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Chapter 1—Christ Before Coming to Earth
From the days of eternity the Lord Jesus Christ was one with the
Father; He was the image of God, the outshining of His glory. To
manifest this glory, to reveal the light of God’s love, He came to our
sin-darkened earth. Therefore it was prophesied of Him, “They shall
call His name Immanuel, ... God with us.”
Matthew 1:23
; cf.
Isaiah
7:14
.
Jesus was “the Word of God”—God’s thought made audible.
Not alone for His earthborn children was this revelation given. Our
little world is the lesson book of the universe. Both redeemed and
unfallen beings will find in the cross of Christ their science and their
song. They will see that the glory shining in the face of Jesus is
the glory of self-sacrificing love. They will see that the law of life
for earth and heaven is the law of self-renouncing love. That love
which “seeketh not her own” has its source in the heart of God and
is manifested in Jesus, the meek and lowly One.
In the beginning, Christ laid the foundations of the earth. His
hand hung the worlds in space and fashioned the flowers of the field.
He filled the earth with beauty, and the air with song. See
Psalms
65:6
;
95:5
. Upon all things He wrote the message of the Father’s
love.
Now sin has marred God’s perfect work, yet that handwriting
remains. Nothing, save the selfish heart of man, lives unto itself.
Every tree and shrub and leaf pours forth that element of life without
which neither man nor animal could live; and man and animal, in
turn, minister to the life of tree and shrub and leaf. The ocean
[12]
receives streams from every land, but takes to give. The mists
ascending from it fall in showers to water the earth, that it may bring
forth and bud. The angels of glory find their joy in giving. They
bring light from above, and move upon the human spirit to bring the
lost into fellowship with Christ.
But turning from all lesser representations, we behold God in
Jesus. We see that it is the glory of God to give. “I seek not Mine
14