“And between the throne . . . I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain.” Revelation 5:6
Why should our exalted Lord appear in his wounds in glory? The wounds of Jesus are his glories, his jewels, his sacred ornaments. To the eye of the believer, Jesus appears as the beloved in Song of Solomon does, “radiant and ruddy,” blindingly white with innocence and ruddy with his own blood. We see him as the lily of matchless purity, as the rose crimsoned with his own gore.
Christ is lovely upon Olivet and Tabor, and by the sea—but oh! there never was such a matchless Christ as he who hanged on the cross. There we beheld all his beauties in perfection, all his attributes developed, all his love drawn out, all his character expressed.
Beloved, the wounds of Jesus are far more beautiful in our eyes than all the splendor and pomp of kings. The thorny crown is more than an imperial diadem. It is true that now he does not the scepter of reed, but there was a glory in it that never flashed from scepter of gold. Jesus wears the appearance of a slain Lamb as his court dress in which he wooed our souls and redeemed them by his complete atonement. Nor are these only the ornaments of Christ: they are the trophies of his love and of his victory. He has divided the spoil with the strong. He has redeemed for himself a great multitude whom no man can number, and these scars are the memorials of the fight.
Ah! If Christ thus loves to retain the thought of his sufferings for his people, how precious should his wounds be to us!
Behold how every wound of his
A precious balm distills,
Which heals the scars that sin had made,
And cures all mortal ills.
Those wounds are mouths that preach his grace;
The ensigns of his love;
The seals of our expected bliss
In paradise above.
Adapted from Morning and Evening.
