THE NURTURE AND ADMONITION OF THE LORD
THE NURTURE AND ADMONITION OF THE LORD
We are left here for two great purposes; one to be of service now, the other to fit us for our appointed place by-and-by. We are useful in service as we learn grace, and we do not value grace but as we know ourselves. Hence there were forty years in the wilderness to teach “that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live” (Deuteronomy 8: 3). I value the grace that forgives me my sins. If I had not had sins I should not have valued the grace which could and did righteously forgive them. It is my need in this scene which casts me upon God, and when I obtain mercy, and find grace, I am relieved of my need, and have received from God, instead of it, so that by the grace of God I am what I am.
Ways and habits of my own liking remain with me unless they have been superseded by grace. When I am led on in the nurture and admonition of the Lord I am not looking for defects in myself, but the word detects me, and grace uses the detection as an opportunity for giving me what is of Christ in its place. In human education the habit or way which my parents or guardians disapprove is condemned, and as I have sense I discontinue it; but under the nurture of the Lord the habit or way which is unsuited to Him is not only disapproved of, but superseded, and the manner of His grace is given to me instead of the one reprobated. Hence to a christian it is said, “Put off all these”. They are habits; but put them off and put [p. 412] on the virtues of the new man. It is not as it is with men, natural education, and training; modifying or suppressing this or that selfish habit, so that it may not call forth censure, or make me disagreeable to others; this is what is called good manners - that I restrain my selfishness within due bounds, that I do not seek myself and my own liking at the expense of the likings of others, but consider for them first. But this will not do in grace. It is not improvement, or repression, or self-control, in this or that thing, but my selfishness or liking of every kind must retire, and for it be substituted the life of Jesus, an entirely new thing, and not any modification of the old. Thus grace leads me to act as Christ would act.