The Place in Christ for Repentance

“‘ Jesus saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and He saith unto him, Follow Me.” — Marz. ix. 9.

HERE is one peculiarity with which I

have been struck in the calls of Jesus; they are not preceded by any denunciation of the man’s past life. The Baptist’s were; his initial cry is, “Repent!” Jesus, indeed, calls to a life which involves repentance; but repentance is not His initial cry. Not even is it so in the parable of the prodigal son; the Father gives His demonstration of love before any expression of sin on the part of the prodigal. He sees him afar off, He has compassion, He runs across the intervening space to meet him, He folds him in His arms and lavishes on him His affection ere ever one word of contrition falls from his lips. In the case of Matthew we should have expected

the first note of Jesus to have been reproach.

Matthew had been living voluntarily the life of a slave. He had become the truculent servant of Roman masters and had wrung for them the tribute from his countrymen. Should we not expect the first cry of Jesus to have been, “Think shame of yourself!” It is not; it is, “Follow Me!” Can we account for this? Yes, it shows His profound wisdom and how much deeper He sees than the world sees. The world thinks that a man begins by repenting and then turns to follow the right way. It is the reverse. He begins by following the right way and then he repents of being so long on the wrong one. It is not our sorrow for the past that leads us to form a beautiful ideal; it is our reception of a beautiful ideal that leads us to sorrow for the past. Matthew does not say, “I have led an ignoble life and must now see Christ”; he says, ‘“I have seen Christ, and therefore I know that my life has been ignoble.” God’s first season for every converted man is the summer. He is not at once shown the winter of his own soul; he is plunged at first into the Divine radiance. He only learns his rags by seeing the new garment that is to clothe him. He never knows his pool to be stagnant till he stands by the great sea. It is when the waves wash his feet, when the spray refreshes his countenance, when the swell of ocean murmurs in his ear, that he remembers the inland pool of yesterday and cries, “These were not living waters!”

Lord, let mine be the call of Matthew — the call into summer radiance! Let me not say within my heart, “I dare not come; I have nota sufficient sense of my own inadequacy”! Teach me that the sense of my own inadequacy can only be born in Thy light, only perfected in heaven! I have always thought the knowledge of my sin a beginner’s lesson; reveal to me that it is the lesson for the highest class of Christian! I shall only become dissatisfied when I reach Thy grace; therefore let Thy grace be my earliest seeking! Let me not begin by trying to feel my corruption! Let not my first journey be an inspection of my own quagmire! Let it be a flight over the ocean of Thy love! Let me soar at once to the crystal fountain, to the river of life, to the streets of gold! Let not my opening thought be of my tabernacles of clay; let it fly up to the gates of pearl and the rainbow of emerald and the skies without night! Make not my first voyage retrospective; let me begin, not with the past, but with the future! Let the earliest voice I hear be the voice Matthew heard — “Follow Me”! Be Thou my beginning, O Lord! Let me enter Thy temple by the gate called Beautiful! Bring me at once into Thy summer, to-day into Thy paradise! Wait not for my weeping, tarry not for my tears, delay not till I feel my destitution! Clothe me now in the garments of Thy righteousness! Lead me instantaneously from darkness into light! Bear me ata bound into the centre of Thy bosom! Then for the first time I shall mourn my meanness, then for the first time I shall know my nothingness; for I shall read my retrospect in the glow and I shall detect my discord in the music. [I shall find my own measure when I have followed Thee.