Two grand lessons
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There are two grand lessons to be learned in the school of Christ, and all divine teaching is comprehended and summed up in them.
One is to learn by the Spirit's teaching, what WE are by nature—so as to see and feel the utter ruin and thorough wreck of self, and the complete beggary, weakness, and helplessness of the creature in the things of God. This is the first grand branch of divine teaching. And we have to learn this lesson day by day—line upon line, line upon line—here a little, and there a little. Through this branch of divine teaching we have almost daily to wade, and sometimes to sink into very painful depths under a sense of our depraved nature.
And the other grand branch of divine teaching is to know who JESUS is, and to know what He is to us—to know the efficacy of His atoning blood to purge the guilty conscience—the power of His justifying righteousness to acquit and absolve from all sin—the mystery of His dying love to break down the hardness of our heart, and raise up a measure of love towards Him—and to see, by the eye of faith, His holy walk and suffering image, so as to be in some measure conformed to Him, and have His likeness in some measure stamped upon our souls.
By these two branches of divine teaching does the Spirit make and keep the children of God humble. And all our various providences, trials, temptations, and deliverances—all we pass through in nature, and all we pass through in grace—in a word, the whole course of circumstances by which the child of God finds himself surrounded—all tend to lead him into these two paths—either into a deeper knowledge of himself, or a deeper knowledge of Christ—in order to humble him, and exalt the Lord of life and glory.
To this point all thedealings of the Spirit tend, and in this channel all the teachings of the Spirit run. And every teaching and every experience that does not run in this channel, and does not tend to this point—to abase us, and to bring us down to the dust; and at the same time exalt the Lord of life and glory, and put the crown on his blessed head—does not spring from the teachings of God the Spirit in the heart—for His covenant office is, to take of the things of Christ, and make them known to the soul, so as to exalt and glorify Jesus.
Back to Next Part Man's religion & God's religion 2