Meditations on ManhoodSample

THE LIGHT FOR MANKIND

By nature we are entirely dark. The Spirit, like a lamp, sheds light into the dark heart, revealing its corruption, displaying its sad state of destitution, and in due time revealing also Jesus Christ, so that in His light we may see light. Having enlightened us, as the text says, the next thing that God grants to us is a taste of the heavenly gift, by which we understand, the heavenly gift of salvation, including the pardon of sin, justification by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, regeneration by the Holy Ghost, and all those gifts and graces, in which the earlier dawn of spiritual life convey salvation. All true believers have tasted of the heavenly gift. It is not enough for a man to be enlightened—the light may glare upon his eyeballs, and yet he may die. He must taste as well as see that the Lord is good. It is not enough to see that I am corrupt, I must taste that Christ is able to remove my corruption. It is not enough for me to know that He is the only Savior, I must taste of His flesh and of His blood and have a vital union with Him. We do think that when a man has been enlightened and has had an experience of grace, he is a Christian, and whatever those great divines might hold, we cannot think that the Holy Spirit would describe an unregenerate man as having been enlightened, and as having tasted of the heavenly gift. No, my brethren, if I have tasted of the heavenly gift, then that heavenly gift is mine. If He has brought me into the green pastures and made me taste of the still waters and the tender grass, I need not fear as to whether I am really a child of God.

Was this plan helpful? We adapted it from the book Meditations on Manhood by Charles Spurgeon.