Key Verse: "The Lord
hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."
- Jeremiah 31:3 KJV
The thunders of the law and the terrors of judgment—are all used to bring us to Christ; but the final victory is effected by God's 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 towards his father's house were with the kiss still warm upon his cheek, and the welcome still musical 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 which he could find against the door, for he said, "I will not admit the man!" The Master turned away—but by-and-bye He came back, and with His own soft hand, using most that part where the nail had penetrated, He knocked again—oh, so 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 so knocked that my affections were stirred for you. I could not think of your pierced hand leaving its blood-mark on my door, and of your going away houseless, 'Your head filled with dew, and your locks with the drops of the night.' I yield, I yield, Your love has won my heart!"
Just so in every case—God's 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, "He drew me—and I followed on." If so, may He continue to draw me, until at last I shall sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb!
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