Isaiah 53: 2-3
John 1: 35-37
Hebrews 12: 1-2; 2: 8 from “But now” -9
2 Corinthians 3: 17-18
1 John 3: 2-3
I did not come with any thought to speak tonight but I was reflecting on the hymn that we sang (Hymn 151), which speaks of the beauties of the Lord Jesus and what we see as looking upon Him. There are others who could speak much more eloquently of that and bring in other scriptures too, but these were ones that were going through my mind as reflecting on the hymn that we sang, scriptures that speak about looking on Jesus and, to some extent, the change that happens to us as we do that. I do not want to do much more than let these scriptures speak for themselves (they are beautiful in their own way), but just to comment briefly on them by way of seeking to encourage myself and others to fix our look more stedfastly on Jesus.
The scripture in Isaiah 53 shows that it is not something that we do naturally, not something that we do instinctively, not something that we desire to do with the natural mind: “there is no beauty that we should desire him”. That would be the natural view of Jesus. I suppose people would not give Him a second glance if we passed Him on the street. Even worse, perhaps, they would view Him as “despised and left alone of men … like one from whom men hide their faces; - despised, and we esteemed him not”. That is the natural man’s view of Jesus. That was the view of Him when He was here. It is our natural, instinctive view of Jesus, but He is the One who “hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows”, v 4. He was such a One, disregarded by men, disregarded at one time perhaps even by us, but yet, “we being still sinners, Christ has died for us”, Rom 5: 8.
When He was here, though, there were some who saw His beauty, and in John’s gospel we see that. It says, “looking at Jesus as he walked, he says, Behold the Lamb of God”. John did not have the Spirit in the way that we do, and that is something to reflect on but, as he looked on Him, he says, “Behold the Lamb of God”. I suppose he had God’s view of Jesus at that time, the One upon whom the Spirit had descended and upon whom He was abiding, the One who was the beloved Son of God, the One in whom God had found His delight, and such a One could be observed, could be seen by those who had the spirituality, the sensitivity, to see it. John looked on Jesus as He walked and, as he does that, we have this exclamation drawn forth, “Behold the Lamb of God”. He was ready to share that view with others, to draw attention to Him, not just to hold his appreciation to himself, but to draw others to Him. Then it says, “And the two disciples heard him speaking, and followed Jesus”. What a thing it would be if we could not only get God’s view of Jesus but be able to speak about Him in such a way that others would follow Him.
In Hebrews 12 there is a whole cloud of witnesses, and we have that cloud of witnesses surrounding us. But it is not exactly that we look at the witnesses themselves but we draw strength from them, we draw challenge from them, and that would help us in our faith. So the witnesses are surrounding us but what we do is look “stedfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith”, the One who is the perfect One, the One who went through with everything. And, in doing so, we would lay aside “every weight, and sin which so easily entangles us”. It is not about looking inside ourselves, not even about looking at what is around us, but “looking stedfastly”, ’looking away from other things and fixing the eye exclusively on one’, as the note says; “looking stedfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith”. He had a prospect before Him when He was here. It says, “who, in view of the joy lying before him, endured the cross, having despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”. Well, I suppose the question is whether we are looking stedfastly enough, sufficiently stedfastly on Jesus. It speaks about “laying aside every weight, and sin which so easily entangles us”. How easily we find ourselves weighed down or entangled, but the intention is that we should “run with endurance the race that lies before us”. It is not exactly to look at the race or to see the obstacles ahead, but to look stedfastly on the One who has Himself completed it: “looking stedfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith”.
In chapter 2 of Hebrews, Jesus being “set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (as chapter 12 puts it), we do not see everything subjected to Him. “But we see Jesus”, we see the One who has been that way, who has completed the race, the One “who was made some little inferior to angels”, but He is “crowned with glory and honour”, and we see that glory and honour. We sometimes sing -
Gazing on Thee, Lord, in glory
(Hymn 302),
and I suppose that is where we view Him now. We can read about Him in the gospels, we can appreciate the Man who was here, but we look on Him as in the glory, “crowned with glory and honour”. What a place He has been given! We do not see everything taking its place in subjection to Him even in our own hearts and in our own circle. Even with one another, we do not see everything subjected to Him in actuality, but that is not really the point here. The point is that we see Jesus, the One who did go this way, “who was made some little inferior to angels on account of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour”. Well, that is something that we can do.
In Corinthians it says, “But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face”. There is what we do not see, we do not see all things subjected to Him, but there is what we can see, and we can see it with unveiled face. There is to be nothing to hinder, we might say, the view of the glory of the Lord, “But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed ...”. It has an effect on us. Any views that we have of Jesus, any views of the glory of the Lord, are not intended to leave us unaffected, but they are to have a transformative effect. And that transformation is not from suffering to glory, but from glory to glory. What a thought that is! The divine intention is not that we should be dragged down by every weight and sin which so easily entangles us, but that we should be “transformed according to the same image from glory to glory”, and we have the Spirit’s power to do that. It is not simply the ability to look on Him in reality, as John had it here, but we have the power of the Spirit to help us to look exclusively on Jesus and to be transformed as we do so.
Well, I just read that last scripture in John’s epistle because it is such an attractive one. If we see Jesus now, we see Him with the eyes of faith. We do not see Him in actuality, “and what we shall be has not yet been manifested”, but, “we know that if it is manifested we shall be like him”, we shall be like the One on whom we look because “we shall see Him as He is”. Not as He was, not as men saw Him, not as One to be despised and to be turned away from, not as One where we do not see all things subjected to Him, but “we shall see him”, “see him as he is”. And as a consequence of that, “every one that has this hope in him purifies himself”. And that purifying is not according to men’s standards, or even according to the standards of the brethren, but “every one that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure”.
Well these things are very simply said. Reflecting on them from the lines of the hymn that we sang, I would draw attention to them that we might be encouraged to have our eyes fixed and gazing on Jesus.
For His Name’s sake.
Edinburgh
10th September 2013