ELEMENTARY TRUTH
ELEMENTARY TRUTH
“Christ God’s power and God’s wisdom”, 1 Corinthians 1: 24. Now these are two distinct lines of truth; the one, which is the power of God, for the conscience; the other, which is the wisdom of God, for the spiritual mind. Christ comprises both. The apostle says, “That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect”, etc. Now to the wisdom the babes in Christ should be gently led on; but the power, what the grace of God is in dealing with a ruined sinner, ought to be within the comprehension of the true hearted, however young in the school. Nevertheless it will be found, in daily converse with souls, that even this, elementary though it be, is very feebly apprehended; nay, that the divine idea in renewing a soul is seldom or never laid hold of; and if this be not laid hold of there can be no correct or adequate conception of what new birth is. I believe it is at the very foundation that the real cause of weakness in souls is to be found. And one of the evidences of how the will is in this weakness — for it is nothing but the flesh — is the obduracy and slowness of souls to lay hold of God’s idea in sending His Son to bless them. If you ask believers in general what they consider is elementary, you will find that it is something which is to contribute to man as man is. Now the grace of God begins entirely outside, reveals His Son in me. I am daily more convinced that the reason why souls call God’s idea — and, blessed be His name, His accomplished purpose, that He has given us eternal life in His Son — ‘high truth’, is because they do not want to cease conferring with flesh and blood.
Surely our Lord’s wondrous words in John 4 as to the “gift of God” were elementary; or, at least, He considered that they were not above the reach of the poor, ignorant, and abandoned woman of Samaria; yet [p. 2] if such truth were insisted on in the present day, there is no doubt that all who desire to gratify their reputable tastes and foster their ambition, would designate it ‘high truth’. It was the definiteness of God’s idea for man that our blessed Lord then enunciated: “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”. This I believe is what is not sufficiently insisted on in this day, though most elementary; and, to the true-hearted soul, it will always be with the voice of the Son of God.
Souls like forgiveness to be preached, and they like to enjoy it; and though forgiven, to lie on their beds just as palsied as ever (see Mark 2: 8 - 12), only more comfortably as to conscience, which is quieted by being delivered from the fear of judgment; but they have no idea of what is God’s thought for them by the gift of eternal life in His Son, for if they had they would take up their beds and walk. I fear what people call ‘high truth’ is too often, even as it was with the scribes and Pharisees in our Lord’s day, something which they do not wish to understand.