THE BEGINNING AND FINISH OF GRACE]

THE BEGINNING AND FINISH OF GRACE]

There are two sides to the gospel — God’s side and man’s side. Every believer has relief when he knows that he is safe from judgment, but that is only his own side. It is when I see from whence the grace comes that I begin to be “merry”. The grace comes down to me in the lowest place from the heart of God in the highest place; and when I have truly learned grace I come to the highest from the lowest. It is not then relief from the lowest that occupies me, but an eager pressing on to know more ^[p. 63] of the highest. It is the same grace that has saved me from the lowest place which has given me the highest place, but the more I enter into the grace the more I press on. Grace is like a rope let down to a drowning man, not only to deliver him from a watery grave, but to place him in the very spot where the rope came from.

Through grace you have as much right to be at God’s end of the rope as to be out of, and free of, the misery on your own side. If you are only occupied with your own side, the most you arrive at is relief, but when you reach God’s side you begin to be merry, and then God is the strength of your heart and your portion for ever.

Do not be too ready to lend yourself to the sorrows around you without seeking to enter into the joys which are yours in His presence.

God has secured through the work of Christ all that His heart desired for His children, and all of it is our property for ever. Each believer is a son in the life of the Son with a place in the Father’s house for ever; and if we were with the Lord (either if He came or if we went to Him through death) we should be in the full enjoyment of our own.

The only question is — How are we to enjoy our own now? If we be dead with him we believe that we shall also live with him. By His death all has been obtained for us, and we by faith accept death with Him. We enjoy Him who is our life. I hope you understand all this.