NO PATCHWORK | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 18, 1889

FromThe Signs of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 7

NO PATCHWORK.

God never repairs. Christ never patches. The gospel is not here to mend people. Regeneration is not a scheme of moral tinkering and ethical cobbling. What God does, he does new; new heavens, new earth, new body, new heart—“Behold, I make all things new.” In the gospel thus we move into a new world and under a new scheme. The creative days are back again. We step out of a regime of jails, hospitals, and reform shops. We get live effects direct from God. This is the gospel. The gospel is a permanent miracle. God at first hand—that is a miracle. The gospel thus does not classify with other schemes of amelioration. They are good, but this is not simply better, but different, distinct, and better because distinct; it works in a new way, and works another work. Compare the wrought chains riveted on the demoniac, and the divine word working a new creation in the demoniac. It is all there. It is like the difference between the impotent Persian lashing the turbulent sea with chains, and the gracious Lord saying to the troubled sea, “Peace, be still.”—Selected.