03.01 The truth possessed
I. THE TRUTH POSSESSED THE two parables of which we have been thinking, describe the progress of the Kingdom of Heaven in the world. The two parables which we are now to consider describe the possession of the Kingdom of Heaven in the individual soul. The coming of the Kingdom is set before us as a personal discovery and acquisition of Truth. But we are still to carry with us our conception of the Kingdom as something vital and energetic. The Truth which is here portrayed as a treasure, as a pearl of great price, is Truth in relationship to life. It is an inspiration and satisfaction of life an inward energy of faith and power and joy. This personal possession of the Truth which Christ revealed is fitly described as the “Kingdom of Heaven.” For it is Truth alone which gives royalty to life. Until we have found and grasped some Truth which we take as giving for us the last word about the meaning of ourselves and of God, our life lacks purpose and consistency. It is swayed about by the events, the impressions, the business, the passions, which encounter us. To them we are subject: it is Truth alone which makes us kings. It gives us the power of choosing our own principles of action, of ordering and arranging our life in accordance with them. In this sense the enthronement of Truth within him makes a man the “master of his destiny.” You remember the great words of our Lord in that brief and wonderful colloquy with Pilate.! “Thou sayest that I am a King. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the Truth.” The life of witness to the Truth is the royal life. And for that reason it is the life of freedom. The Truth, said our Lord, shall make you free.
We are made for freedom. Man’s inborn freedom is the proof of his royal blood the “image of God” in which he was made. But when it loses hold upon the Truth it becomes self-will, and self-will reveals its error by bringing men under the bondage of sin. It is only when we discover the Truth and make it our own and follow it that we recover our freedom. For the possession of the Truth unites our own will to the free and royal Will of Almighty God.
We enter into “the Kingdom of Heaven.”
TAGS: [Parables]