2.03.12. Love on the spring

XIL LOVE ON THE SPRING.

“Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”— 1 Peter 1:20-23.

LTHOUGH man was last in the order of creation, he was also first, before all. It was not first a fallible man, and then when he fell an infallible Redeemer provided. First was the Redeemer, the Eternal Son. In his image, off this model, man was made. In order that he may be made high, he is made free. But if he be made free, he will fall. What then? To prevent the possibility of falling, will he be made low — on the level of the beasts, without a will? Will he be created, beautiful and glorious indeed, like the stars, but, like them, without the power of choosing, and obliged to be obedient to physical laws whether he will or not? No; he shall be made high, so that when he falls, and is redeemed, he will be a glory to God far greater than any that the heavens or the earth declare. As in regard to the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:23), so in regard to the original foreordination. It is “Christ the first fruits; afterwards they that are Christ’s.” It is not that God created the planets, and then, finding them dark and cold, subsequently provided a sun to afford them light and heat. Rather, he made a sun for his own glory, and scattered satellites aroimd him, that they might circulate and shine in his light. In the eternal covenant it is first Christ, and then man, with his constitution and his history, to wait upon Christ, as the planets wait upon the sun, receiving his light and reflecting his glory. Foreordained before the world was, the Redeemer was “ made manifest in these last times for you.” The times we live in are the last. For those who despise the ministry of the Spirit now showing the things of Christ, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, no other refuge for sinners.

We have here a very short but very comprehensive creed. “ For you, who by him do believe in God.” It is parallel with the one given by the Lord himself (John 14:1): “Ye believe in God; believe also in me.” The whole matter lies there: come unto God the Father, but come in Christ, the Mediator between God and man. “ No man cometh unto the Father but by me;” and, on the analogy of Scripture, we may safely add, No man will be cast out or kept out who comes in this way to the Father. e again approach a practical exhortation, and it is a most interesting study to observe how it is surrounded and enforced. This apostle would no more think of laying down a duty without a divine doctrine to enforce it, than an engineer would think of erecting a mill-wheel without a stream of water to drive it round. The precept in this case is, “ Love one another with a pure heart fervently.” It is a duty that is very difficult, very necessary, and, when performed, very precious. Before we speak of the precept itself, let us carefully observe how it is flanked on either side for support. Although the moral precepts of Scripture are higher and purer and fuller than any other, they differ from other systems, not so much in their nature as in the motives by which they are enforced. When they propose to throw a suspension bridge across a river, far more labour and cost are laid out in providing the sustaining pillars on either side than in constructing the actual roadway between them. So here it is easy to say, “Love one another;” but such is the strain which this command puts on human life, that it cannot be supported unless there be faith in doctrines that are divine. More depends on the pillars that support the chain than on the chain itself. On the one side the precept here is supported by, “ Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit; “ and on the other by, “ Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God.” Unless these two piers had stood on either bank of the river, founded on the living rock below, the slight rainbow-like line could never have been suspended in the sky. Brother-love may be held up if it is attached on the one side to the consciousness of having purified our souls by the truth applied by the Spirit; and on the other side to the consciousness of having been born again of the incorruptible seed. Nothing less and nothing else is able to bear the strain. The structure of the argument might even be presented to the eye on a printed page, thus: —.

These two pillars repeat each other, with differences in minor features, as was meet. Both express the new birth, and the means by which it is accomplished. In the first, however, man*s own activity is more prominently presented; and in the second, God’s sovereign power. The same difference may be observed between the parable of the Prodigal, which presents the human side of redemption, where man is active, and the parable of the Lost Sheep, which presents the Divine side, where the Redeemer does all. The instrumentality of conversion is in both cases substantially the same — the word and Spirit of God. In the precept itseK there is one feature which demands and will repay a careful examination. The term “fervently,” although it gives the meaning of the original, is not a literal translation. It means extended, or on the stretch. It conveys the idea of a constant tension such as is supplied in machinery by a steel spring. In one department of a sewing machine all depends on the thread being kept constantly tight, so that the moment any slackness occurs, the loose portion is picked up instantly and without fail. If that operation were left dependent on the watchfulness and quickness of a human operator, it would entirely fail. The worker would grow w eary, would forget, would hasten to tighten the thread after the time was past, and all would go to wreck and ruin. But by entrusting the watch and the work to a bent elastic steel wire, an absolute infallibility is secured. The watcher never forgets, the worker never wearies. The work is done perfectly, and always done at the right moment. The spring is always on the stretch, and never misses.c

Though it is obliged to watch the slackening, and pull the thread instantly tight, a hundred times a minute, all day long for twenty years, it never once forgets or fails. The precept requires a love of this sort — watching and working in a Christian’s heart. If you need to remember your duty every time that a sudden injury occurs, you will not be in time with the soft answer that turns away wrath. Before love has gathered itself up, and determined on its course, the opportunity will be past. The disciple of Christ will appear as irascible, passionate, and revengeful as other men. There must be a spring — a law of love set once for all as a faculty of the new heart, that will operate instantaneously and uniformly. The disciples thought it was a burdensome and irksome task to forgive an injurer seventy times seven injuries.

Such indeed it would be, if you needed every time to reason the matter out and spur yourself on to duty. If the spring is not on, loops will fall, and the web will be spoilt. But the spring-love, once inserted as a faculty of the regenerated heart, will catch and keep every opportunity like a law of nature.