From Glory to Glory (2)

“I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world, and go to the Father” (John 16:28).

This wonderful verse bears us from glory to glory giving us in its brief statements an epitome of the whole course of our Lord Jesus.

“I came forth from the Father.” From the glory which He had with the Father, He came forth to fulfil all the Father’s pleasure. “Lo I come to do Thy will O my God,” were His words when on His glorious, gracious mission He became incarnate. One with the Father eternally, He came to make Him known, to declare His name. Freighted with His love He would visit a world of sinners to bring back His fallen creature from under the dominion of evil. So He says again, “I came down from heaven not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.”

“And am come into the world.” His holy manhood is thus before us. He was here in a world gone far from God. He came unto His own belongings and His own, His earthly people, Israel, received Him not. In the world which was made by Him He was unknown, and so it was that His path was one of rejection and refusal from the outset; despised and dishonoured of the men He had made for His glory.

Grace upon grace was manifested by Him. Heaps of grace for the weakest and for the worst as He trod His way. Fairer than the children of men, grace was poured into His lips, but men in their lost, Satan-blinded condition, saw no beauty in Him that they should desire Him,

“Again I leave the world.” By the way of the cross He was about to depart. The path of life led through the valley of death and judgment. At Calvary He was to finish the work which He had come to do. In view of it He could in His holy perfection cry, “Father, save Me from this hour!” But in His holy perfection He answered His own cry as He added, “But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father glorify Thy Name.” At every cost to Himself He would glorify the Father and accomplish His pleasure to the full.

Nothing could deflect Him from that course and so we hear at last the cry, “It is finished.” All was perfected which He came to perform.

“And go unto the Father.” From the enmity and antagonism of the world He would return unto the Father from whom He had come forth. From triumph to triumph we may trace His way through the Gospel’s pages. What joy was His when, atonement being effected, He could say to His disciples by the mouth of Mary Magdalene, “I ascend unto My Father and your Father, unto My God and your God.” They were given unto Him by the Father to bring home to the Father’s heart now and to the Father’s home before long. His own promise being, “In My Father’s house are many mansions . . . I go to prepare a place for you.”

His glorious mission, His glorious pathway, His glorious work, His glorious return. All glories are before us here.

Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

I.Fleming

Edification 1930