Visits To And From Jesus

Robert Hawker | Added: Apr 08, 2025 | Category: Theology

I have often thought that the nearness of connection into which the Son of God condescended to put Himself to our nature, for the vast purposes of Jehovah’s grace, must have been intended to open peculiar sources of enjoyment to His people. Surely, if the Lord Jesus, from the great love wherewith He has loved us, has come home to His church, in a union so very tender and endearing, was it not that He might make Himself known to His people, under all those several relations in which He stands connected with them? Is there not, in the very nature of union, the manhood with the Godhead, a special, peculiar and personal provision made for all such purposes? Why other than for designs so gracious, is it so frequently intimated in scripture, that the Lord will come and visit His people? Is it not Jesus Himself which thus speaketh; I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you; yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also (John 14:18,19)? 

On the other hand, what are all those earnest expressions of the church for the comings of Jesus, which we meet with throughout the Word of God, but so many proofs in confirmation of the same? Do they not convey the sense of joy the people of God possess in the assurances of Jesus’ promises; that He stands at the door of their hearts and knocks for entrance, that He may come in and sup with them, and they with Him (Revelation 3:20)? Are not those so many testimonies that Jesus doth, and will, make Himself known to His people, in a way and manner different from what He doth to the world?

In confirmation of a matter so very sweet and interesting, may it not also be remarked, that it is the Son of God and Him only, which has united into one person, God and Man. For neither the person of the Father, nor the person of the Holy Ghost, have taken into union our nature, or formed such an alliance with that nature, as has the person of God the Son. And, although the whole Three Persons of the Godhead have loved the church with equal love; and engaged, in covenant engagements, to the accomplishment of the whole purposes relating to the welfare of the church, with equal regard; and we are taught to ascribe equal glory and praise to the holy and undivided Three in One, for their joint acts of grace towards the church; yet, such is the personal union of the Son of God with our nature, that all access to the throne of grace is in Him and by Him, and through Him!

He is the way, the truth, and the life! All approaches now, in grace, and all the manifestations hereafter in glory, will be in Him, and from Him, by whom are all things, and we by Him (1 Corinthians 8:6).

Surely, every child of God is moved in contemplating Christ, as Christ; that is God manifested in substance of our flesh. We find a greater confidence in approaching Him: we can, and do, go to Him as one in our own nature; One who knows our feelings by His own. And although, in all our drawings nigh to the person of Christ, we would not, yea, we dare not, lose sight of Him as GOD; yet we feel a blessedness in connecting with that view, that He is also man. From the union of both it is, we find that sweet and precious suitableness of character, in our Lord Jesus Christ, which endears His person to our affection, in a way and manner, as none other can. 

Moreover, the gracious and endearing offices Jesus has entered into, and engaged for His people, tend to increase those feelings the more. He is personally and peculiarly the Head and Husband: the High Priest and Surety, of His body, the church. I do not find any warrant in the Word of God to look up, either to the person of the Father, or to the person of the Holy Ghost, in those characters; but I can, and do (when grace enables) look up to Jesus in every one of them, and similar ones in His person and office, and find a blessedness in them, sweet and refreshing. Is it not from hence a just conclusion, that, if the Son of God condescends to take into Himself a portion of our nature, and reveals Himself to His people in so personal a manner in that nature; is it not the intention that they shall know Him in all, and enjoy in Him all? If Jesus be not ashamed to call them brethren, shall they be ashamed to call Him brother?

I know not whether the Reader enters into the perfect apprehension of my meaning: I wish to be clearly understood, in a matter of so much importance. I would have no child of God uninformed here. Let me state the subject yet a little further.

All our mercies are founded in the everlasting love of God in Christ. The very being of the church, and the well-being of the church, is in Christ. Christ Himself i.e., God and Man in one person, is the one glorious object of delight, for the infinite mind of Jehovah, in His three-fold character of persons, to behold, with unceasing complacency, from one eternity to another. I should not err if I were to say, from the authority of scripture, that this glorious person Christ, was constituted and ordained, for the express purpose that Jehovah might behold Himself with all His perfections of Godhead, and delight in Him forever. This was the first design for which the Son of God took into union with Himself, manhood; and an object of infinitely higher moment, than all things belonging to the church.

The church was formed for Christ; and not Christ for the church (Genesis 2:18, John 15:16). In this one glorious person all glory centres. Hence Christ, as God-Man, is said to be the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of His person! Hence, also, it is said, that in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and the church is complete in Him. The personal glory of Christ, is the first and last and highest object in the divine mind.

From hence we go on to another grand point, namely: that, as all our mercies are founded in the everlasting love of God, in His three-fold character of Person; and are formed in Christ, come to us from Christ, and are enjoyed from our union with Christ, so all revelations can only be made through Christ; for there could have been no possibility of the smallest communion with God in His nature and essence, but in and through Christ. No man hath seen God at any time ‘but the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him’ (John 1:18) that is, the Son of God, having assumed our nature, in that nature, has formed a medium of communication and come forth from the invisibility of Jehovah, to make known the mind and will of God. Hence Christ, as God-Man, is the channel of all communication: for all streams of mercy flow from God and all returns of praise flow to God, in, and through Him.

While, then, all blessings are unceasingly dispensing to the church, here in grace and above in glory, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ; surely it must form one of the highest sources of enjoyment to view Him from whom they are received and through whom they come. That union of nature Christ has with His church, and through whom it comes to His church, cannot fail to give a double sweetness to it. We receive it personally from Jesus.

He is one in our own nature. The mercy is so peculiarly His to impart, as none but Jesus can impart it. So that when, at any time, the Lord Jesus is making known these love-tokens to any of His people, they may know them and receive them and enjoy them as His. The gift is the joint act of both natures, in one person. It is Divine love, manifested through the medium of human nature; and human love, rendered infinitely great and blessed from its union with the Divine. His Godhead gives a divine property to all He bestows and His manhood, a human quality. By both, all become so peculiarly His, and so personally communicable only by Himself, as no other could be competent to perform. And while all and every one of them, bring with them the fullest love-tokens whose they are, and from whom they come, they manifest no less the pleasure of Jesus, in bestowing them on His people who are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.

If I have been happy enough to explain myself on this most interesting subject and in agreement to divine truth; I need not attempt, by any form of words, to observe further the great blessedness which must be forever opening to the souls of the Lord’s people, who live in the constant enjoyment of it. Surely, to know the Lord Jesus, in this personal way, cannot fail of becoming, in itself, a source of great delight. When that knowledge is brought into daily enjoyment, nothing this side heaven can be equally blessed. This is what John calls fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3).

I beg, however, I may be perfectly understood, (though I should hardly think it necessary to make the observation) that the very idea of visits to and from Jesus; must be supposed to imply knowledge of and acquaintance with Jesus. Even in the common circumstances of life, men do not visit those to whom they are unknown, and with whom they are unacquainted. Unbidden, uninvited visitors, and more especially if their sentiments and manners differ from our own, can expect no welcome; yea, there could be no pleasure in such society. To whom Jesus is unknown, He cannot be beloved. Where there is no love, there will be no real fellowship. It is the world’s ignorance of Him, which is the cause of all the world’s sorrow. But where there is a oneness of heart, and affection between Jesus and the soul, if what He loves we love and what He hates we hate, if His Father be our Father, and His people our people, this sameness of mind will carry with it a sameness of affection and we shall take part in all that belongs to Him. The language of our hearts will go forth in words, like those of Ruth to Naomi, when she said, entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee, for whither thou goest, I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall be my people and thy God my God. Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me (Ruth 1:16, 17).

As the church now below will shortly join the church which is above; and in the meantime, the interests, connections and rights of both are one and the same; all in Him, and all by Him, who is the glorious Head of His whole body the church; it must form a very blessed part of church communion to keep up and maintain by every possible means the Lord affords, engagement while here upon earth, with the great objects of heaven. Before long, we hope eternally to dwell with the blessed society of that happy country. Shortly we shall see the King in His beauty, face to face, and know even as we are known. What so sweet, as now by anticipation to realise by faith, what then will be manifested in open vision? Visits to and from Jesus will blessedly tend to make familiar the knowledge of Jesus. When death comes and takes away every intervening object to the sight of Jesus, our disembodied spirits will then behold Him, with whom, by faith, we have been daily accustomed to converse; and a fulness of joy will break in upon the soul. It was blessedly said, by an old disciple of this kind, when dying, ‘I shall change my place, (said he) but not my company’. We have it upon record of one, still higher taught, who in the near prospect of Jesus, in glory, cried out; as for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness, I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness (Psalm 17:15).

Precious, precious Lord Jesus! Realise in the daily, hourly visits of thy grace, all the sweet love tokens of Thy favour to Thy people. Cause thereby in my poor soul, and in the souls of all Thy redeemed, an increasing acquaintance with thee, and an increasing desire after thee. Let the daily visits of my Lord upon earth; make me long for the hour when my God will come to take me home to the everlasting enjoyment of Him in heaven. And oh, when the chariot wheels of Jesus are heard approaching and that well-known voice, though never so sweetly and loudly heard before, shall be heard once more through all the chambers of my soul; The Master is come and calleth for thee! Oh! Then for faith’s last act in the strength of the Lord, to go forth the disembodied spirit to meet the Lord in the air, and so forever to be with the Lord. Surely, saith Jesus, I come quickly! Amen, may my soul answer, even so come Lord Jesus!

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