December 10

Received me . . . as Christ Jesus. — Gal. iv. 14.

He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. — JOHN xiii. 20.

THE passage teaches two exalting truths. First, the perfect identification of Christ with his disciple. "He that receiveth whomsoever I send" — that is, you, my disciples. "receiveth me." More vividly still he announces this truth to Saul persecuting the children of God: "Why persecutest thou me?" Christ virtually says in the passage we are studying. "I am in you. To receive you is to receive me. To reject you is to reject me. A blow at your honor is a stab at my heart. The arm uplifted against a disciple is a threat against the Son of God." Are you a disciple? Think that invisible spiritual nerves, whose seat is the divine soul, reach forth and cover you with their sensitive tissue?

The second truth is like unto this. So Jesus, the Son, is identified with the Father. "He that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me." Jesus alone reveals the Father. Only through him incarnate can we conceive of God as a spirit. "I and my Father are one." "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."

If, then, Christ is in the Father, and the Father in him, and if the disciple is in Christ, and Christ in him, truly are we the sons of God!


From Christ they all their gifts derive, And fed by Christ, their graces live; While, guarded by his mighty hand, 'Midst all the rage of hell they stand.

PHILIP DODDRIDGE.