June 4, Evening

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"Received up into glory." — 1 Timothy 3:16 · KJV

We have seen our well-beloved Lord in the days of His flesh, humiliated and sorely vexed; for He was "despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." He whose brightness is as the morning wore the sackcloth of sorrow as His daily dress; shame was His mantle, and reproach His vesture. Yet now, since He has triumphed over all the powers of darkness on the bloody tree, our faith beholds our King returning with dyed garments from Edom, robed in the splendor of victory. How glorious He must have been in the eyes of seraphs, when a cloud received Him out of mortal sight, and He ascended up to heaven! Now He wears the glory He had with God before the earth was, and yet another glory above all — that which He has well earned in the fight against sin, death, and hell. As victor He wears the illustrious crown. Hark how the song swells high! It is a new and sweeter song: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, for He hath redeemed us unto God by His blood!" He wears the glory of an Intercessor who can never fail, of a Prince who can never be defeated, of a Conqueror who has vanquished every foe, of a Lord who has the heart's allegiance of every subject. Jesus wears all the glory that the pomp of heaven can bestow on Him, that ten thousand times ten thousand angels can minister to Him. You cannot, with your utmost stretch of imagination, conceive His exceeding greatness; yet there will be a further revelation of it when He descends from heaven in great power, with all the holy angels: "Then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory." Oh, the splendor of that glory! It will ravish His people's hearts. Nor is this the close, for eternity shall sound His praise: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever!" Reader, if you would rejoice in Christ's glory hereafter, He must be glorious in your sight now. Is He so?