STRANGE that the truth of the eternal security of the believer should be regarded by some, as a “dangerous doctrine.” They maintain that it leads to carelessness of walk; and if this were true it would be serious indeed. But let us soberly weigh the matter, and see if it is so.
There can be no doubt that a self-deceived professor may make sad use of this as of any other doctrine. Where there is no genuine work of grace in the soul, no real inward change, there will sure to be self-confidence instead of that self-distrust and self-loathing which ever mark the divinely exercised soul; and in such a state―i.e. without the grace of God in the heart―it will be easy for a man to presume upon the knowledge he has in his head, and eventually be found guilty of “turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness” (Jude 44For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 4).).
But not so with the true believer. The Spirit of God has wrought in the soul of such a one through faith in the living, abiding word of God. A new moral being has thereby been produced, and not only so, but a wondrous object presented to the soul which it can and does delight in, even the person of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ in all His love and grace.
He has found One who has met his soul’s deep need, and turned his misery into joy unspeakable. His heart’s confidence in Christ Himself has been won. He can point to the glorified Son of God upon the Father’s throne, and say, with overflowing gratitude, “HE LOVED ME, AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME.”
Now, it is only in the enjoyment of this love that the Saviour is rightly served by any. “The love of Christ constraineth us,” says the apostle. And with what result? That we should not henceforth live unto ourselves, but unto Him who died for us, and rose again (2 Cor. 5:1515And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:15)). Mark this well. The motive spring of this devotedness is not the legal, slavish fear of losing our souls if we do not thus serve Him. It is “the love of Christ” that “constraineth us.” We serve in the ready response of loving gratitude. Instead, therefore, of the knowledge of His unchanging love crippling our service or stunting our devotedness, it is the very heart and soul of it.
Ask any thoughtful father into whose hands he can most safely trust his darling child, the nursemaid’s or the mother’s. Inquire which he considers will serve the little one the better. And if his wife is worthy of the sacred name of “mother,” he will tell you that the question needs no answering. The mother would have the preference, of course. And why? Because these two persons must necessarily serve the child from different motives. The nursemaid serves for wages, and knows that she may get her discharge any day that she misbehaves herself, or fails to serve acceptably. But how different with the mother! She has no fear of discharge, and yet she serves the child better; for she serves with all the instincts and untiring energies of a mother’s love. Her very nature, as a mother, constrains her to loving diligence in the little one’s behalf, and nothing would grieve her more than to discover she had served her precious child badly.
Now, just as the mother’s nature finds an object which she delights to serve, so the renewed nature in the believer finds such an attraction in Christ that he takes pleasure in serving Him, and shrinks from grieving Him. He has not only been saved by Christ from coming judgment, and given to know it, but, as born of God, he has been made partaker of a “divine nature”―a nature which “loves righteousness” and “hates iniquity”; indeed, he has a nature which in itself “CANNOT SIN” because it is “BORN OF GOD” (see 1 John 3:99Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. (1 John 3:9); vs. 18).
The evil nature, however, still exists in every Christian, so that, “if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
But what, it may be asked, if, in forgetfulness or unwatchfulness, this indwelling sin is allowed to act? The answer is plain, and simple, and full of comfort― “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:11My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: (1 John 2:1)). The same love that died for me will now give itself no rest until I am restored once more to happy communion with the Father. Oh, how He loves! He saves to the uttermost them that come to God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them. “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end” (John 13:11Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. (John 13:1)) He ever liveth. He ever loveth. There is nothing that breaks, down the heart like the knowledge of His changeless love.
It was the Saviour’s look of love that broke Peter’s heart after his shameful denial of Him. And it is the same love that breaks ours.
How sad it is, then, that so many truly converted souls, instead of serving in that happy liberty with which the mother serves the one she loves, are, to all appearance, serving the Lord with all the bondage and restraint of the hired nurse; and even thinking that it would be a deathblow to devotedness to serve otherwise I May the reader be able to say―
“I would not work my soul to save―
That work my Lord has done;
But I would work like any slave,
From love to God’s dear Son.”