Matchless Love

And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. John 17:22, 23. 

O what love, what matchless love! Fallen human beings may become so closely united with Christ that they are glorified with Him. On this earth they have followed in His footsteps, laboring as He labored for the souls for whom He died, and when He comes to claim His own, they enter in to His joy, sitting with Him at His table in His kingdom. “Where I am,” He says, “there shall also my servant be” (John 12:26). . . . 

What a wonderful thought it is that we, poor, fallen sinners, can become one with Christ, partakers of His divine nature, through His grace refined, purified, glorified. We may overcome, and sit down with . . . Christ. We are to be conformed to His image. He loves, and He will help us. We are to be passive in His hands.

We have His promise. We hold the title deeds to real estate in the kingdom of glory. Never were title deeds drawn up more strictly according to law, or signed more legibly, than those that give God’s people a right to the heavenly mansions. “Let not your heart be troubled,” Christ says: “ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (chap. 14:1-3). . . .

All who will may come under the covenant promise. Precious is the price paid for our redemption—the blood of the only begotten Son of God. Christ was tried by the sharp proving of affliction. His human nature was tried to the uttermost. He bore the death penalty of man’s transgression. He became the sinner’s substitute and surety. He is able to show the fruit of His sufferings and death, in His resurrection from the dead. From the rent sepulcher of Joseph rings forth the proclamation, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in Me, and do the works of righteousness that I do, are justified, sanctified, made white and tried. They have obtained godliness and eternal life.”