7th June 2020
“Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee:
for they are men wondered at.” Zechariah 3:8
A sinner saved is a spectacle for angels to contemplate. As the Apostle says,
“We are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels and to men.” The
ancients used to say that “a good man struggling with difficulties was a sight
for the gods to look at.” We may say, with all Christian truth, that the
mysteries of redemption are “things the angels desire to look into;” and
among the mysteries of redemption, what greater than a redeemed sinner?
That a man who deserves, by sin original and sin actual, nothing but the
eternal wrath of God, should be lifted out of perdition justly merited into
salvation to which he can have no claim, must indeed ever be a holy wonder.
And that you or I should ever have been fixed on in the electing love of God,
ever have been given to Jesus to redeem, ever quickened by the Spirit to feel
our lost, ruined state, ever blessed with any discovery of the Lord Jesus
Christ and of his saving grace,—this is and ever must be a matter of holy
astonishment here, and will be a theme for endless praise hereafter. To see a
man altogether so different from what he once was; once so careless, carnal,
ignorant, unconcerned; to see that man now upon his knees begging for
mercy, the tears streaming down his face, his bosom heaving with convulsive
sighs, his eyes looking upward that pardon may reach him in his desperate
state,—is not that a man to be looked at with wonder and admiration? To see
a man preferring one smile from the face of Jesus, and one word from his
peace-speaking lips to all the titles, honours, pleasures, and power that the
world can bestow; why, surely if there be a wonder upon earth, that man is
one. Was not this the very feeling of the disciples when Saul first “preached
Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God?” “All that heard him
were amazed, and said, Is not this he that persecuted the Church of God?”
So we look and wonder, and feel at times a holy joy that he who reigns at
God’s right hand is ever adding trophies to his immortal crown. And
whenever we see any of those near and dear to us in the flesh; be it husband,
wife, sister, brother, child, relative, or friend, touched by the finger of this
all-conquering Lord, subdued by his grace, and wrought upon by his Spirit,
then not only do we look upon such with holy wonder, but with the tenderest
affection, mingled with the tears of thankful praise to the God of all our
mercies.
J. C. Philpot 1802-1869
