"God is my Savior; and inasmuch as he saves me by bringing me into blessed relations to himself, clothes me with the garment of his own unsullied righteousness, and makes me to bear his image, I may well speak of him as my salvation.
It is not merely the exaltation of Christ, but the condescension of God, that attracts him to the gospel. He does not merely add divinity to him who sat upon the margin of the well at Sychar, and who sailed upon the lake of Gennesaret; he adds humanity to the infinite God."
— George Bowen (1816–1888) · The White Sadhu of Bombay"He does not merely add divinity to Christ; he adds humanity to the infinite God."
— George Bowen · The direction that matters is downward. God descending.✦ The Direction That Matters
Not upward — Christ elevated to divinity. Downward — God descending to humanity. The Lord of Glory quitting His throne. The injured Prince veiling His glory. The Shepherd taking a crook. The condescension is the gospel. And the descent — to Sychar, to Gennesaret, to Calvary, to a midnight hospital in Lubbock — is the measure of the love.
"It is one thing to hold the doctrine of Christ's divinity, and it is another to draw from the doctrine its fullness of blessing.
Many that are accustomed to read the gospel have no idea of the power with which its statements would come to their soul, if they would allow this doctrine to flash its light upon the words."
— George Bowen (1816–1888)✦ Held but Not Drawn From
Many hold the doctrine. Few draw from it. The difference is not intelligence — it is attention. Let the doctrine flash its light upon the words of Christ, and the familiar sentences become unfamiliar in their power.
"How long shall he be with us unknown and unperceived; how long shall the boundless and ever-present riches of his grace be offered us in vain?
'He that has seen me has seen the Father.' Let us labor to connect the idea of the Almighty, the Ever-living, Ever-present one, with the words and acts of Christ."
— George Bowen (1816–1888)"How long shall he be with us unknown and unperceived?"
— George Bowen · God is not absent. He is unperceived. The sun is shining. The eyes are closed.The problem has never been distance. It has been perception. Guyon said He is more truly in us than we are in ourselves. Bowen says He is not far from any one of us. The sun shines — intercepted but never withheld. The holy of holies is within. And the soul that opens its eyes finds what was always there.
"I trusted Christ as my Savior and Lord many decades ago. The trust is still the same, because He did not change His mind about me."
Many decades of trust met by many decades of faithfulness. The rock does not vacillate. The sun does not grow weary. God is not only faithful — He is faithfulness itself. He must cease to be Himself before He can be unfaithful. And the soul that trusted Him at the beginning finds Him the same today. He did not change His mind.
The Condescension
Not Christ elevated but God descending. Adding humanity to the infinite God. The direction is downward. The descent is the measure of the love.
Unperceived, Not Absent
How long shall He be with us unknown? The problem is never distance. It is perception. The sun shines. Open the eyes and find what was always there.
He Did Not Change His Mind
Many decades of trust met by many decades of faithfulness. The rock does not vacillate. The trust is the same because the One trusted is the same.