“And when I passed by you . . . I said to you . . . ‘Live!’” Ezekiel 16:6
Saved one, consider gratefully this mandate of mercy. Note that this command of God is majestic. In our text, we perceive a sinner with nothing in him but sin, expecting nothing but wrath, but the eternal Lord passes by in his glory. He looks, he pauses, and he pronounces the solitary but royal word, “Live.” There speaks a God. Who but he could venture thus to deal with life and dispense it with a single syllable? Again, this command is manifold. When he says “Live,” it includes many things. Here is judicial life. The sinner is ready to be condemned, but the mighty one says, “Live,” and he rises pardoned and absolved. It is spiritual life. We did not know Jesus—our eyes could not see Christ, our ears could not hear his voice—Jehovah said “Live,” and we were quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.
Moreover, it includes glory-life, which is the perfection of spiritual life. “I said to you, Live!” and that word rolls on through all the years of time till death comes, and in the midst of the shadows of death, the Lord’s voice is still heard, “Live!” In the morning of the resurrection it is that self-same voice which is echoed by the archangel, “Live,” and as holy spirits rise to heaven to be blessed for ever in the glory of their God, it is in the power of this same word, “Live.” Note again, that it is an irresistible mandate. Saul of Tarsus is on the road to Damascus to arrest the saints of the living God. A voice is heard from heaven and a light is seen above the brightness of the sun, and Saul is crying out, “Lord, what do you want me to do?” This mandate is a mandate of free grace. When sinners are saved, it is only and solely because God will do it to magnify his free, unpurchased, unsought grace. Christians, see your position: debtors to grace. Show your gratitude by earnest, Christ-like lives, and as God has bidden you to live, see to it that you live in earnest.
Adapted from Morning and Evening.
