Babes in Christ
“Even as unto babes in Christ.” — i Cor. iii. i.
THESE words enable us to expand the thought which formed the close of the last meditation; — that the Christian life, though one of progress and development, has its commencement in weakness. “The perfect man in Christ Jesus” was at one time a babe. The spiritual life may be compared to our earth, which is not all at once bathed in noontide splendour. Its mountain tops are first flushed with tender radiance; then their sides and hollows; by and by reaching to the lower valleys; till at last “there is nothing hid from the heat and light thereof.” Paul may have remembered in this respect his own experience, when, spiritually as well as physically, with an infant’s helplessness, he was led through the streets of Damascus. With “the milk belonging to babes” he seems to have been fed during his subsequent withdrawal into the deserts of Arabia, until “the time of his shewing unto Israel” (Gal. i. 1 7).
It is the normal experience in the believer’s inner history still. His incipient life is tender, fragile — the pulsations of faith slow and intermittent. That faith is compared to the grain of mustard seed; to the brittle reed; to the bending sapling. Jesus Himself recognises different degrees of faith, and therefore different stages in His people’s growth. “I have many things,” He says, “to say unto you, but (as babes) ye cannot bear them now” (John xvi. 12). As if He would further add (if we may venture to fill in the ellipsis), “The time will come when, with matured experience and knowledge, you will be able.” He speaks of a “great faith,” and of a “little faith; “but He accepts and acknowledges the little as well as the great. They are the same in kind though varying in degree and intensity, for they rest on Himself the One only Foundation. Our Apostle, in double figure, elsewhere alludes to this same progressive character of the Christian life — from weakness to strength, from feebleness to maturity. He conjoins two different metaphors,” Rooted and built up in Him “(Col. ii. 7).” Rooted,” here is the feeble sapling, struggling for very life in the rifts of the rock; but having its fibres, delicate as they are, embedded there, it is safe. The rock shelters it, the dews and rains of heaven moisten it, the sun and air of heaven nurture and mature it. The second emblem expresses, under another metaphor still, the growth and expansion of faith into vigorous manhood; “Built up in Him.” It is now no longer a fragile plant in the rock; but a spiritual building, stone on stone, tier on tier, upon that same Rock of Ages. Nor is this all. The Giant- Rock itself, so to speak, is incorporated with the living stones. “Built “up IN Him” (Col. ii. 7): or, as he expresses and expands it in a parallel passage — “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord” (Eph. ii. 21).
That ‘temple in the Lord’ attains at last “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. iv. 13). Or, as Bengel in one of his quaint figures expresses it, “We shall come to be arrayed in the toga virilis — the Roman garment of the full-grown man.”
God’s dealings with those in the earliest stages of the spiritual life, “babes in Christ,” are beautifully delineated long anterior to Gospel times. The prophet Hosea (xi. i), referring in the first instance to the national tribe of Israel, speaks, through the type, of Jehovah’s covenant relationship to His spiritual people. He begins with a description of their infancy: — “When Israel was a child, then I loved him.” He proceeds to depict the next stage of tottering childhood. God holds him in “leading strings” (ver. 3), “I taught also Ephraim to go.” A third experience is when the leading strings are withdrawn. The picture is given of the divine, like the earthly parent, putting out His / hands ready to catch the child as he stumbles on at his first attempt to walk — “taking them by their arms” (ver. 3). Then follows yet another stage of advancement, “drawing them with the cords of a man” (no longer a child); “with bands of love” (ver. 4).
To the timid and fearful, the desponding and misgiving, there is comfort surely in all this: that if the good work be begun it will be fostered to its consummation. We may feel abashed at our own weakness and instability, as compared with the average experiences of God’s family. Our love may be cold, our obedience fitful, our faith unworthy of the name. But even if there be no more than the infant’s faltering cry (the cry of the “new creature” — the babe in Christ), that cry denotes that the life is there, — “alive unto God;” and He that hath breathed into us spiritually the breath of a new being — “He that hath begun the good work will carry it on.” The wanderer of the fold may be footsore and weary; the brambles of the thicket still cleaving to its torn fleece. It may be a poor, maimed member of the flock compared to others. But having been brought by the Good Shepherd within, what an old writer calls, “the pasture-ground and covenant-enclosures,” it is equally safe and secure with the strongest; and in its tremulousness can rest in the sure promise — “I will make My grace sufficient for thee,” Indeed, it is for the tender ones of the spiritual fold the Great Pastor specially cares. While the others are “fed by Him like a shepherd,” there is special provision for the weak and feeble; — “He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom” (Isa. xl. 1 1 ). The incipient experience and development, too, of that new-born spiritual life, may and does vary widely in different cases, owing to peculiarity and diversity in intellectual mould, natural disposition, and moral training. To use the words of another — “Its first moment may not indeed be registered in the consciousness, as it may be awakened within us by a varying process, in harmony with the quickness or the slowness of mental perception and the dulness or the delicacy of temperament. The sun rises in our latitude preceded by a long twilight, which gradually brightens into the radiance of morning; but within the tropics he ascends at once above the horizon with sudden and exuberant glory.” It is a comfort, moreover, that, as babes, He will not expect more from us in the shape of service than we can give Him. He accepts a babe’s offering. He accepts our feeblest: — even the fervid thought, and sincere earnest purpose which cannot be translated into action, “Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build an house for My Name, thou didst well in that it was in thine heart” (2 Chron. vi. 8).
Oh, ye lisping babes, trust the Parent’s loving arm, and loving ways, and loving discipline! Oh, ye “Little Paiths “and” Eeady-to-halts,” like Gideon faint, yet “still pursue.” It is one of the well-known spiritual aphorisms of a saintly and sainted writer,” The weakest faith that ever laid hold of a strong Saviour has eternal
Dr. Eadie on Ephesians,. p. 134.
life.” The characteristic of a babe or a child in infancy is absolute helplessness — dependence — trust, — absence of disquietude — ignorance of the future, utter oblivion to care, and misgiving, and foreboding. It reposes on its mother’s breast, or is sung to sleep in its cradle with the mother’s lullaby. Picture of the babe — the new creature in Christ Jesus, reposing in its Heavenly Father’s arms, and kept in perfect peace, cradled in the Saviour’s love. If you are conscious of a babe’s weakness, seek to cherish and manifest a babe’s simple dependence — “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.”
It is well to remember in connection with these reflections, how marvellously that very faith that was rebuked as a “little faith “grew to be a strong one. Trace the story of Peter’s after-life, as recorded in the Acts. He seems almost to have lost his personal identity. “We fail to recognise the same rash, impulsive spirit he once was. The harsh music of his nature is toned down, every discordant note subdued into harmony. “And such also,” may it not be averred, “were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” ( i Cor. vi 1 1 ).