He Came Down

Uplook – July/August 2015 — Grace & Truth Magazine

He Came Down

Two things in 1 Timothy 2 characterize the Mediator:

He is a man (v.5);He gave Himself a ransom for all (v.6).

The time for this testimony was ordered of God.

Precious truth! We are weak; we are guilty and we could not bring ourselves near to God. We needed a Mediator who, while maintaining the glory of God, would put us into such a position that He could present us to God in righteousness according to that glory.

Christ gave Himself as a ransom. But He must be a man in order to suffer for and to represent men – and this He was! But this is not all. We are weak here on earth where we are to receive the revelation of God, and we are weak with regard to the use of our resources in God and our communion with Him, even when our guilt is blotted out. Yet, in our weakness to receive the revelation of God, Christ has revealed God and all that He is in His own Person, in all the circumstances where man could have need, either in body or soul. He came down into the lowest depths in order that there should be no one, not even of the most wretched, who could not feel that God in His goodness was near him and entirely accessible to him. He came down to him – His love finding its opportunity in his misery, with there not being any need where He was not present and which He could not meet.

It is in this way that He made himself known on earth. Now that He is on high, He is still the same. He does not forget His human experiences – they are preserved by His divine power in the sympathizing feelings of His humanity, according to the energy of that divine love which is their source and motive power. He is still a man in glory and in divine perfection. His divinity imparts the strength of its love to His humanity, and does not set any of it aside.

Nothing could resemble such a Mediator as this! Nothing could equal the tenderness, the knowledge of the human heart, the sympathy or the experience of need. In the measure which divinity could give to what He did, and in the strength of its love, He came down, took part in all the sorrows of humanity and entered into all the circumstances in which the human heart could be. He was wounded, oppressed and discouraged – bowing down under the evil. There never was or will be tenderness, power of sympathy and humanity like His. No human heart can so understand or so feel with us in whatever the burden may be that oppresses the heart of man. It is only found in the Man, the Christ Jesus, who is our Mediator. There is none so near, none who has come down so low and entered with divine power into the need, all the need of man. The conscience is purified by His work and the heart relieved by that which He was and is forever.

There is but One! To think of another would be to snatch from Him His glory, and from us our perfect consolation [comfort].

By John N. Darby (adapted from the Synopsis, Volume 5)

Enthroned On High
Enthroned on high, eternal Word,
As Son of man, as sovereign Lord,
‘Tis now by faith on Thee we rest,
Till all Thy title have confessed.

Thou hast our souls from sins made clean, Thy Spirit gives us strength within;Whilst Thou for us in all our need, At God’s right hand dost ever plead.
O keep us in the narrow way,
That ne’er from Thee our footsteps stray;
Sustain our weakness, calm our fear,
And to Thy presence keep us near.

O be it thus till that blest dayWhen God shall wipe all tears away;Quickly, ‘tis promised in the word, E’en so, Amen, Come, Jesus, Lord.— R. Morshead (Spiritual Songs, #264)