0959. Recognition

Recognition

"This Jesus hath God raised up, * * by the right hand of God exalted" (Act_2:32-33)

There are three things we wish to say:

1. The forsaken Son.

He was disdained by both priest and populace as He hung upon the Cross. The people thronged the foot of the Cross. They wagged their heads, they shot out the tongue, they cried out against the Son of God.

He was denied by the Apostles. Peter had thrice said, "I know not the Man." Some of them had stood at the foot of the Cross, but their hope in Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God was shattered. Christ was dying a death of shame and all of His claims seemed void.

He was deserted by the Father. As the Lord went round and round the cycle of His suffering, as darkness fell upon the Cross, He was left to die alone. This is voiced fully by the expression of the Lord, as the darkness went away, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"

2. The raised-up Son. The One Who died, disdained, denied and deserted, came forth from the tomb. He was raised by God the Father. "Whom God hath raised up" (Act_2:24).

3. The acclaimed Son. Not only was Christ raised from the dead by God, the Father, but God exalted Him to His own right hand and clothed Him with all authority and power. God made that same Jesus, Whom the Jews crucified, both Lord and Christ.

It behooves us to consider well the power that God wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand, in the Heavenlies.

Jesus Christ being found in the form of a servant and made in the likeness of man, had humiliated Himself and become obedient unto death.

"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name."

Thus, does the resurrection bring recognition to Jesus Christ, as the accepted and acclaimed Son of God.

"God is now willing in Christ reconciled,

Willing to pardon and cleanse the defiled,

Willing to take you and make you His child,

God is now willing, are you?

"God is now willing to give you His peace,

Willing from bondage of sin to release,

Willing the conflict within you to cease,

God is now willing, are you?"

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR