THE first question for every unconverted soul is, In what way do you view the gospel? Is it something required of you, or what God proposes to do for you? There is a great difference.
The prodigal son said, " I will arise, and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned... make me as one of thy hired servants." That was a good beginning, but grace was lost. He was converted, I doubt not, but he had not the sense of grace. Grace is this, blessing originating in the mind of Him who confers it. You see I have no claim on it; it is not what you propose, but what God offers. The prodigal had not the sense of grace when he said, “Make me as one of thy hired servants." Thank God, He did not listen to him.
I cannot explain what grace is, I can only believe it. Look how the prodigal was surprised. He said, Cover my need, make me a servant. Does God's gospel cover your need? Yes, and immensely beyond it too. Man has no conception of what God is.
Grace is unmerited favor, without any claim. What shall I do then? Tell God everything. He has got grace, so I will leave it to Him. He will do exceeding abundantly above all I ask or think. I am not proposing to Him what to do, but I leave it to Himself. He will not only relieve the prodigal in his sin, but will reconstitute him in the place of his misery.
When God comes to act, He acts for Himself; and the great thing is this, that He will reconstitute man in the very spot where He found him in his misery. When man failed in Eden, God said the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. There was a remarkable thing besides, He made coats of skins for Adam and Eve, and clothed them. I put great emphasis on clothed them. He did not turn them out till they had got a sample of His grace on their backs; He put them on them. We get the antitype in the prodigal; the father does not say "Give him a coat," but, "Put it on him." This is grace. There is a great mistake made by many, they judge whether they have a thing or not by their experience of it. You must have it first; the coat must be on, before you can feel it; God must show a palpable evidence of His grace.
In the Old Testament, the faithful servants were types of Christ; in the New, they are His followers. David was pre-eminently a type of Christ. The tale is this,— his father sent him to see how his brethren fared. God sent Christ. I am a ruined sinner, and never could make reparation; get hold of that, it was man created the distance from God. You can do nothing, not even give the fruit of your body for the sin of your soul; but God says, "Look to Me.” He said to Cain, " If thou doest not well, a sin-offering lieth at the door.”
David, when he comes, finds them all in a state of despair from the giant— death. Death was there, and is everywhere. I do not believe you are sufficiently aware of it. What do you know about death? You will have to, one day. Man is the only creature on the face of the earth who has the fear of death; even the little child says, “Me not going to die." The horse has none; it will go up to the cannon's mouth, and may die, but it has no fear of dying. Death is the wages of sin. All the people were in dreadful, deplorable distress, through fear of death. Christ came to “deliver them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
Now I turn from what Christ has done, to the sinner, to Jonathan. How do you get rid of fear? You cannot get rid of it till you have it; you must have it first. "Knowing the terror of the Lord,” Paul said. The Philippian jailer was in abject fear, he was brought into the reality of it. Do not think I am going to cut off all your pleasures; wait, and I will show you that God places you in a condition, on this earth, surpassing all you can think of.
What is Jonathan thinking of? He thinks, Who is, this stranger? Then someone has come,—Christ is come. Jonathan is in the anxious state; he looks, he does nothing else; I daresay he did not move a muscle. He sees the stranger come forth, he sees the stone thrown, and Goliath fall. What a great relief. He is hopeful now, not happy yet, but hopeful; he sees the giant down. What have you to do? You have to do the same; keep looking. You have all seen a telescope? the longer you look the clearer it becomes, though it was hazy at first. You keep looking, it is the secret of the gospel.
Jonathan was intently gazing on David, and he saw him take Goliath's sword from its scabbard and cut off his head. He is in the assured stage now, and he turns from Goliath to David; he says, “I'm clear of the foe now, judgment, and everything; "therefore," the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David." What footing is he on now? on the same as David; they are one in the matter. This is the simple history of a converted soul, you will exchange the fear of Goliath for the love of David. Jonathan is in David's position now, his victory is Jonathan's. “Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Let us now apply this from the New Testament, —"As he is so are we in this world."—" Boldness in the day of judgment." Love is thus perfected in us; it is hardly comprehensible, you do not understand it, the magnitude of it is immense, but you could not shrink from saying that Jonathan was on the same footing as David. The believer is God's Son. If you could only have the sense of what satisfies God,-His love in us! no fear! Fear hath torment. Do you never fear? I could not say that. But fear is not a question of your being saved; but he that feareth is not made perfect in love.
Remark, Christ has come to satisfy the heart of God, not only to satisfy my conscience. People do not understand the difference between love and benevolence. Let me try and explain. Benevolence is doing the best for its object according to its ability; Love delights in its object, and is never satisfied until it gets its ideal. God has no delight in me; no, but He has in Christ. It is His purpose that we "should be conformed to the image of his Son.” He says,—I can come to the poor sinner, and my heart can go out towards him. He says,—I love that man, that poor prodigal; my heart can go out and take him in my arms; how surprised he was when I kissed him! Christ not only knew the nature of the offense before God, because He bore it, but He knew the heart of God for the sinner. He proved Himself to be the Son of God, because He knew it; He was His equal.
God commends His love toward us; He does not insist, but commend. To illustrate the difference between benevolence and love-You see a sick child, and its mother, and the doctor. The doctor attends it, he is a most benevolent man, and the child recovers. He says, “I am delighted to see you recover; good morning." That is benevolence. The mother is full of emotion, she clasps the child in her arms, —that is love.
Nothing can satisfy the heart of God but to see you in Christ. How would you represent a converted man on earth? What would you recommend him to think of? Think of God's love to you, what is in His heart; and not of self, nothing that is in you at all. Eve turned her back on God to see her advantages; she was different from the prodigal, he turned to God. She was a first-rate housekeeper, —she saw that the fruit was good for food; she was an artistic person,—it was pleasant to the eyes; and she was intellectual,—it was to be desired to make one wise, it was highly esteemed among men. She turned her back on God. Her son, what did he do? He said, " I have gone that way long enough; looked art my advantages long enough; no man gave unto me." He turns the opposite way from his mother, and goes to God. You will find out, when too late, that there is goodness in God; the prodigal found that there was goodness there.
There are two things that Christ has done, — He went into death to get me out of it; He went up to the Father and sent down the Holy Ghost, and sets me in a new place. Take as an example the lame man who sat begging at the beautiful gate of the temple. What a wonderful change in him! You do not get better perhaps, but you get grace to be superior to your circumstances. He is walking, leaping, and praising God; he is in a new position outwardly and inwardly; 1st, he is no longer lame; 2nd, he is praising God.
He is a pattern man.
The Lord says in John 7, “If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink," &c. There are two things I want to rest in your souls. Christ went into death to get me out of it, and went into heaven and sent down the Holy Ghost to unite me to Himself, so that, "as He is, so are we in this world,” —a new man like the lame man. It is a marvelous change—alteration; it was not in Eden, —never found before; it is superior to the grandest festival in Israel. “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water," You are made a contributor to this poor earth now. The grace of God sets you in divine contrast to the misery in which it found you. “As He is, so are we." Oh, if we could conceive the magnificence of divine grace!
Turn to Mark 5, it will help to elucidate the subject. When the Lord begins, in the gospel of Mark, He comes in contact with all kinds of misery that afflict the human state,—fever, sickness, leprosy; but, except the palsied man, He does not alter the condition. Most of the gospel that is preached is relief, not a new state. Christians follow the fashions. But I'm a new man, and it must come out in the smallest detail. It is the greatest man who can do the smallest things. There are three cases in this 5th chapter. The Lord says, "I'll show you what I want to relieve,—man." Where? In the spot of his misery. The first is the man whose name is Legion; the Lord sends him home to show what great things had been done. Then the woman who had spent all her living on physicians. Well, how do you feel? “My body is well, and I am in peace." The third is the dead girl raised to life. Where? In the same place. He will not only deliver you, but reconstitute you.
In John 4 Christ says, "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst." If I get to heaven, say you, I shall be perfectly happy. Jesus replies, You shall be perfectly happy here if you take my Spirit, you will never get to the end of it. What, never thirst? Yes, in the old things you may; I may see a fine house, or estate, or something that I should like. What then? The Spirit shows me something infinitely better in Christ, and I am perfectly happy without it. I ask everyone to turn the eye up; look at what is the goodness of God, look not in your own heart but in God's, you will see good there; then you are converted. He delights to bless His creatures where He is Himself. The heart that learns His love can only say, "I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving, This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs." God values thanksgiving more than all else you could give Him. J. B. S.
THE conscience of the believer, and the value of the sacrifice, are the reflection one of the other. If the sacrifice be imperfect, the conscience cannot be purged; but if perfect, as Christ's was, how perfectly purged is the conscience of him who draws near to God by that sacrifice!