Have Continued My Faithfulness To You

Have Continued My Faithfulness To You

JEREMIAH 31:3

The thunders of the law and the terrors of judgment are all used to bring us to Christ; but the final victory is the product of loving-kindness. The prodigal set out to his father’s house from a sense of need; but his father saw him a great way off and ran to meet him, so that the last steps he took toward his father’s house were with the kiss still warm upon his cheek and the welcome still music in his ears.

Law and terrors do but harden

All the while they work alone;

But a sense of blood-bought pardon

Will dissolve a heart of stone.

The Master came one night to the door and knocked with the iron hand of the law; the door shook and trembled upon its hinges. But the man piled every piece of furniture that he could find against the door, saying, “I will not admit the man.” The Master turned away, but soon He returned, and with His own soft hand, using most that part where the nail had penetrated, He knocked again—softly and tenderly. This time the door did not shake, but, strange to say, it opened, and there upon his knees the once unwilling host was found rejoicing to receive his guest. “Come in, come in; you have knocked in such a tender way that my heart is turned to you. I could not think of your pierced hand leaving its blood-mark on my door and of your going away without my welcome. Your love has won my heart.” And so it is in every case that loving-kindness wins the day. What Moses with the tablets of stone could never do, Christ does with His pierced hand. Such is the doctrine of effectual calling.

Do I understand it experimentally? Can I say with the hymn-writer, “He drew me, and I followed on, glad to confess the voice divine”? If so, may He continue in His faithfulness to me until at last I shall sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Amen.

Culled from Morning and evening Charles Spurgeon

Meditation

1 Have you heard the story of the cross,
Where Jesus bled and died,
When your doubt was paid by his precious blood
That gushed from his wounded side.

Refrain:
He died of a broken heart for thee,
He died of a broken heart;
O wondrous love! it was for thee,
He died of a broken heart.

2 Have you heard how they placed the crown of thorns
Upon his lovely brow,
When he prayed, “forgive them, O forgive,
They know not what they do?” [Refrain]

3 Have you heard that he saved the dying thief,
When hanging on the tree,
Who looked with pitying eyes and said,
“Dear Lord, remember me?” [Refrain]

4 Have you heard that he looked to heav’n and said,
“’Tis finished”—all for thee?
Have you ever said, “I thank thee, Lord,
For giving thy life for me?” [Refrain]