THE WONDER OF THE GLAD TIDINGS

D. M. Welch

John 1: 14, 29; Hebrews 2: 9, 10

I was thinking of the gospel preaching this afternoon relating to what we hear expressed as the wonder of the glad tidings, and how this would lay hold of us through God’s great mercy,

“but God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love wherewith he loved us”, Ephesians 2: 4. The wonder of the glad tidings begins in this particular verse, “the Word became flesh”.

Hymn 400 expresses this so well!

‘God manifest in flesh, O wonder of His universe!

O wisdom all divine! that takes such blessed, lowly ways To bring to pass its holy purposes in counsels deep,

That God may find a full response in worship and in praise’.

O the wonder of the glad tidings! It begins with a Person, who commits Himself entirely to God to accomplish those counsels deep. He commits Himself to manhood, the Word became flesh; a divine Person, God blessed for ever, came into the world in manhood. Another scripture speaks of His humanity, “the holy thing also which shall be born shall be called Son of God”, Luke 1: 35. How glorious the Scriptures are; the comfort of the Scriptures, the encouragement of the Scriptures, keeping us in touch with God in His thoughts and pointing us to the Person before us in these verses. The One whose name is Wonderful; He would do exploits. In the Old Testament, Manoah and his wife beheld him who did wondrously, and it says in Isaiah that His name is

Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of the age (Isaiah 9: 6).

The wonder of the glad tidings is that they would bring us into a knowledge of the glory of the Person who became flesh. He did so in His commitment to express all of these great things that God had in mind for men in relation to Himself. So this scripture goes on, telling us of His unique place. He was here characteristically as an only-begotten with a father, full of grace and truth. Think of the fulness of divine love expressed in this, “full of grace and truth”. Man had been tested according to law, according to demand. That proved nothing to God. He knew that man was on probation for a number of years, things had to be proven to man. But now God Himself was seen coming out in this Person, this Man. He became Man.

How glorious, how great God is in condescending grace. The Lord Jesus committed Himself to manhood here to introduce before man’s eyes and declare publicly what God desired. It was expressed in Him, as Son with the Father, something that was understandable, a wonderful relationship. No higher relationship could we think of in human affairs than a father with a son and a son with a father. That is how things proceeded. The wonder of the glad tidings begins here for man, “the Word became flesh”, the glory of it impressing us; a glorious, eternal divine Person became Man. This was His own act, He did it of Himself.

Later in the chapter John sees the Spirit descending as a dove from heaven and abiding upon Him, and thus he knows that this is the Son of God. We ourselves could not understand the revelation of God without the Spirit.

In John 1: 29, John the baptist sees Jesus coming to him, and another glory of Christ is opened up to him. It is what may be called sacrificial glory, and it caused John to exclaim,

“Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. The wonder of the glad tidings is that God would establish what was necessary

for Him to operate on a moral basis; thus John announces the Lamb of God as the Taker-away of the sin of the world. That was the glory of His Person, He could do that. He could speak the worlds into existence, the same glorious Person. He had the power to do that, the power was always there in Him and yet He takes this wonderful title, the Lamb of God.

Sacrificially He could take it all up because God desired that man would be retained on the basis of redemption for God’s glory.

So I have read the verses in Hebrews, for here His lowly name comes before us again, “we see Jesus, who was made some little inferior to angels”. This scripture presents why He was made some little inferior to the angels, that is, on account of the suffering of death. Sin characterised man, sin is a moral stain on the entire universe. God has been offended because of man’s state, man’s condition, but One was here who is great enough to take away the sin of the world, the Lamb of God. He takes it up in obedience, “For it became him”, that is, God, “for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings”. The Lord Jesus was the suffering One. The need was on our side. I would say, too, that the need was on God’s side to remove this moral stain from the universe. The extent of the sufferings of the death of Christ reaches everything. It says that at the end of Hebrews 2: 9, “so that by the grace of God he should taste death for every thing”. Death to Him was death, it was an experience for Him.

It says in Isaiah 53, “he hath poured out his soul unto death” (Isaiah 53: 12). He was the Holy One of God, holy through and through. We had in the preaching last week about the mingling with oil in the oblation, through and through, intrinsically holy, such a Person He was, a holy Man. He was a holy Man, without sin, He did no sin. We were reminded of that at the Supper this morning; He was devoted unto death. In Luke’s gospel, He says of the cup, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22: 20). Think of the wonder of the depth of committal of this Person! The One who is seen as wholly committed and has title rightfully to everything is wonderful. That is His title, He is wonderful and He does wondrously. He does exploits. In His sufferings, in His death, He removes the moral stain from the universe. That is the far reaching effect which reaches through the coming day. The wonder of it all is that He would bring many sons to glory.

What He came into Himself in manhood is sonship. His relationship with the Father is understandable and intelligible to us. God could not have done more to set it all out so perfectly in that Man who was here, Jesus, than He did. He could not have done more to bring it to pass than through His sufferings and death. The moral basis is laid, the moral stain on the universe is cleared judicially, and therefore the One we are speaking of has moral title to everything. It is part of His moral glory as Son of Man.

The question is, How do we see Him now? The contrariety of the day is that all things are not subjected to Him, but how do we see Him? God has crowned Him with glory and honour. He has taken up your case and my case and He has gone the whole way. He has loved His own and He has loved them through it all. Is it any wonder that He has supreme title to everything? The verse in Isaiah 53 speaks of that. It says, “Therefore will I assign him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong: because he hath poured out his soul unto death” (Isaiah 53: 12). What wonder is in the glad tidings. It begins and ends with this glorious Person who is before us. What can we say about these things? The glad tidings would be on the line of attaching us to this Person. Is it any wonder then that the hymn-writer asks the question, What have we done for Him? He might not have been in the full light of these things, but the gospel brings us into it all, nothing less than the fulness. This makes us responsible to live as attached

to this Person, with the kind of commitment that He took up Himself as becoming flesh, total commitment to manhood, for that kind of manhood goes all the way through. His commitment to death has brought us to this point; He poured out His soul unto death. His precious blood has been poured out for us. What commitment, and what a wonder it is to consider this blessed Person once again in the preaching of the glad tidings. May we be attached to Him, may we be helped in our desires for Him. May we have a desire to go in for these things more and more. That is what exercise is, to move into these things. So that while the wide aspect of the grace of God removes the moral stain from the universe. His tasting death for every thing results in a present response of our commitment to Himself.

Then it has another aspect than that, “bringing many sons to glory”. What glory there is in the many sons even now, for it says in Romans 8 concerning the Spirit, “but whom he has justified, these also he has glorified” (Romans 8: 30). He has freed us from every charge, and not only that, He has set us up in relationship and we can go in for these things. Through the sufferings and death of Christ, the Holy Spirit may be received. As believers and having the Spirit, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. On the day of Pentecost Peter refers to the prophet Joel, saying, “I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh”, Acts 2: 17. While that waits for the day to come, he had a testimony to it in mind that persons can receive the Spirit at the present time. Having received the Spirit we anticipate the day when His Spirit will be poured out on all flesh. What a wonderful day that will be. But there is no greater day than the day in which we live, the day of inward power and testimony.

Nothing as far as man is concerned is put under His feet, but everything as far as the assembly is concerned is put under His feet. He has moral title to it all, and we own Him thus as our Saviour and Lord, the One who

suffered and tasted death for every thing to clear the universe that belongs to God of its moral stain, and then bringing it down to ourselves, that many sons might be brought to glory. What wonder there is in all that the Spirit of God would give us through the glad tidings. Our earnest exercise is to be more in the depth of these things. The attraction is to this glorious Person, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Son of Abraham and the Son of David. He expressed it in His commitment to God and to man, and it was through His sufferings and death. What an experience it was for Him! But He has cleared the universe of its moral stain and is bringing to light the many sons according to God’s purpose. May God help us and bless His word.

Preaching at Denton, Texas
6 January 2000