“Consider . . . Jesus”

 By B. McCall Barbour (1865 – 1943) 

    “Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith...” (Heb. 12:2).

    The greatest and the grandest of all themes is Jesus.  Jesus is the source, the substance and the sum of all genuine and lasting joy.  It is in Jesus that reality is found.  It is contact with Jesus that makes our own lives real.

    Jesus alone satisfies God.  Jesus only can satisfy us.  To be satisfied with Jesus makes us very simple.  More than that, to be simple delivers us from what is artificial, superficial, and merely sentimental.  Blessed deliverance indeed!

    Jesus is a universal Savior.  There is that in Him which meets all human needs.  Less than Jesus will not do.  Other than Jesus will not suit.  More than Jesus is not possible.  He is “the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9).

    The claims of Jesus are stated and His appeals are made in the simplest of terms, that all may understand, accept and enjoy Him and His salvation.  Who Jesus is, what Jesus says, what Jesus does and is going to do, is the confidence, the comfort and the encouragement of all who put their trust in Him.

    Jesus is the solace, the supply, the satisfaction for every human heart oppressed by sin and sorrow, suffering and care.  This then is what Jesus is and does.  This He alone can do.  He is able.  He is willing.  He is ready.

    Listen then, O soul!  Are you in sin?  Are you in sorrow?  Are you wounded by the cruel treatment of the world?  Are you misunderstood and misrepresented?  Is your spirit crushed?  Is your heart perplexed?  Have your oft-repeated failures cast you down?  Is life to you a mystery, a weariness, a dread?  Are you fearful about the future?  Have you a hunger and a thirst for something – yes, rather for a someone who will satisfy?

 Go to Jesus!

    “...Thou shalt call His name JESUS:  for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).  Yes, it is in Jesus, and all that that blessed name implies, that weary hearts and weakened wills and worn-out frames find true abiding rest.  Just in Jesus and nowhere else.

    In Jesus all the problems of earth’s suffering are solved, its sorrows soothed, its sin is “washed away.”  In Jesus is the stimulus, the strength, the stay for every present need.  In Jesus is the only hope there is for future bliss (1 Tim. 1:1).

    Oh wonder not, my soul, that hearts, when they have tasted of the sweetness and the all-sufficiency of His great love, are weaned away from all the profitless pleasures of this passing world and find no sweeter theme of thought, or speech or song than “Jesus, blessed Jesus!” 

Jesus Himself

    Jesus!  Behind that precious name is the peerless person Himself.  It is the PERSON who satisfies.  It is not what others say about Him that can meet our need.  It is not a system or a creed, not His gifts, however generous, nor His glories, however grand, that can comfort us.  It is not for things our hearts are hungering.  It is for HIM – JESUS HIMSELF.

    As we experience the intimacy of His person and know His presence with us in our hearts, the joy that the Lord gives becomes our strength (Neh. 8:10).  Only as He comforts are we made confident.  Only as Jesus fights for us are we made conquerors.  Only as Jesus speaks is there power.  Only as Jesus rules is there peace.  Such is the blessedness of having Jesus in our lives!

    O weary soul, in search for satisfaction, pursue your quest no further!  Delay your decision no longer!  Receive Him!  Past efforts may have failed to bring the rest you have reckoned on, the peace He promised, and the power He offered.  That must surely be because your heart was set on them, and not on Him.  The blessings have been sought rather than the Blesser.  So often in groping for the “gifts” we fail to grip the Giver.  Learn now, O soul, that Jesus is the embodiment of all His gifts.  When He is our portion, and our experienced possession, then is our every need supplied in Him.

    O soul, what hinders you from knowing Jesus in this sweet, this simple, and this satisfying way?  Is it the burden of your sin that makes the barrier that holds you back?  Yet this burden is your greatest plea to come to Him.

    “...JESUS...He shall save His people from their sins.”  Jesus is the great, the only sin-bearer.  “...There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).  Jesus has settled the sin question for those who put their trust in Him.  “...[He] loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).  Start there!  There is no other start.  That alone settles it.  When it is settled by Jesus as our substitutionary Savior, it is settled for ever!  It is the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, that cleanseth us from all sin (1 John 1:7).  “...It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Lev. 17:11).  “[He] made peace through the blood of His cross...” (Col. 1:20).

    The blood of Jesus is the entrance door into the Father’s presence, and into the experience of all the riches of His pardon, peace and power.  Come then, O soul, come to Jesus!  Seek not salvation in any other way.  There is no other.  It is Jesus who saves.  “...By Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture” (John 10:9).  Then Jesus will be sweet to you – yes, even you!

    Just as there is no salvation apart from the acceptance of Jesus and the possession of Him as the Savior, so there can be no success in service or support in suffering apart from submission to Him and following closely in His steps.  O soul, make no mistake!  He is your life (Col. 3:4).  If today your hopes are blighted, your heart is weary, your lot is hard, and your future dark – trust Jesus!  Trust Him!  Trust Him!