When I passed by thee, I said unto thee, Live. Ezekiel 16.6. Saved one, consider gratefully this mandate of mercy. Note that this fiat of God is majestic. In our text, we perceive a sinner with nothing in him but sin, expecting nothing but wrath. But the eternal Lord passes by in his glory. He looks, he pauses, and he pronounces the solitary but royal word, live. There speaks a God. Who but he could venture thus to deal with life and dispense it with a single syllable.

Again this fiat is manifold. When he saith live it includes many things. Here is judicial life. The sinner is ready to be condemned but the mighty one saith live and he rise is pardoned and absolved. It is spiritual life. We knew not Jesus. Our eyes could not see Christ. Our ears could not hear his voice. Jehovah said, live, and we were quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.

Moreover, it includes glory life, which is the perfection of spiritual life. I said unto thee live and that word rolls on through all the years of time till death comes. And in the midst of the shadows of death the Lord's voice is still heard live. In the morning of the resurrection, it is that self-same voice which is echoed by the archangel. Live. And as Holy Spirits rise to heaven to be blessed forever in the glory of their God, it is in the power of that same word. Live.

Note again that it is an irresistible mandate. Saul of Tarsus is on the road to Damascus to arrest the saints of the living God. A voice is heard from heaven and a light is seen above the brightness of the sun. And Saul is crying out, Lord, what would you have me to do?

This mandate is a mandate of free grace. When sinners are saved, it is only and solely because God will do it to magnify his free, unpurchased, unsought grace. Christians, see your position, debtors to grace. Show your gratitude by earnest Christ-like lives. And as God has bidden you live, see to it that you live in earnest.