The marvel of mortals!''
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Spurgeon, "Christ's Incarnation, the Foundation of Christianity"
IF the ANGELS were so astonished at Christ's birth,
it is not surprising that MAN should be filled with
holy wonder at this great mystery!
That God should have such consideration for His fallen
creatures that, instead of sweeping them away with a
torrent of destruction, He should devise a wonderful
scheme for their redemption, and that He should HIMSELF
undertake to be their Redeemer, and to pay their ransom
price, is, indeed, marvellous!
Probably, it will seem most marvellous to you, that YOU
should be redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus, that
God should forsake the thrones and royalties above to
suffer ignominiously below, for YOU!
If you truly know yourself, you can never see any adequate
motive or reason in your own self for such a wonderful deed
as this. "Why should God display such love to ME?"
you may well ask.
If David, when the Lord revealed to him the honours in store
for him and for his family, could only say, "Who am I, O Lord
God, and what is my house, that You have brought me hitherto?"
what should you and I say?
Had we been the most meritorious of individuals, and had we
unceasingly kept the Lord's commands, we could not have
deserved such a priceless boon as Christ's Incarnation!
But as we are Sinners, Offenders, Rebels, Who Have Revolted,
and Continually Gone Further and Further Away from God,
what shall we say of this incarnate God dying for US,
but "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He
loved us, and sent His Son to be the atonement for our sins"!
Let your soul lose itself in WONDER, for wonder is, in this way,
a very practical emotion. Holy wonder will lead you to GRATEFUL
WORSHIP; being amazed at what God has done for YOU, you will
pour out your soul with astonishment at the foot of the golden
throne in the grateful and adoring song, "Blessing, and honour,
and glory, and majesty, and power, and dominion, and might be unto
Him who sits on the throne, and does these great things FOR ME."
This wonder will also produce in you godly WATCHFULNESS.
You will be afraid to sin against Such Love As This!
Feeling the presence of the mighty God in the gift of His dear
Son, you will put off your shoes from off your feet, because
the place whereon you stand is holy ground.
You will be moved, at the same time, to a GLORIOUS HOPE.
If Jesus has given Himself to you, if He has done this marvellous
thing on your behalf, you will feel that Heaven itself is not too
great for your expectation, and that the rivers of pleasure at God's
right hand are not too sweet or too deep for you to drink thereof.
WHO CAN BE ASTONISHED AT ANYTHING, WHEN HE HAS ONCE
LEARNED THE MYSTERY OF THE MANGER AND THE CROSS?
What Is There Wonderful Left after One Has Seen the Saviour?
The nine wonders of the world! Why, you may put them all into a
nutshell- machinery and modern art can excel them all. But this
one wonder is not the wonder of earth only, but of Heaven and
earth, and even of hell itself! It is not the wonder of the
olden time, but THE WONDER OF ALL TIME,
and THE WONDER OF ETERNITY!
They who see ‘human wonders' a few times, at last cease to be
astonished- the noblest pile that architect ever raised, at last
fails to impress the onlooker. But not so this Marvellous Temple
of Incarnate Deity- the more we look at it, the more we are
astonished; the more we become accustomed to it, the more have
we a sense of its surpassing splendour of love and grace!
There Is More of God's Glory and Majesty to Be Seen in the Manger
and the Cross, than in the Sparkling Stars Above, the Rolling Deep
Below, the Towering Mountain, the Teeming Valleys, the Abodes
of Life, or the Abyss of Death.
Let us then give ourselves up to holy wonder, such as will produce
gratitude, worship, love, and confidence, as we think of that great
"mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh."
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