It is not difficult to exaggerate human things. They are, by nature, so small that one can almost unsuspectingly cross the line. It’s so easy that we have invented a score of words to describe the phenomenon. The poet calls it hyperbole. The artist speaks of coloring the truth. The lawyer names it misrepresentation; the sportsman, a fish story.
I don’t wish to exaggerate, but we always seem to be doing it. Especially in this age of Madison Avenue advertising with its constant use of superlatives. So it is with a sense of relief that we turn to divine things. See the sweeping vistas, the soaring peaks, and unplumbed depths of God’s things. You will never come to the end of them.
In order to “speak with stammering lips and another tongue” (Isa. 28:11)–to reach down to man and the cramped confines of his intellect–God uses some verbal mirrors to reflect heavenly truth to the sons of men.
He speaks of our sin being put into the depths of the sea, as if out of sight is out of existence. It is much like a father hiding a coin or candy from his child and saying, “All gone.” How can we fathom that our sin really is all gone? It is. And the picture of the sea helps us. The reality is far greater than that, but this is as close as we may approach it. Exaggerate the picture if you like; His mercy is deeper than that.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:9). Is it the atmospheric heavens He is speaking about? Probably (see the next verse). But it doesn’t really matter. A few miles or a few million light years–neither come close to reflecting the chasm between how God acts and thinks and how I do. Exaggerate the picture. Use your largest telescope; His ways are higher than that.
Never do such attempts to reach down to our level become so obviously understated as when we have word pictures painted of the Christ. I do not mean to say they are not delightful. They are as much as we can grasp down here. But if Sheba’s monarch was overcome with the kingdom of Solomon, whose glory was surpassed by a scarlet anemone growing on the Galilean hillside, what shall we say of this Rose of Sharon, this Lily of the Valley? If a star shining over Bethlehem brought wise men from the east, what will you tell me about the Bright and Morning Star, the Sun of Righteousness, the brightest luminary in God’s heaven? Exaggerate the pictures as far as you can. Fill the world with such flowers; fill the sky with such stars. He is fairer than that.
He is the most regal lion that ever emblazoned the field; the lamb that never strayed, even unto death; the hind of the morning, hounded yet harmless among the bulls and dogs that surrounded Him. He is the lone sparrow with the sweetest song; the eagle who carries her young on her wings; the gentle dove, pure and faithful. He is the tree planted by the river of God; the root out of dry ground; as stately as the cedar; as fruitful as the apple; as enriching as the olive.
He is the fruit-bearer; He is the burden-bearer; He is the sin-bearer; and shall be the glory-bearer.
He is the most eloquent orator–the incarnate Word. He is the most celebrated artist–He decorated the universe. He is the most gracious host–He has opened heaven to us. He is the greatest conqueror–the worlds will fall at His feet.
Let men speak of their plans and schemes; let them plot their exaggerated empires. All are too small for the soul that has gazed at Christ. It is not that we think too big. It is that we are far too easily pleased. Why settle for organization when you can enter into the enjoyment of oneness with Him? Why stoop to membership fees and their dubious benefits, when you can have “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” in Him?
If only the Laodicean church had responded to the longing of Paul, their future might have been quite different: “That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For . . . yet am I with you in spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ” (Col. 2:2-5).
Christ–nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.