"With lovingkindness have I drawn thee" (Jeremiah 31: 3).
The law and judgment are used to bring us to Christ, but the final victory is affected by lovingkindness. The prodigal set out for his father's house from a sense of need. His father saw him a great way off and ran to meet him. The last steps that he took toward his father's house were with the kiss still warm upon his cheek and the welcome still musical in his ears. The Master came to the door and knocked with the iron hand of the law; the door shook and trembled on its hinges; but the man piled every piece of furniture which he could find against the door, for he said, "I will not admit the Man." The Master turned away, but He came back, and with His own soft hand, he knocked again softly and tenderly. This time the door did not shake, but strange to say, it opened, and there on his knees the once unwilling host was found rejoicing to receive his guest. "Come in, come in; You have so knocked that my heart is drawn to You. I could not think of Your pierced hand leaving its blood-mark on my door, and of You going away homeless. I yield, I yield. Your love has won my heart." So in every case; lovingkindness wins the day. What Moses with the tablets of stone could never do, Christ does with His pierced hand.