Looking Unto Jesus
by Theodore Monod translated from the French by Helen
Willis
". . . looking unto Jesus . . ." ~
Hebrews 12:2
Only these three words,
but in these three words
is the whole secret of life.
LOOKING UNTO JESUS
IN THE SCRIPTURES, to learn there what He is, what He has done, what He
gives, what He desires; to find in His character our pattern, in His
teachings our instruction, in His precepts our law, in His promises our
support, in His person and in His work a full satisfaction provided for
every need of our souls.
LOOKING UNTO JESUS
CRUCIFIED, to find in His shed blood our ransom, our pardon, our peace.
LOOKING UNTO JESUS
RISEN, to find in Him the righteousness which alone makes us righteous, and
permits us, all unworthy as we are, to draw near with boldness, in His name,
to Him who is His Father and our Father, His God and our God.
LOOKING UNTO JESUS
GLORIFIED, to find in Him our Heavenly Advocate completing by His
intercession the work inspired by His lovingkindness for our salvation
(1John 2:1); Who even now is appearing for us before the face of God (Heb.
9:24), the kingly Priest, the spotless Victim, continually bearing the
iniquity of our holy things (Ex. 28:38).
LOOKING UNTO JESUS
REVEALED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, to find in constant communion with Him the
cleansing of our sin-stained hearts, the illumination of our darkened
spirits, the transformation of our rebel wills; enabled by Him to triumph
over all attacks of the world and of the evil one, resisting their violence
by Jesus our Strength, and overcoming their subtlety by Jesus our Wisdom;
upheld by the sympathy of Jesus, Who was spared no temptation . . . .Who
yielded to none.
LOOKING UNTO JESUS
WHO GIVES REPENTANCE as well as forgiveness of sins (Acts 5:31), because He
gives us the grace to recognize, to deplore, to confess, and to forsake our
transgressions.
LOOKING UNTO JESUS
TO RECEIVE FROM HIM the task and the cross for each day, with the grace
which is sufficient to carry the cross and to accomplish the task; the grace
that enables us to be patient with His patience, active with His activity,
loving with His love; never asking "What am I able for?" but rather: "What
is He not able for?" and waiting for His strength which is make perfect in
our weakness (2Cor. 12:9).
LOOKING UNTO JESUS
TO GO FORTH FROM OURSELVES and to forget ourselves; so that our darkness may
flee away before the brightness of His face; so that our joys may be holy,
and our sorrow restrained; that He may cast us down, and that He may raise us up; that He may afflict us, and that
He may comfort us; that He may despoil us, and that He may enrich us; that
He may teach us to pray, and that He may answer our prayers; that while
leaving us in the world, He may separate us from it, our life being hidden
with Him in God, and our behavior bearing witness to Him before men.
LOOKING UNTO JESUS
WHO, HAVING RETURNED TO THE FATHER'S HOUSE, is engaged in preparing a place
there for us; so that this joyful prospect may make us live in hope, and
prepare us to die in peace, when the day shall come for us to meet this last
enemy, whom He has overcome for us, whom we shall overcome through Him - so
that what was once the king of terrors is today the harbinger of eternal
happiness.
LOOKING UNTO JESUS
WHOSE CERTAIN RETURN, at an uncertain time, is from age to age the
expectation and the hope of the faithful Church, who is encouraged in her
patience, watchfulness, and joy by the thought that the Savior is at hand
(Phil. 4: 4-5; 1Thes. 5:23).
LOOKING UNTO JESUS
THE AUTHOR AND THE FINISHER OF OUR FAITH: that is to say, He Who is its
pattern and its source, even as He is its object; and Who from the first
step even to the last marches at the head of the believers; so that by Him
our faith may be inspired, encouraged, sustained, and led on to its supreme
consummation.
LOOKING UNTO JESUS
AND AT NOTHING ELSE, as our text expresses it in one untranslatable word (aphoroontes),
which at the same time directs us to fix our gaze upon Him, and to turn it
away from everything else.
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT OURSELVES, our thoughts, our reasonings, our imaginings, our
inclinations, our wishes, our plans;
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT THE WORLD, its customs, its example, its rules, its judgments;
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT SATAN, though he seek to terrify us by his fury, or to entice us
by his flatteries. Oh! from how many useless questions we would save
ourselves, from how many disturbing scruples, from how much loss of time,
dangerous dallyings with evil, waste of energy, empty dreams, bitter
disappointments, sorrowful struggles, and distressing falls, by looking
steadily unto Jesus, and by following Him wherever He may lead us. Then we
shall be too much occupied with not losing sight of the path which He marks
out for us, to waste even a glance on those in which He does not think it
suitable to lead us.
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT OUR CREEDS, no matter how evangelical they may be. The faith
which saves, which sanctifies, and which comforts, is not giving assent to
the doctrine of salvation; it is being united to the person of the Savior.
"It is not enough," said Adolphe Monod, "to know about Jesus Christ, it is
necessary to have Jesus Christ." To this one may add that no one truly knows
Him, if he does not first possess Him. According to the profound saying of
the beloved disciple, it is in the Life there is Light, and it is in Jesus
there is Life (John 1:4).
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT OUR MEDITATIONS AND OUR PRAYERS, our pious conversations and our
profitable reading, the holy meetings that we attend, nor even to our taking
part in the supper of the Lord.
Let us faithfully use all these means of grace, but without confusing them
with grace itself; and without turning our gaze away from Him Who alone
makes them effectual, when, by their means, He reveals Himself to us.
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT TO OUR POSITION IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, to the family to which we
belong, to our baptism, to the education which we have received, to the
doctrine which we profess, to the opinion which others have formed of our
piety, or to the opinion which we have formed of it ourselves. Some of those
who have prophesied in the Name of the Lord Jesus will one day hear Him say:
"I never knew you" (Matt. 7:22-23); but He will confess before His Father
and before His angels even the most humble of those who have looked unto
Him.
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT TO OUR BRETHREN, not even to the best among them and the most
beloved. In following a man we run the risk of losing our way; in following
Jesus we are sure of never losing our way. Besides, in putting a man between
Jesus and ourselves, it will come to pass that insensibly the man will
increase and Jesus will decrease; soon we no longer know how to find Jesus
when we cannot find the man, and if he fails us, all fails. On the contrary,
if Jesus is kept between us and our closest friend, our attachment to the
person will be at the same time less enthralling and more deep; less
passionate and more tender; less necessary and more useful; an instrument of
rich blessing in the hands of God when He is pleased to make use of him; and
whose absence will be a further blessing, when it may please God to dispense
with him, to draw us even nearer to the only Friend who can be separated
from us by "neither death nor life" (Rom. 8:38-39).
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT HIS ENEMIES OR AT OUR OWN. In place of hating them and fearing them, we shall then know how to love them and to
overcome them.
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT THE OBSTACLES which meet us in our path. As soon as we stop to
consider them, they amaze us, they confuse us, they overwhelm us, incapable
as we are of understanding either the reason why they are permitted, or the
means by which we may overcome them. The apostle began to sink as soon as he
turned to look at the waves tossed by the storm; it was while he was looking
at Jesus that he walked on the waters as on a rock. The more difficult our
task, the more terrifying our temptation, the more essential it is that we
look only at Jesus.
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT OUR TROUBLES, to count up their number, to reckon their weight,
to find perhaps a certain strange satisfaction in tasting their bitterness.
apart from Jesus trouble does not sanctify, it hardens or it crushes. It
produces not patience, but rebellion; not sympathy, but selfishness; not
hope (Rom. 5:3) but despair. It is only under the shadow of the cross that
we can appreciate the true weight of our own cross, and accept it each day
from His hand, to carry it with love, with gratitude, with joy; and find in
it for ourselves and for others a source of blessings.
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT THE DEAREST, THE MOST LEGITIMATE OF OUR EARTHLY JOYS, lest we be
so engrossed in them that they deprive us of the sight of the very One Who
gives them to us. If we are looking at Him first of all, then it is from Him
we receive these good things, made a thousand times more precious because we
possess them as gifts from His loving hand, which we entrust to His keeping,
to enjoy them in communion with Him, and to use them for His glory.
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT THE INSTRUMENTS, whatever they may be which He employs to form
the path which He has appointed for us. Looking beyond man, beyond
circumstances, beyond the thousand causes so rightly called secondary, let
us ascend as far as the first cause - His will: let us ascend even to the
source of this very will - His love. Then our gratitude, without being less
lively towards those who do us good, will not stop at them; then in the
testing day, under the most unexpected blow, the most inexplicable, the most
overwhelming, we can say with the Psalmist: "I was dumb, I opened not my
mouth; because thou didst it" (Ps. 39:9). And in the silence of our dumb
sorrow the heavenly voice will gently reply: "What I do thou knowest not
now; but thou shalt know hereafter" (John 13:7).
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT THE INTERESTS OF OUR CAUSE, Of OUR PARTY, OF OUR CHURCH - still
less at our personal interests. The single object of our life is the glory
of God; if we do not make it the supreme goal of our efforts, we must
deprive ourselves of His help, for His grace is only at the service of His
glory. If, on the contrary, it is His glory that we seek above all, we can
always count on His grace.
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT THE SINCERITY OF OUR INTENTIONS, AND AT THE STRENGTH OF OUR
RESOLUTIONS. Alas! how often the most excellent intentions have only
prepared the way for the most humiliating falls. Let us stay ourselves, not
on our intentions, but on His love; not on our resolutions, but on His
promise.
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT OUR STRENGTH. Our strength is good only to glorify ourselves; to
glorify God one must have the strength of God.
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT OUR WEAKNESS. By lamenting our weakness have we ever become more
strong? Let us look to Jesus, and His strength will communicate itself to
our hearts, His praise will break forth from our lips.
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT OUR SINS, neither at the source from which they come (Matt.
15:19) nor the chastisement which they deserve. Let us look at ourselves,
only to recognize how much need we have of looking to Him; and looking to
Him, certainly not as if we were sinless; but on the contrary, because we
are sinners, measuring the very greatness of the offense by the greatness of
the sacrifice which has atoned for it, and of the grace which pardons it.
"For one look that we turn on ourselves," said an eminent servant of God (McCheyne)
"let us turn ten upon Jesus." "If it is very sure," said Vinet, "that one
will not lose sight of his wretched state by looking at Jesus Christ
crucified - because this wretched state is, as it were, graven upon the
cross - it is also very sure that in looking at one's wretchedness one can
lose sight of Jesus Christ; because the cross is not naturally graven upon
the image of one's wretchedness." And he adds, "Look at yourselves, but only
in the presence of the cross, only through Jesus Christ." Looking at the sin
only gives death; looking at Jesus gives life. That which healed the
Israelite in the wilderness was not considering his wounds, but raising his
eyes to the serpent of brass (Num. 21:9).
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT - DO WE NEED TO SAY IT? - AT OUR PRETENSE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. Ill
above all who are ill is he who believes himself in health; blind above the
blind he who thinks that he sees (John 9:41). If it is dangerous to look
long at our wretchedness which is, alas! too real; it is much more dangerous
to rest complacently on imaginary merits.
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT THE LAW. The law gives commands, and gives no strength to carry
them out; the law always condemns, and never pardons. If we put ourselves
back under the law, we take ourselves away from grace. In so far as we make
our obedience the means of our salvation, we lose our peace, our joy, our
strength; for we have forgotten that Jesus is the end of the law for
righteousness to every one that believeth (Rom. 10:4). As soon as the law
has constrained us to seek in Him our only Savior, then also to Him only
belongs the right to command our obedience; an obedience which includes
nothing less than our whole heart, and our most secret thoughts, but which
has ceased from being an iron yoke, and an insupportable burden, to become
an easy yoke and a light burden (Matt. 11:30). It is an obedience which He
makes as delightful as it is binding, an obedience which He inspires, at the
same time as He requires it, and which in very truth, is less a consequence
of our salvation than it is a part of this very salvation - and, like all
the rest, a free gift.
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT WHAT WE ARE DOING FOR HIM. Too much occupied with our work, we
can forget our Master - it is possible to have the hands full and the heart
empty. When occupied with our Master, we cannot forget our work; if the
heart is filled with His love, how can the hands fail to be active in His
service?
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT TO THE APPARENT SUCCESS OF OUR EFFORTS. The apparent success is not
the measure of the real success; and besides, God has not told us to
succeed, but to work; it is of our work that He requires an account, and not
of our success - why then concern ourselves with it? It is for us to scatter
the seed, for God to gather the fruit; if not today, then it will be
tomorrow; if He does not employ us to gather it, then He will employ others.
Even when success is granted to us, it is always dangerous to fix our
attention on it: on the one hand we are tempted to take some of the
credit of it to ourselves; on the other hand we thus accustom ourselves to
abate our zeal when we cease to perceive its result, that is to say, at the
very time when we should redouble our energy. To look at the success is to
walk by sight; to look at Jesus, and to persevere in following Him and
serving Him, inspite of all discouragements, is to walk by faith.
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT TO THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS which we have already received, or which we
are now receiving from Him. As to yesterday's grace, it has passed with
yesterday's work; we can no longer make use of it, we should no longer
linger over it. As to today's grace given for today's work, it is entrusted
to us, not to be looked at, but to be used. We are not to gloat over it as a
treasure, counting up our riches, but to spend it immediately, and remain
poor, "Looking unto Jesus."
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT THE AMOUNT OF SORROW that our sins make us experience, or the
amount of humiliation which they produce in us. If only we are humiliated by
them enough to make us no longer complacent with ourselves; if only we are
troubled by them enough to make us look to Jesus, so that He may deliver us
from them, that is all that He asks from us; and it is also this look which
more than anything else will make our tears spring and our pride fall. And
when it is given to us as to Peter to weep bitterly (Luke 22:62), oh! then
may our tear-dimmed eyes remain more than ever directed unto Jesus; for even
our repentance will become a snare to us, if we think to blot out in some
measure by our tears those sins which nothing can blot out, except the blood
of the Lamb of God.
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT THE BRIGHTNESS OF OUR JOY, the strength of our assurance, or the
warmth of our love. Otherwise, when for a little time this love seems to
have grown cold, this assurance to have
vanished, this joy to have failed us - either as the result of our own
faithlessness, or for the trial of our faith - immediately, having lost our
feelings, we think that we have lost our strength, and we allow ourselves to
fall into an abyss of sorrow, even into cowardly idleness, or perhaps sinful
complaints. Ah! rather let us remember that if the feelings with their
sweetness, are absent, the faith with its strength remains with us. To be
able always to be "abounding in the work of the Lord" (1Cor. 15:58) let us
look steadily, not at our ever changeful hearts, but at Jesus, who is always
the same.
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT THE HEIGHTS OF HOLINESS to which we attained. If no one may
believe himself a child of God so long as he still finds stains in his
heart, and stumblings in his life, who could taste the joy of salvation? But
this joy is not bought with a price. Holiness is the fruit, not the root of
our redemption. It is the work of Jesus Christ for us which reconciles us
unto God; it is the work of the Holy Spirit in us which renews us in His
likeness. The shortcomings of a faith which is true, but not yet fully
established, and bearing but little fruit, in no way lessens the fullness of
the perfect work of the Savior, nor the certainty of His unchanging promise,
guaranteeing life eternal unto whomsoever trusts in Him. And so to rest in
the Redeemer is the true way to obey Him; and it is only when enjoying the
peace of forgiveness that the soul is strong for the conflict.
If there are any who abuse this blessed truth by giving themselves over
unscrupulously to spiritual idleness, imagining that they can let the faith
which they think they have take the place of the holiness which they have
not, they should remember this solemn warning of the Apostle Paul: "They
that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and the
lusts" (Gal. 5:24); and that of the Apostle John: "He that saith, I know
him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in
him" (1John 2:4); and that of the Lord Jesus Himself, "Every tree that
bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire" (Matt.
7:19).
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT OUR DEFEATS OR VICTORIES. If we look at our defeats we shall be
cast down; if we look at our victories we shall be puffed up. And neither
will help us to fight the good fight of faith (1Tim. 6:12). Like all our
blessings, the victory, with the faith which wins it, it the gift of God
through our Lord Jesus Christ (1Cor. 15:57), and to Him is all the glory.
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT OUR DOUBTS. The more we look at them the larger they appear,
until they can swallow up all our faith, our strength, and our joy. But if
we look away from them to our Lord Jesus, Who is the Truth (John 14:6), the
doubts will scatter in the light of His presence like clouds before the sun.
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND NOT AT OUR FAITH. The last device of the adversary, when he cannot make
us look elsewhere, is to turn our eyes from the Savior to our faith, and
thus to discourage us if it is weak, to fill us with pride if it is strong:
and either way to weaken us. For power does not come from the faith, but
from the Savior by faith. It is not looking at our look, it is "looking unto
Jesus,"
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS
AND IT IS FROM HIM AND IN HIM that we learn to know (not only without
danger, but for the well-being of our souls) what it is good for us to know
about the world and about ourselves, our sorrows and our dangers, our
resources and our victories: seeing everything in its true light, because it
is He Who shows them to us, and that only at the time and in the proportion
in which this knowledge will produce in us the fruits of humility and
wisdom, gratitude and courage, watchfulness and prayer. All that it is
desirable for us to know, the Lord Jesus will teach us; all that we do not
learn from Him, it is better for us not to know.
LOOKING UNTO JESUS
AS LONG AS WE REMAIN ON THE EARTH - unto Jesus from moment to moment,
without allowing ourselves to be distracted by memories of a past which we
should leave behind us, nor by occupation with a future of which we know
nothing
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS NOW
IF WE HAVE NEVER LOOKED UNTO HIM --
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS AFRESH,
IF WE HAVE CEASED DOING SO --
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS ONLY,
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS STILL,
LOOKING
UNTO JESUS ALWAYS --
WITH A GAZE MORE AND MORE CONSTANT, more and more confident, "changed into
the same image from glory to glory" (2Cor. 3:18). Thus we await the hour
when He will call us to pass from earth to Heaven, and from time to eternity
--
The promised hour,
the blessed hour
when at last "we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1John
3:2).
"Looking Unto Jesus" was brought to our attention by Margaret Park. She had
a copy of it in booklet form last printed in 1960 by Back to the Bible
Publishers. For a recent printing write to them at Box 82808, Lincoln, NE.
68501.
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