I. Receiving Everything from Christ.
Our lives are constantly receptive. Experiences come to us in a variety of ways and through very different channels. But when once we realize that Christ is all, then everything that comes into our life comes in and through Him. Not only is He our Saviour from Sin. He is our Friend, our Teacher, our Lord, and all that we possess comes from him. Even though we have trouble and trial we can say with truth that “it comes from above,” because we know that His permissive will does not allow anything to come to us apart from His knowledge and consent. It simplifies matters immensely when we can take this position of realizing that everything which enters into our life comes from and through Him.
II. Seeing Everything in Christ.
As we ponder the problems of life, we find very many things that perplex and puzzle and distress us. The problems of sin, suffering, and sorrow lie heavily on heart and brain, and on none more than on his whose life is brought into close touch with human needs. As we meditate on the hardships, injustices, and cruelties of life, we soon feel the pressure of mystery amid the many forces of the world which do not make for righteousness. But if once we realize that “our life is hid with Christ in God,” we begin to look out on the world around with very different eyes; and though we cannot solve the problems, the way we look at them makes a profound difference. We view them from the standpoint of Christ. Some thirty years ago I remember reading an address containing an illustration of this point, which has proved to me and to others a word in season. The Christian was depicted as a man living in a room which had but one window in it, made in the form of a Cross. The result was that the outlook from the window took that shape under all circumstances. The sunshine came to him in the form of a Cross. The landscape in all its beauty and variety was shaped like a Cross. The shadows deepened in the form of a Cross. The storms fell and the lightning flashed in the form of a Cross. Everything bright and dark took that shape and entered thus into his consciousness. So should it be with the Christian: joys and sorrows, light and darkness, sunshine and shadow, should all be looked at in the light of Christ; and when this is so, in His light we see light and can wait until all things are made clear.
III. Doing Everything for Christ.
Life is largely made up of activity, and the ministry finds itself engaged on a multifarious variety of work; “the daily round, the common task”. At times brain and body are apt to stagger under the load, and we are tempted to succumb under the pressure of the burden. Then it is that our simplifying and unifying factor comes in with blessedness and power, and we begin to realize that everything is to be done for Christ. No task that comes can possibly be outside His ken or sphere. No work that is really our duty can fail to be accomplished if done unto Him. “For Christ” is the talisman that opens every door. “In Christ” is the guarantee of grace sufficient for every task. As George Herbert says: –
“Teach me, my God and King,
In all things Thee to see;
And what I do in anything,
To do it unto Thee.
“A servant with this clause,
Makes drudgery Divine;
Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws,
Makes that and th’ action fine.”
“Drudgery divine.” This is only possible when we do everything for Christ, when He is the motive, the inspiration, the joy, the power of service.
“To me to live is Christ.” Receiving everything from Christ. Seeing everything in Christ. Doing everything for Christ. This is life in its simplicity, sufficiency, and satisfaction. This is ministry in peace, power, and progress. Away from this is unrest, dissatisfaction, emptiness, weariness, powerlessness. Apart from this is disappointment, depression, discontent, despondency, and despair. But when Christ is our life, ministry becomes a privilege, a joy, a delight; an ever-deepening experience, an ever-increasing power, an ever-extending blessing, and an ever-heightening glory to God. So let us sum up all by saying that for life and ministry Christ is always necessary, Christ is always available, Christ is always sufficient.
“Yea, through life, death, through sorrow and through sinning,
He shall suffice me, for He hath sufficed,
Christ is the end, for Christ was the beginning,
Christ the beginning, and the end is Christ.” |
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