Chapter 15: Unspotted
Chapter 15: Unspotted
"Unspotted from the world" - James 1:27.
THERE ARE MANY definitions of Religion. Some say that it is right thinking, others that it is right feeling; but James strikes through these, and says that the core of real religion is unspottedness (James i, 27)·
The world is a very filthy place. We cannot walk along its causeways without the risk of being bespattered from head to foot. A sea of ink splashes up against our homes, and sends its tides up into drawing rooms and kitchens, churches and schools; and it is very hard to avoid its drenching spray. Only a few elect souls are able to keep themselves unspotted from the world. Yet it is possible. The Lord Jesus was a Lamb without blemish and without spot. He offered Himself unto God without spot, through the Eternal Spirit; and He is able to keep us from stumbling, and present us without spot before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Oh that we may all experience his keeping grace, and be at last included in the Bride which He shall present to Himself, glorious, without blemish and without spot!
It is a very attractive figure. Untrodden snow, like that which lies for miles over the high Alps; the lily with its untarnished calix; the white surplice of the chorister lad; the sheen of the silver moonlight; the purity of white heat; the transparency of light; the flesh of a babe - are very attractive to us. Probably there is no story from the Old Testament more fascinating in interest than that which tells how the leprous flesh of the old warrior, Naaman, became pure as that of a little child; and no text more precious, because more suggestive of unsullied purity, than that which declares that though sins be as scarlet they may be as white as snow, and though they be red like crimson they may be as wool.
Why is this, except that we feel so far away from our ideal, and find some satisfaction in admiring it from afar? Perhaps there is something in each of us which instinctively craves kinship with unspottedness. We dimly remember our high origin, and mourn our loss of the stamp and hallmark of purity with which God impressed us when Adam passed from his moulding hand in Paradise. We are attracted by that for which we were created and have lost. It has a Divine fascination for sin-weary hearts. How delightful the snowclad peaks of the Himalaya appear to the dwellers on the scorching plains of India!
But unspottedness is as necessary as it is attractive. God cannot use us if we are indifferent to the claims of purity, and careless whether we are spotted or not. He is so strict that He bids us hate the very garment which is spotted with the flesh. "Be ye clean, ye that bear the vessels of the Lord."
He is so holy that He cannot unveil his rarest love to those who lack sensitiveness in regard to their walk through the world. We are told that only the pure in heart can see God. Nothing can surpass his tender mercy for those who have fallen and become blemished and spotted through weakness, ignorance, and passion; but nothing can compensate for a thoughtless, careless, wordly life, in which the soul shows no anxiety to keep itself unspotted.
The life of heaven down here, and the heaven that is yet to be, are alike impossible, save to those who, so far as they know, endeavour to keep themselves unspotted. "This ye know of a surety, that no fornicator, nor unclean person, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God." Would you have God come to make his mansion with you, you must cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Would you go at last to make your mansion with God, you must wash your robe and make it white in the blood of the Lamb. Only those who wash their robes have any right to the tree of life, and to enter in through the gates into the city (Rev. xxii. 14, R.V.).
But it seems an impossible, impracticable dream. The lives of the greatest saints are entitled "Confessions." Everyone in turn takes the bow and aims the arrow at the target, but is compelled to acknowledge failure. One only, born of woman, ever hit the silver centre of absolute unspottedness; all else must appropriate the acknowledgment: "I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it has not profited." Job said he was vile; Isaiah, that his lips were unclean; Peter, that he was a sinful man; John, that for a man to say that he had not sinned was to be self-deceived. In such a world, with such a nature, opposed by such an adversary, how can we hope to be unspotted? And even if we are unspotted before men, what are we before the sight of God, to whom the heavens are not clean?
But God waits to assist us. We cannot help having a nature keenly susceptible to evil; we cannot avoid being tempted; the evil one will knock at the door, and even shout his unhallowed suggestions through the keyhole; the world and society are no friends to grace. The newspapers are spotted with divorce court and other items; the current novels are spotted with suggestive scenes and allusions; the streets are filled with spotted men and women; the shop windows are littered with spotted photographs. But God is stronger and greater than all. He would not command what He cannot help us to realize. It is clear that by his loving grace we may so live as to win the beatitude of the unspotted. But we must use constantly the blood, the water, and the fire.
(I) The Blood of Jesus. - It cleanseth from all sin. If the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean availed under the old law for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ cleanse our consciences, and make us without spot before Him in love! Directly we confess our sins, all the evil stains which have been contracted vanish utterly and forever. The microscope can detect blood marks in linen which has been washed; but no magnifying power can ever discover sin which has been once confessed and put away. "It may be sought for, but it shall not be found." You may confess other sins if you will, but never that. God will remember it no more. You may remember it to humble you, but not to confess.
(2) The Word of God is compared to water.-Christ cleanses his Church through the Word, as in a laver of water. Depend on it that there is no better method of a young man cleansing his way than by taking heed thereto according to God's Word. We read the Bible for purposes of a truer knowledge of God and his ways, and for spiritual quickening; but let us use it more frequently as the bath of the spirit. Let us bathe in it, Let us revel in it as the grimy children of the slums in the laughing wavelets of river and sea.
(3) The Fire of the Holy Spirit. - If you will hand over to Him your thoughts, He will run them through a sieve of flame, burning out the germs of evil, and allowing only the pure, natural, and guileless to pass. There is no such preservative against the germs of disease as fire. Ask the Holy Spirit to be within you as fire, consuming the evil. Seek to live with the devouring fire, and to dwell in the everlasting burnings of God's most holy and loving nature. Never leave your chamber in the morning without putting on the armour of light, which is woven of flame; and be sure that though spots may alight, they cannot remain amid its intense heat.
The unspotted are most tender and merciful to the spotted. They at least dare not draw their garments around them, and shake themselves free of defiling contact. They know too well the perils from which they have been rescued, and their own weakness, and they are merciful.