THE WORK AND THE GIFT
THE WORK AND THE GIFT
The greatness of grace is that we are not only saved, and that we shall never come into judgment, but on the very spot, so to speak, where once there was no escape, like Noah in the deluge, on the same spot are we now, like him before the altar, in favour with God (Genesis 8: 20). Our present state is what I speak of. It is not merely to have no fear of judgment, great as that grace is; but the finish of grace is to set us in the very scene of our misery and alienation, in the Spirit of life in Him who by His death has saved us. To save us by undergoing what was due to us is amazing grace, but His love is not satisfied with saving us; He must put us in His own power here. David saved Jonathan, when at the risk of his own life he encountered and killed Goliath; but if Jonathan had clung to David, he would have shared in his royal glories. I mean that we are not only assured now of the perfection of Christ’s [p. 257] work on our behalf, but we are set here in His power - the power in which He walked here. The work of salvation has been done, and in proportion as we have entered into it, we know that we are in favour. But not only so; the Spirit has been given to us, so that it is not merely that we rejoice in what has been done for us, but we are in victory here, because of what has been given to us. Thus there is a twofold enjoyment; the enjoyment of the thing done, and the enjoyment of the thing given; we get both by the same Person - our Lord Jesus Christ; yet there is a difference in the enjoyment; it is the difference between the sense of existence, and the activities and progress growing out of strength in the existence.
A tree or a flower not only lives, but it appropriates the soil, and utilises the climate in order to produce leaves and fruit. Now this last is quite another sense from existence. The existence is a permanent reality, the activities or producing power a series of victories. I was once here a blighted, noxious plant; but now through grace born again, I have a new life, eternal life; and in the power of the Spirit of God, I am to be here, in the scene of my deepest humiliation, consciously in divine exaltation.
Thus I have this twofold enjoyment: one, that I am a new creation; and the other, that I have been given a wondrous power - the Spirit; I can do all things through Him who gives me power. It is not only rescue or safety, it is victory; and that, not in heaven, but on the field of battle, in the valley of the slain, and in the very presence of the foe.
May you not only grow as a tree by the rivers of water, but may the Spirit of God lead you into present victory over every obstacle; so that you may have an increasing enjoyment through what has been given to you, as you have a most sure and perfect interest in that which has been done for you.