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Hope
Unlimited
Chapter
13: "My Redeemer Lives"
CONTINUALLY have I spoken to the reader concerning Jesus who was crucified,
He who is the great hope of the guilty; but it is our wisdom to
remember that He, our Lord, has risen from the dead and lives eternally.
You
are not asked to trust in a dead Jesus, but in One who, though He
died for our sins, has risen again for our justification. You may go
to Jesus at once as to a living and present friend. He is not a mere
memory, but a continually existent Person who will hear your prayers
and answer them. He lives on purpose to carry on the work for which
He once laid down His life. He is interceding for sinners at the
right hand of the Father, and for this reason He is able to save
them to the uttermost who come unto God by Him. Please won't you
come and try this
living Saviour, if you have never done so before.
This
living Jesus is also raised to an eminence of glory and power. He
does not now sorrow as "a humble man before his foes," nor
labor as "the carpenter's son"; but He is exalted far
above principalities and power and every name that is named. The
Father has given Him all power in Heaven and in earth, and he
exercises this high endowment in carrying out His work of grace.
Hear what Peter and the other apostles testified concerning Him
before the high priest and the council:
"The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.
Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins."
(Acts 5:30-31)
The
glory which surrounds the ascended Lord should breathe hope into
every believer's breast. Jesus is no mean person - He is "a
Saviour and a great one." He is the crowned and enthroned
Redeemer of men. The sovereign prerogative [right or privilege] of life and death is
vested in Him; the Father has put all men under the mediatorial
government of the Son, so that He can quicken whom He will. He
opens, and no man shuts. At His word the soul which is bound by
the cords of sin and condemnation can be unloosed in a moment. He
stretches out the silver scepter, and whosoever touches it lives.
It
is well for us that as sin lives, and the flesh lives, and the devil
lives, so Jesus lives; and it is also well that whatever might these
may have to ruin us, Jesus has still greater power to save us.
All
His exaltation and ability are on our account. "He is exalted
to be," and exalted "to give." He is exalted to be a
Prince and a Saviour, that He may give all that is needed to
accomplish the salvation of all who come under His rule. Jesus has
nothing which He will not use for a sinner's salvation, and He is
nothing which He will not display in His abundant grace. He
links His princedom with His Saviour-ship, as if He would not have
the one without the other; and He sets forth His exaltation as
designed to bring blessings to men, as if this were the flower and
crown of His glory. Could anything be more calculated to raise the
hopes of seeking sinners who are looking to Jesus?
Jesus
endured great humiliation, and therefore there was room for Him to
be exalted. By that humiliation He accomplished and endured all the
Father's will, and therefore He was rewarded by being raised to
glory. He uses that exaltation on behalf of His people. Let my
reader raise his eyes to these hills of glory, whence his help must
come. Let him contemplate the high glories of the Prince and Saviour. Is it not most hopeful for men that a Man is now on the
throne of the universe? Is it not glorious that the Lord of all is
the Saviour of sinners? We have a Friend at court; yea, a Friend on
the throne. He will use all His influence for those who entrust
their affairs in His hands. Well does one of our poets sing:
He
ever lives to intercede
Before His Father's face;
Give Him, my soul, Thy cause to plead,
No doubt the Father's grace.
Come,
friend, and commit your cause and your case to those once pierced
hands, which are now glorified with the signet rings of royal power
and honor. No suit ever failed which was left with this great
Advocate.
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