The Lord's Word: Reproof
“And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” — Acts ix. 4.
THE word of the Lord to Saul carried, as we have seen, great consolation to disciples: it bears also a terrible reproof to the adversaries of the gospel.
Mark well here, first of all, that although Saul is an enemy to this Jesus, this Jesus is not an enemy to Saul. This word is not spoken to cast him out, but to melt him down, and so win him near. “My thoughts are not your thoughts.” “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as snow.” It is written of Jesus, in the time of his humiliation, that when he was reviled, he reviled not again. This is true of him also in his glory. He draws clear, deep distinction between the converted and the unconverted; but the distinction does not lie in that the converted are received into favour, while the unconverted are cast away: it lies in this — those that are already near are cherished as dear children, and the distant prodigals are invited to turn and live. He does indeed divide the world into two: his favour compasses about his own people; but even his enemies he does not consume with the breath of his mouth. Christ’s
The Lord’s Word — Reproof. word out of heaven to his enemies is a tender entreaty that they should arise and go to the Father.
Nor should any one that now enjoys peace in the Beloved be surprised at this Divine generosity. It «is a generosjfcy
that every saved sinner has himself enjoyed. If Chri^0iad always shown favour to his friends, and always cast his persecutors into the pit, where would you and I have been to-day? If, when we were his enemies, he melted us by his mercy and won us over to himself, we need not wonder to find that he still keeps the door open for those who are without.
The form of this address, in the first place, betrays the tenderness of Jesus before we reach its substance. There is a peculiar meaning in the twofold repetition of the name. This formula expresses at once sharp condemnation and tender pity. When you intend a simple approval or a simple disapproval, you call the name only once. It is when you intend both to condemn and to win back that you duplicate the call. When a child is called to receive either a reward or a punishment, he is named only once; but when you intend first to reprove him for his fault, and then to invite him to favour, you name him twice. John, sounded out singly, may be the prelude either to praise or to blame; but John, John, always means both that he is doing evil, and that you mean him good. You may find examples in ( Scripture.
John xx. 16, “Jesus saith unto her, Mary!” — all tender- ’ ness, all approval. On the other hand, Luke x. 41, 42, 1 “Martha, Martha,” at once rebukes her cumbering care, and 1 invites her to sit at Jesus’ feet. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” “Simon, Simon,” will be found, by examination of the 1 context, to contain a stern reproof woven in with a tender! invitation. In Matt. xvi. you will find two examples of a f single call both simple: the one (verse 17) simple approval, with no reproof; the other, addressed to Satan possessing Peter (verse 23), simple condemnation, with no invitation to return. It was the double call that Jesus uttered that day in the persecutor’s ears; and it is the double call that he addresses to the wide world to-day. At the winding up of the world’s history, when the day of grace is done, there will be no double call. The call is single then — the call either to the saved or to the lost. On this side, Ye cursed, depart; and on that side, Ye blessed, come. Saul, Saul, meant both that Saul was wicked, and Christ was merciful; both that Saul was hating Christ, and Christ was pitying Saul. This is the type of call that the risen and reigning Jesus is now addressing to the world. He names a sinner once, to announce the condemnation which he deserves; he names the sinner a second time, to intimate that in the blood of the Lamb that condemnation may be taken away. The first stroke is the charge, bringing guilt home to the guilty; the second stroke is the discharge, offered without money and without price. Welcome that first word as a sharp sword to penetrate the conscience, and compel you to explain in agony, “0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” for the second stroke will quickly follow, manifesting a tender, divine compassion which will cause you to sing, “I thank God, through Jesus Christ my Lord.” Out of thy mouth, glorified Redeemer, issues a sharp two-edged sword. Strike me with it once, 0 Lord, that I may cry, What must I do to be saved? And strike again, Lord, that the word may heal the wound which the word has made.
In Saul’s case, the redoubled stroke was effectual. The persecutor’s heart was very hard, and yet under the repetition it yielded. He grieved for the sin that was rebuked, and accepted the pardon that was offered.
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Listen, all who are still without; who are not living in Christ, but beating by a self-pleasing will against him — listen to his double word. Worldling, worldling, why neglectest thou me? Hypocrite, hypocrite, why woundest thou me?
The one word is spoken to smite — the Lord is angry: Melt, stony heart, and flow down. The other word is spoken to heal and pardon: Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
Return now to the main lesson of this text — consolation to believers. As a member depends for life and growth on its union with the living body, so a disciple depends on faith’s union with the Head. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” So closely is the life of a Christian entwined round the life of Christ, that when an enemy smites the member, the Head in heaven cries out. One inference from this fact is, How safe a believer is! But another inference is, How sober a believer should be! The seal set upon him is twofold — has an inscription on either side. If the legend on the upper side be, “The Lord knoweth them that are his,” surely the legend on the under side should stand out boldly relieved, so that he may run who reads it, “Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Tim. ii. 19).
The Head cries when the member is hurt by foreign, violence; but, oh, the Head is still more agonised when the member suffers from internal disease! The tainted blood of the member circulates upward to the heart. Thus i the vanity, pride, envy, avarice, impurity of a disciple, hurt, the heart of the Holy One. If we have hope that our life I is hid with Christ in God, there is no motive so strong for putting away all that defileth: “Every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John iii. 3).
When the viper fastened on Paul’s hand he shook it off into the fire. I think he did not shake his hand slowly and softly on that occasion. I think he shook the viper off his flesh with a shudder. But he would not cast it off with nervous violence merely on account of the wound, not more than skin-deep, that it might possibly make on his hand. In such a case it is not the scratch on the skin that we think about. We are aware that the blood tainted in the member passes in a few moments to the heart. It is this that imparts an awful gravity to the case.
In like manner, when life in the Lord is enjoyed and realised, the heart of a believer shakes off sin with eager horror, because it will hurt the heart of Christ.
There is a skilfully contrived apparatus by the use of which a man can dive to the bottom of the sea; can remain there long; can walk about and search for lost treasure within the hold of a sunken ship, and bring it up with him when he rises to the surface again. The person in charge above, both sends down the breath of life to the diver while he is under water, and draws him up out of the water when his work is done.
Christians in this life are like divers busy at the bottom of the sea. They are not only in the sea — they are beneath it. Many waters overflow them, but these waters cannot quench their life; for a mysterious invisible line is stretched between them and their Redeemer in the heavens. He sends down to them the breath of life, so that though the waters overflow they cannot drown them: and when they have seen his wonders and done his work for a while in the great deep, — when they have trodden for a time this watery, slimy wilderness, and gathered treasures there for him who sent them down, he will draw them out of the waters. He will bring them into a large place.
When time is done, and the affairs of the world are wound up, he will gather unto himself all his own. None of them shall be lost, for he must be full. The command will go forth, North, give up; South, keep not back; Earth, give up thy dead; and, Sea, surrender thine! If the earth should try to close and hold fast any of his little ones, the cry would issue from the throne, the cry of this same Jesus: “Grave, grave, why holdest thou me?” On that day he will I ^0 all his pleasure; on this day, blessed are they that are xound in him.