The Great Commission. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. IVMackintosh, Charles Henry
Religion
The Great Commission. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. IV
Mackintosh, Charles Henry
Theology
was set before Him." He looked forward to the moment when He would be
able to draw forth from the inexhaustible treasuries of eternal love
the rich and princely fruits of His hard-bought victory, and pour
them forth in divine profusion upon the "travail of His soul;" even
the Church, which He loved, and purchased with His own precious blood.
He eagerly anticipated "the morning without clouds," when, surrounded
by the myriads of His ransomed brethren, He will sound forth in
everlasting strains the mighty answer to all the foul aspersions of
the enemy as to the love of God toward the sinner. All these
attractions, I say, He had before Him, and therefore He marched onward
in the greatness of His strength; "He _steadfastly_ set His face to go
to Jerusalem." Lord Jesus Christ, invigorate our poor cold hearts to
sound forth the eternal honors of Thine adorable name; and may our
lives be more and more the decided evidence of our hearts--love to
Thee, for "Thou alone art worthy!" All this is surely most blessed for
us; but, blessed as it is, it is not all; there are other strokes from
the pencil of the Divine Artist, calculated, in the highest degree, to
captivate our spiritual tastes, yea, more, to feed our souls. "He
shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and _it shall
be accepted for him_, to make atonement for him" (ver. 4). Here, then,
is grace! Levi, the self-willed, cruel, fierce, and blood-shedding
Levi, is accepted in all the perfectness and acceptableness of this
"unblemished male" before God: whatever of excellency, whatever of
value, whatever of purity, God beheld in this offering, that did He
likewise behold in Levi as "accepted _in_ the offering." Thus, look at
Levi _apart from_ the offering, and you will find him such that God
could not come into _his_ assembly: but look at him as _in the
offering_, and you find him, through grace, as pure and as perfect as
the offering itself. Nothing could surpass this most excellent grace.
The grace that could take up a sinner from such a pit of corruption as
that in which Levi lay groveling, and lead him into such high
elevation, deserves the highest note of praise; and, blessed be God,
it shall, ere long, have it from all who, like Levi, have felt its
sacred power.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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