Geoffrey R. Kirkland
Christ Fellowship Bible Church
This brief write-up provides a handful of ways that Jesus Christ manifests His supreme worth and intrinsic beauty.
1. in his glory
Jesus manifests His worth in His intrinsic glory. The glory of God engulfs the fullness of who God is and the radiant majesty of His being. The glory of Christ is not derived from anyone else but it is fully intrinsic to who He is. The fullness of God, the beauty of God, and all of the glories of God’s character, delights, and satisfactions converge together in His excellencies. Jesus manifests His worth and His beauty in his transcendent, triumphant, and enjoyable glory.
2. in his mercy
Jesus manifests His glorious worth in His mercy. His mercy consists of His pity toward those who find themselves in utter despair. The mercy of God is not only His kindness and favor toward others but it is His undeserved favor toward those who are in a pitiable, a lamentable, a hopeless state doomed to perish apart from His intervention. What a glorious God of mercy!
3. in His deity
The glorious worth of Jesus is seen in His deity. Jesus is God. He truly is God revealed. All the fullness of God and the worth of immense deity is bound in Jesus Christ. All that makes God God is fully and really found in our glorious Christ. The invisible God becomes visible in Jesus Christ. All the radiance of God’s beauty and fullness is found in Jesus Christ. He is the image of God because He is God.
4. in his accessibility
Jesus is infinitely glorious also in His accessibility. Amazingly, this high and holy King is accessible. Access is made available through His own person and work. Not only does He sit on heaven’s Throne in holy majesty, but He also invites His subjects to approach Him. He is the Great High Priest. He is the mediator. He is the access to God. Any and all are invited to humble themselves and come to Christ and find rest for their souls! What access we have to Jesus Christ the King!
5. in his justice
Jesus shows His glorious worth in His justice. The justice of Jesus means that He inflexibly upholds all righteousness. He upholds His Law and its holy demands and the fact that He judges rightly and fairly is the perfect expression of His most awesome justice. No sinner will ever be unpunished for His evils. No sin will ever be forgotten. He will and must judge all sin righteously and fairly. Amazingly: He will punish all rebellious sinners for their sin eternally in hell or He offers pardon to all rebels now who humble themselves and turn to Him by faith alone for salvation.
6. in his patience
Jesus manifests His glory through His patience. What a God of long suffering. The creatures whom He has made have rebelled against Him and His holy Law. And yet Jesus Christ withholds his wrath. Each day, He has not poured out infinite wrath upon creatures who have blasphemed and disregarded Him. To think of the patience of God toward His enemies should draw us to humble worship and gratitude for that grace shown toward us. The fact that rebels are not at this moment writhing in eternal hell proves the patience of Jesus Christ. O come to Him at once!
7. in his forgiveness
Jesus shows His glory in His forgiveness. What a God of immense beauty and sweetness in providing a full pardon. To forgive means that He promises to pardon. He does not forget sin because the all-knowing God cannot forget anything. But he does actively choose to pardon us for our sins. How can Jesus do this? Because He died for the sins of His people. He took their sin and their punishment. He drank the cup of the Father’s hot wrath at the cross. His glory is such that He pardons all the sins of all those who believe in Him. There is no partial forgiveness. It is complete, full, glorious, sweet, and done. He said: IT IS FINISHED. What a forgiving Savior!
