God Loves… Himself

Our Lord says in his great prayer to the Divine Father, which is recorded in the 17th chapter of John’s gospel, And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent, We have not eternal life in our souls, if we have not the true spiritual and supernatural knowledge of his person in our minds. The apostle John, speaking after his divine Lord, says, God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son, hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. I John, 5:11,12. I prefer the knowledge of Christ, beyond all the enjoyments of him: yea, I absolutely do prize the knowledge of the God-Man, the object and subject of the love and delight of all the Persons in the Essence, beyond heaven and eternal glory. I conceive of nothing in heaven, beyond seeing him as he is; and I am sure this will so perfect my knowledge of him, as will fix my mind immutably on him for ever and ever: and in this all true blessedness consists. There is also salvation, and all the blessings of life everlasting, contained in the knowledge of the Person of Christ. There is none other name given under heaven among men, whereby we must be saved One said of old, Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. Psalm, 73:25. The Apostle says, Yea, doubtless, and I count till things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him. That I way know him. All this gives full evidence of what is contained in the knowledge of Christ, and also how highly he is prized by such as know him.

Question: How saints are brought to the knowledge of Christ?

Answer: By the word, and by the Spirit. The word contains the revelation of Christ; the Holy Spirit from the word reveals Christ. In a spiritual apprehension of him, everlasting life is begun in the soul, which issues in all the acts of it up into life everlasting. We cannot know Christ but by the word, which, whilst it is full of Christ, yet we do not see, know, and believe on him to life everlasting, until the Lord the Spirit become our teacher and instructor.        Samuel Eyles Pierce

This entry was posted on July 12, 2014 at 7:29 am and is filed under Great Quotes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.