The Loveliness of Jesus

I feel as though the subject about which I'm going to write will have been thoroughly discussed in the past, and I feel very measured as to what I can possibly add. But I also feel that we can never, ever exhaust any topic when it comes to divine things. The things of God are so vast that they'll be our happy occupation for time and eternity, and we'll never come to the end of them. So, having said that, I hope that something fresh can be brought out in this post and any subsequent discussion.

The loveliness of Jesus. What a subject! Where to even begin? I think we all have some impression of it, the attractiveness of that One. We begin our soul history with Him through coming to Him in repentance and throwing ourselves on His sure mercies, resting on His finished work. The result is an outflow of responsive, grateful love to the Saviour who laid down His life for us. Then, I believe, as we go on in our new life, we grow to love Him, not just - speaking carefully - because He died to save us, bore the penalty for sins which was due to us... but because of who He is. We learn Him, we gaze upon Him, and we can say, with the apostle John, "...we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth..." (John 1:14). Full of grace and truth. Lovely features. And occupying a unique position, an only Son, in whom is the Father's delight. Isn't it wonderful that we've been given to share, by the Holy Spirit, something of the Father's love for Christ? We've been drawn into that sphere of love which existed before time was, between divine Persons. It's one thing (and I believe, a very blessed thing) to see Christ from our perspective, as the Saviour of needy sinners like you and I. It's another thing to view Him as the Father does. "This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight." (Matthew 3:17). "I have found my delight". Here was something entirely different, a new order of Manhood, a Lamb without blemish. On what member of Adam's race could the Holy Spirit descend as a dove, in perfect complacency? Not one. But here, into that sin-stricken scene, comes a perfect Man who delighted the heart of God. Does my heart delight in Him? I'm afraid, not often enough or consistently enough. If I were more occupied with Him, if I spent more time contemplating His glory, surely I would get to love Him even more. Sometimes we get discouraged, or drawn away in our affections by the things of the world. I think that believers, and perhaps especially young believers like me, have trouble with the allure of the many attractions and distractions that the world has to offer, and get thoroughly depressed when we find ourselves struggling to keep a single eye for Jesus. Well, the more we're occupied with that One, the more attractive we'll find Him. If we get into the way of looking at what's bad and unprofitable and concentrate on trying to resist it (as I certainly find myself doing) then it becomes all the more irresistible! That's because we've taken our gaze off Jesus. The way to stop the things of the world filling our heart is to allow Christ in to fill it, to the exclusion of all else. And there's enough there to fill the hearts of vast myriads of the redeemed, and satisfy us for eternity!
 
Hello Grant,
Thank You for taking the time to reflect on some of the Loveliness of Jesus. I am sure if we sat down and tried to write everything one could ever say about this - well we would not ever finish. Jesus is our all in all our everything and His loveliness can not be duplicated what so ever.

Have a wonderful summer Grant
God Bless
Jim
 
An elder encoruaged me to turn my eyes on Jesus...she reminded me of this hymn..

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
 
It truly is an inexhaustible subject, Jim. Our all-in-all and our everything, that's absolutely Him! I hope the summer will be good, but it's certainly not shaping up that way weatherwise here in Scotland - we had about three days of sunshine and heatwave about a week ago, and now after a few days of leaden skies, the clouds have finally burst. I'm sitting here at my desk at work with damp breeks. Never mind - we could be doing with a bit of rain to freshen things up.

Lanolin - a very fine song of Zion! By Helen H. Lemmel, a quick Google search tells me. The lines themselves sound familiar, but I've not heard that name before. I don't think it's in the hymn-book I use, but so many excellent hymns and songs aren't. With less than five hundred in there, I wouldn't've liked to have had the difficult task of selecting the ones to include. I've been told that it was an exercise which required a great deal of earnest prayer.
 
An elder encoruaged me to turn my eyes on Jesus...she reminded me of this hymn..

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

Thanks for sharing this hymn Lanolin....i really do enjoy most of the old hymns :)
 
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