It Has Been Fully Reported to Me, All That You Have Done

As a true servant of the Lord, Boaz had made inquiries about Ruth, and he knew what she had done for her mother-in-law after her husband’s death—that she had left her father and mother as well as her native country, and had come to a people she did not know before.

You can depend on people who forsake something for their faith. Boaz knew this better than anyone else, and he admired Ruth for it. Yet he also understood to put Ruth in such a position that she could not admire herself. He said to her, “It has been fully reported to me, all that you have done.” It was the same as if he had said: You have nothing to tell me about yourself. At the same time it was a consolation for Ruth that such a mighty man knew everything about her, especially since he had a mind to help her.

Boaz appreciated what Ruth had done. Yet in our days many religious people say that we shall do nothing at all since Jesus has done everything. It is a known fact that you cannot work and strive for the forgiveness of sins, but it should also be just as well known that you cannot become sanctified without obeying and believing. The word “obedience” implies that something has to be done. Since the works have been prepared beforehand that we should walk in them, that tells us quite plainly that we are to do the works that have been prepared for us.

How can you possibly live a life without doing anything?

Even if Jesus ate and drank, I cannot live off that if I do not receive any nourishment myself. If Jesus was crucified and put to death the enmity on the cross that helps me very little if I go my own way many miles removed from the cross and live according to my lusts. If the work of Christ is to profit me, I have to be crucified with Him. I cannot just sit “at the foot of the cross,” which I have heard has been mixed together with “on the cross.” Even a Herod, a Pilate, or a Judas, as well as the soldiers who killed the Lord of glory, possibly could have endured a little while at the foot of the cross. Oh, that the preachers, by obedience, might at least be in touch with the cross to the extent that they could see the difference between “sitting at the foot of the cross” and “being crucified with Him.”