THE PRECIOUSNESS OF CHRIST
J. Mitchell
Isaiah 53: 1–6; 1 Peter 2: 4–8
The verses read in Isaiah contain the question, “Who hath believed our report?”, and the passage goes on to indicate that, generally speaking, the report was not believed. But, thank God, the epistle of Peter speaks about persons who have believed, and to such is the preciousness. Isaiah 53, perhaps one of the best known chapters in the Old Testament, brings out the preciousness of Jesus. Prophetically that is what the writer had in mind, to bring out the moral beauties and the moral graces of Jesus, and yet the sobering thing is that, although these moral beauties and moral graces were displayed when He was here, the prophet has to ask that question, “Who hath believed our report?” Generally speaking, the prophet was not believed. It is a sobering thing that God could come in in Christ with His very best for men, could come in in a Man who displayed such beauty, and yet men did not believe in Him. If, of course, we did not know our own hearts, we might wonder at that, but I suppose every one present in this room, at some time or other in their histories, has been among those who have not believed. Even though the Spirit of God was presenting Christ in all His beauty to us, there may have been a time in our histories when we would have been amongst those who would not have believed. But thank God for every one who has come to see moral beauty in Jesus. It is a very great thing to be captivated in your heart, not only by what He has done, but by Himself.
Certainly it is blessed to be affected in your heart by what He has done, and to rest your soul on that; but it is even more blessed to be captivated in your affections by the Man Himself and the beauties of that Man.
Jesus is now at God’s right hand, and God is justified in exalting Him because in every respect He glorified God. In His pathway here He glorified God. For the first time Christ as Man set out in Himself what God had in His mind in relation to man. He had secured that in the life of Jesus. Wonderful thing to think of that, that in Jesus God had fully secured what He had in His own heart in relation to man. He was the only One in whom God had secured it absolutely. There was everything there that was for the pleasure of God. Scripture does not tell us much about His boyhood. Luke tells us more than any other about His birth, but there are thirty years in which, very largely, the veil was drawn over the life of Jesus. But every moment of that life was watched with the greatest intent and the greatest pleasure by the Father; there was not a moment in that life that did not yield intensity of delight to the Father Himself. Luke does tell us about the time when He was twelve years of age, when He said, “... I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?” Luke 2: 49. What was to come out in fulness in the life of Christ was foreshadowed there. Another has spoken of it as sonship in conscious nature beginning to assert itself. What was there in the growing up of Jesus was wonderful. It speaks of it here, “For he shall grow up before him as a tender sapling, and as a root out of dry ground”. Think of the grace that was manifested in the growing up of Jesus, “a root out of dry ground”, that is, He drew nothing whatsoever from the scene into which He came. He was absolutely apart from it. He lived a life that drew no resource whatsoever from the world into which He had come. That scene was marked by sin. But there was a life there that was of intense delight to God. How beautiful the life of Jesus was, yielding infinite pleasure to God.
And it says, “he hath no form nor lordliness, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him”. He was unacceptable to man’s system. There is a verse in Zechariah which says, “man acquired me as a bondman from my youth” (Zechariah 13: 5). That shows that the Lord Jesus was here in service to men. There was never a circumstance that He came in touch with, never a need, that He was not able or willing to meet. He met every need in His service to mankind. Never had there ever been a service like that before, and in a certain sense, there has never been a service like it since, the service of Jesus to mankind. But although it is prophetically said of Him that man acquired Him as a bondman from His youth, that does not in any sense mean that He contributed anything whatsoever to man’s system. He was entirely apart from it. He was a Man here for God. He was the only Man who could ever be entirely for God, who lived out a life that was entirely devoted to the pleasure of God.
Now that is very beautiful to contemplate and feed upon. Things are said, even in the schools, about the life of Jesus, often brought down to a most sentimental level, but we should contemplate the life of Jesus as a life that was entirely for God. God had secured in Him what had ever been in His heart in relation to man.
He took infinite delight in it, and yet it goes on to say, “we did regard him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted”. That is very affecting! The Man who was here for the pleasure of God was the Man who was stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. The question arises, Why was that? It was because of our sins. That should always affect us, that, the putting away of our sins really involved that for Jesus. At the present time sin is made very light of in the world.
Indeed it is counted to be antisocial these days not to sin. If you take a stand against sin you are counted as antisocial; but sin is an awful thing in the sight of God, and the putting away of sin involved the striking and the smiting of Jesus. If God could have spared sin, He would have spared His own Son who was sinless, but had taken on Himself our sins, so the scripture tells us that “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son”, Romans 8: 32. It involved that Jesus had to endure the three hours of darkness on Calvary’s cross when he was forsaken of a holy God, when He could cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15: 34), and it meant the giving up of His life. That gives us some impression of what sin was in the sight of God.
Another has said that at the great white throne men will get some estimation of what sin is in the sight of God, but if you want a real estimation of that you go to Calvary, because there sin was measured by a Man, and it was met by a Man. It involved Him going into the darkness, it involved Him being forsaken of God, it involved Him going down into the depths. The prophet is speaking of it here, “we did regard him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted”.
He goes on to say, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed”.
Another prophet says so beautifully, “Awake, O sword, against ... my fellow”, Zechariah 13: 7. That is worthy of contemplation that God raised His hand judicially against Jesus. It was absolutely necessary if your sins and my sins were to be put away. God could not overlook sin. God is not against the sinner by any means. God in the preaching is seeking to win the sinner today, but God is against sin. In His nature He is against sin. It is morally impossible for God to be any other than against sin, but the great news in the glad tidings is that He has put our sins on Jesus. That is something, however old or young we may be, that should constantly affect us. That is where my sins were dealt with by God, and dealt with righteously.
God has secured a righteous basis. Christ was forsaken. In those three hours of forsaking there was compressed a whole eternity of banishment from the presence of God. That is what my sins necessitated. Because of my sins I forfeited my life. The only right that I have as a sinner is to be banished from the presence of God, and that eternally. But the great thing is that in those three hours of darkness Christ bore the judgment due to me. He was forsaken of God. He was truly forsaken, and He also died. The wages of sin is death, and He died vicariously. Paul says, “Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he was raised the third day, according to the scriptures”, 1 Corinthians 15: 3, 4. That is Paul’s glad tidings, and that is our glad tidings.
The penalty of death was brought in at the very beginning of man’s history; the sinner had to die. What a terrible thing. The only thing that we deserve is death and eternal banishment from the presence of God. But the great thing is that the sinless One died vicariously, that is He died for me. Every repentant sinner can say, He died for me. It is a very affecting thing that Christ died on the cross and He was buried, so that the whole matter was gone through and righteousness was accomplished. Man needs righteousness because he is unrighteous, and righteousness was accomplished in the work of Christ. He was buried and lay there three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12: 40). What that must have meant for Jesus! Who knows the full meaning of it? We can draw on the prophetic writings. The gospels, among other things, give us the history of the life of Jesus, but you get expressions of the breathings of His heart prophetically in the writings of the Old Testament. Jonah says, “The weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; The bars of the earth closed upon me for ever”, Jonah 2: 5, 6. You think of what that meant to Jonah, his feelings; that is but typical of what Christ went through in reality.
The penalty for sin must be wholly met, otherwise righteousness would not have been accomplished. For the righteous basis to be established, it meant that the Saviour, the One who was absolutely sinless Himself, and thus the only One who could be the Saviour, had to go that way. He bore the judgment in its fulness; that cup was drunk to its bitter dregs. Every iota of what was necessary to secure the righteousness of God was gone through by Him, as the prophet says here, “Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all”. How we should be affected towards Jesus! How we should be drawn towards Him for what He has done! He was well able to undertake that work. There was no doubt as to His ability to undertake it, but let me tell you this dear hearer, that it was no light matter for Him; it was a very serious matter for Jesus to become the sin bearer. Now that is something that I think we need to contemplate and to take into our affections. It was a very serious matter for Him. It involved His suffering.
Now I turn to Peter, who says, “To you therefore who believe is the preciousness”. Isaiah says, “Who hath believed our report?”, and the history tells us in the New Testament that as He came in He was refused—refused on every hand, and given a malefactor’s cross. The most ignominious death that could be given to man was meted out to Jesus unjustly. The Spirit of God is careful to record that it was unjustly. Even Pilate’s wife was troubled in her conscience about the condemnation of Jesus, and she appealed to her husband. Pilate was given a witness from as near as was possible to him, from his own wife, as to the righteousness of Jesus. But that was man’s answer, “Who hath believed our report?” When you come to Peter he says, “To you therefore who believe is the preciousness”. If men generally failed to see the beauties in Jesus, thank God that persons who believe have their eyes opened to the beauties and graces of that Man. That is what Peter is speaking about, he says, “Because it is contained in the scripture—Behold, I lay in Zion a corner stone, elect, precious—and he that believes on him shall not be put to shame”. “Elect, precious”, you think of that. That is not exactly the love of a father for a son, but it is the moral perfection of the Man who was of great pleasure to God.
In the very prophet from which we read, it speaks of Him as being elect, it says, “mine elect in whom my soul delighteth! I will put my Spirit upon him”, Isaiah 42: 1. This is God’s appreciation of the moral beauty of Jesus. Putting His Spirit upon Him is like the type of the ark with the gold overlaying the acacia wood (Exodus 25: 11). The acacia wood was there in all its moral grace and beauty in the manhood of Jesus, and God put His Spirit upon Him.
There was no difficulty, I say it reverently, about God putting His Spirit upon such a One. How beautiful was the life of Jesus. The humanity of Jesus was of intense beauty to God, and Peter is addressing persons like ourselves, who appreciate that beauty. He says, “To you therefore who believe is the preciousness”. How wonderful it is to have in our hearts such a Person, such a Man. God not only presents to us a Saviour for our sins, but He presents to us a Man for our affections. He is a Saviour for our sins certainly, and as we come to God in repentance, as repentant sinners, and avail ourselves of the Saviour and of His precious work, we can rest our souls on Him for time and eternity. But that is not all that God has in mind in the glad tidings. He has in mind to present to you the Man of His heart, so that the Man of His heart may become the Man of your heart. As He becomes the Man of your heart you can be entirely satisfied and you need nothing else outside of Him. What a thing that is! We may say that this is not suitable and that is not suitable, something else is not suitable; but persons who have Jesus enshrined in their hearts will see everything that is out of accord with Himself as entirely unsuitable to them. Not only will they see it as unsuitable to them, but they will have no appetite for it whatsoever. What a wonderful thing that is, to be absolutely clear of this world and the whole system of sin that is in this world, because you have a Man in your heart, and that Man is the Man who is for God.
So Peter is presenting Him as the Man who is for God. He is referring to Him as “a corner stone, elect, precious—and he that believes on him shall not be put to shame”. Now I understand in the corner stone, there are really two things. One is that it is there in a very critical position, it upholds the whole building, and I think that relates to Christ, as the One who sustains everything for God, the whole structure. Everything that is for God’s pleasure is founded and based and it is upheld and sustained by that blessed Man, the Man whom God would present to us for our hearts. That is the Man that God presents, the Man of His heart, the Man of His delight, and He would say, I want you to share with Me My delight in Jesus.
He upholds everything for God. The other thing about the corner stone is that it gives beauty and grace to the building. Not only are these moral beauties and graces seen personally in Jesus, but there is a whole structure here, a company of persons who, through having that Person in their hearts, have the moral graces of Jesus in them. What a wonderful thing that is! What a privilege it is to be among such a company and to be one of these stones that Peter speaks of, the living stones that come into this great structure that is for the pleasure of God, where the service of God goes on.
Now I think that is what God is holding out to men in the glad tidings. I appeal to every one of us, do not let us come short either in our preaching, or in our apprehension in faith of the preaching, that God has in mind not only to clear men of their sins, but He has in mind to present the Man of His heart to us, so that He might become the Man of our affections. Then as He becomes the Man of our affections, that we might find our part in this system which He Himself upholds and graces for the pleasure of God, and that we might have the characteristics of the Man of the Father’s delight. May the Lord bless the word, for His name’s sake.
Preaching at Denton, Texas
30 October 1994