A Needle and A Thread

picture source: dailyfreepsd.

“To mend a torn garment, you need two instruments: a needle and a thread. You prick the garment with the needle, and then you pull through the thread. Having pulled the needle through the garment, you break the thread from the needle and tie a knot, and you have a mended garment.

Now, we are dealing with lives that have been torn asunder by sin. In order to mend these lives, we need two instruments: a needle and a thread. The needle is God’s law. It is the needle that we use to prick men’s hearts, to show men their sin.

After pricking men’s hearts with the needle of the law, we then pull through the scarlet thread of the gospel, that men might be justified by faith. Only then do we have a mended life; but we need both instruments: first the law, then the gospel.”

source: George E. (Jed) Smock, “Walking in the Spirit”, p. 52.