May 5

Passion Sunday

Before Abraham was, I am. S. John 8:58.

OUR Lord declares not only that He was before Abraham, but speaks of His being in the same absolute manner in which the voice out of the bush had spoken to Moses concerning the being of Jehovah, "I am." It was as though He said, I am without beginning and without end, the same from everlasting to everlasting: before Abraham was, My being was the same as now—unchangeable, self-existent. The Godhead of our blessed Saviour is here intimated to us with remarkable plainness; and when the Jews heard these awful words from the lips of One Whose life was so holy, and Whom the Father so plainly honoured by the miracles He was able to work, they ought to have bowed their hearts before Him.

With what reverence we should think of our blessed Saviour, with what holy awe we should draw nigh to Him! When we approach Him, we should conceive ourselves addressed, as Moses was at the bush, "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." There are mysteries in His Being, His Godhead and Incarnation, which no created intelligence can fathom, and which are ever to be rather adored in silence. Christ's whole doctrine, every holy rule which He gave for good living, and especially all those sayings of His which direct us to Himself as the Source of spiritual life and health,—are we keeping these sayings in our daily practice? remembering that "if a man keep My saying, he shall never taste of death," but—

At length inherit Him, my portion ever blest.