THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION - Burns, William Chalmers

CHAPTER 4

People often speak of the new man and the change of nature, as if it were some incomprehensible work upon them, apart from any of their ordinary faculties and feelings. And so, in one sense, it is. But although
the introduction into the soul of a new element of life, which is a part of the Divine nature, must make a man altogether a new creature, still the essence of it is a moral and spiritual thing, — it is done through the will
you have already got; it is done through the very same powers and affections which, till the change comes, you have been throwing away upon the creature and upon vanity.Remember this, to be like God and to be with God, is heaven. Heaven will certainly be a very different
place from earth, — a change as complete, perhaps as is possible; and yet how is it described? Not otherwise than we should describe the life of faith on earth. It is said that there “his servants shall serve him; that his
name shall be in their foreheads;” and much more is told of the joy, and the lights, and the glory of its inhabitants; but, oh! it is all resolved into these two things; being like God, and being with him – “We shall be
like him, for we shall see him as He is.” And these are nothing more than the full effects of the law of the Spirit of life. It is in these that the believer’s heart already finds rest amid a jarring world, and not in any
miraculous difference between the state of his heart and yours, except in so far as it is a miracle when any soul begins to seek the Lord instead of the creature, and holiness instead of sin. And oh! believe it, there is
no peace but here; there is no joy but in seeing his face; there is nothing satisfying to the soul’s need but the Lord’s fullness. Everything but godliness has a curse in it. Riches and pleasure are sweet to the natural
taste: but, ah! there’s a hidden curse hanging about them. Let a child of God take up his heart more with any object than is lawful, or let him carry along with him in his race more of the world than is just enough to
help him quickly through it, and he will find in it something unsatisfactory; and the more enjoyment he has in the temporal blessing, the more pain will it probably cause him, either through fear of losing it, or in the actual loss of it. The happiest state of a believer on the earth seems to be this – that he should have few wants. If a man have Christ in his heart, and heaven before his eye, and only as much of temporal blessings as is just needful to carry him safely through life, then pain and sorrow have very little to shoot at, — such a man has
very little to lose. To be in union with him who is the “Shepherd of Israel,” and to walk very near to him who is “a sun and shield” – oh! that comprehends all that a poor sinner requires to make him happy between
this and heaven.A special characteristic of the children of God is, that they have received the spirit of adoption, whereby they cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit gives them liberty of access to the throne of grace, and teaches them to call him who sits on the throne, “Father!” Ah, yes, beloved friends, here is the commencement of the mystery of their union with the Father of their spirits – they receive the Holy Ghost, as the Spirit of God’s only-begotten Son. Glorious privilege, to call him “Father!” Mysterious union, that unites us to the Lord! Marvellous birthright, to be fellow-heirs with Christ Jesus! Little is this considered by some of God’s people. Alas! that they should have the easy way of at any moment calling the Lord of glory by this name. Why does the world complain of the familiarity of many of those who profess to know God, but because they too often speak to God in a way that is inconsistent with his glory and majesty as the King of saints? See, then, that this reproach be not cast on his name through you, but seek to draw really near to the living God, and
rejoice in the privilege of approaching the place of his holiness. Ah! the world has no conception of the nearness of access enjoyed by the Lord’s children. The world knows not that there is such a thing as pressing in to the Holiest of all by the blood of Jesus, and laying hold of the horns of the altar; and yet how near do his children sometimes get, when, like Abraham, they make their request, and get an answer; and press yet closer, and again and again urge their petition in the Father’s ear, and again are heard! How wonderful were the fruits of this in Abraham’s case when he pleaded for Lot – Lot who had openly chosen the well-watered plain of Sodom in preference to the fear and favour of the Lord, and whom one might have thought the Lord would have forgotten, buried, as he was, among the fearful and enormous iniquities of the cities of the plain; and yet, listen to these marvelous words: “I cannot do anything till thou be come thither.” Moses was another instance; how often he came near to that presence in the wilderness, lying forty days and nights upon his face, or saying, “Show me thy glory;” or, pleading for rebellious Israel, “If not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book.” “Great fear in meeting of the saints .Is due unto the Lord;

And he of all about him should

With reverence be adored.”

All who come near to him must learn the cry, “Holy, holy, holy!” and the nearer they get to his seat and to his presence, the more they will fear him. Not that this is inconsistent with the spirit of children; such holyfear just grows out of filial confidence when this is based on a right apprehension of who our Father is. Said for us if any fear could take from our lips that tender word, Fatherl and that one word, when used aright,when used as Immanuel ever breathed it, when used from the feeling that we are indeed one with himself, when it springs from the triumphant joy of that challenge, “Who shall separate?” ah! this word draws down the hatred and the bitter scorn of the world. There is nothing which the world more hates than the evidencesof this childlike spirit, because, when ungodly men come among the Lord’s people they are constrained to feel in this way, “These people have acquaintance with God, and we know him not as they know him.”What can their own formal prayers appear beside such ardent supplications, such breathings of heart after God as are too deep for utterance? Rutherford used to say, “Children don’t need a form when they come to speak to their father; and who can make a form to contain the groaning of the Spirit?” Sometimes God’s people scarce know what to plead for, and yet they just pour out their whole heart at his feet, and ask him to give them all they need.These are some of the first-fruits of salvation. Are they not sweet, are they not precious? Is not pardon precious? Are not peace, and joy, and hope, precious and heart-satisfying? And then there is the Spirit bearing witness with our spirits – the spirit of adoption; there is the daily death because of sin, and the glorious everlasting life of the soul begun because of righteousness. Yet these are only first-fruits; these are not what the possession of the inheritance will be; glorious things are left till the resurrection. Suffering is the portion of believers now, and a sorrowful heart or a diseased body is often all that the world can see to be the lot of their inheritance. But the child of God need not fear suffering; indeed, he need fear nothing, if only he be found serving God in the place and in the way where God would be served by him.On the contrary, we need expect no comfort and no enjoyment when we are found deserting our post.
What do you think were the prophet’s feelings when the question was put to him, “What is thine occupation, and whence comest thou?” Ah, Jonah, Jonah! I think these words would cut him to the very quick for Jonah
was a prophet of the Lord, and his occupation was to go whithersoever he was sent on his Master’s business; and now he is flying from his work, and flying from his God, when this rebuke arrests him. Foolish Jonah!
what ruin to his peace did this one sin produce! Oh, beloved brethren in the Lord’s work learn from this that the only happy as well as the only safe way is to breast the wave at once; never to question, or hesitate, or
doubt; never to flinch from sorrow or persecution, but at once boldly to cast yourself into the midst of the sea of troubles at his command; to push off from land, and then there you are, ready to go wherever the Lord may
send you. At that time it was to Nineveh. But no matter where; all over the earth, so as his command is but with us.

You see thus the need for our taking care of what we are about. We may be miscalculating altogether as to our future course. We might wish to build tabernacles to last awhile; many of God’s children are saying,
I shall die in my nest.” Are we not in the wilderness, beloved? This is not our HOME. It is not the place to be building dwellings in, or sitting at ease in. On! leave that till you get home. The pitching of a tent is all
you need till you come to the city which hath foundations – the New Jerusalem. Happy saints! Happy believers! even here. But, oh! happy ye who are gone thither, who stand tonight before the throne!