The Glory of the Majestic God Enjoyed by You in a Lowly Jesus and Nowhere Else
Isaiah 4:2 "On that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of Israel’s survivors." (HCSB)
It is a clear teaching in the word of God that the Branch is none other than Christ. It speaks of Christ’s humble coming to the world as a man to save sinful men, not only as a man but as a man who had no external beauty or earthly glory about Him, a man of sorrows and a man acquainted with grief. So we see something marvelous here in that it is the beauty and glory of Christ as a man which is our hope of humanity. It is nothing less than a seeing and savoring of the beauty and glory of a humble Christ which is the very essence of Christianity, the very life of it. Where are you seeking to see God as glorious, Christian? Are you seeking to see Him as you study His attributes and consider them, considering His power, infinite wisdom, and love? We are not to do that, beloved, but rather we are to see God’s glory in the Branch, the man, Christ Jesus. If you would want to know love then look nowhere else but to the cross where Jesus took your wrath that you would be eternally loved as a child of God. The unknowable, unapproachable God is made known to us in full in the Branch, in a person who is all that we are yet all that God is. Are you seeking to see God as glorious in His law? Beloved we are to see the Branch becoming one of us and obeying the law perfectly for us and dying under the law for us if we are looking to know the glory of God. You see, it is the glory and beauty of the Branch, Jesus, as the man for us in our place that is our pride and glory! Let us then seek to know and experience the glory of God for who He is, where He has made His glory known to us in this Branch who is glorious!
You see it is not a studied Christ, an obeyed Christ, a familiar Christ, but a Christ who in Himself is beautiful and valuable to us as the Son of Man who brings glory and honor and fruit to a fallen world. Christian, notice here that it is not the pursuit of fruit and change that is significant but it is the Branch, the Lord Jesus Himself being seen as wonderful and glorious that is of significance. Christian, do not seek fruit and change, seek to behold and cherish a Christ who is glorious and beautiful. To seek fruit and change outside of a delight of a beautiful and glorious Christ is to make a god out of fruit and change. That day when the Branch will be glorious and beautiful has come already! The Branch came and lived a life of perfection for you and then took all of your sins to Himself on the cross and paid the full debt for them and rose triumphant three days later and then returned to heaven where He sits in your place in the presence of God. Do you want to see God’s glory? Then look nowhere else but in the suffering Savior Jesus Christ. Do you want to enjoy fruit and abundance? Then look nowhere else but to the suffering Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus, the Branch, is indeed beautiful and glorious and He is so for your sake.
