Part 8 (2/2)

John: 'If a man love Me, he will keep my commandments, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him.' 'And this is His commandment,' says St. John, 'That we should love one another.' 'G.o.d is Love, and he who dwelleth in Love dwelleth in G.o.d, and G.o.d in him.'

G.o.d is Love. As I told you just now, the heathens of old might have known that, if they had chosen to open their eyes and see. But they would not see. They were dark, cruel, and unloving, and therefore they fancied that G.o.d was dark, cruel, and unloving also. They did not love Love, and therefore they did not love G.o.d, for G.o.d is Love.

And therefore they did not love loving: they did not enjoy loving; and so they lost the Spirit of G.o.d, which is the Spirit of Love.

And therefore they did not love each other, but lived in hatred and suspicion, and selfishness, and darkness. They were but heathen.

But if even they ought to have known that G.o.d was Love, how much more we? For we know of a deed of G.o.d's love, such as those poor heathen never dreamed of. G.o.d so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son to die for it. Then G.o.d showed what His eternal life was--a life of love: then G.o.d showed what our eternal life is-- to know Him who is Love, and Jesus Christ, whom He sent to show forth His love: then G.o.d showed that it is the duty and in the power of every man to live the life of G.o.d, the life of Love; for He sent forth into the world His Spirit, the Spirit of Love, to fill with love the heart of every man and woman who sees that Love is the image of G.o.d, and longs to be loving, and therefore longs to be like G.o.d; as it is written, 'Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled:' for righteousness is keeping Christ's commandment, and Christ's commandment is, that we love one another. And to those who long to do that, G.o.d's Spirit will come to fill them with love; and where the Spirit of G.o.d is, there is also the Father, and there is also the Son; for G.o.d's substance cannot be divided, as the Athanasian creed tells us (and blessed and cheering words they are); and he who hath the Holy Spirit of Love with him hath both the Father and the Son; as it is written: 'If a man love Me, my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.'

And then, if we have G.o.d abiding with us, and filling us with His Eternal Life, what more do we need for life, or death, or eternity, or eternities of eternities? For we shall live in and with and by G.o.d, who can never die or change, an everlasting life of love, whereof St. Paul says, that though prophecies shall fail, and tongues shall cease, and knowledge shall vanish away, because all that we know now is but in part, and all that we see now is through a gla.s.s darkly, yet Love shall never fail, but abide for ever and ever.

SERMON XVI. G.o.d'S OFFSPRING

Galatians iv. 7. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of G.o.d through Christ.

I say, writes St. Paul, in the epistle which you heard read just now, 'that the heir, as long as he is a child, differs nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors, until the time appointed by his father. Even so,' he says, we, 'when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: but when the fulness of time was come, G.o.d sent forth His Son made of a woman, made under a law, to redeem them that were under a law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.'

When we were children. He is not speaking of the Jews only; for these Galatians to whom he was writing were not Jews at all, any more than we are. He was speaking to men simply as men. He was speaking to the Galatians as we have a right to speak to all men.

Nor does he mean merely when we were children in age. The Greek word which he uses, means infants, people not come to years of discretion. Indeed, the word which he uses means very often a simpleton, an ignorant or foolish person; one who does not know who and what he is, what is his duty, or how to do it.

Now this, he says, was the state of men before Christ came; this is the state of all men by nature still; the state of all poor heathens, whether in England or in foreign countries.

They are children--that is, ignorant and unable to take care of themselves; because they do not know what they are. St. Paul tells us what they are. That they are all G.o.d's offspring, though they know it not. He likens them to young children, who, though they are their father's heirs, have no more liberty than slaves have; but are kept under tutors and masters, till they have arrived at years of discretion, and are fit to take their places as their father's _sons_, and to go out into the world, and have the management of their own affairs, and a share in their father's property, which they may use for themselves, instead of being merely fed and clothed by, and kept in subjection to him, whether they will or not. This is what he means by receiving the adoption of sons. He does not mean that we are not G.o.d's children till we find out that we are G.o.d's children. That is what some people say; but that is the very exact contrary to what St. Paul used to say. He told the heathen Athenians that they were G.o.d's children. He put them in mind that one of their own heathen poets had told them so, and had said, 'We are also G.o.d's offspring.' And so in this chapter he says, You were G.o.d's children all along, though you did not know it. You were G.o.d's heirs all along, although you differed nothing from slaves; for as long as you were in your heathen ignorance and foolishness, G.o.d had to treat you as His slaves, not as His children; and so you were in bondage under the elements of the world, till the fulness of time was come.

And, then, G.o.d sent His Son, born of a woman, born under a law, to redeem those who were under a law--that is, all mankind. The Jews were keeping, or pretending to keep, Moses' law, and trying to please G.o.d by that. The heathens were keeping all manner of old superst.i.tious laws and customs about religion which their forefathers had handed down to them. But heathens, and indeed Jews too, at that time, all agreed in one thing. These laws and customs of theirs about religion all went upon the notion of their being G.o.d's slaves, and not his children. They thought that G.o.d did not love them; that they must buy His favours. They thought religion meant a plan for making G.o.d love them.

Then appeared the love of G.o.d in Jesus Christ. As at this very Christmas time, the Son of G.o.d, Jesus Christ the Lord, in whose likeness man was made at the beginning, was born into the world, to redeem us and all mankind. He told them of their Heavenly Father; He preached to them the good news of the kingdom of G.o.d; that G.o.d had not forgotten them, did not hate them, would freely forgive them all that was past; and why? Because He was their Father, and loved them, and loved them so that He spared not His only begotten Son, but freely gave Him for them. And now G.o.d looks at us human beings, not as we are in ourselves, sinful and corrupt, but he looks at us in the light of Jesus Christ, who has taken our nature upon Him, and redeemed it, and raised it up again, so that G.o.d can look on it now without disgust, and henceforth no one need be ashamed of being a man; for to be a man is to be in the likeness of G.o.d. Man was created in the image and likeness of G.o.d, and who is the image and likeness of G.o.d but Jesus Christ? Therefore man was created at first in Jesus Christ, and now, as St. Paul says, he is created anew in Jesus Christ; and now to be a man is to partake of the same flesh and blood which the Lord Jesus Christ wore for us, when He was made very man of the substance of his mother, and that without spot of sin, to show that man need not be sinful, that man was meant by G.o.d to be holy and pure from sin, and that by the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ we, every one of us, can become pure from sin. This is the blessedness of Christmas-day. That one man, at least, has been born into the world spotless and free from sin, that He might be the firstborn of many brethren. This is the good news of Christmas-day.

That now, in Christ's light, and for Christ's sake, our Father looks on us as His sons, and not His slaves.

Therefore is every child who comes into the world baptized freely into the name of G.o.d. Baptism is a sign and warrant that G.o.d loves that child; that G.o.d looks on it as His child, not for itself or its own sake, but because it belongs to Jesus Christ, who, by becoming a man, redeemed all mankind, and made them His property and His brothers. Therefore every child, when it is brought to be baptized, promises, by its G.o.dfathers and G.o.dmothers, repentance and faith, when it comes to years of understanding. It is not G.o.d's slave, as the beasts are. It is G.o.d's child. But G.o.d does not wish it to remain merely His child, under tutors and governors, forced to do what is right outwardly, and whether it likes or not. G.o.d wishes each of us to become His son, His grown-up and reasonable son. To know who we are;--to work in His kingdom for Him;--to guide and manage our own wills, and hearts, and lives in obedience to Him;--to claim and take our share as men of G.o.d of the inheritance which He has given us. And that we can only do by faith in Jesus Christ. We must trust in Him, our Lord, our King, our Saviour, our Pattern. We must confess that we are nothing in ourselves, that we owe all to Him. We must follow in his footsteps, giving up our wills to G.o.d's will, doing not our own works, but the good works which G.o.d has prepared for us to walk in; and then we shall be truly confirmed; not mere children of G.o.d, under tutors, governors, schoolmasters and lawgivers, but free, reasonable, willing, hearty Christians, perfect men of G.o.d, the sons of G.o.d without rebuke.

Oh, my friends, will you claim your share in the Spirit of G.o.d, whom the Lord bought for us with His precious blood, that Spirit who was given you at your baptism, which may be daily renewed in you, if you pray for it; who will strengthen and lift you up to lead lives worthy of your high calling? Or will you, like Esau of old, despise your birthright, and neglect to pray that G.o.d's Spirit may be renewed in you, and so lose more and more day by day the thought that G.o.d is your Father, and the love of holy and G.o.dlike things?

Alas! take care that, like Esau, you hereafter find no room for repentance, though you seek it carefully with tears! It is a fearful thing to despise the mercies of the living G.o.d; and when you are called to be His sons, to fall back under the terrors of His law, in slavish fears and a guilty conscience, and remorse which cannot repent.

And do not give way to false humility, says St. Paul. Do not say, 'This is too high an honour for us to claim.' Do not say, 'It seems too conceited and a.s.suming for us miserable sinners to call ourselves sons of G.o.d. We shall please G.o.d better, and show ourselves more reverent to Him, by calling ourselves His slaves, and crouching and trembling before Him, as if we expected Him to strike us dead, and making all sorts of painful and tiresome religious observances, and vain repet.i.tions of prayers, to win His favour;' or by saying, 'We dare not call ourselves G.o.d's children yet; we are not spiritual enough; but when we have gone through all the necessary changes of heart, and frames, and feeling, and have been convinced of sin, and converted, and received the earnest, G.o.d's Spirit, by which we cry, Abba, Father! _then_ we shall have a right to call ourselves G.o.d's children.'

Not so, says St. Paul, all through this very Epistle to the Galatians. That is not being reverent to G.o.d. It is insulting Him.

For it is despising the honour which He has given you, and trying to get another honour of your own invention, by observances, and frames, and feelings of your own. Do not say, 'When we have received the earnest of G.o.d's Spirit, by which we can cry, Abba, Father! _then_ we shall become G.o.d's children;' for it is just because you _are_ G.o.d's children already--just because you have been G.o.d's children all along, that G.o.d has taught you to call Him Father. The Lord Jesus Christ told men that G.o.d was their Father.

Not merely to the Apostles, but to poor, ignorant, sinful wretches, publicans and harlots, He spoke of their Father in heaven, who, because He is a perfect Father, sends His sun to s.h.i.+ne on the evil and the good, and His rain to fall on the just and on the unjust.

The Lord Jesus Christ taught men--all men, not merely saints and Apostles, but all men, when they prayed--to begin, 'Our Father.' He told them that that was the manner in which they were to pray, and therefore no other way of praying can we expect G.o.d to hear. No slavish, terrified, superst.i.tious coaxing and flattering will help you with G.o.d. He has told you to call Him your Father; and if you speak to Him in any other way, you insult Him, and trample under foot the riches of His grace.

This is the good news which the Bible preaches. This is the witness of G.o.d's Spirit, proclaiming that we are the sons of G.o.d; and, says St. Paul in another place, 'our spirit witnesses' to that glorious news as well. We feel, we know--why, we cannot tell, but we feel and know that we are the sons of G.o.d. When we are most calm, most humble, most free from ill-temper and self-conceit, most busy about our rightful work, then the feeling comes over us--I have a Father in heaven. And that feeling gives us a strength, a peace, a sure trust and hope, which no other thought can give. Yes, we are ready to say, I may be miserable and unfortunate, but the Great G.o.d of heaven and earth is my Father; and what can happen to me? I may be borne down with the remembrance of my great sins; I may find it almost too hard to fight against all my bad habits; but the Great G.o.d who made heaven and earth is my Father, and I am His son. He will forgive me for the past; He will help me to conquer for the future. If I do but remember that I am G.o.d's son, and claim my Father's promises, neither the world, nor the devil, nor my own sinful flesh, can ever prevail against me.

This thought, and the peace which it brings, St. Paul tells us is none of our own; we did not put it into our own hearts; from G.o.d it comes, that blessed thought, that He is our Father. We could never have found it out for ourselves. It is the Spirit of the Son of G.o.d, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, which gives us courage to say, 'Our Father which art in heaven,' which makes us feel that those words are true, and must be true, and are worth all other words in the world put together--that G.o.d is our Father, and we his sons. Oh, my friends, believe earnestly this blessed news! the news of Christmas-day, that you are not G.o.d's slaves, but his sons, heirs of G.o.d, and joint-heirs with Christ;--joint-heirs with Christ! In what? Who can tell? But what an inheritance of glory and bliss that must be, which the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is to inherit with us--an inheritance such as eye hath not seen, and incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, preserved in heaven for us; an inheritance of all that is wise, loving, n.o.ble, holy, peaceful--all that can make us happy, all that can make us like G.o.d Himself. Oh, what can we expect, if we neglect so great salvation? What can we expect, if when the Great G.o.d of heaven and earth tells us that we are His children, we turn away and fall down, become like the brutes, and the savages, or worse, like the evil spirits who rebel against G.o.d, instead of growing up to become the sons of G.o.d, perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect? May He keep us all from that great sin! May He awaken each and every one of you to know the glory and honour which Jesus Christ brought for you when He was born at Bethlehem--the glory and honour which was proclaimed to belong to you when you were christened at that font! May He awaken you to know that you are the sons of G.o.d, and to look up to Him with loving, trustful, obedient souls, saying from your hearts, morning and night 'Our Father which art in heaven,' and feeling that those words give you daily strength to conquer your sins, and feel a.s.surance of hope that your Heavenly Father will help and prosper you, His family, every time you struggle to obey His commandments, and follow the example of His perfect and spotless Son, Jesus Christ the Lord!

SERMON XVII. DEATH IN LIFE

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