There has never been a time when the eternal Jehovah did not look to Christ, the Lamb slain, as the ground of all His blessings to and the salvation of His elect. As He said of that earthly people that picture His redeemed, "When I see the blood I will pass over you." (Exodus 12:13) It was not when they saw it but when He saw it! When did God "see" the blood of His Son as the justice-satisfying sacrifice for the sins of His people? "When" really doesn't apply to God who beholds everything in all of time and eternity with one all-encompassing view. Without a doubt there is a progressive manifestation and revelation of the purpose and will of God's grace in Christ, but the unchanging God of eternal glory views and always has viewed all His grace children in Christ. Looking to Christ crucified, He loved them, chose them, established His everlasting covenant concerning them, all with an eye to "the blood." Looking to this Lamb slain (there being no possibility that He could fail), He could justly bless them even then with "all spiritual blessings." Christ the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world is Christ the Lamb hanging on the cross and the Lamb John sees in the Revelation as "newly slain." Christ's sacrifice for the sins of His people is the "everlasting righteousness" that was brought in or made manifest when He came into the world and died the death of the cross. The great change comes when He enables us to see the blood by faith! When we see the blood, which occurs when the Spirit of God reveals it to us and in us through the gospel of Christ crucified, we change, casting off the rags of our self-righteousness and pleading the blood of Christ as the only way God has and could be just and justify us. We look to this Lamb slain just as God always has! "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:" (Romans 3:24) "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." (Hebrews 9:12) The word "obtained" here means to find, discover, perceive. By His blood (death, sacrifice) Christ entered into the holy place of heaven and we in Him find or perceive this "eternal redemption" sure and accomplished through His blood. His blood is the blood of the everlasting covenant which is ordered in all things and sure and this is all the salvation of the people of God!

Gary Shepard

"Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?"–Ruth ii. 10.

My soul! dost thou not find continual causes for sending forth the same inquiry as this poor Moabitess did, when thou art receiving some renewed instance of Jesus's favour? Her heart was overwhelmed with the kindness of Boaz, in permitting her to glean only in his fields, and to eat a morsel of food with his servants: but thy Boaz, thy Kinsman-Redeemer, hath opened to thee all his stores of grace and mercy; he bids thee come and take of the water of life freely; yea, he is to thee, himself, the bread of life, and the water of life; and is now, and will be for ever, thy portion, on which thou mayest feed to all eternity. When thou lookest back, and tracest the subject of his love from the beginning, in the springs and autumns of his grace; when thou takest a review of the distinguishing nature of these acts of grace; when thou bringest into the account thine ingratitude, under all the sunshine of his love and favour; will not the question again and again arise, at every review, "Why have 1 found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger? Stranger indeed, by nature and by practice; living without God, and without Christ in the world. And, my soul, it might have been, long since, supposed, that, after such repeated unceasing acts of grace, as Jesus hath shewn, and even when thou hast caused him "to serve with thy sins, and wearied him with thy transgressions;" yet his compassions have failed not, but have been "new every morning;" it might have been supposed, that long and unceasing grace would at length have produced the blessed effect of living wholly to him, who hath so loved thee, as to give himself for thee. But, alas! the day that marks again his mercy, marks again thy rebellion. So that the heart is constrained every day to cry out, "Why have I found grace in thine eyes?" Precious Jesus! the only answer is, because thou art, thou wilt be Jesus. Lord! I bow down to the dust of the earth, in token of my vileness, and thy unspeakable glory! It is indeed the glorious attribute of thy grace to poor fallen men: "the Lord delighteth in mercy. He will perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old."

Robert Hawker (1753-1827)

BE THOU MY VISION

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;

Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art

Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,

Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;

I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;

Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;

Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;

Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;

Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:

Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,

Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:

Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,

High King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of heaven, my victory won,

May I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heaven’s Sun!

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,

Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

(Traditional Hymn)

Every declaration of God to the sinner is on the principle of GRACE and GIFT, not an OFFER, which implies there is some capability in man to make use of the benefit offered. The offer of salvation is a denial of man's total depravity and ignores the Gospel truth of the new birth by the power of God.