The Spirit of God doesn’t occupy us with His work within us, but turns the eye to Christ and His finished work for us. It is true that unless there was a work of grace in our souls, we should never care to participate in the fruits of what the Saviour did for us on the cross. But peace rests, not upon our satisfaction in what we discover of the Spirit’s work in our hearts, but upon God’s satisfaction in Christ’s work on the cross. If we could only get peace when we were satisfied that the inward work of grace was deep enough, not a single honest believer would ever have peace in this world. His cry would still be, “Lord, deepen Thy work of grace in my soul;” and each succeeding day would find the petition repeated, “Deeper still, Lord, deeper still.”
A public drinking-fountain is placed in a certain market-place. Would you, stand gazing longingly on it, wondering whether your thirst was deep enough, although you knew you wanted a drink? Why no, your thirst brings you there; but it is the water which quenches your thirst when you are there. If you so realize your soul’s need, that the cry of your heart is, “I must have Christ; I will perish without Him!” be assured you are heartily welcome to Him “I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely” (Revelation 21:66And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. (Revelation 21:6)). “Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:1717And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. 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. (Revelation 22:17)).
How simple, how encouraging, how graciously lovely, are these closing invitations to the thirsty one on the closing pages of Holy Bible!
“I will give” — “freely.” “Let him take”— “freely.”
Repentance is the judgment of what we are, and what we have done in the light of what God is. It is the result of God’s work of grace in us. A traveler who falls into some dirty ditch in the darkness of midnight may get some idea of his filthy state when the moon, from behind the clouds, shines on him; and as the light of morning gradually dawns, he will get a still clearer and ever-increasing knowledge of his true condition. So the sinner, “by light from on high,” is brought to repentance; and the longer he walks with God, the nearer he comes to the light of “perfect day,” the deeper sense will he have of his own unworthiness. Never will he be able to say that his repentance is real enough, or the sense of his unworthiness deep enough. But this he can say, “The further I go, the more I discover that I am bad enough to need such a Saviour, and the more I wonder at the grace that could stoop to care for a sinner like me!”