From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part four of a series of selections from chapter three of
Profiting From the Word by Arthur W. Pink

Edited by Dr. Paul M. Elliott, President, TeachingTheWord Ministries

The more you delight yourself in Christ's divine attributes, the less appeal this world will have for you, and the less hold it will have upon you.

In our last article, Arthur Pink dealt with the issue of the reality of Christ in the life of the believer. For many believers He is but a dim figure, or they carry a mental image of the characterizations of Christ in religious art. But it is a far different matter to have personal dealings with the genuine Christ of Scripture. In the next section of Profiting From the Word, Pink deals with the issue of the believer's need to gain an ever deeper knowledge of the divine attributes of the Second Person of the Godhead:

An individual is profited from the Scriptures when he becomes more engrossed with Christ's perfections [His divine attributes]. It is a sense of need which first drives the soul to Christ, but it is the realization of His excellency which draws us to run after Him. The more real Christ becomes to us, the more are we attracted by His perfections.

At the beginning He is viewed only as a Saviour, but as the Spirit continues to take of the things of Christ and show them unto us we discover that upon His head are 'many crowns' (Revelation 19:12). Of old it was said, 'His name shall be called Wonderful' (Isaiah 9:6). His name signifies all that He is as made known in Scripture. 'Wonderful' are His offices, in their number, variety, sufficiency. He is the Friend that sticks closer than a brother, to help in every time of need (Proverbs 18:24, John 15:14-15). He is the great High Priest, who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities (Hebrews 4:15). He is the Advocate with the Father, who pleads our cause when Satan accuses us (1 John 2:1).

Our great need is to be occupied with Christ, to sit at His feet as Mary did, and receive out of His fullness (Luke 10:38-42). Our chief delight should be to 'consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession' (Hebrews 3:1) - to contemplate the various relations which He sustains to us, to meditate upon the many promises He has given, to dwell upon His wondrous and changeless love for us.

As we do this, we shall so delight ourselves in the Lord that the siren voices of this world will lose all their charm for us. Ah, my reader, do you know anything about this in your own actual experience? Is Christ the chief among ten thousand to your soul? Has He won your heart? Is it your chief joy to get alone and be occupied with Him? If not, your Bible reading and study has profited you little indeed.

There is perhaps no more powerfully concise statement of Christ's greatest attributes than these verses from the first chapter of Colossians:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight - if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which you heard... (Colossians 1:15-23)

Next: Is Christ Becoming More Precious to You?

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