Morning “The love of Christ which passeth knowledge.” / Ephesians 3:19

The love of Christ in its sweetness, its fulness, its greatness, its  faithfulness, passeth all human comprehension. Where shall language be found  which shall describe his matchless, his unparalleled love towards the children  of men? It is so vast and boundless that, as the swallow but skimmeth the  water, and diveth not into its depths, so all descriptive words but touch the  surface, while depths immeasurable lie beneath. Well might the poet say,

“O love, thou fathomless abyss!”

for this love of Christ is indeed measureless and fathomless; none can attain  unto it. Before we can have any right idea of the love of Jesus, we must  understand his previous glory in its height of majesty, and his incarnation  upon the earth in all its depths of shame. But who can tell us the majesty of  Christ? When he was enthroned in the highest heavens he was very God of very  God; by him were the heavens made, and all the hosts thereof. His own almighty  arm upheld the spheres; the praises of cherubim and seraphim perpetually  surrounded him; the full chorus of the hallelujahs of the universe unceasingly  flowed to the foot of his throne: he reigned supreme above all his creatures,  God over all, blessed forever. Who can tell his height of glory then? And who,  on the other hand, can tell how low he descended? To be a man was something,  to be a man of sorrows was far more; to bleed, and die, and suffer, these were  much for him who was the Son of God; but to suffer such unparalleled agony–to  endure a death of shame and desertion by his Father, this is a depth of  condescending love which the most inspired mind must utterly fail to fathom.  Herein is love! and truly it is love that “passeth knowledge.” O let this love  fill our hearts with adoring gratitude, and lead us to practical  manifestations of its power.

Evening “I will accept you with your sweet savour.” / Ezekiel 20:41

The merits of our great Redeemer are as sweet savour to the Most High. Whether  we speak of the active or passive righteousness of Christ, there is an equal  fragrance. There was a sweet savour in his active life by which he honoured  the law of God, and made every precept to glitter like a precious jewel in the  pure setting of his own person. Such, too, was his passive obedience, when he  endured with unmurmuring submission, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness,  and at length sweat great drops of blood in Gethsemane, gave his back to the  smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked out the hair, and was fastened to  the cruel wood, that he might suffer the wrath of God in our behalf. These two  things are sweet before the Most High; and for the sake of his doing and his  dying, his substitutionary sufferings and his vicarious obedience, the Lord  our God accepts us. What a preciousness must there be in him to overcome our  want of preciousness! What a sweet savour to put away our ill savour! What a  cleansing power in his blood to take away sin such as ours! and what glory in  his righteousness to make such unacceptable creatures to be accepted in the  Beloved! Mark, believer, how sure and unchanging must be our acceptance, since  it is in him! Take care that you never doubt your acceptance in Jesus. You  cannot be accepted without Christ; but, when you have received his merit, you  cannot be unaccepted. Notwithstanding all your doubts, and fears, and sins,  Jehovah’s gracious eye never looks upon you in anger; though he sees sin in  you, in yourself, yet when he looks at you through Christ, he sees no sin. You  are always accepted in Christ, are always blessed and dear to the Father’s  heart. Therefore lift up a song, and as you see the smoking incense of the  merit of the Saviour coming up, this evening, before the sapphire throne, let  the incense of your praise go up also.