Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. LukeMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. Luke
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Luke -- Commentaries
its lights and glories, pours into his heart, and he himself steps
into it, and becomes a true servant and subject of the King.
Then there is another word of the Master's, equally illuminative, as
to how we pass into the kingdom, when He spoke to the somewhat
patronising Pharisee that came to talk to Him by night, and
condescended to give the young Rabbi a certificate of approval from
the Sanhedrim, 'We know that Thou art a Teacher come from God.'
Christ's answer was, in effect, 'Knowing will not serve your turn.
There is something more than that wanted: "Except a man be born of
water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."'
So, another condition of entering the kingdom--that is, of coming
for myself into the attitude of lowly, glad submission to God's
will--is the reception into our natures of a new life-principle, so
that we are not only, like the men whom Christ compared with John,
'born of women,' but by a higher birth are made partakers of a
higher life, and born of the Spirit of God. These are the
conditions--on our side the reception with humility, helplessness,
dependent trust like those of children, on God's side the imparting,
in answer to that dependence and trust, of a higher principle of
life--these are the conditions on which we can pass out of the realm
of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
This being so, then we have next to consider the greatness that
belongs to the least of those who thus have crossed the threshold,
and have come to exercise joyous submission to the will of God. The
highest dignity of human nature, the loftiest nobility of which it
is capable, is to submit to God's will. 'Man's chief end is to
glorify God.' There is nothing that leads life to such sovereign
power as when we lay all our will at His feet, and say, 'Break,
bend, mould, fashion it as Thou wilt.' We are in a higher position
when we are in God's hand. His tools and the pawns on His board,
than we are when we are seeking to govern our lives at our pleasure.
Dignity comes from submission, and they who keep God's commandments
are the aristocracy of the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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