On this side of eternity there is no finality to Christian experience. Certainly “if we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, what a glory He sheds on our way!” In the light of Jesus’ glory and grace, the things of God become strangely clear. Though there are many adversaries, glorious peaks of revelation can be scaled by the ardent soul. But even so, heaven has not yet issued credit cards for grace. There is a price to be paid for spiritual growth. As long as we tread this terrestrial ball, none can say in matters of spiritual travel, “I have arrived.” Our spiritual horizons are ever receding.
Today an itch for “things” has spread a foul restlessness among believers, for we are victims of competitive living. There is more anxiety about how to make a living than about how to live. But suppose that John Jones does get a Cadillac as long as a city block, and then suppose his aunt dies and leaves him a half million dollars so that he can live in Florida and have a super-home, with servants in attendance. Has that added a cubic foot to his spiritual stature? In the categories of the spiritual, does he rate higher because of his social climb? Does the extra tithe that he may give to the church assure him of a back-door access to divine favors? Can gifts of the Spirit be received with the gold of Ophir? Will the mayor’s chain about his neck mean that there are open to him spiritual resources denied to Jimmy James, who at this moment is sweating at a furnace in a Pittsburgh steel mill? To all these questions my heart replies, “Be it far from Thee, Lord, to do these things.” If then, pearls, power, and prestige do not inch us nearer the secrets of the Most High, why not treat them but dung so that we may win Christ? I am almost terrified at the thought of the judgment bar of God for the modern close-to-earth Christians (not that the writer or anyone else has received a free pass for that great day).
Everywhere folk are crying out against this treadmill existence of so-called modern life, for too often those who do not bear the brand of Cain bear the brand of boredom. Yet God is longing -let me repeat- God is longing to sweep rivers of grace through the deserts of our parched spirituality.
At the beginning of this chapter we said that there is no finality to spiritual living this side of eternity. There may have been a complete yielding to Christ many years ago, and since that day not a thing taken from the altar. But the acid test is this: What have I brought to the altar since then? In the things of the kingdom, progress is not automatic, for a man may be only fifty weeks old in grace, even though he was saved fifty years ago. Maturity in grace has nothing to do with years but rather with prayerful obedience to the revealed will of God. In a day when the cry of “Grace! Grace! Free grace!” has been overdone, we sound like a heretic to say that in the spiritual life there are things that can be bought. But listen to the Lord Jesus himself speak: “I counsel thee to buy of me” (Rev. 3:18); and Paul agrees by saying, “Buy up the opportunity” (Eph. 5:16, R.V.). But how?
Tonight I go to a friend’s house and sit in pleasant fellowship and edifying conversation. “I shall not stay long,” I say. But how the time slips by! It is getting near midnight. Now at last I am home, tired and sleepy. Then I pause to reflect for a moment: I gave my friend four hours of my time, yet my devotions took less than one hour; therefore, I prefer time with godly people more than time with God himself.
Or look at that courting couple. They leave the comfort and warmth of home to walk down a lane in biting frost. Why? Well obviously because they are in love and want each other far more than creature comforts. Is human love greater than divine love? In matters of the Spirit, is fellowship about the Father better than fellowship with the Father?
To go to the Cross for “life” in regeneration and for “death” in sanctification is fine. But even in these Christian experiences there is no finality. I mean that there is a daily dying. If I today deny myself something that I want (or even feel that I need), I have not thereby merited heaven; but by denying myself something and by channeling that money for the cause of lost souls, I have proven that my actions are related to my theology. If God is going to increase in my life, then somebody is going to decrease in it. If I am bent on spiritual maturity, then I must see God more, and that means I am going to see others less. If I am not going to be “ashamed at his coming” (the very tone of I John 2:28 suggests that some will want to hide), then I must pursue my high calling of God in Christ with diligence. There is no escalator to the beckoning peaks of spiritual vision.
In conclusion, let each of us pray, “Lord, it is truly a good, stiff climb, but ‘plenteous grace with Thee is found.’ Yet, can two walk together, Lord, except they be agreed? Lord, I agree; help Thou me to die climbing.”