal ages all are secure from apostasy. By love’s self-sacrifice, the
inhabitants of earth and heaven are bound to their Creator in bonds of
indissoluble union.
The work of redemption will be complete. In the place where sin
abounded, God’s grace much more abounds. The earth itself, the very
field that Satan claims as his, is to be not only ransomed but exalted.
Our little world, under the curse of sin the one dark blot in His glorious
creation, will be honored above all other worlds in the universe of
God. Here, where the Son of God tabernacled in humanity; where
the King of glory lived and suffered and died,—here, when He shall
make all things new, the tabernacle of God shall be with men, “and He
will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself
shall be with them, and be their God.” And through endless ages as
the redeemed walk in the light of the Lord, they will praise Him for
His unspeakable Gift,—
Immanuel, “God with us“.
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