NOTES ON SCRIPTURE 1895 NO. 19
NOTES ON SCRIPTURE 1895 [p. 63] NO. 19
Levi sitting at the receipt of custom could leave all to follow Christ; this is the great characteristic of the work of grace in the heart. In the language of Canticles the believer can say, “Draw me, we will run after thee”. (Song of Songs 1: 4) The more anyone surveys the greatness of Christ’s work, the more he will see that nothing less becomes the recipient of His grace than following Him. It is not attaching oneself to any religious community, it is simply and wholly following Christ. John 10 opens with the great fact that Christ had entered the fold, He had fulfilled all that was under the law of God, He had come into the fold, not to remain in it, but to lead His sheep out of it. He calls them by name, the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice. He is the door: “By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture”. He gives life abundantly, and He knows His sheep, and is known of them. This characteristic of grace, following Christ, affects all our history here. Peter and others left all and followed Him; John’s disciples left him and followed Jesus. He loves His own; all His heart seeks and asks for is that you should follow Him. “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be”. (John 12:26) The Lord values love more than anything; “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied”. (Isaiah 53: 11)