OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST

J. Taylor

It is of first importance for every believer to discover the place he has in the heart of Christ—to read the breastplate. As he discovers his name there, he begins to see that all the official power vested in Christ is for the moment active on his behalf. Can anything be greater than that? all His official power for the moment active on behalf of the loved ones!

Paul could say, “In that I now live in flesh, I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”. He knew the place that he had in the breastplate, and never doubted that the love of Christ pursued him from the outset of his spiritual career until the time came for him to depart and be with Christ, that there is One in heaven who is caring for you constantly? If you are sick, He is the Physician. If you are in trouble, He is the Sympathiser. No ill can befall you, no sorrow can arise, that He cannot meet.

It is in this way that you become acquainted with Him, so that presently you can say, “It is the Lord”—you trace Him in everything. Not one thing can happen without Him, and as you accustom yourself to connecting everything with Him, you gradually see the wisdom of every movement, of every occurrence, and you see the love that is in it, for wisdom is but the handmaid of love; and as you see the love, you see the glory of the Lord, the One who is watching over every saint on earth.

The Lord goes before and follows after, and what comes in between is the High Priest. One capable, as it says, of being “touched with the feeling of our infirmities”. So you see how the Lord takes account of us in His administration, and ultimately, as we become acquainted with Him, we begin to behold the glory of the Lord.

In every experience, whatever it may be, you may see the Lord. Look for Him! Faith looks for the bow in the cloud, to see the Lord in the cloud. Directly the cloud arises, the sorrow, or whatever it may be, faith looks for the Lord in it; and as you look for the Lord in it, and as you see Him, you will see the glory.

Stephen looked steadfastly into the heavens. In face of Israel’s final rejection of Christ, in face of his own stoning at the hands of those who gnashed on him with their teeth, in spite of the cloud of judgment about to fall upon the guilty nation, in presence of all this, Stephen looked steadfastly up into heaven and “saw the glory of God, and Jesus”.

We may be assured that, whatever the sorrow of our circumstances, it has not come without His knowledge, and His love is behind all His dealings with us. “We all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory”.

(Vol. 89, pp.434, 435)