THE GLORY OF CHRIST, Part One

“He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” John 16:14

The Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. Although the Spirit does six other things, as the Lord Jesus expresses them in chapters 14-16 of John’s gospel, Christ will always be glorified by the Spirit in His dealings and eternal work. Specifically, the Holy Spirit will glorify Christ by taking what is Christ’s and declaring it unto our souls. What, then belongs to Christ? Everything good and heavenly. The earth and its fullness is the Lord’s (1 Cor 10:26). Christ is eternally rich with all the gospel goodness of heaven, yet for our sakes He became poor that we might become rich in Him (2 Cor 8:9). And by Christ’s poverty, humility, obedience, and atoning death, He purchased justification, redemption, pardon, peace, victory, adoption, truth, illumination of the living Word of God, and more; yet, because He already owned these blessings, not only as eternal God, but also as perfect, holy and righteous Man, He joyfully extends them unto us by His amazing grace, and by which the Spirit proclaims to us with an archangel’s shout.

The Spirit will also glorify Christ Jesus in the holy Scriptures because it all speaks of Him (John 5:39). If a text is not glorifying Christ in some way, shape or form, one of two things is happening— either, one, the reader or hearer of the Word is attempting to understand in the flesh; or two, the expositor is preaching from the flesh. A variation of the latter is when the expositor attempts to “reveal Jesus” in the text, but it doesn’t glorify Christ, but instead only amplifies a non-essential doctrine or distracting earthly or pathetic human perspective. Christ’s glory will be wholly consistent with who He is as eternal God, who He is as perfect Man, and what He has done in redemptive work.

Christ’s glory, it will not be shirk’d,
Our Father loves His Son;
It is the Spirit’s will and work,
Declaring all Christ’s done.

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Today's M'Cheyne Reading Schedule: 3/26 - Ex 37; John 16; Prov 13; Eph 6

If you don’t have one, get a free PDF copy of Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s “Daily Bread” Bible Reading Calendar by Clicking Here.

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