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I. A HOLY COMPLACENCY IN HIM. We cannot be well pleased with anything unless we see a suitableness in it to us. There is a three-fold suitableness of Christ.

1. A suitable ness to the Divine perfections concerned in the salvation of sinners that is sweetly discerned by the believer and acquiesced in (1 Corinthians 1:23-24).

2. A suitableness of Christ to the ease of the soul which the believer sees and is pleased with. If you lodge a starving man in a palace, clothe him with costly attire, and fill his pockets with gold, what good can these do him? They are not meat, and so are not suitable to his case. But Christ is to ours every way (1 Corinthians 1:30-31), and no one else is.

(1) As He is God-man; the Mediator answering at once the honour of God and the sinner's necessities.

(2) In His offices. As Prophet, the Interpreter of the Father's mind; as Priest, the Atonement and Intercessor; as King, the Conqueror and Ruler.

3. A suitableness to the mind, or we could not rejoice in Him. He is suited to every unbeliever's case, but alas! not to their minds. Give a natural man his idols, the drunkard his cups, the miser his gold, these are suitable to their mind, but as unsuitable to their case as a sword for a madman or poison for the sick. But the believer is made partaker of the Divine nature, and Christ is, therefore, suitable not only to his case but to his mind (1 Peter 2:4; Psalm 73:25). There is none beside Him, none like Him, none after Him — the altogether lovely. Believers are pleased at heart —

(1) That He should build the temple of the Lord, and have the glory of it (Zechariah 6:12-13) as is appointed of God. But this suits not the minds of natural men (1 Peter 2:7-8).

(2) With His laws (Isaiah 33:22). Christ's yoke is welcome to them because His law is suitable to them, and they to it (Psalm 119:128), for it is written on their hearts.

(3) With the fulness of the spirit of sanctification which He communicates (1 Corinthians 1:30-31). There is nothing the true believer rejoices in more than the Christ-given spirit of holiness imparted, enjoyed, and acted out.

II. A ROLLING OF THE SOUL OVER ON HIM FOR ALL.

1. Their weight of guilt — "through faith in His blood" (Romans 3:25). Christ is the city of refuge from the law.

2. Their weight of duties.

(1) For performance. Christ lays His yoke upon the believer, and he receives it and lays himself and it again on Christ the fountain of strength. Hence it becomes an easy yoke, which before was insupportable. For duties are a dead weight while laid on by the hand of the law (John 15:5), but from Christ the believer receives a kind of derived omnipotency (Philippians 4:13; Philippians 2:13). He makes the will for the work, and the work for us when He has wrought the will for it.

(2) For acceptance (Hebrews 11:4). Duties rightly done are the returns of influences from heaven which are communicated from Christ, and so go back through Him.

III. A REST OF THE HEART IN CHRIST AS A FIT MATCH FOR THE SOUL. For as in marriage there is first a view of such a person as a fit match, whereupon follows choice and acceptance; and in case the person chosen answer the expectation, there ariseth a rest which is solid joy, so it is when the soul is pleased with Christ. There is found in Him —

1. Rest for the conscience: otherwise there is none except where it be lulled to sleep. Now Christ finds His elect seeking rest and finding none in the law; He gives it them through His blood (Hebrews 9:14; 1 John 1:7).

2. Rest for the heart.

(1) Our hearts are full of desires of happiness which crave for satisfaction. Hence universal human restlessness.

(2) The natural man goeth through the dry places of the creature seeking rest and finding none (Jeremiah 2:3; Ecclesiastes 10:15; Isaiah 55:2). Christ finds His elect thus wandering, and discovers Himself as the fountain of satisfaction, and the desires of the soul centreing and meeting in Christ abide in Him and are satisfied (Psalm 73:25; Philippians 4:18; 2 Samuel 23:5).

IV. A CONFESSION OF CHRIST UNTO SALVATION. This is plainly intimated in the original "glorying in Christ." As the image of God impressed on man's soul at creation shone through his body, as a candle through a lantern, so that complacency, confidence, and rest of the heart in Christ will shine forth in the life.

1. With respect to the believer's ordinary conversation.

(1) This inward rejoicing wears off the air of pride (1 Peter 5:5).

(2) Grace will circumcise the self-commending lips.

(3) Gracious souls will readily discover in their serious converse a tendency towards the grace of Christ.

(4) Rejoicing in Christ will make men tender in their judgment of others (Galatians 6:1).

(5) Such as rejoice in Christ will have familiar converse with the Word, and relish of it (Isaiah 59:21).

(6) They will have a respect to the place where Christ's honour dwells, and to ordinances (Psalm 63:1-2).

2. With respect to suffering.

(1)  The saints will keep on Christ's side though it be lowest.

(2)  They will be resigned and contented.

(3)  They will glory in any cross Christ puts upon them.

(T. Boston, D. D.)

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KJV: For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

WEB: For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh;