Matthew 12:50

CHRIST’S RELATIONS

‘For whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother.’

Matthew 12:50

God has a will. This thought, familiar as it is to us, was a thought to which man by searching could not attain. God is no mere personification or idealisation of accident or destiny. God is t no mechanical setter in motion or preserver in motion of the wheel of nature or the world of being.

I. God’s will concerning us.—God has a will concerning each one of us.

(a) Concerning our condition. The will of God is that we should become a new creation by means of the work of the Holy Ghost.

(b) Concerning our conduct. ‘It is the will of God that ye stand perfect and complete.’ Can any lot be abject, can any life be trivial, can any day or hour be without its glory if the eye of God is upon it, and if the mind of God is exercised upon its being this or that?

(c) Concerning our destiny. The words are His own. He will have all men to be saved. He would have you for one of those vessels of mercy which He hath before prepared unto glory.

II. Christ’s relations.—‘The same is My brother and sister and mother.’ There is a higher than any natural relationship into which he enters who has drunk Christ’s Spirit. He that doeth the will of God is Christ’s brother. Not connected with Him by home or parentage, he shall have a dearer and a closer tie still; he shall have the same spirit; he shall be nearer to Him for ever than the dearest son of His mother could have been to Him for one moment below; he shall have Christ to dwell in his heart by faith, and he who so dwells shall be not more his God than his brother.

Dean Vaughan.