Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. JohnMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Ephesians -- Commentaries; Bible. Epistle of John, 1st -- Commentaries; Bible. Peter -- Commentaries
II. So much, then, for the first point; now, in the second place, note
the one divine act by which all these blessings have been bestowed.
'Blessed be God who _has_ given'; or, still more definitely, pointing to
some one specific moment and deed in which the benefaction was
completed, 'Blessed be God who gave.'
When? Well, ideally in the depths of His own eternal mind the gift was
complete or ever the recipients were created to receive it, and
historically the gift was complete in the act of redemption when He
spared not His Own Son, but gave Him up unto the death for us all. A man
may destine an estate for the benefit of some community which for
generations long may continue to enjoy its benefits, but the gift is
complete when he signs the deed that makes it over. Humphrey Chetham
gave the boys in his school to-day their education when, centuries ago,
he assigned his property to that beneficent purpose. So, away back in
the mists of Eternity the gift was completed, and the signature was put
to the deed when Jesus Christ was born, and the seal was added when
Jesus Christ died. 'Blessed be God who _hath_ given.'
So, then, we may not only draw the conclusion which the Apostle drew,
'how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?' but we can
draw an even grander one, 'Has He not with Him also freely given us all
things?' And we possess them all to-day if our hearts are resting on
Jesus Christ. The limit of the gift is only in ourselves. All has been
given, but the question remains how much has been taken.
Oh, Christian men and women, there is nothing that we require more than
to have what we have, to possess what is ours, to make our own what has
been bestowed. You sometimes hear of some beggar, or private soldier, or
farm labourer, who has come all at once into an estate that was his,
years before he knew anything about it. There is such a boundless wealth
belonging by right, and by the Giver's gift, to every Christian soul;
and yet, here are we, many of us, like the paupers who sometimes turn up
in workhouses, all in rags, and with deposit-receipts for £200 or £300
stitched into the rags, that they get no good out of. Here are we, with
all that wealth, paupers still. Be sure that you have what you have. Do
you remember the exhortation to a valiant effort in one of the stories
in the Old Testament--'Know ye that Ramoth-gilead is _ours_, and we take
it not?' And that is exactly what is true about hosts of professing
Christians who have not, in any real sense, the possession of what God
has given them. It is well to ask, for our desires are the measures of
our capacities. It is well to ask, but we very often ask when what is
wanted is not that we should get more, but that we should utilise what
we have. And we make mistakes therein, as if God needed to be besought
to give, when all the while it is we who need to be stirred up to grasp
and keep the things that are freely given to us of God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account