My woes drove me to seek solace in the cold dark of night. Beset by sin and doubt within, terrors and trials without, and crushed under the curse of sin, I gazed up at the stars in envy. I thought of the angels of the Most High, and craved their glorious estate. They do not battle personal sin, and are arrayed in holiness. They stand before Jehovah night and day, beholding his glory and flash like lightening to do his service. They neither toil nor sweat: they are neither bound to inhabit bodies of frail flesh, nor trapped in a world of vice. They are free from evil, free from the oppression of the enemy, and free from lust. Oh, what a glorious estate is theirs, and oh how my soul mourns for the fallen estate occupied by the sons of men. All these facts are readily apparent, and while gazing at the stars, envy flooded my mind.
But as my eyes gazed on the stars and envy filled my heart, suddenly a new sight filled all my vision. This wondrous sight was not seen with eyes of flesh, but with eyes of spirit, empowered by faith. I saw the stars above me, but I looked beyond the stars, higher and higher, outside the terrestrial plain and into the highest heaven. I saw Him, the One who put all the stars in place, and commands the legions of the heavenly hosts. He is King of Kings, the only God, the Uncreated One, Jehovah of Hosts. While awed by his deity and power, something else I saw which caused all thoughts of envy to flee. For this exalted person who was fully God was also a man, a descendant of Adam, subject to like passions as all our race. He has a body like unto a man; and though it is glorified, it is unequivocally human. He has a nature like that of a man; and though as holy and pure as God, this nature is unmistakably that of a man. He, though Son of God, was also Son of Man; and though he exists from everlasting to everlasting, he too lived upon this sin cursed world, and toiled with his brothers in the pits of despair. Like his brothers, he has suffered, yea more than all who ever dwelt upon earth; he was poor, meek, and lowly, occupying the same class and station as the masses. Though he beheld Lucifer fall, he too felt the whip of Satan’s trials, yea he has received more of it than all his kin. And being a man, he has faced the grim adversary of death, yet he overcame him with Power greater than any man ever possessed.
When I saw him, the Federal Head of our race, I was filled with wonder at the exalted state of mankind. For it is no angel that sits upon the circle of the world, it is a man. It is a man, not an angel that upholds all things by the word of His power. Look upon the throne of heaven, who do you see seated at God’s right hand? No angel will take that seat, for it is reserved for none other than the Son of Man. And when this God-Man was exalted, all of us were exalted with him, for we are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, joined to him through regeneration. Where He is, so will all his people be, and when he reigns, his people, as kings and priests, reign with him. When I consider this, I glory in my estate. I will endure suffering, resist the Devil, strive for holiness, battle sin, toil and sweat, hunger and thirst, and sojourn upon this cursed world, nor do I begrudge the angel’s their freedom from such toils; for the Second Adam did all these things, and I joy to be like him. I glory in the grace of God that allows me to be kin to the Incarnate Word. Glory to our Kinsman-redeemer, Glory to the Son of Man, Glory to our Sympathetic High Priest, Glory to the People’s Christ.
