15. THE SHEPHERD'S GIFT
TO THE FLOCK
In unfolding some of the more vivid Bible delineations of the Shepherd of
Israel and the Flock of His pasture, we have hitherto spoken mainly, if not
exclusively, of their present relationship to Him—reclaimed from their
wanderings; entering the Door of the Fold; following His footsteps; He
preceding them; leading them by the green pastures; marking out for them paths
of righteousness; seeking them in the cloudy and dark day; tenderly bearing in
His arms the weak and the burdened.
In this chapter, we are on the threshold of grander truths. The green pastures
and the still waters of earth are but the pledge of more enduring realities.
Here we have the Good Shepherd Himself announcing the bestowment on His people
of a limitless future of being and bliss—"I give unto them Eternal Life!"
Retaining, for a subsequent occasion, the consideration of the nature and
elements of this peerless gift, we may meanwhile meditate briefly on the three
thoughts which, in connection with it, the words of the Shepherd suggest.
It is a FREE gift. "I give." Believers have themselves no share in the
purchase. Man, in bestowing his gifts, has generally reference to some loving
or lovable qualities in the objects of his beneficence. But it was from no
attractiveness on their part—no foreseen good works or virtues, that the Good
Shepherd was induced to procure and bequeath the priceless heritage. It is a
munificent bestowment of sovereign grace and redeeming love. "I give"—it is
theirs in unqualified, inalienable possession—a glorious freehold. The
Ransomed Flock reposing in the heavenly paradise are spoken of as having "a
right to the tree of life." It is the right of the slave who has had his
freedom purchased. It is the right of the son who has been given his
patrimonial inheritance. It is the right of the conqueror dividing among his
soldiers the honors and trophies of victory which his own valor has won.
And as it was His free sovereign love which led Him to pay the ransom-price,
so it is the sovereign, irresistible grace of the Shepherd which keeps His
flock every hour from destruction, and will present each member of it at last
faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Let us not
lapse into a loose and indefinite theology, by speaking of the "inherent power
of the new nature." That is nothing. It is a shadow—a name—apart from the
grace of Christ and the indwelling, upholding energy of the Spirit of God. Why
was Paul enabled to stand firm when the messenger from Satan was sent to
buffet him? Why did not the thorn in the flesh get the better of his nobler
self? It was because that free grace which had "predestined" and "called" and
"justified," was, in the hour of trial and temptation, made sufficient for
him—God's strength "perfected in weakness," yes, overcoming weakness. Let us
ever admire, with adoring wonder, this unmerited, undeserved, sovereign
freeness, from first to last, of the great salvation.
Christ is the true Zerubbabel, who has laid the foundation, and who also will
finish it. Seek to trace His hand in each part of the spiritual
building—beginning, carrying on, completing—the Alpha, the Omega—the
Justifier, the Sanctifier, the Glorifier. "Thanks be to God," says the
apostle, "who always causes us to triumph in Christ." As the pearl would
remain forever in the depths of the ocean unless the diver descended for it,
so, unless He who purchased us as gems and jewels for His crown had taken us
from the depths, there we would have remained forever. And as He rescues the
pearl, so He keeps it, polishes it, and finally inserts it in His mediatorial
diadem!
As His is the glory of the commencing work and the sustaining work, so His is
the glory of the crowning and consummating work. The branch cannot live
severed from the vine. The limb cannot live severed from the body. The
Christian lives only by virtue of "Christ his life." It is not our repentance
or our prayers, or our habits of grace, or our long standing in grace, which
keeps us—but the sustaining arm of an omnipotent Savior. "The Lord is your
Keeper." "He who keeps Israel does not slumber." Take, then, the gift of
eternal life, but take it as Christ gives it—a "present"—a gift—a free
heritage of sovereign love—its charter and title-deeds written in His own
blood. "The gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord."
It is a PRESENT gift—a gift, not only reserved for the future, but in present
possession. Not, "I shall give," but "I give." It is the life of grace now,
preparatory to the life of glory hereafter. Scripture, in manifold passages,
attests the same truth. "He who believes on the Son of God HAS everlasting
life, and shall not come into condemnation, but HAS passed from death unto
life." "Who HAS raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ." "Our lives ARE hid with Christ in God." "Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who HAS blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ."
Think of this!—this eternal life—the purchase of sovereign love—is begun here
and now. The feeble rill commences here, which expands at last into the river
that makes glad the city of God. The first notes of the new song are hymned in
the Church militant, though the full chorus is reserved for the Church
triumphant. The bird, though still within its mortal cage, is gifted with the
wings of a nobler being—it only waits the opening of the door to soar away to
the heights of its bliss. The prisoner has obtained his reprieve: life—dear
life—is once more his; he only needs the unlocking of the prison-gate fully to
realize the blessing—the conscious possession of which has already kindled the
fading luster of his eye. The paralyzed cripple has felt fresh energies
creeping into his frame: he only waits until the swathing bands are unloosed
and he is freed from his couch, that he may enter the porches of the new
Jerusalem-temple—walking and leaping and praising God!
Our natural life indeed is still the life of sense. We move in the scenery of
the lower world. We mingle in its bustle—we pursue its avocations, and grapple
with its groveling, carking anxieties and cares. But let us seek that all this
lower life be blended with the higher. Let the life of time be interwoven and
interpenetrated with the life of eternity. "This is life eternal, to know You,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." The vision and
fruition of God—that is heaven. By seeking to have the knowledge of God now,
we lisp the alphabet of Heaven. Delighting in God now—walking in His ways,
doing His will, spending life in His service, is the spring of a glorious
autumn. He who is enabled in some feeble measure to make the averment, "I live
for God—"that man's higher being—his eternal existence and eternal happiness
are already begun. His feet are on earth—but his citizenship is in heaven!
It is a GREAT gift. It is "Eternal life." Eternity!—Who can fathom that word?
What mortal thought or figure can compass its meaning? An old writer has thus
illustrated it—"Suppose this globe of ours to be composed of sand. Suppose at
the close of every million of years one grain were to drop from the enormous
mass. Yet when the round orb of sand has exhausted its countless grains and
its countless millions of years, that measureless lapse of ages will (compared
to Eternity) be only as one swing of the pendulum!" What a heritage is
this—these years of deathless bliss!
We are in a perishable world. The proud monarchs of the past—where are they?
The scepters waved over prostrate kingdoms, and the hands which grasped them,
where are they? Cities with the murmur of a swarming population—temple and
tower rising to heaven—where are they?—Relics of perished magnificence—the owl
and the satyr hooting desolation to the passer-by! Every form and object
around us, animate and inanimate, has the wrinkle on its brow. The most
colossal works of nature are hastening to decay and dissolution. The day is
coming when the sun itself shall grow dim with age—when the moon's silver lamp
shall cease to burn—when the stars in the great temple of night shall quench
their altar-fires—when the ocean shall be swept from its channel—when the
forests shall be charred into blackness—the mountains crumble into dust, and
the hills become as chaff. And after these present material heavens shall have
passed away, there may be new suns and systems—new forms and conditions of
matter, to take their place. There may be new volumes in the history of God's
universe, whose pages are eras, and their chapters millenniums.
But there will be no break, no gap in the believer's limitless life—no
canceling of the irreversible word, "They shall never perish." They shall
reign forever and ever! Eternity! Yes, believers, this is the measure of your
happiness—the duration of your bliss—a duration, in comparison with which all
time, all history, all past cycles and ages, from the song of the morning
stars until now, is but as a dream when one awakens! Existence concurrent with
that of the Infinite Jehovah!—the life-time of the Almighty—the years of God!
He who thus purchased, with His own precious blood, this magnificent
inheritance, turns to each one of us and says—"He who believes in me, though
he were dead yet shall he live—and whoever lives and believes in me shall
never die. Do you believe this?" Let each direct that question to himself, "Do
you believe this?" Seek to make it matter of personal concernment. Think of
the dread alternative—Eternal life or Eternal death!—a heritage of joy or a
heritage of wrath! For while it is said, "He that has the Son has life," it is
added, "He that has not the Son of God shall not see life, but the wrath of
God abides on him." Abides! Yes, "abides!"
As life—eternal life—in the case of the believer, is now begun—as we have even
in this world, the first installment of that life which is never to die; so,
if we have not the Son of God—if we have no saving interest in Christ—what is
our position—what our inheritance? Is it a fearful looking for of prospective
future judgment and fiery indignation? No, it is more than this; it is worse
than this. It is a present retribution! It is the first installment of
everlasting death—the first gnawings of the worm—the first kindling of the
everlasting fire! "The wrath of God abides." It is not the brimstone-cloud
hanging over us—but that cloud already burst—the wrath of God already
"revealed from heaven!"
Seek without delay a saving interest in Him who came that "we might have life,
and that we might have it more abundantly." Flee—oh! flee from the wrath to
come! And here is a blessed—a glorious Shelter from that wrath—they are words
uttered by the lips of the great Life-giver Himself—"God so loved the world,
that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life!"