THE RELIABILITY OF THE LORD JESUS
I would like to bring forward a very simple thought, beloved, following on from what our brother has spoken about. How stable and reliable are the things that have been committed into the hands of the Lord Jesus. Our brother has spoken about the way that God has acted and has brought in such comfort through the Lord Jesus, and I felt freshly impressed with the power that is invested in Him. We know, of course, that in His Person, the Lord Jesus "is over all, God blessed for ever", (Rom 9: 5), although in grace He came into conditions of lowly manhood. We also know, as the verse we have read says, "by whom also he", that is God, "made the worlds", that the very glory of creation belongs to the Lord Jesus. He is the One who is great enough to have brought the physical creation about, and He is upholding it all by the word of His power. But my thought was that the He not only upholds what is creational, but that He is upholding by His power all that is for the pleasure of God. He is the One who was great enough to bring in redemption; that is mentioned here too. He is the One who has upheld God's thoughts throughout the history of His dealings with men in this scene; the Lord Jesus has brought into being all that God had in mind for His own pleasure and the day is coming when He will complete it, bringing about what will be for God's glory eternally. What reliability, and what power, there is in the Lord Jesus.
Our brother has alluded to the history of the testimony, and when you consider the weakness and departure that occurred both in the scriptural history and in more recent times, you might think that things must have failed, but they were being upheld “by the word of his power". Beloved brethren, what is for God cannot fail while they are in the hands of the Lord Jesus. Think of the testimony being sustained through the dark ages when darkness came in, and distance from God, yet nevertheless what was for God was being upheld all along by the word of the Lord's power – a power that could not be defeated. These verses show the Lord's greatness in a very touching way; it says here that He is the "effulgence of his glory", all God's glory shining out in the Lord Jesus, and "the expression of his substance". Then He has dealt with all the moral issues that stood in the way, "having made by himself the purification of sins". It may be that we see the efforts of the enemy in the failure of the things that are in the hands of man, but let us not be afraid, beloved brethren, because all things are being upheld by the word of His power.
We have an example in Acts 16 where Paul and Silas were in prison and things were outwardly in a very precarious state. The spread of the testimony to Europe looked to be threatened, but came through triumphantly because all was being upheld by the word of the Lord's power. We can be assured that will be the case right up to the very end. I am glad of what our brother has said, drawing attention to the One who is able to uphold what is for God whatever the difficulties may be. What confidence we can have in knowing such a One! We each have come to know Him personally; may we trust Him more as we see more clearly what He is doing even in our day to uphold all things for the glory of God.
Think of what will be in a coming day when the riches of all that has been secured for God's glory will be displayed, all having been upheld through the ages by the power of the Lord, having been maintained in holiness and righteousness even through dark and difficult days. What a glorious One we have been brought to know! May we be increasingly occupied with Him. Failure comes in when we take our eyes off Christ, but if we keep our attention on Him in simple dependence, we can know the power that is inherent in Him. May it be that we find increasing joy and comfort in being in the confidence of that blessed One who is upholding all that is for God's glory, for His name's sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Kirkcaldy
3 January 2017
G. J. Gaskin