IT is a very blessed as well as a most solemn thought, that we have to do with a God fully revealed, and that also knows all the secrets of our hearts. Are our souls at peace with God? Are we in the full, unsuspecting, blessed confidence of the favor of God, that flows from God thus known in perfect grace? There should not be a suspecting thought. That is the true state of a Christian; he may have to blame himself as to many a thing, but he has never a doubt in his soul of the divine and blessed favor of God towards him. It is perfect grace.
When Jesus was on earth He could not let out the fullness of it. “I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!”
Death had not come in; atonement had not been wrought. He could not go and present to God that which let open the flood-gates that the love of God might flow out in all its fullness. The death of Christ did not procure it; but the death of Christ must be there, as the only means by which it could flow forth.
This is where we see the unclouded fullness of God’s love. “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.” There is nothing to be learned about God but what is revealed and fully told out. He who has borne all the sin is in the presence of God. The question of sin has been settled; it has been gone through with God. Christ being in the presence of God, it is there we see the unveiled glory. It is there Paul saw Him. There we see Him. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand” (Rom. 5). We are standing in grace, a present grace.
J. N. D.