“The greatest design of Christ in this world is mightily to endear the hearts of His people; and indeed it was that which was in His eye and upon His heart from all eternity.
It was this design that caused Him to lay down His crown and to take up our cross, to put off His robes and to put on our rags, to be condemned that we might be justified, to undergo the wrath of the Almighty that we might forever be in the arms of his mercy.
He gives His Spirit, His grace, and His very self, and all to endear the hearts of His people to Himself.
Certainly the gifts that Jesus Christ gives to His own do render Him very acceptable and precious in their eyes. Christ to them is the crown of crowns, the heaven of heavens, the glory of glories.
He is the most sparkling diamond in the ring of glory. ‘A man’s gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men.’ (Prov. 18:16)
The gifts that Jesus Christ gives widen the heart and enlarge the soul of a believer to take in more of Himself. Naturally we are narrow-mouthed heavenward and wide-mouthed earthward.
But the Lord Jesus, by casting in His jewels, His pearls, His precious gifts, into the soul, doth widen the soul, and enlarge the soul, and make it more capacious to entertain Himself.
Christ by His gifts causes all doors to stand open, that ‘the King of glory may enter in’ (Ps. 24:7–10).”
–Thomas Brooks, “The Unsearchable Riches of Christ,” The Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 3, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1866/2001), 3: 114.
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