In considering the new life which the believer lives in obedience to the law of God, I remark:
I. It is a willing obedience. Many movements take place in the universe independent of any will but that of God. The sap ascends the tree, the planets revolve round the sun, the stars rise and set in the heavens, the tides flow and ebb upon our shores, and nature walks in God's statutes, keeping His judgments and doing them, moved to obedience by no will but His. So soon, however, as, leaving inaminate matter below, we ascend into those regions where mind or even instinct and matter are united, we discover a beautiful and benevolent law, by virtue of which God at once secures the happiness and provides for the welfare of His creatures. He so orders it that their will is in perfect harmony with their work; their inclinations with their interests; and their instincts with the functions which they are called on to perform. The nature of the redeemed is so accommodated to the state of redemption, their wishes are so fitted to their wants, their hopes to their prospects, their aspirations to their honours, and their will to their works, that they would be less content to return to polluted pleasures than the beautiful butterfly to be stripped of its silken wings, and condemned to pass its days amid the old foul garbage, its former food.
II. This is a progressive obedience. To "walk" is expressive of progress in grace. (1) In this image God's people find comfort and encouragement. (2) This image stimulates to exertion, as well as comforts under failure.
III. This willing and progressive obedience is the sign and seal of salvation. The descent of the Spirit is still the evidence of sonship; its sign, however, is not a dove perched upon the heads of God's people, but the dove nestled within their hearts. By His Spirit God creates them "anew in Christ Jesus unto good works;" and by these by the fruits of a holy life, by the joys of a Holy Ghost, by the advancing stages of a holy progress, His Spirit witnesses with their spirit that they are sons of God. A witness this as certain, and therefore as satisfactory, as the voice of the skies, or the verdict of final judgment.
T. Guthrie, The Gospel in Ezekiel,p. 329.
I. The Holy Spirit is the great agent in conversion and sanctification. Man cannot be saved unless elected, nor elected without the Father; nor saved unless redeemed, nor redeemed without the Son; nor saved unless converted, nor converted without the Spirit. Our necessities are those of the cripple of that man who, for thirty years, sat uncured by Bethesda's pool, nor took his anxious eyes off the water as he waited for its first stir and ruffle. Many a time the cripple had seen the sudden spring, and heard the loud plunge, as some neighbour flashed into the water; and as the cured left the scene, many a time had he followed them with envious eyes. Even so, although seated by the fountain, where sins are lost and sinners washed, we need some one, so to speak, to help us in. In the words of Paul we are "without strength," and it is to help us to seek, to believe in, to love in one word, to embrace the Saviour that God puts His Spirit within us. For this end He fulfils the promise, "My grace shall be sufficient for thee," and my strength made perfect in weakness.
II. God's Spirit is not only given to His people, but dwells in them. Speaking of the man that loves Him, our Lord said, "We will come unto him." This promise is one which He fulfils in the daily communications of His word and spirit. Earth has no lovers who meet so often as Jesus and His bride. The lowliest and poorest Christian God honours with daily visits.
T. Guthrie, The Gospel in Ezekiel,p. 313.
References: Ezekiel 36:30; Ezekiel 36:31. Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi,p. 291.Ezekiel 36:32. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. v., No. 233.