“We may behold God in Christ as a tender and condescending Father.
To conclude; let us behold His justice, to humble ourselves under it.
Let us behold His pardoning grace, to have recourse to it under pressures of guilt.
Let us sweeten our affections by the sight of His compassions, and have confidence to call upon Him as a Father in our necessities.
Any discovery of God in Christ is an encouragement to a forlorn creature. His perfections smile upon man. Nothing of God looks terrible in Christ to a believer.
The sun is risen, shadows are vanished, God walks upon the battlements of love, justice hath left its sting in a Saviour’s side, the law is disarmed, weapons out of His hand, His bosom open, His bowels yearn, His heart pants, sweetness and love is in all His carriage.
And this is life eternal, to know God believingly in the glories of His mercy and justice in Jesus Christ.”
–Stephen Charnock, “A Discourse on the Knowledge of God in Christ,” The Works of Stephen Charnock, Volume 4 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1865/2010), 4: 163.
