MUSINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE
And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
1 John 1:3b
Thomas Chalmers, the great Scottish theologian (man of science also), preacher and church leader of the 19th century was conspicuously a humble man. Folk were in awe of him and yet it appears from several biographies read decades ago that he was a very endearing person [Solid Ground Christian Books carries two volumes of his Sunday thoughts]. One of the great man’s pastoral themes was to remind believers not to live beneath their privileges. Always he was encouraging Christians to remember their entitlements in Christ, and especially their access to communion with the Father through the advocacy of the Redeemer. We are members of a high and holy circle. We are drawn into the “Holy Club” of the Holy Trinity. The most sacred society of all has elevated us to be participants in and to the unimaginable favor of uniting with them in the intimacy and harmony of round-table discourse and the comfort of close cordial companionship. As confirmed “worldlings” we would not have gained a peep through the curtained window, and frankly we wouldn’t have minded, so base were our attitudes in the ways of the world and of pleasing of self. In reality, to us, there was no God (at least worth bothering about). Every thought, aspiration, word of ours was of the earth, “earthy”. The visible and touchable was our pre-occupation - humanity and its manufacturings mental and material.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ raises us to the foretaste of heaven and not just faintly and vaguely. The strongest inducements come from the Word of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the influence of the Holy Spirit. Heaven comes to earth whenever God is near or palpably present, and with his eye on the resurrection and the following ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ the apostle urges us to appreciate and enjoy the very deep and rich fellowship accessible to believers through the the Father and the Son. It is the sweetest and most satisfying union available to humankind forgiven of sin and freed from satanic enslavement and self-gratification afforded by ungodly taste and behavior.
The fellowship here is the guarantee of eternal life to come. It is superior by far to any other attachment. We are held forever by the hand of our Redeemer and our Maker - the undying affection and support of the Creator of life and the Rescuer of rebels foolishly fighting their way to deserved execution. Hosanna in the highest! Through grace alone we have been promoted to the very acme, summit of relationship with God. To describe it as royal elevation is far too short of the mark. In divine estimation we are jewels beyond worth and precious above evaluation. When we forget we are the purchase of “divine blood” and live below the dignity assigned to us by God we are cheapening the coal pressured into diamonds by the saving strength of the Lord. When we know our value to God, perhaps some of that gleam would shine through us, sustained by our fellowship with the Father and with his Son.
RJS
"We can no more be severed, than he can be severed from himself."
Bishop Joseph Hall
And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
1 John 1:3b
Thomas Chalmers, the great Scottish theologian (man of science also), preacher and church leader of the 19th century was conspicuously a humble man. Folk were in awe of him and yet it appears from several biographies read decades ago that he was a very endearing person [Solid Ground Christian Books carries two volumes of his Sunday thoughts]. One of the great man’s pastoral themes was to remind believers not to live beneath their privileges. Always he was encouraging Christians to remember their entitlements in Christ, and especially their access to communion with the Father through the advocacy of the Redeemer. We are members of a high and holy circle. We are drawn into the “Holy Club” of the Holy Trinity. The most sacred society of all has elevated us to be participants in and to the unimaginable favor of uniting with them in the intimacy and harmony of round-table discourse and the comfort of close cordial companionship. As confirmed “worldlings” we would not have gained a peep through the curtained window, and frankly we wouldn’t have minded, so base were our attitudes in the ways of the world and of pleasing of self. In reality, to us, there was no God (at least worth bothering about). Every thought, aspiration, word of ours was of the earth, “earthy”. The visible and touchable was our pre-occupation - humanity and its manufacturings mental and material.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ raises us to the foretaste of heaven and not just faintly and vaguely. The strongest inducements come from the Word of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the influence of the Holy Spirit. Heaven comes to earth whenever God is near or palpably present, and with his eye on the resurrection and the following ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ the apostle urges us to appreciate and enjoy the very deep and rich fellowship accessible to believers through the the Father and the Son. It is the sweetest and most satisfying union available to humankind forgiven of sin and freed from satanic enslavement and self-gratification afforded by ungodly taste and behavior.
The fellowship here is the guarantee of eternal life to come. It is superior by far to any other attachment. We are held forever by the hand of our Redeemer and our Maker - the undying affection and support of the Creator of life and the Rescuer of rebels foolishly fighting their way to deserved execution. Hosanna in the highest! Through grace alone we have been promoted to the very acme, summit of relationship with God. To describe it as royal elevation is far too short of the mark. In divine estimation we are jewels beyond worth and precious above evaluation. When we forget we are the purchase of “divine blood” and live below the dignity assigned to us by God we are cheapening the coal pressured into diamonds by the saving strength of the Lord. When we know our value to God, perhaps some of that gleam would shine through us, sustained by our fellowship with the Father and with his Son.
RJS
"We can no more be severed, than he can be severed from himself."
Bishop Joseph Hall
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