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The
members of Banner of the Cross each have a testimony to the saving
and keeping power
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We love Him because he first loved us
and in our hearts and souls he is lovely in so many ways.
The scriptures of Song of Solomon state that,”Yea He is altogether
lovely…….” The words of the following discourse
by the Late Dr Bob Jones Jr of the Bob Jones University, Greenville,
South
Carolina, USA, go a long way to explain the view we have of our Lord
and Master.
We reproduce this sermon with grateful acknowledgement to The Bob Jones
University.
“ There are some tasks that are impossible for men. No matter how high
imagination may soar, no matter how colourful language may be, no
matter how moved the heart of the speaker, no man can properly glorify the
Lord Jesus Christ.
We cannot fully describe or understand Christ's beauty--we can only
gaze in awe. Preachers have tried, prophets have sought, poets have
sung, singers have praised, sibyls have exalted, and sages have meditated;
but no man is ever able to picture Him in all His wonder. In the
Song of Solomon, the bride describes the Bridegroom as the One Who "is
altogether lovely." This does not mean just completely lovely,
but it means lovely in His completeness in every part without blemish
and without flaw.
No wonder it is difficult to describe Him, because there is nothing
wherewith we may compare Him Who is the One beyond comparison. We look
at the beauty of Greek marble, but there is coldness that mars its
perfection; or if there is warmth, the warmth is tainted with sensuality.
We look upon the great men of earth. We are moved by their wisdom and
their skill, and we stand in awe of their power; but somehow the idol
has feet of clay, or there is a chip here in the image or a flaw there
in the picture. But when we gaze on the Lord Jesus Christ, we find
nothing except perfection; and we find that perfection in all His Person,
in His Word, in His work, in His name, and in His nature. He is indeed
altogether lovely!
We are told by the prophet that He had no form nor comeliness, and
that when we see Him, there is no beauty in Him that we should desire
Him. This is a picture of Christ on the cross in His suffering; and
indeed as Israel looks upon Him, blindness in part has come. Because
He is not in His surface appearance at this moment attractive, we
say, "There
is no beauty that we should desire Him."
It is strange how some words in the English language have been cheapened
by a common use: lovely and wonderful--what cheap words they have become!
That which is frivolous we describe as lovely--a lovely party, a lovely
evening, a lovely meal; and that which is wonderful--how we apply that
word! Everything is wonderful today to those who are shallow in their
outreach, low in their ambitions, and sordid in their tastes. But these
words should be reserved for the Lord Jesus Christ, Who alone is lovely
. . . . There He hangs on a cross, marred in feature, bruised in form,
bloody with the blood of His lashings, and torn by the nails in hands
and feet. As we look upon Him, we see Him indeed without form and without
beauty, but nonetheless lovely! God was never lovelier than in the
Person of Christ on the cross, for those wounds were for our redemption,
and that blood was for our cleansing; and the lashing on His back and
the nails in His body and the spear in His side and the thorns on His
brow were so that we might become sons of God through Him!
But behold Him again in the day of His glory, when He comes bright
in the beauty of His presence, with a sharp, two-edged sword going
forth from His mouth, for He would not be perfect in His form if
He did not have the power of judgment in His lips. Behold Him in
white
garments--shining garments, garments of glorious beauty--His feet
like hot brass burning in a furnace, hair like snow, and countenance
as
bright as the sun in its rising, before whose gaze men must lower
their eyes and angels hide their faces. Behold Him Who is the very
express
image of the divine purpose! Behold His hands, His feet: He showed
them to His disciples once, and those hands that formed a universe,
that shaped man from common clay, those hands that uphold the heavens
and stretched out all the domain of the angels, those hands upon
which rests the foundation of all creation and which hold the seas
in their
hollow! He showed them His hands and His feet; and we behold in the
midst of those hands nail prints! Those feet that went the way of
need, that journeyed paths of pain, that came from heaven to earth
that men
might go from earth to heaven--those feet are scarred and torn where
spikes went through. How lovely and how beautiful the wounds of Jesus
Christ; and Thomas, beholding that spear print, cries, "My Lord
and my God."
Indeed, all the jewels of heaven grow dull beside the wonder of His
wounds and the beauty of His scars. All the glory of all the heavenly
crowns cannot outshine the mark of thorns in the coronet of mockery
that was laid upon Him. In all His Person, He is altogether lovely:
in vesture, in appearance, in His scars, in His power, in His mercy--lovely!
His nature
In His nature He is an altogether lovely One, for His nature incorporates
all of His attributes. As God is all perfect, so God must be all-lovely,
for loveliness is perfection fully realized and openly demonstrated;
and nothing can be perfectly lovely that is not altogether perfect.
So it is with Him, perfect in His power. Hear Him speak! He speaks,
and waves roll back that His host may go through. He speaks, and
angels volunteer to serve Him, and prophets cry, "Here am I; send me." He
speaks, and all things are created, because He is a God of power.
He plants His feet upon the sea; He rides upon the storm; the lightnings
are His messenger, and His servants are a flame of fire. What power
is like His? Who dares stand before Him and say to Him that He shall
not? Because He is the God Who is all and in all, He is perfect in
His Power.
And power is doubly beautiful because it is matched by love--love
that bends down as mothers bend over little children, that pities
as a father
pities a son--love that heals as a kind doctor heals a wound, love
that sends the rain in the time of drought and stops the rushing
rivers when they would overflow their banks, love so matched with
power that
it is necessary for a God of power to be made of no reputation. In
order that love can have its perfect way, He must become without
reputation, a stranger upon earth, an exile from heaven, and rejected
of the Father--Who
turns His back upon Him on a cross. "Herein is love, not that
we loved him, but that he loved us." What love--that a holy God
can stoop to unlovely sinners and become enraptured of them, willing
to die to redeem sinners. Love expresses itself in dropping of blood
from a cross, in a cry of anguish: "My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?" in a shout of victory: "It is finished!" and
the sure promise that " 'neither shall any man pluck them out
of my hand,' who turn to me for love and who find in me redemption."
Humility is there. He humbled Himself to a cross. From a throne, down
those vast steps and that apparently endless staircase that leads from
the perfect to the imperfect; from the music of heaven to the raucous
cries of evil men; from God's side to man's sin--that being without
sin, yet in the likeness of man, He may redeem man. What humility that
refused to bend a finger to summon angels to His relief! Instead, He
gave His back to the smiters and His cheek to those who plucked out
His beard. Surely humility reaches no such height in any other, and
no man is more exalted than Jesus Christ, Who became a servant, and
the object of derision, and the recipient of spittle and of lashes,
in humility because He came to do the will of the Father Who sent Him.
Long-suffering--that is essential to perfection. Whoever is so patient
as He? As a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so before His accusers
He opened not His mouth. How long-suffering He is with His disciples!
How slow they were to hear, how dull of understanding; and how long-suffering
is the Son of God Who patiently instructs and day by day enjoins and
hour by hour examples.
Men looking on Him see God Who even in wrath is patient to remember
mercy and forgiveness. Even those who asked not, He forgave when
in ignorance they gave Him to a death of a cross--to which He indeed
gave
Himself--and cried, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what
they do." But more than that, He sends to the denying apostle
on the day of resurrection this message, "Go and tell my disciples--and
Peter--that one who regards himself no longer as a disciple, having
thrice denied and gone out in repentance ashamed of denial--that
he, too, can find forgiveness when he meets me by the beach, to be
fed
by my hand and three times have me ask, 'Peter, lovest thou me?' "
Truth is there--because He is Truth, and there is no deceit in Him,
and no cunning in His mouth, and no guile upon Him. His word is "Yea" and "Amen," and
men have only to look in His eye to know that falsehood in them faces
truth in Him. And unable to face that Truth, they said, "We will
have nothing to do with Him . . . He shall not rule over us." Men
always want venal judges and rulers whom they can deceive to their
own evil ends; but when facing truth, and faced with Truth as they
are faced with Christ, they reject truth because their hearts are "deceitful
. . . and desperately wicked." But He alone is Truth, though
all men be liars.
Grace is there; and grace is in a sense the summation of all these
other attributes, because when He forgives, He forgives and remembers
no more. When He restores, He restores without rebuke; when He grants
wisdom, He grants wisdom without reproach; when His mercy is sent,
it is sent to those who do not deserve mercy. Because no favour is
merited, grace does much more abound. Where sin has lifted its head
and had its sway, suddenly grace most triumphant appears to conquer
sin; and without hope of reward--except the joy that is set before
Him in bringing men to God by Himself--we find grace like a river flows
forth, that all who thirst may drink, and all who desire may be clothed.
His names
How lovely are His names! Just and holy is His name, but how many names
are applied to Him! Each is as lovely as the other, and all together
form that perfect name that only God can claim: I AM THAT I AM. And
summed up in this are all the others: the name of Wisdom, Wonderful
Counsellor. His advice is always perfect; He gives to all men liberally
and upbraids them not, who ask for wisdom. His counsels are always
safe because they are true and given by Him Who not only is Truth but
Love--Wonderful Counsellor. His name of power--the Mighty God; and
Who is mighty except God? Men move for one brief day, and they are
not, for they are dust; but He is eternal and He is everlasting--the
mighty God, the God of power; the mighty God, the everlasting One.
His name of pity, the everlasting Father! How men, young children,
faithful daughters look toward the father expecting of him--if he
be indeed a natural father and touched with human sentiments--look
to
him rightly, I say, for care and tenderness and protection and instruction.
But He carries us in His arms as a Father. He picks us up to hold
us to His breast, and He cradles our aching heads against His shoulder.
In His arms--no man can be more secure anywhere than there--in His
arms He gently bears us. "As a father pitieth his children, so
the Lord pitieth them that fear him." Who can pity like a father?
His name of government, the Prince of Peace--for where His rule goes,
peace follows, for all those things that make war are conquered when
His rod of iron is extended. Nature at war with God is quelled to
submission, and lions and lambs lie down together, and thorns and
thistles wither,
and roses reach perfection that men have never seen since Eden, and
all the perfumes of the garden of Paradise pervade a world at peace
because He reigns. So it is when the Prince of Peace has entrance
to the heart and--enthroned in the soul--extends His sway, for the
wars
and fightings that come from the lusts that war in our members are
subject to His name, as the demons who came out when in His name
they were commanded to come; and "the peace of God, which passeth all
understanding" is ours who know the Prince of Peace.
His name of judgment, the righteous Judge, the Judge Who cannot be
swayed by anything but truth, a Judge so righteous that He cannot
overlook sin but Himself became propitiation for sins that men might
not have
to stand before Him to face the consequences of sin, a Judge so righteous
that when He gives His judgment, even the condemned in hell must
cry, "This
is right, and this I deserve; and this One Who condemned me is altogether
righteous in His judgment and holy in all His ways."
He has a name of vengeance, too. He is called the Lord of hosts,
the Captain of the armies of heaven, to avenge His own. Those who
lift
their hands against these little ones, He sends His hosts to avenge;
and He assures that no man can touch this holy thing--not even the
child made holy by His blood and righteous through Him--without the
vengeance of God coming. My friend, if Jesus Christ were not of God,
Who is mighty in battle, the King of kings, before Whom the gates
shall be lifted and the heads of the towers lifted up in the day
of His triumph,
He would not be altogether lovely. He cares for His own; and He assures
them that no cry goes unheeded, and even the souls under the altar
crying, "How long?" shall have an answer in that day when
those who sent them to martyrdom for the sake of Christ shall know
the crushing heel of Christ, the Captain of our salvation and the
Lord of hosts.
Then that lovely name of redemption: "Thou shalt call His name
JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins." That name
that no man ever calls in vain, that name that never echoes down halls
of emptiness, but always finds a door open when it is uttered, and
arms stretched out in welcome when it is spoken. He is "able to
save all who come to God by Him." Jesus, Saviour!
And His name is Emmanuel--God with us. You sum them all up, and there
is only One Who can bear them; and He is the God Whose name is I AM
THAT I AM.
His words
He is lovely in His words. The Bible always associates His name
with His words. It says, "For thou . . . hast kept my word, and hast
not denied my name." You cannot honour the name of Christ without
keeping His Word, and you cannot fail to keep His Word without denying
His name, for if He is holy, His Word must be holy. If He is Truth,
His Word must be true. If He is God, His Word must be God's Word. When
you turn from His Word, you defile His name and deny His Person. You
must keep His Word, or His name is denied. How gracious His words were!
We are told in Luke's Gospel that they wondered at His gracious words.
Sometimes they were words of rebuke, but graciously spoken, and never
directed except where deserved. How tender His words, "Suffer
the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not." Hear
Him on the Mount: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall
see God. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness:
for they shall be filled. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit
the earth." Whoever spoke words like these? They are unknown in
all the literature of ancient times. In a day of blood and slavery,
in a day of greed and war, whoever exalted meekness before? And whoever
promised that a hungry heart desiring righteousness should know the
fulfillment of that hunger and the meeting of that need? Whoever exalted
little children, who were enslaved and dragged from parents to become
beasts of burden? Who but the Lord Jesus? How gracious these words
and how life giving they are, for He says, "He that heareth my
word, and believeth on him that sent me, bath everlasting life." His
words divide us, too. He that is of God heareth the Word of God;
and when a man's ear is closed to that Word, his eyes are blind
to divine
loveliness, and his soul is shut out from eternal life. His Word
is true, and more than that--it is eternal and everlasting, and
therefore it is the final word. When Jesus speaks, all has been
said. When
His
voice is heard, there is nothing further worth hearing. He declares
that His Word is forever settled in heaven, and that means there
is nothing that can be added and no truth beyond this, an unchanging
revelation,
forever revealed and kept by His power under the seal of His name.
His work
Finally, He is lovely in His work. Look at creation, at the perfection
of a universe where every star has its place and no two are equal
in glory; where every day the sun rises on schedule, and
retires at night
to its rest from our sight beyond the horizon, always right on
schedule, but varying with the season; where every planet
occupies its own course,
outlined as a clear road in empty fields of space; where suns blossom
forth and bloom for millenniums in increasing power and then go
out and become charred cinders of former greatness, having
served the purpose
of their creation and the glory of their Creator; where little
children are born and grow up, and family life established
by Him rejoices men's
hearts and provides security; where governments are raised up by
Him and mighty men put down from their seats; where nature
and man and
creation generally made by Him all fit together to His divine purpose,
and all is so complex that no man can take it apart or analyze
it or measure it or understand it. As a child groping in
the darkness to
catch the candle fly that flashes and then moves and then flashes
again, so the minds of all the scholars groping in the darkness
seek to catch
one ray and hold it in their hands as if they had the light of
the sun between their fingers; but the cold glow of a candle
fly--mysterious
as it is--is not a full revelation of light, for other light brings
warmth, and this is cold. Men--searching through their dusty volumes
and analyzing their theories and setting forth on paper all their
thoughts--are unable to comprehend the wonder of His creation,
that moves perfectly
because it is His creation.
How lovely is His work of redemption: that God on a cross pays
a price for man's sin, giving Himself a ransom for many,
and inviting all who
will to come. I could preach a dozen sermons on this subject and
barely scratch the surface, and I can flash all the strong
flashlights available
upon this picture and only illumine a few inches of its wonder
and never reveal the extent of its glory. God is glorified
in redemption
and perfect in His salvation and altogether lovely in His death
for sinners.
In perfecting, how wonderful He is! How lovely that, as a Father,
He chastens; as a Teacher, He instructs; as a tender Nurse, He
takes by
the hand and leads. Beginning a good work, but not laying it aside
until He brings it to completion in that day when all things are
under His feet, we look upon Him and cry indeed, "He is altogether
lovely!"
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