“The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place.” (Psa. 68:17).
Christ is an object of admiration and adoration. We men or angels look upwards this is a token of admiration and an example of reverence. The cherubim looked towards the mercy seat, admiring and adoring him who was figured by it; and we lift up our faces towards heaven, when we admire and adore God. You have the phrase in Job 22:26, “Thou shall have thy delight in the Almighty, and lift up thy face unto God;” that is, admire and adore that God you delight in. Where is most delight, there is most admiration and adoration.
How delightful is Christ to you? Do you delight in him more than the angels? You, as a Christian, were redeemed by him. They were not. How much more should we adore Christ?
Christ is the delight of angels; when he was incarnate, they bowed down to pry into that mystery; and now he is glorified, they look up to admire him. There is still matter of admiration in Christ, all in him is not yet discovered; (2 Thess. 1:10), Christ shall come to be admired in all them that believe. As it is in a country when it is discovered, still new and new things are met with, so in Christ. The vision of Christ is compared to river water, and that is always new and fresh; and to a tree of life, with twelve manner of fruits every month, (Rev. 22:1-2). The vision and fruition of God is new, savory, and pleasant unto them every month, day, and hour; and this is to angels as well as to any other. Christ also shall be adored; Heb. 1:6, “Let all the angels of God adore him.”
William Greenhill said of the angels, “They do look up, acknowledge him God, and tender to him that glory the Father has, even adoration. He that was despised, rejected of men, the stone disallowed of the master builders, that we hid our faces from, and esteemed not, is the object of angels adoration.” William Greenhill, An Exposition of the Prophet Ezekiel.
How can adoring God and Christ in your personal devotions be enlarged and increased? How can you adore Jesus as the angels do? Consider the following contemplation.
Contemplation:
Lord, I have been a partaker of the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit. In my baptism I showed this and professed it. (Titus 3:5-6). What has this profited me unless I adore you as I ought? What avails for me in the washing of the body with water if the blood of Christ has never been sprinkled on my conscience in such a way as to impress on me great adoration? I long to adore you more than the angels. You have poured the water of the Spirit of Christ on my filthy soul, (John 3:5). There are many who have been washed with water, but never with the Holy Spirit. I have, though, been knit to Christ by the Spirit and faith. I am one of your redeemed branches, bringing forth the fruits of holiness while I live in You and live by You. I walk by faith and not by sight.
Though there are lusts in my heart that live and try to reign against you, your new and living way, by the power of the Spirit causes me to consider redemption more than the angels. They have never been redeemed. They long to look into my salvation. But I have experience this salvation. I have new life. The water of the Holy Spirit was cast on me indeed, as the earth on a dead corpse, I have died to sin and have been made free. Help me to adore you in a way that outshines even the most angelic creature in heaven. Help me to see Your worth, and Your power in godliness.
