“Certainly the prodigal who is received again into his
father's arms has more reason to return that father's love than the brother who
never left home.
In order for those on earth not to fear that Christ's
reclaimed royalty might crowd them out of His heart, He proves He is the same
in the zenith of His honor as He was in the depth of His humiliation. And He
demonstrates this unchangeableness by going back to heaven's glory in the same
clothes He had borrowed from their nature. Thus God's Son makes those clothes
part of His glorified life and gives a pattern of what the saints' own bodies
will be like in the kingdom. None of this identification of Christ with man was
present in God's dealings with Adam. Adam did not have this lump of sugar in
his cup-- he knew about the love of a giving God, but was a stranger to the
mercy of a forgiving God. The reconciled sinner experiences both.
A father's love is a great comfort to an obedient child,
but this demonstration of tenderness cannot be compared to the compassion of a
father toward his rebellious child. Certainly the prodigal who is received
again into his father's arms has more reason to return that father's love than
the brother who never left home. Without a doubt, then, God's pardoning mercy
and the love of Christ, which procured it are the sweetest, most wholesome
fruit a saint here on earth can meditate upon.
But who can conceive of the splendid music, which
glorified saints will make on this note of God's mercy and love? Surely the
song their harps are tuned to is "the song of the Lamb Revelation 15:3..
The saints' fulfilled celebration in heaven's glory is a composite of all the
finest ingredients possible-- so arranged by the hand of God that not one of
them can be left out; and the taste of one cannot be lost in another. Yet
pardoning mercy, and the unsurpassable love of God through Christ, give a sweet
topping to the feast and can be tasted above all the rest.”
Quoted material from, ”The Christian in Complete
Armour Daily Readings in Spiritual Warfare” by Gurnall and James S Bell.
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