WE SAW YESTERDAY that Jesus becomes our Guest and then our Host—both! Suppose He had only become our Host, then we would become leaning personalities and hence lean personalities. He makes us feel important before He takes over as Host. He takes over free, upstanding people who can choose to make Him Host, hence Lord.
There is another passage which is more amazing still. It follows on the heels of this one which we have been considering: “He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne” (Rev. 3:21). I will grant him to sit with Me on My throne—He moves over and shares with us His universal authority and power. That is the final redemption from weakness and subservience—we share our Redeemer’s power. The God who created us and then redeemed us by coming to live among us now lives in us and then more amazing still, invites us to share His throne and to rule with Him. Nothing could be more self-giving than that—and self-finding. He tells us that the law of life is to lose your life in order to find it, and—wonder of wonders—He obeys that same law. And it works with Him, for we are at the feet of the God who washed our feet! We bow before the throne which is shared with us. The God who gives Himself finds Himself—finds Himself as Ruler over our hearts—not merely Ruler over our bodies and our wills, but our very hearts. We are in love with a God who loves like that.
Our God rules from a cross. “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” When He was weakest He was strongest; when He was most helpless on a cross He was most powerful—the Magnet that draws all men unto Himself. The universe has at its head One who obeys His own laws and especially the deepest—finding life by losing it.
O God, we cannot thank Thee enough for the revelation of Thyself in Jesus. In Him Thou hast disclosed Thy heart—and what a heart! We look into it and see nothing but love. In my heart may there be nothing but love. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: At Thy invitation I share Thy throne, by my choice I share Thy cross—more befitting!
