April 16

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. — Heb 13:8 BSB

The eyes of our faith must continually be fixed on Jesus, for He is the grand object of faith. To lose sight of Him is to lose sight of the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Is He not the same Jesus now as He was on earth? It is true He is exalted to unimaginable glory, so much so that when John saw Him, even in a veiled form, he fell at His feet as though dead. But He remains the same Jesus who was once the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He still wears the same human body and carries the same tender, compassionate heart.

Everything He was on earth, He is in heaven. All the tenderness, gentleness, pity for sinners, grace, and truth that were manifest in Him then, are still in Him now. The same bleeding, dying love, the same sympathy for the afflicted, the same power to heal with a word—all that made Him to us the chief among ten thousand, the altogether lovely One—He retains. Indeed, He possesses all these qualities even more fully, for all power in heaven and earth has been given to Him. And this power He holds not only for Himself but as Head over all things for the Church.