A Friend in the Heavenly Court, February 8

A Friend in the Heavenly Court, February 8

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. 1 Peter 1:3, 4.

Is there any reason why this lively hope should not give us as much confidence and joy at this time as it gave the disciples in the early church? Christ is not enclosed in Joseph’s new tomb. He is risen, and has ascended up on high, and we are to act out our faith, that the world may see that we have a lively hope....

Our hope is not without foundation; our inheritance is not corruptible. It is not the subject of imagination.

We read in the Bible about the resurrection of Christ from the dead, but do we act as though we believed it? Do we believe that Jesus is a living Saviour, that He is not in Joseph’s new tomb, with the great stone rolled before it, but that He has risen from the dead and ascended on high ...? He is there to plead our cases in the courts of heaven. He is there because we need a friend in the heavenly court, One who is to be our advocate and intercessor. Then let us rejoice in this. We have everything for which to praise God.

Many judge of their religious state by their emotions, but these are not a safe criterion. Our Christian life does not depend upon our feelings, but upon our having a right hold from above. We must believe the words of God just as He has spoken them; we must take Christ at His word, believe that He came to represent the Father, and that the Father, as is represented in Christ, is our friend, and that He desires not that we should perish, or He would never have given His Son to die our sacrifice. The cross of Calvary is an eternal pledge to every one of us that God wants us to be happy, not only in the future life but in this life.

The death of Christ brings to the rejector of His mercy the wrath and judgments of God, unmixed with mercy. This is the wrath of the Lamb. But the death of Christ is hope and eternal life to all who receive Him and believe in Him. [46]