February 29, Morning

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"With lovingkindness have I drawn thee." — Jeremiah 31:3 · KJV

The thunders of the law and the terrors of judgment are all used to bring us to Christ, but the final victory is won by lovingkindness. The prodigal set out for his father's house from a sense of need; but his father saw him a great way off and ran to meet him, so that the last steps he took toward home were with the kiss still warm on his cheek and the welcome still ringing in his ears. Law and terrors only harden while they work alone; but a sense of blood-bought pardon will dissolve a heart of stone. The Master came one night to the door and knocked with the iron hand of the law; the door shook and trembled on its hinges, but the man piled every piece of furniture he could find against it, saying, "I will not let the man in." The Master turned away; but after a while He came back, and with His own soft hand — using most that part where the nail had pierced — He knocked again, oh, so softly and tenderly. This time the door did not shake, but, strange to say, it opened; and there on his knees the once unwilling host was found, rejoicing to receive his guest. "Come in, come in; You have so knocked that my heart is moved for You. I could not bear to think of Your pierced hand leaving its blood-mark on my door, and of Your going away homeless, Your head filled with dew and Your locks with the drops of the night. I yield, I yield; Your love has won my heart." So it is in every case: lovingkindness wins the day. What Moses with the tablets of stone could never do, Christ does with His pierced hand. Such is the doctrine of effectual calling. Do I understand it by experience? Can I say, "He drew me, and I followed on, glad to confess the voice divine"? If so, may He continue to draw me, until at last I sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb.