His Matchless Worth
Frequently, as the Lord’s people gather on Lord’s days in remembrance of Him in His own appointed way in breaking the bread and drinking the cup, emblems of His body given and His blood shed for them, are their thoughts turned to His matchless perfections. They are caused to think not alone on His sacrifice that solved the sin question, but as well on the matchless person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
A French version, we are told, in translating John 3:16 says not that God gave His only begotten Son, but that He gave His “unique” Son; that is, the One of Whom there never was, is, or shall be an equal, His matchless Son.
Scripture speaks of a number of matchless men of God who had no equals among other men. Four such come to mind: Abraham, Moses, Job, and Timothy.
Abraham was unique in faith. As God led him from Ur of the Chaldees into the land of Canaan, and through testings, he grew in faith. When in old age he was still childless, God called him out to look at the stars to see if he could number them, and said, “So shall thy seed be.” And Abraham believed in the Lord. “Against hope (he) believed in hope… And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform” (Rom. 4:18-21). More than that, “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac… accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead” (Heb. 11:17-19). Scripture, moreover, states that he is “the father of all them that believe” (Rom. 4:11). He alone of all the Old Testament characters is spoken of by God as “My friend.” “Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend” (Isaiah 41:8).
Moses was unique in his faithfulness as a servant of God (Hebrews 3:2-5), and in meekness. “Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth” (Num. 12:3).
When Miriam his sister and Aaron his brother, the high priest, spoke against him, the Lord heard it and called the three of them out from the congregation: Moses, Miriam, and Aaron. “Hear now my words: if there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses ?” (Num. 12:4-8).
Job had no equal in uprightness, in fear of God, and in shunning of evil. The Lord said to Satan, “Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?” Not once, but twice God said that. After Satan, by the Lord’s permission, had stripped Job of everything on earth he could count dear, Job said, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” And again the Lord said to Satan, “Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an of the earth” (Num. 12:3). upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause” (Job 1 and 2).
Timothy was unique in selflessness; that is, in his concern for the welfare of others rather than of himself. Writing to the Christians at Philippi, the Apostle Paul said, “But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state. For I have no man like-minded, who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s. But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel” (Phil. 2:19-22).
These four and others in Scripture, such as Noah, Daniel, Jeremiah, and Paul were matchless in some good quality, but it was a finite matchlessness, for in the very point in which each one was outstanding in that point he failed. Abraham’s faith failed, Moses’ meekness failed at the waters of Meribah. Job’s integrity may not have failed in the sight of the enemy, Satan, nor in his own eyes in the face of the accusations of his friends; but at sight of the Lord he had to confess, “I am vile… I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Timothy had to be encouraged by Paul with these words, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear (cowardice); but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.”
Abraham’s mighty faith failed, though he had perhaps no equal; Moses’ meekness and faithfulness failed; Job’s integrity failed, though God could challenge Satan to test his perfection; and Timothy’s unselfishness failed. “I have seen,” said the psalmist, “an end of all perfection,” an extremity, a limit.
If these who excelled all mankind in their faith, meekness, faithfulness, integrity, and in unselfish care for the welfare of others were but finite in their perfections, there is One Who was proved to be infinite in every quality. When He came into the world, He said, “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me… Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.” When departing via the shameful death of the cross as the bearer of our sins, He said, “Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me: nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done.”Again, after the agony and forsaking of the cross, He cried, “Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit,” and having thus said, gave up His spirit. He could also say, “I am meek and lowly in heart.” He could bear silently the jeers and taunts of His creatures. “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not his mouth.” He gave His back to the smiters and His cheek to them that plucked off the hair. He hid not His face from the shame and spitting. Being reviled, He reviled not again. When He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judges righteously. He could look up into the Father’s face and say, “I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do… Those whom Thou gavest Me I have kept… I have declared unto them Thy Name, and will declare it.” What faithfulness! The Father could say from heaven, “This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him.”
As to His integrity, He could challenge men, “Which of you convinceth Me of sin?” The judge who condemned Him had to say, “I find in Him no fault.” The centurion who had charge of His crucifixion in like manner had to cry, “Certainly this was a righteous man.” The Spirit of God also testifies that He “knew no sin,” “did no sin,” and “in Him is no sin.”
Scripture gives us ample proof of His care for others. When they came to seize Him in Gethsemane, He said, “I am He; if ye seek Me, let these (His disciples) go their way.” Yet, He knew they would all forsake Him and flee. Facing Golgotha, Christ was thinking of His own, for we read, “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” He prayed that the faith of Peter would not fail. For His tormentors He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” While on the cross, He committed His mother into the care of John, His disciple, and John into the care of His mother, “Woman, behold thy son! Son, behold thy mother!” He was infinite in care for others.
Matchless He was in these qualities and in every perfection. In character and scope His qualities were limitless. These brief sketches of His faith, meekness, faithfulness, integrity, and sympathy, serve only to suggest that in every grace He was matchless, being the very embodiment of that grace.
John, the beloved disciple, caught up to heaven, saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. He saw a strong angel proclaim with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the book, and to break its seals?” That voice searched all the universe, all time, the earth to its remote corners, and the heavens to the most distant star, but no one was found worthy to open the book or to open its seals, for to open those seals one must be perfect in character, must be proven by test, and perfect in achievement. “I wept much,” says John, “because no one had been found worthy to open the book, nor to regard it.”
Then said one of the elders to John, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion which is of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book, and its seven seals.” Then John saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing, as slain… And the Lamb came and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat on the throne (Rev. 5, Darby).
And when the Lamb took the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having each a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, “Thou are worthy to take the book, and to open its seals; because Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed to God, by thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and made them to our God kings and priests; and they shall reign over the earth.”
Thereafter John saw and heard with the living creatures and the elders a numberless host of angels crying with loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that has been slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing !”
Then every creature in heaven, upon earth, under the earth, and all the sea, and all things in them joined the chorus, saying, “To Him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, blessing, and honour, and glory, and might, to the ages of ages.”
“O heavenly choir who voice His praise,
Bend low, and learn the song you raise
Is echoed here and now on earth
By some who’ve learned His matchless worth.”