| Strength and Beauty |
Chapter 1 |
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Weakness was not beautiful to the eye of Christ; it was something imperfect, faulty, lacking. It was something, too, which he sought to bring back to its true, normal state. He came not to destroy, but to fulfil, that is to fill full. He rejected nothing because it was in ruin; he sought to build up the ruin into a temple of beauty. In most wonderful way was this the mission of Jesus Christ. He came to a lost world to be its Saviour. He came to make the weak strong, the soiled white and clean, the outcast children of God.
Thus, always, the work of Christ on human lives is towards strength. While he is infinitely gentle with weakness it is not his desire that it shall remain weakness; he would build it up into strength. We have but to recall the character of his work upon his own disciples to find illustration of this. What were they when he first found them? Unlettered fishermen, ignorant, full of faults, dull and slow learners, stumbling continually. What were they when they had been in his school for three years? Men of marvelous power, who turned the world upside down by their preaching. He made their weakness strength. The object of all spiritual culture is the same – to take feeble little ones and train them into heroes of faith. It is never Christ’s desire that we shall remain feeble. We begin as children, but we are to grow. The work of the Church is the perfecting of the saints that we may all attain unto full grown men, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. God wants us to be strong.
The work of redemption is restoration. Nothing incomplete is yet perfect. There may be much that is lovely in what is still imperfect, but the best is yet to be seen. Strength is the divine ideal for every life, that towards which divine grace is ever leading us. In the new life, the risen life, when perfected, there will be no trace of infirmity or feebleness. “It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.” Angels in heaven are strong, and we shall be as the angels. Those who always have been captives of infirmity will be released from all weakness and weariness, and will become strong in the holy strength of God.
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