1180. The Divine Quickening
The Divine Quickening
"I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live: yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live" (Eze_16:6, l. c.).
How beautiful are the words, "I said unto thee, Live! Live!" When the earth was in darkness, God said, "Let there be light." When man was in darkness, hopeless, homeless, promiseless, favorless, lifeless, God said, "Live! Live!" Man was walking according to the course of this age, according to the prince of the power of the air; he was fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; he was disobedient, and a child of wrath, then God passed by, and said: "Live! Live!"
Ezekiel was carried out and he saw a valley of dry bones. These bones represented the whole House of Israel, their hope was cut off; their home was gone; they were buried among the nations. God said, "Can these dry bones live?" Then God breathed upon them, He called the spirit to enter into them and they stood up. He caused flesh to come upon them, and they lived.
Thus also did God pass by us when we were in our sins, and He said, "Live! Live!"
It is the doctrine of the new birth that is before us. We can hear in Eze_16:6, the words of Christ to Nicodemus: "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again."
The mission of Christ is not that of merely seeing sinners in their sin; it is not merely that of having compassion upon them; the mission of Christ is not to urge sinners to shun the primrose path and to make themselves better men. The Lord says: "Live! Live!"
The Holy Spirit puts it this way: "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God." Jesus Christ is not in the whitewashing business, He washes white; He is not in the reformation business, He transforms. Jesus Christ says unto the sinner, "I will put a new spirit within you." He says, "Live! Live!"
"If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature," a new creation. The Christian is not the "old man," trying to live a "new life;" the Christian is one who has Christ "in him," the hope of glory.
It is all very well for the world to give attention to creating a new atmosphere, a new environment, with the hope that, with better surroundings, there may be formed a better man; but Jesus Christ puts a new man into the midst of the old surroundings.
Christ knew that a heart of sin would be heinous and vile in the midst of the best of environments.
Christ knew that sin could not be legislated out of human life, nor lifted out by any outward human power. The only thing to do with sin is to see it taken away by the Blood of the crucified Son of God. The only hope of the new life, is the new birth. We rejoice in the words: "And I said unto thee, Live! Live!"
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR