The Lord of Glory

The Firstborn

“THE Firstborn” or “The Firstbegotten” is one of the names of our blessed Lord. It is applied to Him after His resurrection from the dead. As the Only Begotten He came into this world, the unspeakable gift of God to a lost and ruined world; after the accomplishment of His work on the cross He left the earth, He had created, as the Firstborn. As the Firstbegotten He is now in the highest heaven and as the Firstbegotten the Man of Glory He will be sent back to this earth and rule in power and glory. Paul wrote to the Philippians “to write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous but for you it is safe” (Phil. iii:1). Peter’s preaching in the opening chapters of the Acts might have been called monotonous, for he knew but one theme. The Spirit of God filling him gave but one message and that was, the rejected Jesus of Nazareth risen from the dead. In the Gospel of the Glory of the blessed God (1 Tim. i:11), as revealed to the Apostle of the Gentiles we have one theme, one abiding, ever satisfying, eternal object and that is Christ who died for our sins, risen from the dead, as Firstborn in Glory and our blessed union with Him. Paul who knew Him as the Firstborn so well found it not grievous to write the same thing. Indeed the more He knew Him the more His heart cried out “that I may know Him” (Phil. iii:10). There is an attraction in Him which is supernatural. Every child of God will increasingly enjoy the contemplation of this old yet ever new and blessed theme, the Firstborn from the dead. Only in this our hearts can find perfect rest and abiding joy. And if your heart, dear reader, is not attracted and absorbed by Himself, it is because there is a broken communion between you and your Lord. Oh, return unto thy rest, my soul! The drifting masses of Christendom have no use for such a theme. The words written in 2 Cor. iv:3-4 find a fearful application in our time. “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this age hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

How little of the Gospel of the Glory is preached! It is not wanted. All the present day preaching of ethics, of doing good, self improvement and self culture is anti-christian. The preaching which leaves out the cross of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the Glory of Christ, differs not in the least from the ethical-philosophical jumble of Buddhistic and other oriental heathen teachers. It is an awful thing which is done in Christendom today, this rejection of the Lord, the Firstborn. Some day and that soon, God will judge those who have rejected that Gospel and deal with them for the sin of all sins which is unbelief (John xvi:9). But our hearts, beloved in the Lord, must turn more and more to Him and find their delight in Him, who is the Firstbegotten. And this we shall do now by meditating on a few Scriptures which tell us of Him. “He is the Firstborn from the dead” (Col. i:18). “Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the Firstbegotten of the dead, and the Prince of the Kings of the earth” (Rev. i:5). What blessed declarations these are! In the first chapter of Colossians it is fully revealed who He is, who was dead and who is alive for evermore. Not a creature but the Creator, the one who images forth God, because He is God. By Him were all things created, “that are in heaven, and that are on earth, visible and invisible, thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him and for Him.” And such a One made peace through the blood of His cross. Such a One took our place on the cross of shame, tasted death in our stead and all the billows of wrath and judgment passed over His holy head. Because He wrought out our redemption it is complete and perfect. Raised from the dead, not held by death but bursting forth, leading captivity captive, He is the Firstborn and to Him belongs all Glory and Power. “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the Firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Cor. xv:20). By His glorious resurrection He became the Firstfruits. All who believe in Him will rise too by virtue of being one with Him, who is the Resurrection and the Life. The mighty power of God which raised Him from the dead and seated Him in the highest place, at His own right hand, that exceeding greatness of His power is towards us, who believe. That power has quickened us with Christ, raised us up together and seated us in the heavenly. In some future day that mighty power, which raised Him so that He became the Firstfruits will raise all the saints to meet Him in the air.

“And again, when He bringeth in the Firstbegotten into the world, He saith, and let all the angels of God worship Him” (Heb. i:6).

God will bring the Firstbegotten back to this earth again. This is a very strong passage revealing the second coming of Christ to this earth. The same blessed Person, who walked on this earth as man, who is Emanuel, God with us, who died on the cross for our sins, who became the Firstbegotten from the dead, the Firstfruits of them that slept, He who is now as Man in Glory, the same Person, the Firstbegotten, will be brought back to this world by the power of God. Then worshipping angels will be His attendants and He will bring His Saints with Him.

“For whom He foreknew, He also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren” (Romans viii:29). Conformed to the glorious image of God’s ever blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the destiny of all, who have cast themselves as lost sinners upon Christ and have been saved by Grace through faith. It is true even now by beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. iii:18). It is true if we abide in Him, we shall walk even as He walked (1 John ii:6). The exhortation in our great salvation Epistle is, not to be conformed to this age, but to be transformed, or as it might be translated, transfigured (Rom. xii:2). But to be fully conformed to the image of His Son is never to be expected in this world, where sin is ever present; When the Firstbegotten calls us into His own presence, when the Heir of God summons His beloved co-heirs to meet Him and to enter with Him into the blood-bought inheritance, then each saved sinner will be conformed to the image of Himself. Each will shine forth the excellencies of the Firstbegotten. We shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. Hallelujah! This is why God gave up His Son, that He might be able to lift those who are His enemies by wicked works into the Sonplace and make them like His Son in Glory.

“Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the degree; the Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee” (Ps. ii:6-7). In this prophecy He is likewise seen as the Firstbegotten. It does not mean the eternal Son of God, for as such He had no beginning, but the day in which He was begotten is the third day when He was raised from the dead. Paul gives us this truth when He spoke to the Jews in Antioch and said: “God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that He hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee” (Acts xiii:33). Up to this time He is not yet enthroned upon the holy hill of Zion. When He returns as the Firstbegotten and finds the nations of the earth not converted, but in opposition to Him (Ps. ii:1-3), He will become the King and take His throne.

“Also I will make Him my Firstborn, higher than the Kings of the earth” (Ps. lxxxix:27). This reveals the exalted station, which He will assume, when His blessed feet touch this earth again. He will be the King of kings, and the Lord of lords.

This is the Glory of the Firstborn, the loving Sinbearer who endured the cross and despised the shame. He is the Heir of God, the Heir of all things, the Head of all principality and power, the Head of His redeemed people, the church. He that filleth all in all, the Firstborn, will share His glorious title and possessions with His redeemed. The church to which God’s marvelous Grace has brought us is the church of the Firstborn. (Heb. xii:23), because the Firstborn is the Head and beginning and those who are begotten again by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead have their portion with the Firstborn. Oh! glorious future we have as His redeemed people! God our Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Thy Holy Spirit, keep the Glory of Thy Son, the Firstborn, before our hearts, that we may be changed into the same image and overcome in these dark and evil days. Amen.

The Waiting Christ

WAITING for the coming of the Lord is one of the blessed characteristics of true Christianity. In the parable of the ten virgins the three great marks of a true believer are stated by our Lord. These are: Separation, indicated by the virgins having gone forth. Manifestation, they had lamps, which are for the giving of light, and Expectation, they went forth to meet the Bridegroom. With five of them it was only an outward profession. The foolish virgins are the type of such who are Christians in name only and do not know the reality of these characteristics. The Lord knew them not. These three characteristics are seen in Paul’s first epistle to the Thessalonians. That model assembly was composed of such members who possessed these three things. They had turned to God from idols (separation); they served the true and the living God (manifestation); they waited for His Son from heaven (expectation), 1 Thess. i:9, 10. The same is revealed in the epistle to Titus. “For the Grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.” That Grace accepted separates unto God.

“Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly, in this present world.” This is manifestation. The Grace of God enables us to live thus. “Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Here we have expectation. Other similar passages could be quoted. If we divide the New Testament Scriptures into three parts we have the same order. In the Gospels the Grace of God in the Son of God appeared. In the Epistles we are taught how to manifest Him by walking in the Spirit. The great New Testament prophetic book, the Revelation, looks on towards His Coming. And how His Coming is forgotten! How few of His people truly wait for Him! How few pray that important and almost forgotten prayer, Even so, Come Lord Jesus! But we must also remember that our Lord is likewise waiting. Innumerable multitudes of disembodied spirits who are saved by Grace are waiting in His own presence for the moment when they will receive their resurrection bodies, which will be when He descends from Heaven and comes into the air. The faithful remnant of His people on earth wait for His Coming. Israel and all creation wait for Him as well as the unseen beings in the Heavenly. But He Himself is waiting. This is the testimony of the Word of God. First it is the subject of prophecy. In the brief but great 110th Psalm that waiting is predicted. The Christ, who is so often seen in the Psalms and in the Prophets as King, ruling in His earthly kingdom, whose glories in that rule are so blessedly described, is seen in the beginning of that Psalm seated at the right hand of God; this heavenly place will be occupied by Him till His enemies are made His footstool. How the Holy Spirit witnessed to this fact at once after His descent on the day of Pentecost is more fully revealed in the second chapter of Acts. In Hebrews x:13 we read of His waiting attitude in heaven. “But this man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool.” The better word for expecting is “waiting.” We may well emphasize the word “Man.” Our blessed Lord is not in the presence of God as a Spirit Being, but He is there in the form of Man. The blessed body He had on earth, which He gave on the cross and which laid in the tomb could not see corruption. He was raised on the third day. He ascended in that glorified body into heaven and He is on the right hand of God as Man, in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Just one Man is there in Glory. But oh! what it means! He is the Head of His body, the church and in the future all His redeemed people will possess glorified bodies, like unto His glorious body. No wonder the enemy ever aims at the denial of the Lord’s bodily presence. From many pulpits it is declared to be “too material.” The denial of this great truth, the Man in glory, is a denial of the entire Gospel. It is at this the enemy strikes.

As the glorified Man on the Father’s throne He is waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. This does not mean, as so many believe and teach, that the Lord Jesus Christ is waiting till His enemies are gradually overcome, till the church on earth succeeds in converting the whole world. It does not mean that. His enemies will be made His footstool in a far different way. It will be a sudden event. All His enemies will be humbled, all things will be subjected under His feet at the time of His second Coming. As there was an appointed time by the Father for His first Coming, so is there an appointed time for His second Coming, when the power of God and His own power will triumph over all His enemies. As He is in His redemptive work subject to the Father, therefore is He waiting for that hour. Then the Father will bring in the firstbegotten into the world (Heb. i:6) and He will receive the nations for His inheritance (Psalm ii).

He is waiting for this great event. But He is also waiting for His co-heirs, which constitute the church. The church, His body, must be first completed as to numbers before the hour can come in which His enemies are made His footstool.

He is patiently waiting for that moment. John speaks of that when he calls himself “a companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ” (Rev. i:9). Centuries have come and gone since He took that place upon the Father’s throne, unseen by human eyes, and during all this time, while the calling out of the church proceeded, He has waited patiently. Some day His waiting will come to an end. His church will be completed and then He Himself arises from His seat and descends to that place in the air, where He will meet His own, for whom His loving heart yearns so much. What a moment that will be at last! Then His waiting as well as His patience will be ended and He will receive His kingdom and be crowned Lord of lords and King of kings. No longer will He then be unseen, but His Glory will flash out of heaven and He Himself will be manifested in Glory. Then the world can reject Him no longer but must accept His righteous rule in which His redeemed people will share. What child of God does not wish this to be soon, very soon. Oh that we might cry more earnestly, more in the Spirit, yes, incessantly, “Come Lord Jesus.”

But while He waits and the hour has not yet come we must wait as He waits on the throne. To the Thessalonians who had listened to teachers who judaized the blessed hope, fearing they were facing the day of the Lord with its tribulation and wrath, the Apostle wrote: “And the Lord direct your hearts in the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ” (2 Thess. iii:5). But we must not only wait patiently for Him but also wait with Him. He is the rejected One. The world cast Him out. As the rejected One He waits in patience for the hour of His triumph and His Glory. This place of rejection is our greatest privilege to share. And where is He more rejected than in that which calls itself by His Name! To bear His reproach in these closing days of this present age is our blessed opportunity. To suffer with Him, if not for Him, should be that for which our hearts should long, yea, pray. And we will be glad to be rejected with Him, to be nothing at this present time, to have fellowship with His sufferings, if He as the patient waiting Lord is ever before our hearts.

At the close of the one hundred and tenth psalm stands a word, which we should also remember.

It has puzzled many readers what this saying might mean. It speaks to our hearts of His humiliation and exaltation. One thinks at once of the three hundred of Gideon and how they stooped down to drink. The brook is the type of death. He drank of the brook in the way. His way was from Glory to Glory, and between were His sufferings. And, therefore, He shall lift up the head. Wherefore, God has highly exalted Him. May we all, dear readers, follow in His path and suffer with Him; ere long in His triumph and glory we shall triumph and glory.

“And if children then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ; if so be we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. viii:17-18).

A Vision of the King

ONE of the most blessed occupations for the believer is the prayerful searching of God’s holy Word to discover there new glories and fresh beauties of Him, who is altogether lovely. Shall we ever find out all which the written Word reveals of Himself and His worthiness? This wonderful theme can never be exhausted. The heart which is devoted to Him and longs through the presence and indwelling of the Holy Spirit to be closer to the Lord, to hear and know more of Himself, will always find something new and precious. The Holy Spirit can do this and reveals to our hearts from the inexhaustible Word of God the Glory of Him, whom to exalt the Spirit has come. Much depends on how we desire just Himself. And Christ alone and the heart knowledge of Himself can satisfy the believer, who has His life and is one Spirit with the Lord

“O Christ Thou art enough

The heart to satisfy.”

Soon we shall see Him, whom we contemplate now in faith. Soon we shall be in His own glorious presence and look upon that face, which was once marred and smitten, but which now shines out Heaven’s and the Father’s Glory.

The kingly Glory of our blessed Lord is one of the great themes of the Bible. The Man of humiliation, who here on earth walked in dependence on God, who did His will, suffered and died is now in the Father’s presence and on the right hand of the Majesty on high. There He sat down with His Father in His throne, waiting for the moment when His work as the Priest and Advocate of His beloved people on earth is accomplished, and when the Father will establish Him as King, when He will receive the kingdom. Alas! that all this glory, which belongs to Him and which is still future, His Kingship, His kingly glory and rule, as it must be some day, is so unknown and even disowned in Christendom. It is but the uncovering of the condition of the heart of the great majority of professing Christians. They may talk of religion, of great reform movements, of service to mankind, world progress, but the Christ of God in all His Glory, past, present and future, has little attraction. Far different it is with the heart which knows Him and has given Him the place He is worthy of, the first place. That heart delights to meditate on all His Glory and longs for the time when He will appear, and when at last, crowned with many crowns, He will assume His righteous rule. Great is our joy and delight when we follow through the Scriptures His earthly life so full of His moral Glory. Or when we think of Him as He died for us and bore in His own body on the tree our sins; we praise Him for His mighty Love. But what joy to think of Him as coming at last into that which belongs to Him the Lord of Glory, by right of redemption, when He will take possession of this earth and claim its Satan ruled kingdoms for His own. Then it will be true, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” Then the Seraph’s song will be realized, “The whole earth is full of His Glory.”

How much the Word has to say about the King and His Glory; and we have never yet taken hold of it with our dull hearts! Take the Book of Psalms, for instance, that book which has been so belittled by the destructive criticism. While we read so much in those precious productions of the Holy Spirit of Christ’s sufferings, His humiliation, His prayers, His death, we may find there much more about Him as King and His coming manifestation.

The tumult of the nations, as predicted in the Second Psalm, and about to be realized in our own times, the tumult of the nations against the Lord and His Anointed, will be silenced by the coming of the King. “I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion;” this is what God declares. The God-man Christ Jesus, the Man, who is with Him now is, His King. His destiny is the government of the nations, with a rod of iron.

The entire Twenty-first Psalm tells out the Glory of the King. Christian expositors have rarely discovered this. But Jewish exponents always knew it. Saith a leading Jewish authority of the middle ages: “Our old teachers have always applied this Psalm as meaning the King Messiah.” Read its stanzas:

Then comes His future action, when He whom faith sees now crowned with Majesty and Splendor, who rejoices in the Presence of God, appears to execute the judgments of God.

And in the Twenty-fourth Psalm we have prophetically that triumphant shout, which will be heard when the King comes back to enter His City, Jerusalem, again.

The Forty-fifth Psalm is a song of the Beloved, touching the King. He is described as coming in His Majesty and Splendor, how He deals with His enemies and that He will be surrounded by His own redeemed ones.