What Will Your Measure Of Christ Be In The Day Of Reckoning?

There is a time fixed when God will sift out everything in Christianity, sift it all out, to find out just how far the real purpose of its existence is being fulfilled, and the things which can be shaken will be shaken. 

Spirituality in men and women is the thing which governs all this, and decides the crisis. Decides the crisis. We shall come to that crisis individually sooner or later. 


Why do you bear the name of Christian? You call yourself a Christian, we call ourselves Christians. Why do we have that name upon us? Sooner or later, it will be found out whether we are Christ-ones or not, whether it is Christ; how far it is Christ.

I wonder if I dare, in a parenthesis here, introduce something that I've read recently... it was only the dream of a girl. 

She said she had a dream, and in her dream she saw a glorious angel sitting... sitting on the village green where her home was. 

And in his hand was a large measure standing up, being held by his hand up beside him. 

And as she looked at that measure, she saw it marked off: Christ, Christ. There was so much of Christ, an inch of Christ, two inches of Christ, more inches of Christ, right up to this large measure. 

And then she heard the angel call, and the angel called the name of someone known so well to her, who had a great reputation for doing a lot of things in Christian work - always running about here and there, always active in philanthropic interests in the name of Christianity - a very busy person in what is called "Christian work". 

And she knew that person so well, everybody thought that person was a very wonderful person, that they would stand well in the great day of reckoning. 

The name was called, and this person came up so confidently, quite assured as well that she would stand well by the measure, and when she came up by the measure, she began to shrink in her stature. 

She became smaller and smaller and smaller until she was a little, tiny person, down there at the bottom of the measure. 

Everybody looked and got the surprise of their lives! "Is this Miss So-and-so? Is that really all the measure of Christ, after all?" 

The angel gave her some strong, kindly words of advice, seeking to point out the difference between all this that is outward, and the real measure of Christ inward. And she went away very crestfallen.

And so, one by one, people known were called by the angel. 

There was one person whose name was called, known by the dreamer as a very poor, weak, little soul. No one thought a great deal of her. She lived in a back place in very, very uncomfortable conditions.

No one, no one made a great friend of her; they left her very much alone. They didn't think she mattered at all. 

The angel called her name, and she came forward very tremblingly, fearfully, just scared of standing up by that measure. 

And she came and stood by it. As she came into touch with it, she began to grow and grow and grow. Her whole stature developed and increased until she was bigger than all the rest! 

The angel didn't have much to say to her, but just a kindly, kindly word. "Yes, Mary, yes Mary I know all about your secret battles, all your secret sufferings, and how bravely you have borne the despisings of others, and how you have carried it all in secret to the Lord in prayer, and drawn your strength from Him to go on. You count for much in His sight".

The dreamer had her name called, and she had to stand there. She was very fond of dress and of worldly appearance and all that sort of thing. 

And for her, the things of this world counted for everything. And she, because she was popular, because people thought so much of her and were always pointing at her and saying she was a model of a well-dressed person, and the kind of person that everybody would like to be, she thought that she might stand well before the measure. 

But she found that as she came near, she also began to dwindle and to shrink... to lose all her sense or feeling of self-importance and so on. 

The angel just quoted to her a bit of Scripture from Peter's letter: "Not the adorning, plaiting of hair, and ornaments, but the ornament of a meek and a quiet spirit, which is of great price in the sight of God".

Now, I have risked introducing that. It seems fanciful and fantastic, but it perhaps gives point to this whole matter. You see, God's standard, after all, is:-

The Spiritual Measure of His Son.

~T. Austin Sparks~