Jesus will love us to the end; of His love there is no end. Time will be brought to a close, but His mercy will never end. The mercy of Christ endures forever. According to Thomas Adams:
“Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” (Heb. 13:8)
Jesus Christ is the centre of this text; and not only of this, but of the whole Scripture. The sum of divinity is the Scripture; the sum of the Scripture is the gospel; the sum of the gospel is Jesus Christ; … There is nothing contained in the word of God, but God the word.
Nor is he the centre only of his word, but of our rest and peace. ‘I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified,’ 1 Cor. 2:2. Thou hast made us for thee, O Christ; and our heart is unquiet till it rest in thee. It is natural to everything … to desire the centre. But ‘our life is hid with Christ in God,’ Col. 3:3. We must needs amare (love), where we must animare (live). Our mind is where our pleasure is, our heart is where our treasure is, our love is where our life is; but all these, our pleasure, treasure, life, are reposed in Jesus Christ. Thou art my portion, O Lord,’ saith David. Take the world that pleases, let our portion be in Christ. ‘We have left all,’ saith Peter, ‘and followed thee,’ Matt. 19:27; you have lost nothing by it, saith Christ, for you have gotten me. … He is too covetous, whom Jesus Christ cannot satisfy. Let us seek this centre, saith Augustine: … Let us seek him till we have found him; and still seek him when we have found him. That seeking, we may find him, he is ready; that finding, we may seek him, he is infinite. You see the centre.
The referring line, proper to this centre, is Semper idem, ‘(Always) the same.’ There is no mutability in Christ; ‘no variableness, nor shadow of turning,’ Jam. 1:17. All lower lights have their inconstancy; but in the ‘Father of lights’ there is no changeableness. The sun hath his shadow; the ‘Sun of Righteousness’ is without shadow, Mal. 4:2; the sun turns upon the dial, but Christ hath no turning. ‘Whom he loves, he loves to the end,’ John 13:1. (“The Immutable Mercy of Jesus Christ”)
Filed under: Bible, Christianity, Grace, Jesus Christ, Reformed Christian Topics Tagged: | Gospel of Matthew
