THE ADVENT AND THE PRESENCE
‘Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me,) to do Thy will, O God.’
The Greek word which we have translated ‘I come,’ is more than that; it is more than that, it is stronger. It is—‘I am come. I am come.’ The expression denotes two things: that He came, and that where He comes He stays. ‘I am come,’ implies the two facts—the Advent and His presence. ‘I am come.’ He came! He came to take our sins from us. He came to die, to be our Substitute. And now, having done that, He stays. ‘I am come.’ He is with us still—our Companion, our Brother, our Guide, our Friend. And this is the Father’s will.
I. The Son of God has come.—He has been actually born, as we were born, that He has grown up, as we have grown up—an infant, a child, a boy, a youth, a man—that He loved as we love—for He did—that He has gone through all the experiences—that His body was like ours, that His body has hungered, and thirsted, and fainted, and wearied; that it was tortured and died; that it was bruised and buried and rose again; how real! how full of sympathy! how comforting! how strengthening! how ennobling! how encouraging! what a dignity! what a fellowship! what a sweetness is this in every passage of life. How it elevates and consecrates our humanity. ‘I am come.’
II. He is here still.—The expression ‘I am come’ implies I am here still. ‘I am, at this moment, at your side. I stay. I shall not go. I never go. I am come. Invisible, but quite as true, I am here now. I am here now. One day you will see Me visibly, but I am here now. Then I shall be visible. You will see Me again with your bodily eyes quite plainly, quite plainly.’ Oh! how much is wrapped up in that word—‘I am come!’ What a different world—how cold, how empty, how hard it would be to every one who believes the doctrine, if that word were taken away, ‘I am come.’
—Rev. James Vaughan.