What Good Things, O Christ?

On the benefits of the Lord

We should frequently review the benefits of Christ, so that, by an increase in knowledge, we might experience a corresponding growth in charity, which weds us to God. True, we should love the Savior for His own sake. Yet it surely pleases the Giver that His gifts should be admired. Therefore, let us summarize the divine blessings enjoyed by those who are planted and rooted in Christ.

First, Christ reveals to us the Father, who is far removed and clothed in radiant darkness. Admittedly, we can glean generalities about God through the exercise of reason, but we could hardly behold the Father’s countenance unless He stooped down to our position, and this He did by sending earthward His Son and Word, who alone manifests His face, being eternally “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature” (Heb. 1:3). This paternal radiance Christ displays in the medium of His flesh: “In Him the whole fullness of Deity dwells bodily” (Col. 2:9), and, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory” (Jn. 1:14). Therefore, the Apostle suitably calls Him the “image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15), seeing as He presents for our delight that which would otherwise be obscure: namely, the transcendent Fountain and Source, our Father: “He has made Him known” (Jn. 1:18).

Second, Christ propitiated the Father and made Him tenderly inclined toward us. The power of the Gospel is negated if we fail to grasp the antagonism that existed between God and man prior to and apart from the Mediator’s intervention. We inherited Adam’s sin and added fresh transgressions of our own. Therefore, we were under a severe penalty. As the Apostle says, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18). But Christ removed any enmity between God and man, making satisfaction for our offenses by the charity with which He endured His passion. Thus the Prophet says, “But He was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His bruises we are healed” (Is. 53:5). So the Father is favorable toward those who cleave to Jesus, the Head having paid the body’s price.

Third, Christ made us share in His divine Sonship, that we might be children of God: “Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn. 1:13). This marvelous transformation is appropriated to the Holy Spirit — “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Tit. 3:5) — yet the mission of the Holy Spirit is on account of Christ’s merit, and the grace shed by the Holy Spirit conforms us to Him: “Put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator” (Col. 3:10). Christ not only earned but distributes the gift of eternal life, whereby we participate, faintly, in the majesty of God: “He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pt. 1:4).

Fourth, Christ redeemed our body from death and the bondage it engenders. Here some will object that a sound mind cures the fear of death. But the Gospel proves this wisdom — which would make peace with dissolution — to be folly. For nature desires perpetuation to the extent its form permits. And, given the immortality of the soul, and the intimate conjunction of soul and body, it follows that our flesh pants after deathlessness, and the soul likewise yearns that its mate should taste immortality. Thus, we are to regard death as a most loathsome enemy. For this frame of ours is meant for glory: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Mt. 13:43). And who has rescued our clay from the pit, that it might be clothed with honor? Christ the Lord, who was born again from the grave, and has shone His placid rays upon us: “Our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel” (2 Tim. 1:10).

Fifth, Christ enrolled us in the heavenly commonwealth, so that we are fellow citizens with the angels. It was not enough that our Lord should extract us from the cruel entrapments of Satan. No, He also elevated us among the holy angels, forging a universal brotherhood. Previously, we labored under the angels’ administration, and we were often stung by the discipline they dispensed at God’s command. But now Christ has established a harmony between heaven and earth, and presently we profit from the angels not as masters, but as kind tutors, friends, and fellow heirs of divine glory. Indeed, we might even say that Christ has advanced us beyond the angels, for He Himself is “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come” (Eph. 1:20-21), and we co-occupy this throne by virtue of the mystical communion: “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4-6).

Sixth, Christ stands as our High Priest in the presence of God, that we might worship as we ought, and more readily obtain the fruit of prayer: “Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Rom. 8:34). For none can adequately laud the Father save the Son; who, though equal to the Father in His divinity, subordinates Himself to the Father in His humanity. And even after His victory, Christ deigns to wear our flesh, forever leading a choir of praise, directing every rational spirit toward the Father: “By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise always to God” (Heb. 13:15). Moreover, the Father is ever gladdened by the Lord’s humility, which guarantees paternal favor, and Christ reliably procures for us needful graces: “He holds His priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:24-25).

Finally, Christ gave us a living and life-giving law. This law is not inscribed on stone or parchment, but on the heart. It is charity itself, poured out by the Holy Spirit. As the Apostle says, “Love therefore is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10), and also, “The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us” (Rom. 5:5). This is the essence of the new covenant sealed by Christ’s blood, that the law should not merely press upon our ears, but also upon the deepest parts: “I will put My laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds” (Heb. 10:16). Formerly, we were without the Holy Spirit, and we bristled at the precepts of God as foreign and imposed, but now yet greater precepts, which demand surpassing maturity and self-mastery, we gladly receive as suited to our divine estate.

Now these hardly exhaust the benefits of Christ, upon whom we must always train the gaze of faith, that we might be steadily nourished by the Mediator of every grace. But let these few boons suffice a while for our reflection. Whoever puts his mind to them will doubtless come away advantaged, and forwarded along the straight and narrow path, the end of which is the happy vision of God in the fatherland above.