2008-07-23 - The Circle of Christ's Love

Proverbs 8:30, 31 “Then I was beside Him, as a master workman; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in the world, His earth, and having my delight in the sons of men.”

This is a passage that is so full of wonder, that we could not exhaust it in a 100-page devotional. But you would not read that, so let us hit some highlights in this stunning passage where Christ speaks of His love for the Father, the Father's love for Him, and Christ's love for us, the sons of men. It is like a circle of love.

Christ is the delight of the Father, and was even before His incarnation as the Son of God, “was daily His delight.” We also see that Christ rejoiced in the love of the Father to Him. He was “rejoicing always before Him.” At the same time that the Son is rejoicing before the Father, He is also delighting in sons of men. It is not difficult to see how the Son rejoiced before the Father, but it is something of note that He rejoices in us, and that before His atonement. And here we have an observation that we must make concerning the Son, who - let us remember - is fully God within the unity of the Trinity. All is present with God. I don't mean everything is in front of God at all times, however, this may be true in some respects.

What I am saying is that there is no tomorrow - and there is no yesterday - with God. All is present to Him. God inhabits eternity, and one reason Christ could rejoice in us before He was even incarnate is because He is able to see us outside of time, redeemed, clothed in His righteousness, and made clean from sin by His blood. Christ is able to rejoice in all that the Father gives Him to be redeemed, even before He secures their atonement on the cross, because before His incarnation, He ever lived in eternity and outside of the limitations of time. My friend, if you have been washed in His blood, the Lord Jesus Christ was already delighting over you in the days of Solomon.

You might wonder how Christ can love a poor, wretched, lost sinner. We see that He delights in such. How is that? First, because Christ has set His love upon them. It is that simple. He chooses to love us. How precious the forgiven sinner is to Him. Every object of love is precious to the one who loves. Those who Christ has redeemed have been precious to Him from all eternity. They are the objects of His love. Secondly, Christ delights in us because He delights in the Father - and the Father delights in us. It is the Father's purpose to save, and their being saved is unto His glory. We might have been wretched sinners, but we are also loved by the Father. Christ loves us because the Father loves us, and because the Father has given us to the Son to be redeemed by Him. “Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to Me,” John 17:6

This is a very short look at a beautiful place in God's Word. I encourage you to meditate today on this passage, and glean encouragement yourself from it.

Soli Deo Gloria,
T-

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