IT would be a terrible thing if all that God did for us was saving us from the punishment of our sins! And yet this thought of being saved from punishment, and of being happy in eternity, is all that man’s thoughts about the Gospel amount to. Yes, even in Christians, so strong is the selfishness of the natural heart, that we too often find that their chief thought about Christ is that He is the means whereby they are saved from hell. Self, self, is the hurtful weed springing up constantly even in the renewed heart. If we get beyond the thought of being saved from hell, and think what it will be to be in heaven, our natural hearts will be filled only with selfish thoughts even of heaven. We do not perhaps, like Mahomet, think of heaven as a place where our senses are to be pleased and indulged, a place of eating and drinking, and of bodily enjoyment only. But though we should have learned to have higher thoughts of the happiness of heaven, would they after all be higher, in many cases, than simply that self is to be pleased in a higher way? That we shall have no more sickness nor pain; that we shall meet again those whom we have loved; that we shall die no more is, alas, all the heaven to be found in many sermons, in many hymns, in many hearts!
How little do we enter into God’s thoughts for us! As little, very often, as an infant into his mother’s thoughts about him. That he should have a toy is his thought of happiness; well for him that his mother’s thoughts go further, and well for us that God’s thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor His ways as our ways. That we are saved from condemnation must be the first thought with the sinner who is brought into the knowledge of the gospel. Thus we find in the Old Testament that the Sin offering, which was the picture of the putting away of the judgment upon sin, was first to be offered. But when God spoke of the offerings, as they ranked in His mind, He began with the great Burnt offering, which tells what the death of Christ is to God. But we have to learn from the other end, so to speak, and to see first what Christ is to us.
E. D. had learned, through the wondrous teaching of the Holy Ghost, how sin was put away; that God saw her sin no more, and would never see it again, because Christ had borne the awful judgment which she had read of in the terrible verses she had been copying out during the past forty days. What a flood of light and joy now poured in upon her soul! But this was not all she had to learn on that happy day. All at once, the ribbon-weaver’s sermons, which she had read them, came into her mind, and seemed to her as though they had been suddenly and instantly made clear to her. She was now aware that she had never understood them before, and for the rest of the day she was simply lost in wonder at what she now saw for the first time. “it was not merely,” the ribbon-weaver had said, “that Christ died, He is also risen again,” and in words to this effect, he added, “if you know what Christ’s death is to you, you now have to learn what His resurrection is. It is not merely a fact that Christ rose from the dead as an event in history, but as His death was your death so is His resurrection your resurrection. It is you, dead soul, who awake through the mighty power of God, in consequence of Christ’s death, to a new life. You are alive with His life. You come out of the grave of sin and self, and are alive for evermore with a life you never had before, which will bring forth in you the works which are pleasing to God.” Yes, not only forgiveness of sin: but eternal life. Did you ever consider how distinct these two things are? And what a terrible thing, I would repeat, it would be for us to have the first only. To be save from judgment and yet to have the same evil, miserable nature forever. What place of torment would heaven be to us What a life of misery the eternal existence would be! But “this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” Yes, the same life that is in Christ Himself is in the believer. You might think it a great deal if God put into you the life of an angel. But how much more, how infinitely more, is the gift that He has given―the “life that is in His Son.’
It is no wonder that E. D. was so utterly amazed at this wondrous truth that she could do nothing for the rest of that day and for some days following but simply enjoy it. It did occur to her once or twice that this fathomless tide of blessing had come to her through one who was just like the foreigner she had read of in the other book, not a member of what she had once called the one Catholic Church, but a simple, unlearned working man, who held meetings and preaching’s such as she had thought to be sinful and contemptible. But when the thought came she could only answer “I know that what I have learned is Christ, and if it contradicts my old thoughts they must go to the four winds.”
She had to return the book soon after to its owner; but she often read it over in memory. That little old-fashioned shabby book was the only book, except the word of God, which now seemed to her to have been worth reading. It had been to her indeed a channel through which the living water had flowed from the risen Christ.
It was now clear to her where good works came from. They were the consequence of the life within, just as the fruit on a tree is the consequence of the living sap flowing through the branches. Here, then, we come to the right explanation of that verse which the lady repeated to the minister in order to prove that we are to work for salvation “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” You cannot work out what is not within, any more than you could pour water out of an empty pitcher. But when the life is there, God looks that it should be worked out in service to Himself; and therefore we are never commanded in scripture to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit, but we are simply told what the fruit is― “Make the tree good, and its fruit good.”
Life to E. D. now became a very different thing, and she began to understand those wonderful words― “I delight to do Thy will, O my God.” It had often seemed to her before simply impossible ever to speak to others about God, as she read in books of people doing. In those days she had satisfied herself with various excuses to account for her never doing it, such as “What people feel deeply about they are not so ready to speak of;” “Only irreverent people would like to talk about such things;” “Deeds are better than words,” &c. It is strange that people who thus excuse themselves do not see what hypocrites they are. As to feeling deeply, Christ is, alas, the One concerning whom they feel nothing. As to reverence, whilst they feel it perhaps towards a stone building, they do not know God, and therefore do not reverence Him in the least. As to deeds, “those that are in the flesh cannot please God,” and the works by which in any measure they satisfy themselves are simply sin in His sight.
E. D. had often imagined she did feel deeply about God and Christ, but she now saw it was a God, a Christ of her own imagination. And having the true God before her eyes, and having seen and heard the living risen Christ by the power of the Holy Ghost, she could but “speak of the things which she had seen and heard.”
Many old friends, many near relations who had thought well of her before, were now up in arms. Scarcely any were otherwise than displeased; but the presence and the blessed companionship of Christ left no room for sorrow or loneliness. Some of the poor seemed willing to listen when told of Christ and His perfect work, and in time many who loved Him took the place of the former friends who had turned away.
All might now have gone on happily with E. D. But, alas, so ready is Satan to take an advantage of us, that even the greatest favors which God can do us may be turned into snares for our feet! It is only too common for believers who are rejoicing in some fresh knowledge of God to make that very joy a hindrance by resting satisfied with that to which they have attained. It is against this that the Holy Ghost warns us in that wonderful chapter, Phil. 3. There is a goal there set before us, and to stop short of that brings darkness, sorrow, and shame upon those who may for a time have run well.
One night, in thinking of the wonderful power of Christ’s resurrection, the further thought came to E. D., “I do not yet know what His ascension is to me. I see that His death was my death, His resurrection my resurrection. But He not only rose, He ascended into heaven, and I have not yet known what that is.”
Had E. D. gone then and there to the Lord Himself for an answer to this question, had she searched the word, and looked in faith for the teaching of the Holy Ghost, the Lord would not have left her in ignorance. But, alas, she contented herself with the thought, “I shall find this out some day.” She looked upon it as some further step, which no doubt she would one day take, but was contented for the present with what she had. We little know what we are doing in neglecting any truth God has revealed.
How many speak of the blessed hope of the Lord’s coming, for example, as something which no doubt it is very happy to believe in, but to have other “views,” as they say, “of prophecy” appears to them a matter of indifference. “After all, if only we love Christ,” many will say, “we must agree to differ about many things: we cannot all see alike;” “All truths are not essential,” &c.
Had E. D. only known how essential was the truth she was neglecting, well would it have been for her. But, alas! she let it pass. Our selfish hearts readily settle clown into contentment when we know we are safe forever. But God will not let His children find rest in anything lower than that in which His own heart can rest forever. E. D. had to learn a further lesson, and to learn it with sorrow and shame in years to come. She did not see that in what God does for His saints He considers what is due to Christ, for it is to reward Christ that He gives blessing to those whom He saves. Therefore to have low thoughts of the blessing which God has for us is to have low thoughts of the wonderful work of Christ, and of His value in God’s sight. But we shall at last, if we are indeed God’s children, be brought to own so fully that all is of Christ, by Christ, and for Christ, that we shall understand why God can give to us such unspeakable blessing and glory. Not only can give, but must give, for Christ’s reward is ours. If He won it, it must be measured by His deserving, not by ours. We shall then no longer sit down satisfied with the thought of “getting inside the door of heaven in some low place.” What a mass of pride is man’s humility! Self, only self! F. B.