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descended upon at His baptism; He was sealed at that point

by God. Well, all speaks of the uniqueness of Christ; no one

else has been like that. What that one blessed Man must have

meant for God in a world of millions of lawless wills! After

centuries of rebellion against His testimonies, here was one

Man who could say, “Thy law is within my heart”, Psalm 40: 8.

He was prepared to go right through to death to face the

power of the enemy and deal with all that the first man had

brought in by way of sin. Oh what it is to think of a Man that

could clear the whole scene for God. You say, ‘He cleared the

whole scene for us’, but first of all, dear friends, He cleared the

whole scene for God.

So God was entirely free to begin another world, centring in

another Man, the Son of God.

God’s eye now is on Christ, not imputing trespasses

to men. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself,

not reckoning to them their offences”, 2 Corinthians 5: 19. Oh

how wonderful it is to take account of this blessed Man!

What does He mean to you? Is He the point of attraction for

your heart? He was the one point of attraction, and still is, for

the heart of God. God has a heart, and so have you, and God

will not be satisfied until He has your heart. He found delight in

the heart of Christ because He was a Man after His own heart.

That was said of David, but God looked forward really to the

incoming of Jesus. That blessed Man went on to death,

because the Spirit could not have come apart from the

sufferings of Christ.

That is the lesson to be learned from the smitten rock. Not that

you and I, dear friends, were smitten or could thus be smitten;

it was Jesus who was smitten. Does that not touch your heart?

You could not be relieved from the burden of your sins, from

the power of the world, and the power of the devil unless

Jesus was smitten. God’s own blessed Son, the One who