You may be called to pass through a stronger trial of principle than any you have yet had. Suppose you were in prison, with none to love you, to comfort you, left all alone. But if so, there is the eternal life. I have to walk on earth as one who possesses it, and if so, have I to care what my circumstances may be? Sorrow, and nothing but sorrow, there may be for a time; but if I have the eternal life, I am soon to be up and above it all.
Works have their place; fruit has its place, but it is found at the end of the branches, it grows on a living tree. Not one work of ours can help to obtain life. God never says, " Give me anything," to an unconverted person; and there is all the difference in the world between coming to Him as a lost, ruined creature, and coining to Him as bringing something. There was not one work of mine. I am a ruined sinner saved by grace, " not according to works."
There can be no question of doing till there is life in Christ. But, when converted, not only is the believer " ordained to good works," but to particular works. The Jew was to love God with all his heart, and his neighbor as Himself; but in the Epistles there is that which is far higher. I am not only to love God with all my heart, and my neighbor as myself; but to be willing to lay down my life for the brethren. If God in His race is pleased to work in me to make me like Christ, I am to be the display of what Christ Himself was, and all my works are to spring from the root laid down in Christ. So far from bringing into bondage, works are the greatest privilege. Is a soul converted? it is the life of Christ given to that soul, and there is not a single occasion in which that life is not to be shown forth, even in the giving of a tumbler of cold water. In your house, in every little thing that occurs, the Lord looks for fruit; everything may be used to express the life of Christ in you; and instead of its being bondage, it enhances our joy in everything down here, because of enjoying all in connection with Christ and with God. A believer is not justified in saying, " What can I do?" knowing that God in His greatness comes into every particular of his life. If it be the question, of Christ being everything to a saint, Christ cannot let him off from manifesting it in all the outgoings of his life down here. What will you trade on? What will you put on the loom to weave? if it be not Christ.
Many may build wood, hay, and stubble on the true foundation, and be saved so as by fire; but how different their power to walk! How beautifully was there displayed in Paul the sense of his fellowship with the life of Christ! He could say " Follow me as I follow Christ." His association with a risen Christ in life, flowed forth in such a way as to preach to all.