GOD’S PLAN FOR LIFE’S RESTORATION.
By William Covert
In the Lord’s eternal plan, there was to be life with exquisite sweetness and boundless fulness for all. Children of faultless beauty and physique should be brought forth to embody the life of God in all the earth. Every offspring of nature was to be as perfect as the parent which first came from the divine hand. The interruption of this plan by transgression did not change God’s design. “God is not a man, that He should lie; . . . hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?” Num. 23:19. “Behold Thou hast made the heaven and the earth by Thy great power and stretched-out arm, and there is nothing too hard for Thee.” Jer. 32:17. Tho sin mingled with and corrupted the life which was given to man, the Fountain of life remained pure; neither was the infinite purpose frustrated; so in due time the original counsels will prevail. Ample provision has been made for lifting every man out of the corruptible pit into which he has fallen. Every soul is given the privilege of a new birth, that he may grow up in a new and living way. To provide this new way of life, the Son of God came from heaven to earth. He was born of human flesh that He might reach the fallen race, and purify all who will draw life from Him. When requested to explain how life might be obtained, He answered, “Ye must be born again.” “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Being puzzled at the answer, the questioner wished to know how a natural man could be re-born. The reply was that the agencies effecting such a change are not visible to the natural eye, but are seen only by faith. The wind, tho a powerful element, is invisible. Nature’s forces operate unseen. The divine mind alone can comprehend all the mysteries in the way of life. It is therefore best to believe God’s word, and let Him in His own way accomplish the work. John 3:1–16. The Saviour said of Himself and His work: “The Son quickeneth whom He will; . . . for as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself; and hath given Him authority to execute judgment also.” This arrangement exists between the Father and the Son, that every sinner who will receive life, may have it. The mission of Christ is to “seek and to save that which is lost,” and the question of salvation is not a matter of doubt. The Lesson at Jacob’s Well.
The question of friends and bitterest enemies received virtually the same answers. But there are other classes to be taught. Some have never heard of Jesus and redemption. These are enclosed in the enemy’s net, but are not avowed opponents. With them the question has not been seriously considered, nor their attitude defined. Their minds have not been agitated on the subject of a life beyond the present state. They are carelessly living in sin without being purposely vicious. Jesus met one of this class at Jacob’s well. It was midday, and, wearied with traveling, He was resting there, when a Samaritan woman of the city of Sychar came to draw water. The Saviour asked her for a drink; and, upon receiving it, said that those who drank of this well would thirst again, but not so of those who drank of the water He would give. He had come to supply all thirsty souls from a living fountain,—one that imparts eternal life to all who drink of it. Upon hearing of the living stream, the woman, tho a sinner, requested that she might drink. The story revealed that for which her heart was longing. She drank; and, after drinking, she told many more of the life which flows from this fountain. They came also,—they drank, and their thirst was quenched. The supply from this fountain never grows less. All who are thirsty are urged to drink. “And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Jesus found it necessary to teach even His own disciples how to drink life from the crystal stream. As the Saviour approached the tragic close of His earthly ministry, He endeavored to prepare His disciples for the trying ordeal. The last Passover had been eaten, and the significant emblem of His approaching death had been accepted by the little flock as a covenant relating to the sacrifice which He was making of Himself for their sins. But the disciples had not yet advanced far enough in Gospel knowledge to comprehend the full import of what was being done. They did not then understand the subject of atonement through His blood, nor His ministry in the sanctuary above. They knew but little about the workings of the Spirit. Seeing(387)there was a significance in His teaching which their minds did not fathom, they asked, “How can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” John 14:6. Mankind had been turned out of the way of life, and had entered the way of death. To get back to the Father’s house, he must find and travel the “new and living way.” In it are the ways of heaven, the methods and thoughts of God. Isa. 55:8. This is the shining path. Prov. 4:18. It is not traveled by a set of enforced rules. The Spirit of God works to reach, to guide, and to save, a soul, by recreating through the vitalized potency of the Redeemer. Within or near Gethsemane’s garden the Saviour pointed to a growing vine as an illustration of Gospel truth and of the workings of life through Him. The vine, bearing branches laden with rich clusters of fruit, is a Gospel model. The way of salvation has its counterpart in the processes of nature. The living, fruiting vine is a beautiful emblem of the believer’s union with Christ. Referring to Himself, Christ said, “I am the true Vine, . . . I am the Vine, ye are the branches.” The vine springing from the soil is a picture on the page of God’s living book. Christ Himself is the real vine,—the truth, the life, the reality. The branches of the vine represent those who truly believe and abide in the Saviour. The light of the paschal moon revealed the full form of the plant, giving promise of abundant fruitage in due time. In this were found other beautiful symbols of the way of life. To impress the lesson, Jesus spoke once more, and said, “Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples.” As the husbandman is both honored and profited by the full vintage, so also is the Father pleased and glorified with the fulness of the Spirit’s fruit. It is possible for the branches to bear fruit, only as they grow in living connection with the vine. So with the disciples of Christ, they have not life nor godly fruit unless they abide in Him. The branch severed from the vine dies without fruit. Man can do nothing only as he is connected with Christ, because his connection with life is wanting. The sap from the vine flows through every living fiber in its branches, and creates and gives quality to its fruits. A noticeable feature of the vine is that it must produce a branch before it can bear fruit. The fruit grows upon the branch, and not upon the stalk, or main stem. So the fruit of the Christian is but the manifestation of Christ’s life within him. In the eleventh chapter of Romans an olive tree with ingrafted branches is used to represent the union of believers with Christ. The branches are scions cut from the wild olive tree. Contrary to the usual law, the root imparts its quality to the graft, and causes it to yield tame fruit. The scion has been so fully changed by the root that it has lost its wild nature. As with the graft in this figure, so with the person united to Christ. His mind is by faith connected with the life that is in Christ. Now the life in his being is as the life from which it emanates. This is wholly a new connection of man with life. It comes to him, not as generated from Adam, but from the Son of God. Those receiving life from Adam are all counted dead, because his life is forfeited. Not so of those who receive life through Christ. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [a new creation]; old things are passed away; behold,4all things are become new.” 2 Cor. 5:17. Life for the future is to be obtained through Christ only. The Son of God does not add His character to a life that was naturally inherent in the sinner; but He imparts a new life to the one who will accept it. The man in Christ Jesus is a new creature. He gives all to the Saviour, that he may receive all from Him. When a man believes that by fleshly birth he possesses an undying nature or an indestructible life, he can not consistently seek for life through Christ. Satan’s strongest effort is put forth to blind the minds of men on this point. He is anxious for men to believe that they have life in themselves, and that in some way, apart from the Redeemer, they can survive all possible destruction that may be threatened to come upon the finally impenitent. Satan, in his first interview with our parents, declared that they should not die. He still affirms the same thing to others. But it is high time that all were undeceived. His teachings have been deceptive from the beginning, and designedly so. When man yielded to the tempter in Eden, he lost everything that had been given him by creation. All went together. When he is restored, he recovers everything in the Saviour. Jesus says, “I am come that they might have life.” This life they do not have apart from Him. “I lay down My life for the sheep.” John 10:10, 15. It is Christ’s life which they must have,—not one which is in themselves. Through His incarnation and sacrifice, the life of Christ was placed in the hand of every human being as a free gift. They are urged to take it. It is the water of life freely offered to all who thirst for it.