“Jesus! Thou art enough the mind and heart to fill.”
What an Object we have to occupy the mind and heart — the Word made flesh, the manifestation in perfect Manhood of every moral grace, engaging the heart of God Himself! Little do we lay hold of the excellencies, the glories that shine forth from Jesus, yet it is sweet to consider Him in any of His varied graces. We are not only delighted as we consider Him, but we have His image imprinted on our hearts; we have Himself as our Example in order that we should walk as He walked. Let us think of Him in His humility, His meekness, and His gentleness — sweet graces, which our hearts own are often lacking in our ways.
His Humility
In perfect submission to His Father’s will and in the presence of the evil of man who had refused His love and goodness, we hear those precious words of Matthew 11:25-3025At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. 26Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. 27All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. 28Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:25‑30): “Come unto Me . . . and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly [humble] in heart.” His spirit in the prophetic word declares, “I have labored in vain, I have spent My strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely My judgment is with the Lord, and My work with My God” (Isa. 49:44Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God. (Isaiah 49:4)). At such a time, He says, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly [humble] in heart.” He gives the secret, which He knew so well, of true rest. In absolute dependence, having nothing, but receiving all things from the Father, He is the Pattern of all true humility and dependence. His life on earth, in the place and relationship He had taken, was a constant living on the fullness of His Father’s love. He was ever the dependent One. What a Pattern of humility!
In Mark 10:44-4544And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. 45For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. (Mark 10:44‑45) He gives the secret of true greatness. “The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” So in Jesus, ever preeminent in grace and glory, we behold a life of perfect humility. This grace, which belongs to the highest archangel before the throne, as well as the meanest of God’s intelligent creation, is “not merely a grace, but the embodiment in which all other graces are contained.”
His Meekness
Only the truly humble can be meek. The sense of complete dependence—of having nothing — must produce in the exercised one, in the inner spirit, the passive grace of meekness — receiving everything, whether joy or sorrow, from Him who is all-wise as all-good. So in Jesus we see meekness in the presence of man’s enmity, in all the sufferings of the path of obedience, receiving all things, the trials and sorrows, as from His God and Father. When refused by the Samaritan villagers (Luke 9:5156), the disciples would have called fire to come down from heaven to consume them, but He said, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.” And they went to another village. Again in Luke 8, when His work of mercy in healing the demoniac brought out man’s evil and the Gadarenes besought Him to depart, “He went up into the ship, and returned back again.”
His Gentleness
The Apostle exhorts the Corinthians by “the meekness and gentleness of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:1). Distinct from meekness, which lies more in the inner spirit, gentleness is shown in outward acts and ways. Jesus teaches the spirit of gentleness in the forgiving grace of the lord to the servant in the parable (Matt. 18:2727Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. (Matthew 18:27)), the lord abating his just claim and freely forgiving the debtor, and Jesus teaches that as forgiven debtors we too, in gentleness, should forgive, not exacting even what may be our due.
His own gentleness we discern in His reply to His servant and forerunner John the Baptist. From the prison John sends messengers to Jesus, saying, “Art Thou He that should come? or look we for another?” The trying circumstances seemed to weaken John’s faith. In gentleness Jesus gives the answer, without upbraiding His dear servant, but speaks in language John well understands, to his heart.
So ever in gentleness Jesus bears with the ignorance and self-will of His disciples. Peter learned His Lord’s gentleness in sweet restoring grace after the resurrection. The Lord of glory, the same Jesus, met Saul of Tarsus in his enmity and hatred of the name of Jesus and towards His lowly disciples as Paul afterwards wrote, in “exceeding abundant” grace. What He was in grace on earth, such He is in glory.
Our Only Object
The Spirit of God sets Him before us, where He is and as He is, as the only Object to occupy our hearts —“our Counselor, our Pattern and our Guide.” We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, daily, hourly, even here, bearing in our hearts the hope that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him according to the purpose of God, fully conformed to the image of His Son.
To Every Man His Work, 1:168