It is not all kinds of labour to which the promise is attached, for there
is a great deal of labour that is altogether in vain. “Except the Lord
build the house, they labour in vain that build it.” {60c} And the
distinction is very clearly taught us here, for the work here spoken of
is a labour “in the Lord.” It teaches how work is the consequence of
union; that we do not do the work of the Lord in order that by doing it
we may attain to union, but that the union comes first and the work of
the Lord follows as its result. There will be no fruit on the branch if
there is not first a union with the vine. There is no hope, therefore,
of any man winning to himself a union with Christ by any amount of
painstaking in work. If your heart is yearning for that union, you must
accept it as a free gift because Christ Jesus, the Son of God, has
redeemed you by His own most precious blood, and you must do so just as
you are, without waiting for even one more effort in His service. You
must be “in the Lord” before you can “labour in the Lord,” and that union
must be the free gift of His unmerited grace. You must be created in Him
unto good works before you will do anything for His glory. {61}