Thread: "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life" (John 5:24).
"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life" (John 5:24).
Posted : 21 Nov, 2011 02:31 AM
The first implantation of the divine life in the soul is sudden. However, in most cases the advance of that work is very gradual. Let this be an encouragement to any who are saying hard and bitter things against themselves because of their small progress. The growth of divine knowledge in the soul is often slow�the work of much time and of protracted discipline.
Look at the eleven disciples�what slow, tardy scholars they were, even though they were taught immediately from the lips of Jesus. And "who is a teacher like him" (Job 36:22)? They drank their knowledge from the very Fountain. They received their light directly from the Sun itself. And yet, even with all these superior advantages�the ministry, instructions, miracles, and example of our dear Lord himself�how slow of understanding they were to comprehend, and how "slow of heart to believe" (Luke 24:25), all that he so laboriously, clearly, and patiently taught them! Yes, the advance of the soul in the divine life�its knowledge of sin, of the hidden evil, the heart's deep treachery and intricate windings, Satan's subtlety, the glory of the gospel, the preciousness of Christ, and its own interest in the great salvation�is not the work of a day, nor of a year; but it is the work of many days, yes, of many years of deep plowing, long and often painful discipline, of "raging wind and tempest" (Ps. 55:8).
But this life in the soul is not less real, nor less divine, because its growth is slow and gradual. It may be small and feeble in its degree, yet, in its nature, it is the life that never dies.
How many of our Lord's beloved ones, the children of godly parents, brought up in the ways of God, are at a loss, in reviewing the map of their pilgrimage, to remember the starting-point of their spiritual life? They well know that they left the city of destruction�that by a strong and a mighty arm they were brought out of Egypt. But they were led so gently, so imperceptibly, so softly, and so gradually�"first a thought, then a desire, then a prayer"�that they can no more discover when the first dawning of divine life took place in their soul than they can tell the instant when natural light first broke upon chaos. Still it is real. It is no fantasy that he has inherited an evil principle in the heart. It is no fantasy that grace has subdued that principle. It is no fantasy that he was once a child of darkness; it is no fantasy that he is now a child of light. He may mourn in secret over his little advance, his slow progress, his weak faith, his small grace, his strong corruption, his many infirmities, his twistings aside like "a deceitful bow" (Ps. 78:57), yet he can say, "Though I am the 'foremost sinner' (1 Tim. 1:15), and 'the very least of all the saints' (Eph. 3:8)�though I see so much within to abase me, and so much without to mourn over, yet this 'one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see' (John 9:25). I see that which I never saw before�a hatefulness in sin, and a beauty in holiness; I see a vileness and emptiness in myself, and a preciousness and fullness in Jesus."
Do not forget, then, dear reader, that feeble grace is nevertheless real grace. If it but "hungers and thirsts" (Matt. 5:6), if it "only touches the fringe of his garment" (Matt. 14:36), it shall be saved.
