Consider God's Mercy More than the Angels Do

Do consider what a loving God we have, who would not be so much in love with his only Son as to keep him to himself; a God that accounts himself most glorious in those attributes that are most for our comfort. He accounts himself glorious not so much for his wisdom, power, or justice, as for his mercy and grace, for his love of man. Will we not be inflamed with a desire to gratify him, who has joined his glory with our salvation; who accounts himself glorious in his mercy above all other attributes? The angels—who do not have that benefit by Christ as we have—sing from heaven, 'Glory to God on high.' Will we who reap the crop be so dead and frozen-hearted as not to acknowledge this glory of God breaking out in the gospel, the glory of his mercy and rich grace?
The apostle is so full when he comes to his theme that he cannot speak without words of amplification, once calling it 'rich grace' (Eph. 1:7), another time standing in admiration: 'Oh, the depth of the riches' (Rom. 11:33). The best testimony that can be given of glorious things is when we admire them. Now is there anything else so admirable about which we could say, 'Oh the height and depth,’ as we may of the love of God in Christ? I beseech you, let us often stand in admiration of the love of God to us in Christ. 'God so loved the world' (John 3:16). How? We cannot tell how. ‘So' is beyond all expression.
Oh, base nature, that we are dazzled by anything but that which we should most admire. How few of us spend our thoughts considering God's wonderful mercy and grace in Christ, when there is no object in the world so sweet and comforting as this. The very angels desire to pry into the mystery of our salvation by Christ. They are mere students. They pry into the secrets of God's love in bringing his people to heaven. Will they do it, and will we not study and admire these things, that God may have the glory?

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Glorious Freedom, pp. 77-78 [85-86]
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