GREENWICH, MARCH 3RD, 1903
GREENWICH, MARCH 3RD, 1903
Mr. F. F. Jackman.
My Dear Sir, — I have received your letter, it does not appear to me that any good is likely to result from re-opening questions of twelve years ago. You speak of the necessity of separations, but I was always unable to understand why a difference of judgment as to the force of a Scripture term should necessitate separation. I am in no sense disposed to accept the burden of the separation, I have no doubt that many simple people were led away by the cries that were made, but I never had any particular sense of the honesty of those who made them, for if I am not grievously mistaken, the attack made on certain things that I had said, covered up a spirit of opposition to the teaching of a brother far better known and of much more account than myself. As for myself, I hold still as I held at the time, that it was a mistake to put eternal life in the believer in place of the Spirit. The Lord taught that the water that He would give would be in the believer a well of water springing up to eternal life and the apostle Paul teaches that he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life. I am content to leave the matter there, not professing to be wiser than [p. 195] what is written. I may say that I have a very grave objection to a system of doctrine that, in its effects, puts the creature on a level with God, as having life in himself. Every created being is dependent for life on conditions which God has appointed. A new-born babe is dependent on rule (law), air, heat and light, and it is only in these conditions that it could live. They are life to it. The same is true in spiritual things, one born of God is dependent for living on conditions that God has appointed and which are all found in Christ. He has to abide in Christ, to breathe the atmosphere of love in the christian circle and to enjoy the light and warmth of divine love, which are witnessed to him by the Spirit, and it is in these conditions that eternal life is realised. It is God alone who is independent of all conditions. The Spirit is life in the believer and leads him into the realisation of these conditions. I have said thus much in answer to your letter, but I have no mind to enter afresh into controversy on these matters. Many have taken their course influenced largely by the world and they must be content to abide by it.
Yours faithfully in Christ,
F. E. Raven.