From the advent of the Son of God into the world, His person has been the object of unceasing attack by the Devil. Furthermore, in man after the flesh, the Devil has found a ready instrument to wage his warfare. By contrast, during the long period of Christ’s absence, the Holy Spirit has been the abiding witness to the glory of the Son. Guiding believers into all truth, and showing to them the things of Christ, He is forming them into vessels fitted to express the graces and perfections of that blessed One.
As the day of blessing draws to its inevitable close, and the darkness of apostasy closes in, so the attacks of the Devil have become more persistent and the battle more ferocious. How imperative then that every faithful saint should give a clear and unequivocal witness to the glories of the Son of God! A true heart will not be content with any uncertain sound as to the One to whom we owe every blessing for time and eternity. Love will be very jealous of any slight cast upon the fame of One of whom each believer can say “the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me” (Gal. 2: 20).
Of course there is a great danger of being drawn into controversy on such a holy theme, even though it be an honest endeavour to meet and expose error. Does not history warn us that too often those who set out to combat one false doctrine fall into an opposite heterodoxy? The word is “contend earnestly for the faith” (Jude v3), though at times it would seem as if we had interpreted this Scripture as an exhortation to earnestly combat error. I am not saying that we should never do battle with what is wrong, but let us remember that in so doing we are occupied with what the mind of man has put forth, and thus are in danger of thinking we can meet the mind of man by the power of our own minds. In contending for the faith we are occupied with what God has revealed and the very greatness of the truth casts us upon God, and we may then count upon His support.
In contending for the truth we must of necessity turn to the Scriptures of truth, remembering that it is written “we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which [is] of God, that we may know the things which have been freely given to us of God” (1 Cor. 2: 12). Through dullness of affection we may fail to profit by what is revealed, or through the activity of our minds we may go beyond what is written. May we therefore take heed, seeking with quickened affections and minds controlled by the Spirit to enter more fully into all that has been revealed concerning the Son without going beyond what is written. To contemplate His glory, the wonder of the incarnation, or the perfection of His manhood, is to enter a region where our own conjectures must have no place. In the presence of His glory, the Seraphim fold their wings about their faces (see Is. 6: 2), the prophet wraps his mantle about his face (see 1 Kings 19: 13), and Moses, the man of God, takes his sandals off his feet (see Exod. 3: 5). And though in this day we behold “the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face” (2 Cor. 3: 18) let it still be with unshod feet that we approach the holy mysteries that surround Himself.
Among the many privileges given to the Lord’s people, none can be greater than to maintain the glories of the Son of God amid the lengthening shadows of the approaching apostasy. May we be found faithful stewards of the mysteries of God!
