Spirituality of the Law
49
When the thought of evil is loved and cherished, however secretly,
said Jesus, it shows that sin still reigns in the heart. The soul is still
in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. He who finds
pleasure in dwelling upon scenes of impurity, who indulges the evil
thought, the lustful look, may behold in the open sin, with its burden
of shame and heart-breaking grief, the true nature of the evil which
he has hidden in the chambers of the soul. The season of temptation,
under which, it may be, one falls into grievous sin, does not create the
evil that is revealed, but only develops or makes manifest that which
was hidden and latent in the heart. As a man “thinketh in his heart, so
is he;” for out of the heart “are the issues of life.”
Proverbs 23:7
;
4:23
.
“If thy right hand causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it
from thee.”—Matthew 5:30, R. V.
To prevent disease from spreading to the body and destroying life,
a man would submit to part even with his right hand. Much more
should he be willing to surrender that which imperils the life of the
soul.
Through the gospel, souls that are degraded and enslaved by Satan
[61]
are to be redeemed to share the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
God’s purpose is not merely to deliver from the suffering that is the
inevitable result of sin, but to save from sin itself. The soul, corrupted
and deformed, is to be purified, transformed, that it may be clothed
in “the beauty of the Lord our God,” “conformed to the image of His
Son.” “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love
Him.”
Psalm 90:17
;
Romans 8:29
;
1 Corinthians 2:9
. Eternity alone
can reveal the glorious destiny to which man, restored to God’s image,
may attain.
In order for us to reach this high ideal, that which causes the soul
to stumble must be sacrificed. It is through the will that sin retains its
hold upon us. The surrender of the will is represented as plucking out
the eye or cutting off the hand. Often it seems to us that to surrender
the will to God is to consent to go through life maimed or crippled.
But it is better, says Christ, for self to be maimed, wounded, crippled,
if thus you may enter into life. That which you look upon as disaster
is the door to highest benefit.