he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me, shall be loved of
My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him[7]."
And, above all, the following clear declaration in the Sermon on the
Mount: "Whosoever . . . shall break one of these least commandments,
and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of
heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called
great in the kingdom of heaven[8]."

These texts, and a multitude of others, show that the Gospel leaves us
just where it found us, as regards the necessity of our obedience to
God; that Christ has not obeyed instead of us, but that obedience is
quite as imperative as if Christ had never come; nay, is pressed upon
us with additional sanctions; the difference being, not that He relaxes
the strict rule of keeping His commandments, but that He gives us
spiritual aids, which we have not except through Him, to enable us to
keep them. Accordingly Christ's service is represented in Scripture,
not as different from that religious obedience which conscience teaches
us naturally, but as the perfection of it, as I have already said. We
are told again and again, that obedience to God leads on to faith in
Christ; that it is the only recognized way to Christ; and that,
therefore, to believe in Him, ordinarily implies that we are living in
obedience to God. For instance: "Every man . . . that hath heard and
hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me[9];" "He that doeth truth,
cometh to the light[10]," i.e. to Christ; "No man can come to Me,
except the Father which hath sent Me, draw him;" "If any man will do
the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine[11]." On the other
hand: "He that hateth Me, hateth My Father also[12];" "If ye had known
Me, ye should have known My Father also[13];" "Whosoever denieth the
Son, the same hath not the Father[14];" "Whosoever transgresseth, and
abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God: he that abideth in
the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son[15]."

In these and other passages of Scripture we learn, that though Christ
came to be the light of the world, yet He is not and cannot be a light
to all, but to those only who seek Him in the way of His commandments;
and to all others He is hid, the god of this world "blinding the minds
of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of
Christ, who is the Image of God, should shine unto them[16]."