He Gives Himself

"If you want to get warm, you move near the fire.
If you want joy, peace, eternal life, you must get close 

to what has them." ― C.S. Lewis

 

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God came near us in the life, but God became ours in the death, of His dear Son. Incarnation was needed for that great privilege ― "We beheld His glory;" but the crucifixion was needed in order to make possible the more wondrous prerogative ― "Of His fulness have all we received."

What do we receive? Christ is more than all His gifts. All His gifts are treasured up in Him and inseparable from Him. We get Jesus Christ Himself.

The blessings that we receive may be stated in many different ways. You may say we get pardon, purity, hope, joy, the prospect of Heaven, power for service; all these and a hundred more designations by which we might describe the one gift. All these are but the consequences of our having got the Christ within our hearts.

He does not give pardon and the rest, as a king might give pardon and honors, a thousand miles off, bestowing it by a mere word, upon some criminal, but He gives all that He gives because He gives Himself.

The real possession that we receive is neither more nor less than a loving Savior, to enter our spirits and abide there, and be the spirit of our spirits, and the life of our lives.

― Alexander MacLaren

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"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among
us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."
― John 1:14