Do not err, my beloved brethren. (17) Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. (18) Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. (19) Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: (20) For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. (21) Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
That Christ is the good and perfect gift here spoken of that cometh from above, and from the Father of lights, is evident; because He is himself, all that is good and perfect, and Comprehends in his Person as God-Man, every other. Having Christ, we have with him, his gifts and graces. Nevertheless, it is not the gifts and graces, but Christ, which is the one good and perfect gift; yea, everyone included in Him, which cometh from above. And how sweet and precious is the thought, that He is in himself, without variableness or shadow of turning. Both the Giver, and the Gift, and He who gives the people grace, richly to enjoy all. Reader! pause at this place. I ask the question, but do not decide. Is not Christ, as Christ the Father's gift? John 3:16. And hath he not given this gift to the Church, to have, and to hold forever? Isaiah 54:10. Is not Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever? Hebrews 13:8. And who is it, that by His own will, begat the Church to be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures, but God the Holy Ghost, when by regeneration the Lord first brings the child of God, by the new birth, to the knowledge of his high privilege of this good and perfect gift, Christ? 2 Peter 1:3-4; Ephesians 1:9. What can more blessedly manifest, the love and grace, of the Holy Three in One, towards the highly favoured objects of the chosen in Christ, than such demonstrations, of the personal and distinct acts towards them? If it be the Spirit's own will, in begetting the Church from the Adam-nature of the fall; is not the Lord the Spirit, the first predisposing cause, in bringing from death to life, the chosen, and the redeemed of the Lord, to the knowledge and enjoyment of their privileges? Surely He is the efficient cause, and his will his good pleasure. And the very object intended from it, namely, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures; the sweet and blessed design, of the new birth in regeneration.
I see no reason to dwell in the use of arguments, to enforce the blessed consequences, which the Apostle hath so persuasively added; as the immediate result of having been so begotten. Where the Spirit dwells, and the work of regeneration is wrought; divine teaching, and divine influences, will be sure to accompany that teaching. Swiftness to hear the Lord's words; slowness to speak our own; receiving with meekness the engrafted word, with all the gracious accompaniments, will follow. It may be said of the Lord's redeemed ones now, as it was taught the Baptist of old, the way by which he should know Christ; in humble comparison to the same standard, upon whom the Spirit descends and remains; the same is he that is born of God, John 1:33. God's work is a sure work. And God, in the new birth, forms the new creature, after the image of him that created him, Colossians 3:10.