Thou great I Am,

Fill my mind with elevation and grandeur at the thought of a Being…
with whom one day is as a thousand years,
and a thousand years as one day,
A mighty God, who, amidst the lapse of worlds,
and the revolutions of empires,
feels no variableness,
but is glorious in immortality.

May I rejoice that, while men die, the Lord lives;
that, while all creatures are broken reeds…
empty cisterns,
fading flowers,
withering grass,
he is the Rock of Ages, the Fountain
of living waters.

Turn my heart from vanity…
from dissatisfactions,
from uncertainties of the present state,
to an eternal interest in Christ.

Let me remember that life is short and…
unforeseen,
and is only an opportunity for usefulness;

Give me a holy avarice to redeem the time…
to awake at every call to charity and piety,
so that I may feed the hungry,
clothe the naked,
instruct the ignorant,
reclaim the vicious,
forgive the offender,
diffuse the gospel,
show neighbourly love to all.

Let me live a life of self-distrust…
dependence on Thyself,
mortification,
crucifixion,
prayer.

Taken from The Valley of Vision—A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions.

Read more puritan prayers here.

Every Christian believes that God is in control. When trials come, when a job is lost, when tears strike the bane of our hearts, after all the outbursts of emotions and feelings are done we are quick to cry out: “I know that God is in control.”

But then, what I have discovered is that when you begin to scratch that affirmation that rolls from the lips of the great majority of evangelicals, fairly quickly will you find out that there is very little sovereignty left.

Many, many years ago, when I and my brothers were little, we used to play a game on the stair-case of our old home from the second floor to the first floor of the house. What we would do is sit in a fetal-position just at the edge of the stair-case and when we have mustered just enough courage we would roll ourselves down to either oblivion or mad-exhilarating fun down to the first floor.

Of course it need not be said that what we did was neither wise nor advisable, in fact, it’s outright insane. And I do not, in any way, shape or form advise anyone to imitate what I and my brothers did. In any case, in the providence of God, we did make it out alive in the multiple times we played that “game” of ours.

Given then this scenario of us rolling down a stair-case or suppose even on a slope of a hill, why is it that neither I nor any of my brothers, in our attempt to roll down, stay afloat in mid air? What is it that captured us to inescapably descend from our position on the stair-case after pressing ourselves in forward momentum?

As the old adage goes, almost everyone would say: “What comes up, must come down.” And in this scenario, “What was up, must come down.” Which is to say that nothing on earth can escape the “Law of Gravity”. You can have doubts about whether fairies or aliens are real or not, but jump off a building and gravity will prove itself to be true for you. It just doesn’t leave room for any doubt! Just the same with every accepted “law of nature.” Including the laws of thermodynamics and the laws of motion among others.

But then, dear reader, if this is how you perceive things to be, if this is how reality is principally analyzed and accepted in your mind, then, by all means and purposes, you are thinking like a Pagan.

In the apostle Paul’s mission to the Athenians, as he sought to make known the “unknown god” that they profess to worship, he declared:

“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”  (Acts 17:24-25)

And Paul went on saying,

“In him we live and move and have our being” (v.28).

Now, what’s the significance of that?

It plainly means that there is no living, there is no moving, and there is no being apart from God.

Many would say that they believe that God is sovereign, but on this point, do we really? Or is it not true that in the very core of our beliefs, we are more akin to Pagans rather than Christians?

By default we pay homage more to the mechanistic, impersonal laws of the universe than we do the providence of God. Even amongst Christian men and women, they would attribute accidents and such to mere chance. This is especially true when tragedies occur. Though they say that “God is in control” and able to help them through the event, scarcely would you hear a main-line evangelical say that God actually ordains suffering.

“God is in the blessing, the saving and in the helping! Evil? Pain? Suffering? That’s just Mother Nature, or maybe the devil!” How entirely removed is this assertion from Christianity itself. See, dear reader, apart from God there is nothing, we are nothing. And in the words of Martin Luther, that “nothing” is not a little something.

Arthur W. Pink, in his book “The Sovereignty of God”, he says,

Everything is supposed to be ordered according to the (impersonal and abstract) “laws of Nature”. Thus is the Creator banished from His own creation. Therefore we need not be surprised that men, in their degrading conceptions, exclude Him from the realm of human affairs.

Indeed, we shouldn’t be surprised that God is given little authority, if none at all, in the various activities of human life (even Christian life). Why should He given such an importance if in the fundamental level of our belief systems it is man that is on the throne? Or that “mother nature” is on the throne of creation instead of God the Creator?

Do we not see the effects of this system of belief in our own respective contexts? In our relationships and family? On how we spend our time, affections, finances and energy? Even in our worship, is not God, treated like a mere Cosmic Butler than He is a Sovereign King?

Yet, in direct opposition Holy Writ plainly and unashamedly declares,

“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36)

Coram Deo

As we live before the face of God this day, let us seek the forgiveness of God in repentance from such a sin as this of robing Him of the honor due His Name (even in the smallest degrees and instances). Let us no longer give glory to nature. Let us no longer glorify the impersonal forces of the universe or even our own selves in our sinful cry for autonomy. But as Christians, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, let us acknowledge that the thrice-holy God, the Creator of the universe, is King. And that in fact, as well as in Name, He truly is Sovereign.

This hymn has been close to my heart lately, for it reflects much of life, mine as much as yours, I believe, reader. We pray for greater faith and growth in character and grace, but at the next moment we wonder why it seems that the opposite is granted to us? We are driven to trials, buffeting of temptations and sin.

Read on, and listen to this hymn. Let us be reminded once again that it is He who is God. Him, our sovereign Father. Though He wounds, He binds up. Though He shatters, His hands heal. (Job 5:18)

“Make Your ways known to me, Lord; teach me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and teach me.” (Psalm 25:4-5)

There are two ways of learning of Divine things. The one is to acquire a letter knowledge of them from the Bible, the other is to be given an actual experience of them in the soul, under the Spirit’s teaching.

Many suppose that by spending a few minutes in a concordance, they can discover what humility is; that by studying certain passages of Scriptures, they may obtain an increase of faith; or that by reading and re-reading a certain chapter, they may secure more love.

But that is not the way those graces are experimentally developed. Humility is learned by a daily smarting under the plague of the heart, and having its innumerable abominations exposed to our view. Repentance is learned by feeling the load of guilt, and the heavy burden of conscious defilement, bowing down the soul. Faith is learned by increasing discoveries of unbelief and infidelity. Love is learned by a personal sense of the undeserved goodness of God to the vilest of the vile. Patience cannot be learned from books—it is acquired in the furnace of affliction! It is thus with all the spiritual graces of the Christian.

Ah, my reader, we beg the Lord to teach us—but the fact is, that we do not like His method of teaching us! Fiery trials, storms of afflictions, the dashing of our carnal hopes—are indeed painful to flesh and blood; yet it is by them that the heart is purified.

We say that we wish to live to God’s glory—but fail to remember that we can do so only as SELF is denied and the Cross be taken up. God’s ways of teaching His children are, like all His ways, entirely different from ours!

—A.W. Pink, Experimental Preaching

Seen at GraceGems.org

Read the rest of this outstanding article “Experimental Preaching“.

Please forward this on to your pastor!

1. I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith and love and every grace
Might more of His salvation know
And seek more earnestly His face

2. Twas He who taught me thus to pray
And He I trust has answered prayer
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair

3. I hoped that in some favored hour
At once He’d answer my request
And by His love’s constraining power
Subdue my sins and give me rest

4. Instead of this He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart
And let the angry powers of Hell
Assault my soul in every part

5. Yea more with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Cast out my feelings, laid me low

6. Lord why is this, I trembling cried
Wilt Thou pursue thy worm to death?
“Tis in this way” The Lord replied
“I answer prayer for grace and faith”

7. “These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free
And break thy schemes of earthly joy
That thou mayest seek thy all in me,
That thou mayest seek thy all in me.”

Words:
John Newton, Ol­ney Hymns (Lon­don: W. Ol­iv­er, 1779).
alt. Laura Taylor

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TftGIyzO-A8

Music:
Laura Taylor

Downloads:
Lead Sheet
Overhead
Chord Chart

I personally have benefited much from Erik Kowalker and his work for the Gospel through JCRyleQuotes.com, to receive such a grace and honor from him is very humbling for me.

Let us all continue to look to the Prize and may our hearts and souls be gripped with the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ!

• If you haven’t visited JCRyleQuotes.com yet, you should.

But begin to put such people to the test; put such people through the fires of suffering and before the scrutiny of the Holy Scriptures and we will see what sort of Christians they really are. Whether they really are true or not. This concerns more than the surety of the profession of individuals, as if we are only concerned about the genuineness of the labels people hold. Rather, eternity is at stake!

Do you see this to be a vital issue, dear reader?

I pray so you do!

There is nothing more important for you to find out than the sure or false nature of the faith you profess. Whether you really are saved, brought from death to life! For what are riches, success, family, relationships and fame? All these will pass away! All these will be swept away in the wind as your body rots in the ground! Oh, I pray you, be concerned desperately more about your soul!

God’s Wrath is Coming. Are you Ready?

If you find out that you are not saved, then, repent and believe the gospel, that you may be brought from death to life. The God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ is a perfect Savior. No matter how vile and wicked you may be, He can save even such a one as you!

Saving faith is always evidenced by a humble heart.

Faith lays the soul low, for it discovers its own vileness, emptiness, impotency.

It realizes its former sinfulness and present unworthiness.

It is conscious of its weaknesses and wants, its carnality and corruptions.

Nothing more exalts Christ than faith, and nothing more debases a man. In order to magnify the riches of His grace, God has selected faith as the fittest instrument, and this because it is that which causes us to go entirely out from ourselves unto Him.

Faith, realizing we are nothing but sin and wretchedness, comes unto Christ as an empty-handed beggar to receive all from Him.

Faith empties a man of self-conceit, self-confidence, and self-righteousness, and makes him seem nothing, that Christ may be all in all.

The strongest faith is always accompanied by the greatest humility, accounting self the greatest of sinners and unworthy of the least favour (see Matt. 8:8-10).

Saving faith is always found in a tender heart.

“A new heart also will I give you,
and a new spirit will I put within you:
and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh,
and I will give you an heart of flesh”
(Ezekiel 36:26).

An unregenerate heart is hard as stone, full of pride and presumption. It is quite unmoved by the sufferings of Christ, in the sense that they act as no deterrent against self-will and self-pleasing. But the real Christian is moved by the love of Christ, and says, How can I sin against His dying love for me. When overtaken by a fault, there is passionate relenting and bitter mourning.

Oh, my reader, do you know what it is to be melted before God, for you to be heart-broken with anguish over sinning against and grieving such a Saviour? Ah, it is not the absence of sin but the grieving over it which distinguishes the child of God from empty professors.

Another characteristic of saving faith is that it “worketh by love” (Gal. 5:6).

It is not inactive, but energetic. That faith which is “of the operation of God” (Col. 2:12) is a mighty principle of power, diffusing spiritual energy to all the faculties of the soul and enlisting them in the service of God.

Faith is a principle of life, by which the Christian lives unto God;

a principle of motion, by which he walks to heaven along the highway of holiness;

a principle of strength, by which he opposes the flesh, the world, and the Devil.

“Faith in the heart of a Christian is like the salt that was thrown into the corrupt fountain, that made the naughty waters good and the barren land fruitful. Hence it is that there followeth an alteration of life and conversation, and so bringeth forth fruit accordingly: ‘A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good fruit’; which treasure is faith.”

—John Bunyan in Christian Behaviour

Where a saving faith is rooted in the heart it grows up and spreads itself in all the branches of obedience, and is filled with the fruits of righteousness. It makes its possessor act for God, and thereby evidences that it is a living thing and not merely a lifeless theory.

Even a newborn infant, though it cannot walk and work as a grown man, breathes and cries, moves and sucks, and thereby shows it is alive.

So with the one who has been born again;

there is a breathing unto God,

a crying after Him, a moving toward Him,

a clinging to Him.

But the infant does not long remain a babe; there is growth, increasing strength, enlarged activity. Nor does the Christian remain stationary: he goes “from strength to strength” (Psalm 84:7).

But observe carefully, faith not only “worketh” but it “worketh by love.”

It is at this point that the “works” of the Christian differ from those of the mere religionist. “The papist works that he may merit heaven. The Pharisee works that he may be applauded, that he may be seen of men, that he may have a good esteem with them. The slave works lest he should be beaten, lest he should be damned. The formalist works that he may stop the mouth of conscience, that will be accusing him, if he does nothing. The ordinary professor works because it is a shame to do nothing where so much is professed.

But the true believer works because he loves. This is the principal, if not the only, motive that sets him a-work. If there were no other motive within or without him, yet would he be working for God, acting for Christ, because he loves Him; it is like fire in his bones” (David Clarkson).

Saving faith is ever accompanied by an obedient walk.

“Hereby we do know that we know Him,
if we keep His commandments.
He that saith, I know Him,
and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar,
and the truth is not in him”
(1 John 2:3, 4).

Make no mistake upon this point: infinite as are the merits of Christ’s sacrifice, mighty as is the potency of His priestly intercession, yet they avail not for any who continue in the path of disobedience. He acknowledges none to be His disciples save them who do homage to Him as their Lord.

“Too many professors pacify themselves with the idea that they possess imputed righteousness, while they are indifferent to the sanctifying work of the Spirit. They refuse to put on the garment of obedience, they reject the white linen which is the righteousness of the saints. They thus reveal their self-will, their enmity to God, and their non-submission to His Son.

Such men may talk what they will about justification by faith, and salvation by grace, but they are rebels at heart; they have not on the wedding-dress any more than the self-righteous, whom they so eagerly condemn. The fact is, if we wish for the blessings of grace, we must in our hearts submit to the rules of grace without picking and choosing.”

—C. H. Spurgeon on “The Wedding Garment”

Once more: saving faith is precious, for, like gold, it will endure trial (1 Peter 1:7).

A genuine Christian fears no test; he is willing, yea, wishes, to be tried by God Himself. He cries, “Examine me, 0 Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart” (Psalm 26:2). Therefore he is willing for his faith to be tried by others, for he shuns not the touchstone of Holy Writ.

He frequently tries for himself, for where so much is at stake he must be sure.

He is anxious to know the worst as well as the best.

That preaching pleases him best which is most searching and discriminating.

He is loath to be deluded with vain hopes.

He would not be flattered into a high conceit of his spiritual state without grounds.

When challenged, he complies with the apostle’s advice in 2 Corinthians 13:5.

Herein does the real Christian differ from the formalist. The presumptuous professor is filled with pride, and, having a high opinion of himself, is quite sure that he has been saved by Christ. He disdains any searching tests, and considers self-examination to be highly injurious and destructive of faith.

That preaching pleases him best which keeps at a respectable distance, which comes not near his conscience, which makes no scrutiny of his heart. To preach to him of the finished work of Christ and the eternal security of all who believe in Him strengthens his false peace and feeds his carnal confidence. Should a real servant of God seek to convince him that his hope is a delusion, and his confidence presumptuous, he would regard him as an enemy, as Satan seeking to fill him with doubts. There is more hope of a murderer being saved than of his being disillusioned.

—A. W. Pink, Studies on Saving Faith: It’s Evidences^[i]

Read more of “Studies on Saving Faith” here.

Footnotes

1. Pink, A. W. (19). The doctrines of election and justification. “… materials found herein were first published in 1932, 1933 and 1937 …”; Includes indexes. Swengel, Pa.: Reiner.”

For what is a Christianity, a profession and confession of affiliation to the Lord Jesus Christ, that loves sin and the world, that is loose in it’s speech, that exalts self above God, that desires human pleasure more than the advancement of His kingdom; what is such a profession but a lie? Empty talk? Nay, a person still dead in his sins?

Oh, dear reader, if you are such, I urge you, make sure of it if it’s true or not! Examine yourself! Nothing is more frightening than the deceitfulness of sin to convince us of saving faith when it is not even there. Repent of your sins and cast yourself upon Christ, He is a perfect Savior!

Before I proceed to the consideration of the next principle, I cannot but by the way complain of many professors^[i] of these days, who, instead of bringing forth such great and evident fruits of mortification as are expected, scarce bear any leaves of it.

There is, indeed, a broad light fallen upon the men of this generation, and together therewith many spiritual gifts communicated, which, with some other considerations, have wonderfully enlarged the bounds of professors and profession; both they and it are exceedingly multiplied and increased. Hence there is a noise of religion and religious duties in every corner, preaching in abundance—and that not in an empty, light, trivial, and vain manner, as formerly, but to a good proportion of a spiritual gift—so that if you will measure the number of believers by light, gifts, and profession, the church may have cause to say, “Who has born me all these?”

But now if you will take the measure of them by this great discriminating grace of Christians, perhaps you will find their number not so multiplied. Where almost is that professor^[ii] who owes his conversion to these days of light, and so talks and professes at such a rate of spirituality as few in former days were, in any measure, acquainted with (I will not judge them, but perhaps boasting what the Lord has done in them), that does not give evidence of a miserably unmortified heart?

If vain spending of time, idleness, unprofitableness in men’s places, envy, strife, variance, emulations, wrath, pride, worldliness, selfishness (1 Corinthians 1) be badges of Christians, we have them on us and among us in abundance. And if it be so with them who have much light, and which, we hope, is saving, what shall we say of some who would be accounted religious and yet despise gospel light, and for the duty we have in hand, know no more of it but what consists in men’s denying themselves sometimes in outward enjoyments, which is one of the outmost branches of it, which yet they will seldom practice?

The good Lord send out a spirit of mortification to cure our distempers, or we are in a sad condition!

There are two evils which certainly attend every unmortified professor— the first, in himself; the other, in respect of others.

In himself.

Let him pretend what he will, he has slight thoughts of sin; at least, of sins of daily infirmity. The root of an unmortified course is the digestion of sin without bitterness in the heart. When a man has confirmed his imagination to such an apprehension of grace and mercy as to be able, without bitterness, to swallow and digest daily sins, that man is at the very brink of turning the grace of God into lasciviousness and being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Neither is there a greater evidence of a false and rotten heart in the world than to drive such a trade. To use the blood of Christ, which is given to cleanse us (1 John 1:7; Titus 2:14); the exaltation of Christ, which is to give us repentance (Acts 5:31); the doctrine of grace, which teaches us to deny all ungodliness (Titus 2:1112), to countenance^[iii] sin is a rebellion that in the issue^[iv] will break the bones.

At this door have gone out from us most of the professors that have apostatized in the days wherein we live.^[v] For a while most of them were under convictions; these kept them unto duties, and brought them to profession; so they “escaped the pollutions that are in the world, through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 2:20): but having got an acquaintance with the doctrine of the gospel, and being weary of duty, for which they had no principle, they began to countenance themselves in manifold neglects from the doctrine of grace. Now, when once this evil had laid hold of them, they speedily tumbled into perdition.^[vi]

To others.

It has an evil influence on them on a twofold account: It hardens them, by begetting in them a persuasion that they are in as good condition as the best professors. Whatever they see in them is so stained for want^[vii] of this mortification that it is of no value with them.

They have a zeal for religion; but it is accompanied with want of forbearance and universal righteousness.

They deny prodigality,^[viii] but with worldliness;

they separate from the world, but live wholly to themselves, taking no care to exercise lovingkindness in the earth;

or they talk spiritually, and live vainly;

mention communion with God, and are every way conformed to the world;

boasting of forgiveness of sin, and never forgiving others.

And with such considerations do poor creatures harden their hearts in their unregeneracy.

They deceive them, in making them believe that if they can come up to their condition it shall be well with them; and so it grows an easy thing to have the great temptation of repute in religion to wrestle with, when they may go far beyond them as to what appears in them, and yet come short of eternal life. But of these things and all the evils of unmortified walking, afterward.

—John Owen, Overcoming Sin and Temptation (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2006), p55-57

Read more of “Overcoming Sin and Temptation” here.

You can also purchase the book in paperback here, or read it in pdf here.

Footnotes

1. those who make a religious confession; professing Christians
2. Where, I wonder, is that professor
3. approve, condone
4. outcome
5. Of which professors ultimately evidenced the absence of any real work of regenerating grace in their life.
6. ruin, damnation, destruction
7. lack
8. reckless extravagance, especially with money

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And herein we see the arrogance of man, the raising up of man to the pinnacle of importance, the center of creation. The apostle, stands against us to our faces saying, “Who are you O man, to answer back to God? What have you done that the Creator God is bound to repay you? What virtue, what good do you posses have you given to God’s benefit that He should do the things you ask?”

The question instead is not “What ever have I done to deserve such suffering?”, but rather, “Knowing what I thought, said and did just last night, why didn’t the thrice Holy God immediately pour out the fierceness of His wrath upon me?”

A Case Study in Suffering

The vice president of operations of a large corporation became intensely jealous of a district manager in the company. The district manager enjoyed a close personal relationship with the chairman of the board. Moved by his jealousy, the vice president lodged a complaint with the chairman.

“I think we ought to get rid of Hawkins,” he suggested. The chairman replied, “Why? He’s one of the most productive managers we have. I think he’s doing an outstanding job. And besides, he is the most loyal employee we have.”

“Loyal? You think he’s loyal? No wonder he’s loyal,” the vice president said with dripping cynicism. “He’s always buttering you up. He’s only loyal because you pay him such a high salary. You give him benefits that no one else receives. Besides, you’ve built a wall of protection around him. Everybody knows that he’s your fair-haired boy. I wonder how loyal he’d be if you put the heat on him. Cut his salary and see how loyal he would be.”

The chairman was irritated by this suggestion, but he responded to the challenge. “All right. Let’s see about it. Go ahead and cut his salary. Put some heat on. I think you will see that Hawkins will maintain his loyalty.”

The vice president gave a sarcastic laugh. “You just let me at him and he’ll betray you and the company in a minute.”

The vice president left the board room and put together a scheme to bring Hawkins crashing down. First, he cut his salary in half. Then he approached some of Hawkins’s coworkers and enlisted them in his scheme. They were eager to join in. They gleefully contrived plans of industrial sabotage to destroy Hawkins’s productivity record. They falsified reports and covertly disrupted some of the machinery in the plant. Suddenly Hawkins’s plant was besieged with customer complaints about poor quality control.

The heat was on. The vice president and his henchmen referred to the district manager as “Stainless Steel” Hawkins. “Hawkins is a holy Joe. He thinks he’s better than anybody else. It’s time he got what he really deserves.”

Hawkins took it in stride. He worked even harder to solve the mysterious rash of problems that had arisen. This merely fueled the antagonism of his enemies. They began to put more pressure on. “Accidents” began to happen in the plant. The conspirators started to harass Hawkins’s family. To make matters worse, Hawkins suddenly became ill. Even his illness was of a suspicious origin. The vice president went so far as to bribe a corrupt physician to introduce a virile strand of bacteria into Hawkins’s diet. Joe Hawkins’s world began to fall apart. His sickness was taking its toll. Coupled with the plunging production of his plant, Hawkins’s star began to fade. Some of his closest friends came to him with sharp criticism. “What’s wrong with you, Hawkins? You’ve lost something. Your performance is down. No wonder they cut your salary.”

Hawkins’s friends began to think that their former opinion of him was wrong. They assumed that somehow Hawkins must have done something really bad for his life to have taken such a sudden and drastic turn for the worse. One of his friends even came to him with “spiritual” counsel. “Joe,” he said, “I need to tell you something in love. The troubles you’ve been having must come from God. I think it is a kind of punishment for unconfessed sin in your life. Maybe if you repent things will start to go better for you.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Joe Hawkins replied, “but I’m not aware of anything I’ve done to deserve this, but I will certainly search my soul about it.”

“But even the chairman cut your salary in half. Doesn’t that tell you something?”

“Well, the chairman has a right to do that. He’s always been fair with me. I’m sure he knows what he is doing. He must have a good reason for his action,” Joe answered.

Then Joe’s wife got into the act. “Honey,” she said one evening, “I think it’s time for you to resign. Your health is failing and the company is treating you like dirt. After all your years of faithful service, this is the thanks you get. Let’s get out and start over somewhere else. You’re crazy to keep working for a company like this.”

“No, Hon,” Joe answered. “I can’t leave.”

“Why not?” his wife demanded.

“I owe it to the chairman of the board to stay on.”

“Are you crazy? You don’t owe him anything. You’ve given him the best years of your life, and now this. He owes you! You don’t owe him a thing. Why don’t you face it, Joe, the chairman’s as rotten as the deal he’s given you.”

“No!” Joe snapped in anger. “I just can’t believe that he would treat me unfairly on purpose.”

“Then you’d better talk to him face to face. I’d love to hear what he says when you confront him.”

“OK, OK, I’ll talk to him,” Joe promised.

The next day Joe made an appointment to see the chairman. When he was ushered into the teak-paneled office the chairman greeted him in a friendly manner. “Hi, Joe. What can I do for you?”

Joe got straight to the point. He gushed out his grievances in a torrent of rage. “What’s going on here?” he demanded. “You’ve cut my salary in half. You stand by and let a bunch of thieves sabotage my plant. You don’t give me any health benefits. What did I do to deserve this kind of treatment? I’ve been loyal to you and to the company for years and now you treat me like this. Who do you think you are, anyway?”

The chairman listened patiently to Joe’s diatribe.

Then he responded. “Let me ask you some questions, Joe. Do you own this company?”

“No, sir,” Joe replied.

“Did you build this place from scratch? Did you risk your own capital in this operation? Do you pay all the bills? Are you the chairman of the board?”

To all these questions Joe sat shaking his head, “No.”

“Tell me, Joe, who are you to tell me how to run my company? I’ve given you everything I ever promised you and more. Look at your contract. Does your contract specify that you should receive all the bonuses I’ve given you over the years?”

Again Joe had to give an honest answer. “No, sir, you really have been more than kind to me.”

“Have I, Joe? Do you think I’ve changed? Do you think I’m not aware of what’s going on here? I know you have been treated unfairly. I know exactly what’s going on in that plant. I’ve been studying the matter carefully. Nothing has escaped my notice. Joe, I’m going to ask you to do something for me. You’ve trusted me in the past. Trust me now. It may take some time but I guarantee you that I will straighten things out. But you have to be patient. I have a plan. Those who have plotted against you will get everything they deserve. Do you really think I would let them get away with this?”

Joe felt awful. He began to stammer an apology. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I had no right to come in there and lay all these accusations on you. I’ve complained once. But no more. You’ll never hear another word of protest out of my mouth. Do whatever you will. I trust you.”

The chairman smiled. He spoke into the intercom to his secretary. “Mrs. Franklin, have the vice president of operations report to my office immediately. I’m giving him his walking papers.”

“Don’t leave yet, Joe. I have a few words for you. First, I want you to know that beginning tomorrow morning you will be elevated to a vice presidency in the company. You will receive double the salary you had before your pay was cut. Even at this hour a physician is on his way from Atlanta with a special vaccine that will cure your disease. You have been loyal to me, Joe, more loyal than any other employee. You’ve endured a lot without cursing me behind my back. Now it is time for you to be vindicated.”

“I knew it,” exclaimed Joe. “I must admit I had my moments of doubt, but deep down inside I knew you would fix everything. Now I really feel embarrassed for all those accusations I made to you. How can you ever forgive me?”

“Joe, don’t worry about it. That’s one thing I know how to do. Forgive. I major in forgiveness.”

Is There a Connection of Sin with Suffering?

Surely by now the reader has recognized that this is the story of the biblical character Job, thinly disguised in modern garb. The story of Job is a case study in human suffering. It chronicles the drama of a righteous man who underwent extreme misery in this world. His misery was compounded by his friends’ insensitivity toward him. They made an assumption that the Bible forbids. They assumed that Job’s degree of suffering was in direct proportion to his sin. They assumed that there is a ratio in this world between suffering and guilt. Since Job’s suffering was great, it must have been a sign that his sin was equally great.

God does not allow this equation. We remember the question put to Jesus about the man who was born blind:

Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” John 9:1-3

In the science of logic there is an informal fallacy called the fallacy of the false dilemma. Sometimes it is called the either/or fallacy. This error of reasoning occurs when a problem is presented as if it allowed only two possible explanations when in reality there are three or more options.

Some issues are indeed of an either/or character. For example, either there is a God or there is not. There is no third option. But because some questions may be reduced to only two alternatives does not mean that all questions may be so reduced. This is the error the disciples made concerning the man born blind.

When the disciples considered the plight of the blind man they assumed there were only two possible explanations for it. Either the blindness was a direct result of the man’s own sin or it was the result of his parents’ sin.

Their thinking was wrong, but it was not utterly groundless. They were correct in one assumption. They knew enough about Scripture to realize that there is a connection between suffering and sin. They understood that suffering and death entered the world because of sin. Before sin entered the world there was no suffering or death.

Death is unnatural. It may be natural to fallen man, but it was not natural to man as he was created. Man was not created to die. He was created with the possibility of death but not with the necessity of death. Death was introduced as a consequence of sin. If there is no sin, there is no death. But when sin entered, the curse of the Fall was added. All death and suffering flow out of the complex of sin.

The disciples were partially correct at another point. They were aware that sometimes there is a direct link between a person’s sin and his suffering. God afflicted Miriam with leprosy as a judgment upon her for her sin against Moses (Numbers 12:9-10).

The error of the disciples was in assuming that there is always a direct correlation, a fixed ratio between a person’s suffering and a person’s sin. In this world there are times when a person suffers far less than what is merited for one’s sins, while others endure a greater proportion of suffering. This disparity is seen in David’s cry, “Lord, how long will the wicked, how long will the wicked triumph?” (Psalm 94:3).

There are times when we suffer innocently at other people’s hands. When that occurs we are victims of injustice. But that injustice is at a horizontal level. No one suffers injustice on a vertical level. That is, no one ever suffers unjustly in terms of our relationship with God. As long as we bear the guilt of sin we cannot protest that God is unjust in allowing us to suffer.

If someone wrongfully causes me to suffer, I have every right to plead with God for vindication even as Job did. Yet at the same time I must not complain to God that He is at fault in allowing this suffering to befall me. In terms of my relationship to other people I may be innocent, but in terms of my relationship to God I am not an innocent victim.

It is one thing for me to ask God for justice in my dealings with men. It is another thing for me to demand justice in my relationship with God. No more perilous demand could be uttered than for a sinner to demand justice from God. The worst thing that could possibly befall me is to receive pure justice from God.

“God Meant It for Good”

All of these considerations aside, the fact remains that the disciples still committed the fallacy of the false dilemma. They limited the reason for the man’s blindness to two possible explanations (the man’s own sin or his parents’) when there was at least one other explanation for the blindness that they failed to consider.

Jesus punctured the false dilemma by saying, “Neither!” The reason why the man was born blind was not because of his sin. Nor was it because of his parents’ sin. Jesus declared that the man was born blind so “that the works of God should be revealed in him.”

The man born blind was afflicted with blindness for the glory of God. This is the startling conclusion our Lord revealed. This is a crucial teaching for us. It serves as a warning for us not to jump to conclusions about the “why” of our suffering.

God used the man’s blindness for His greater glory. Here the “evil” of disease and suffering is made serviceable to God. He triumphs over it and brings His glorious plan to pass through it. We remember the dreadful suffering of Joseph at the hands of his brothers. Yet because of their treachery the plan of God for all of history was brought to pass.

At the moment of Joseph’s reconciliation with his brothers, he exclaimed, “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (Genesis 50:20).

Here we see God working through evil to effect salvation. It does not make the evil of Joseph’s brothers any less evil. Judas’s betrayal was a wicked act. It brought unjust suffering upon Jesus even as Joseph was a victim of his brothers’ injustice.

But over all injustice,

all pain,

all suffering

…stands a sovereign God who works His plan of salvation over, against, and even through evil.

—R.C. Sproul, (1996, c1988). Surprised by Suffering. Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.

Purchase the book “Surprised by Suffering” here, or read more here.

I hear the Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”

Refrain

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

For nothing good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim,
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.

Refrain

And now complete in Him
My robe His righteousness,
Close sheltered ’neath His side,
I am divinely blest.

Refrain

Lord, now indeed I find
Thy power and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone.

Refrain

When from my dying bed
My ransomed soul shall rise,
“Jesus died my soul to save,”
Shall rend the vaulted skies.

Refrain

And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
I’ll lay my trophies down
All down at Jesus’ feet.

Refrain

Words: Elvina M. Hall, 1865.
Music: John T. Grape

On New Year’s night, 1886, some mis­sion­ar­ies were hold­ing open-air serv­ic­es in or­der to att­ract pass­ers­-by to a near-by miss­ion, where meet­ings were to be held later. “All to Christ I owe” was sung, and af­ter a gen­tle­man had giv­en a short ad­dress he hast­ened away to the miss­ion. He soon heard foot­steps close be­hind him and a young wo­man caught up with him and said:

“I heard you ad­dress­ing the open-air meet­ing just now; do you think, sir, that Je­sus could save a sin­ner like me?”

The gen­tle­man re­plied that there was no doubt about that, if she was anx­ious to be saved. She told him that she was a serv­ant girl, and had left her place that morn­ing after a dis­a­gree­ment with her mis­tress. As she had been wan­der­ing about the streets in the dark, won­der­ing where she was to spend the night, the sweet mel­o­dies of this hymn had at­tract­ed her, and she drew near and listened at­tent­ive­ly. As the dif­fer­ent vers­es were be­ing sung, she felt that the words sure­ly had some­thing to do with her. Through the whole serv­ice she seemed to hear what met her op­pressed soul’s need at that mo­ment. God’s Spir­it had showed her what a poor, sin­ful and wretch­ed crea­ture she was, and had led her to ask what she must do. On hear­ing her ex­per­i­ence, the gen­tle­man took her back to the mis­sion and left her with the la­dies in charge. The young, way­ward woman was brought to Christ that night. A si­tu­a­tion was se­cured for her in a min­is­ter’s fam­i­ly. There she be­came ill and had to be tak­en to a hos­pi­tal. She ra­pid­ly failed and it became ev­i­dent that she would not be long on earth. One day the gen­tle­man whom she had met on New Year’s night was vis­it­ing her in the ward. Af­ter quot­ing a few suit­a­ble vers­es of Script­ure, he re­peat­ed her fa­vo­rite hymn, “All to Christ I owe”…and she seemed over­whelmed with the thought of com­ing to glo­ry…Two hours af­ter­ward she passed away.

Sankey, pp. 110-1

www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-C1qtvlNdI

I completely revamped the design of the site. It should load faster by leaps and bounds like never before while maintaining a great readability of content and good aesthetic.

Tell me what you think about the new theme!

*And yes, I know, this IS the 3rd time this year I redesign the site. Nevertheless, be it as it may… only by the grace of God. May he be glorified!

“Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name.”—Psalm 29:2

God’s glory is the result of his nature and acts. He is glorious in his character, for there is such a store of everything that is holy, and good, and lovely in God, that he must be glorious. The actions which flow from his character are also glorious; but while he intends that they should manifest to his creatures his goodness, and mercy, and justice, he is equally concerned that the glory associated with them should be given only to himself.

Nor is there aught in ourselves in which we may glory; for who maketh us to differ from another? And what have we that we did not receive from the God of all grace? Then how careful ought we to be to walk humbly before the Lord! The moment we glorify ourselves, since there is room for one glory only in the universe, we set ourselves up as rivals to the Most High.

Shall the insect of an hour glorify itself against the sun which warmed it into life?

Shall the potsherd exalt itself above the man who fashioned it upon the wheel?

Shall the dust of the desert strive with the whirlwind?

Or the drops of the ocean struggle with the tempest?

Give unto the Lord, all ye righteous, give unto the Lord glory and strength; give unto him the honour that is due unto his name.

Yet it is, perhaps, one of the hardest struggles of the Christian life to learn this sentence—“Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name be glory.” It is a lesson which God is ever teaching us, and teaching us sometimes by most painful discipline.

Let a Christian begin to boast, “I can do all things,” without adding “through Christ which strengtheneth me,” and before long he will have to groan, “I can do nothing,” and bemoan himself in the dust. When we do anything for the Lord, and he is pleased to accept of our doings, let us lay our crown at his feet, and exclaim, “Not I, but the grace of God which was with me!”

—C.H. Spurgeon: Morning and Evening : Daily Readings.
Complete and unabridged; New modern edition.
Peabody, MA : Hendrickson Publishers, 2006, S.
August 16 AM

Read more of Morning & Evening here.

Alas! We look too much into self and too little to Sovereign Omnipotence! He who understands our most acute of sorrows. He who weeps and groans with us in our pains. Oh, and Him in whom is an endless ocean of inexpressible peace, comfort and joy!

Would you cast yourself to Him today, dear reader? Oh, if you would, then do this, PRAY!

“…Men ought always to Pray.”—Jesus, Luke 18:1
“I will that men pray everywhere.”—Paul, 1 Timothy 2:8

I have a question to offer you. It is contained in three words,

DO YOU PRAY?

The question is one that none but you can answer. Whether you attend public worship or not, your minister knows. Whether you have family prayers or not your relations know. But whether you pray in private or not, is a matter between yourself and God.

I beseech you in all affections to attend to the subject I bring before you. Do not say that my question is too close. If your heart is right in the sight of God, there is nothing in it to make you afraid.

Do not turn off my question by replying that you say your prayers. It is one thing to say your prayers and another to pray. Do not tell me that my question is unnecessary. Listen to me for a few minutes, and I will show you good reason for asking it.

I. I ask whether you pray, because prayer is absolutely needful to a person’s salvation.

II. I ask again whether you pray, because a habit of prayer is one of the surest marks of a true Christian.

III. I ask whether you pray, because there is no duty in religion so neglected as private prayer.

IV. I Ask whether you pray, because prayer is an act of religion to which there is great encouragement.

V. I ask whether you pray, because diligence in prayer is the secret of eminent holiness.

VI. I ask whether you pray, because neglect of prayer is one of the greatest causes of backsliding.

VII. I ask, lastly, whether you pray because prayer is one of the best means of happiness and contentment.

We live in a world where sorrow abounds. This has always been the state since sin came in. There cannot be sin without sorrow. And until sin is driven out from the world, it is vain for any one to suppose they can escape sorrow.

Some without doubt have a larger cup of sorrow to drink than others. But few are to be found who live long without sorrows or cares of one sort or another. Our bodies, our property, our families, our children, our relations, our servants, our friends, our neighbours, our worldly callings, each and all of these are fountains of care. Sickness, deaths, losses, disappointments, partings, separations, ingratitude, slander, all these are common things. We cannot get through life without them. Some day or other they find us out. The greater are our affections the deeper are our afflictions, and the more we love the more we have to weep.

And what is the best means of cheerfulness in such a world as this? How shall we get through this valley of tears with the least pain? I know no better means than the habit of taking everything to God in prayer.

This is the plain advice that the Bible gives, both in the Old Testament and New. What says the Psalmist? “Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me.” Psalm 50:15. “Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” Psalm 55:22. What says the apostle Paul? “Be anxious for nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let you requests be made know unto God: and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6,7. What says the apostle James: “Is any afflicted among you? let him pray.” James 5:13.

This was the practice of all the saints whose history we have recorded in the Scriptures. This is what Jacob did when he feared his brother Esau. this is what Moses did when the people were ready to stone him in the wilderness. This is what Joshua did when Israel was defeated before the men of Ai. This is what David did when he was in danger in Keliah. This what Hezekiah did when he received the letter from Sennacherib. This is what the church did when peter was put in prison. This is what Paul did when he was cast into the dungeon at Philippi.

The only way to really happy in such a world as this, is to ever casting all our cares on God. It is trying to carry their own burdens which so often makes believers sad. If they will tell their troubles to God, he will enable them to bear them as easily as Samson did the gates of Gaza. If they are resolved to keep them to themselves, they will one day find that the very grasshopper is a burden.

There is a friend ever waiting to help us, if we will unbosom to him our sorrows…

—a friend who pitied the poor and sick and sorrowful, when he was upon earth
—a friend who knows the heart of man, for he lived thirty-three years as a man among us-a friend who can weep with the weepers, for he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief
—a friend who is able to help us, for there never was earthly pain he could not cure.

That friend is Jesus Christ. The way to be happy is to be always opening our hearts to him. Oh that we were all like that poor Christian slave who only answered when threatened and punished, “I must tell the Lord.”

Jesus can make those happy who trust him and call him, whatever be their outward condition.

He can give them…

peace of heart in a prison,
contentment in the midst of poverty,
comfort in the midst of bereavements,
joy on the brink of the grave.

There is a mighty fullness that is ready to be poured out on every one that will ask in prayer. Oh that people would understand that happiness does not depend on outward circumstances, but on the state of the heart.

Prayer can lighten crosses for us, however heavy. It can bring down to our side One who will help us to bear them.

Prayer can open a door for us when our way seems hedged up. It can bring down One who will say, “This is the way, walk in it.”

Prayer can let in a ray of hope when all our earthly prospects seem darkened. It can bring down One who will say, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

Prayer can obtain relief for us when those we love most are taken away, and the world feels empty. It can bring down One who can fill the gap in our hearts with himself, and say to the waves within, “Peace; be still.”

Oh that people were not so like Hagar in the wilderness, blind to the well of living waters close beside them.

I want you to be happy. I know I cannot ask you a more useful question than this:

DO YOU PRAY?

And now it is high time for me to bring this tract to an end. I trust I have brought before you things that will be seriously considered. I heartily pray God that this consideration may be blessed to your soul.

—J. C. Ryle, A Call To Prayer

Get the booklet by J.C. Ryle, “A Call to Prayer” here, or click here to read more.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

—Paul, Romans 8:26-39

Arise, my soul, arise,
shake off your guilty fears;
The bleeding sacrifice,
in my behalf appears;
Before the throne my Surety stands,
Before the throne my Surety stands,
My name is written on His hands.

He ever lives above,
for me to intercede;
His all redeeming love,
His precious blood, to plead;
His blood atoned for every race,
His blood atoned for every race,
And sprinkles now the throne of grace.

Five bleeding wounds He bears;
received on Calvary;
They pour effectual prayers;
they strongly plead for me:
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Nor let that ransomed sinner die!”

The Father hears Him pray,
His dear anointed One;
He cannot turn away
the presence of His Son;
The Spirit answers to the blood,
The Spirit answers to the blood
And tells me I am born of God.

My God is reconciled;
His pardoning voice I hear;
He owns me for His child;
I can no longer fear
With confidence I now draw nigh,
With confidence I now draw nigh,
And “Father, Abba, Father,” cry.

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns and Sac­red Po­ems, 1742.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCZxTNXWnLc

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:36)

Of course it’s not difficult a task to profess a precept, an idea, or a belief. But I wonder a deeper sense in regards to this issue. How many of us, who profess the name of Christ, can truly confess that In him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28), so then all things that are, that was and that will be, are from Him and through Him and to Him? To Him be glory forever?

How about you, dear reader?

Can you in great honesty in light of the mirror of God’s Word to scrutinize the very core of your faith, say that no man would glory before Him, and that all honor and praise is His? It is fairly easy to say it, to profess it. To cast it off as a label for your public profile. But is it true in your life? When you go on in dealings with the world, is it true that all glory is to God alone? When you are with friends and your family, is it true that God alone is glorified? When you are going about your duties and responsibilities, or in the ministry of the Word, or in the preaching of the Gospel, or even in leisure and recreation, can you confess with the reformers “Soli Deo Gloria“, to God alone be the glory?

Ah, indeed it might be a small thing to most men and women, even amongst Christian men and women. But for us who truly desire and value the honor and praise of God, to us who see God’s glory as an extremely vital issue, these are questions that we must closely and desperately consider.

Soli Deo Gloria: Our Only Ambition

The world is full of ambitious people. But Paul said, “It has always been my ambition to preach the Gospel where Christ was not known.” (Rom 15:20). Since God has spoken so clearly and saved so finally, the believer is free to worship, serve, and glorify God and to enjoy him forever, beginning now. What is the ambition of the evangelical movement? Is it to please God or to please men?

Is our happiness and joy found in God or in someone or something else? Is our worship entertainment or worship? Is God’s glory or our self-fulfillment the goal of our lives? Do we see God’s grace as the only basis for our salvation, or are we still seeking some of the credit for ourselves? These questions reveal a glaring human-centeredness in the evangelical churches and the general witness of our day.

Robert Schuller actually says that the Reformation “erred because it was God-centered rather than man-centered,” and Yale’s George Lindbeck observes how quickly evangelical theology accepted this new gospel: “In the fifties, it took liberals to accept Norman Vincent Peale, but as the case of Robert Schuller indicates, today professed conservatives eat it up.”

Many historians look back to the Reformation and wonder at its far-reaching influences in transforming culture. The work ethic, public education, civic and economic betterment, a revival of music, the arts, and a sense of all life being related somehow to God and his glory: These effects cause historians to observe with a sense of irony how a theology of sin and grace, the sovereignty of God over the helplessness of human beings, and an emphasis on salvation by grace apart from works, could be the catalyst for such energetic moral transformation. The reformers did not set out to launch a political or moral campaign, but they proved that when we put the Gospel first and give voice to the Word, the effects inevitably follow.

How can we expect the world to take God and his glory seriously if the church does not? The Reformation slogan Soli Deo Gloria was carved into the organ at Bach’s church in Leipzig and the composer signed his works with its initials. It’s inscribed over taverns and music halls in old sections of Heidelberg and Amsterdam, a lasting tribute to a time when the fragrance of God’s goodness seemed to fill the air. It was not a golden age, but it was an amazing recovery of God-centered faith and practice. Columbia University professor Eugene Rice offers a fitting conclusion:

All the more, the Reformation’s views of God and humanity measure the gulf between the secular imagination of the twentieth century and the sixteenth century’s intoxication with the majesty of God. We can exercise only historical sympathy to try to understand how it was that the most brilliant intelligences of an entire epoch found a total, a supreme liberty in abandoning human weakness to the omnipotence of God.

Soli Deo Gloria!

—Michael S. Horton, The Crisis of Evangelical Christianity: Reformation Essentials^[i]

Visit this link to read our affirmation and description of the five solas recovered at the time of the Reformation.

Footnotes

1. This article originally appeared in the March/April Vol. 3 No. 2 1994 edition of Modern Reformation and is reprinted with permission. For more information about Modern Reformation, visit www.modernreformation.org or call (800) 890-7556. All rights reserved.

In this excerpt, John Owen continues to discuss the relation of indwelling sin in light of the New Nature given us through Christ, the results of neglecting this task of mortification and our duty to be perfect in holiness in the fear of God as we grow in grace daily.

Dear Reader,
Do you mortify?
Do you make it your daily work?
Be always at it while you live.
Cease not a day from this work.
Be killing sin or it will be killing you!

Indwelling Sin Is to Be Opposed by the Spirit and the New Nature

This is one main reason why the Spirit and the new nature are given unto us— that we may have a principle within us whereby to oppose sin and lust. “The flesh lusts against the Spirit.” Well! and what then? Why, “the Spirit also lusts against the flesh” (Gal. 5:17).

There is a propensity in the Spirit, or spiritual new nature, to be acting against the flesh, as well as in the flesh to be acting against the Spirit (2 Pet. 1:45). It is our participation of the divine nature that gives us an escape from the pollutions that are in the world through lust; and there is a law of the mind (Rom. 7:23), as well as a law of the members.

Now this is, first, the most unjust and unreasonable thing in the world, when two combatants are engaged, to bind one and keep him up from doing his utmost and to leave the other at liberty to wound him at his pleasure; and, secondly, the most foolish thing in the world to bind him who fights for our eternal condition and to let him alone who seeks and violently attempts our everlasting ruin.

The contest is for our lives and souls.

Not to be daily employing the Spirit and new nature for the mortifying of sin is to neglect that excellent succor^[i] which God has given us against our greatest enemy. If we neglect to make use of what we have received, God may justly hold his hand from giving us more. His graces, as well as his gifts, are bestowed on us to use, exercise, and trade with. Not to be daily mortifying sin is to sin against the goodness, kindness, wisdom, grace, and love of God, who has furnished us with a principle of doing it.

The Results of Neglecting the Mortification of Indwelling Sin

Negligence in this duty casts the soul into a perfect contrary condition to that which the apostle affirms was his: “Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16). In these the inward man perishes, and the outward man is renewed day by day. Sin is as the house of David, and grace as the house of Saul.

Exercise and success are the two main cherishers of grace in the heart; when it is suffered to lie still, it withers and decays: the things of it are ready to die (Rev. 3:2); and sin gets ground toward the hardening of the heart (Heb. 3:13). This is that which I intend: by the omission of this duty grace withers, lust flourishes, and the frame of the heart grows worse and worse; and the Lord knows what desperate and fearful issues it has had with many.

Where sin, through the neglect of mortification, gets a considerable victory, it breaks the bones of the soul (Ps. 31:10; 51:8), and makes a man weak, sick, and ready to die (Ps. 38:35), so that he cannot look up (Ps. 40:12; Isa. 33:24); and when poor creatures will take blow after blow, wound after wound, foil after foil, and never rouse up themselves to a vigorous opposition, can they expect anything but to be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, and that their souls should bleed to death (2 John 8)?

Indeed, it is a sad thing to consider the fearful issues of this neglect, which lie under our eyes every day. See we not those, whom we knew humble, melting, brokenhearted Christians, tender and fearful to offend, zealous for God and all his ways, his Sabbaths and ordinances, grown, through a neglect of watching unto this duty, earthly, carnal, cold, wrathful, complying with the men of the world and things of the world, to the scandal of religion and the fearful temptation of them that know them?

The truth is, what between placing mortification in a rigid, stubborn frame of spirit—which is for the most part earthly, legal, censorious,^[ii] partial, consistent with wrath, envy, malice, pride—on the one hand, and pretenses of liberty, grace, and I know not what, on the other, true evangelical mortification is almost lost among us: of which afterward.

It Is Our Duty to Perfect Holiness in the Fear of God and Grow in Grace Every Day

It is our duty to be “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1); to be “growing in grace” every day (1 Pet. 2:2; 2 Pet. 3:18); to be “renewing our inward man day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16). Now, this cannot be done without the daily mortifying of sin. Sin sets its strength against every act of holiness and against every degree we grow to.

Let not that man think he makes any progress in holiness who walks not over the bellies of his lusts.

He who does not kill sin in his way takes no steps toward his journey’s end

He who finds not opposition from it, and who sets not himself in every particular to its mortification, is at peace with it, not dying to it.

This, then, is the first general principle of our ensuing discourse: Notwithstanding the meritorious mortification, if I may so speak, of all and every sin in the cross of Christ; notwithstanding the real foundation of universal mortification laid in our first conversion, by conviction of sin, humiliation for sin, and the implantation of a new principle opposite to it and destructive of it—yet sin does so remain, so act and work in the best of believers, while they live in this world, that the constant daily mortification of it is all their days incumbent on them.

—John Owen, Overcoming Sin and Temptation (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2006), p53-55

Read more of “Overcoming Sin and Temptation” here.

You can also purchase the book in paperback here, or read it in pdf here.

Footnotes

1. assistance, relief
2. critical

But we should take leave from examining others and take heed in examining ourselves. What a tragedy would it be to be overly-critical of our neighbor but be left deceived in our own person concerning the state of our own souls! God’s Wrath is Coming, dear reader. Are you Ready?

I pray you, consider it close to your heart. If you are unsure this day to any degree, labor with all your might in prayer and meditation in the Word to be sure! And if perhaps you find yourself to be truly lost and on the broad way to eternal damnation, repent and believe the gospel, that you may be brought from death to life! The God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ is a perfect Savior. Though your sins are as red as scarlet He can make you as white as snow.

The great majority of those who read this will, doubtless, be they who profess to be in possession of a saving faith. To all such we would put the questions.

Where is your proof?

What effects has it produced in you?

A tree is known by its fruits, and a fountain by the waters which issue from it; so the nature of your faith may be ascertained by a careful examination of what it is bringing forth. We say “a careful examination,” for as all fruit is not fit for eating nor all water for drinking, so all works are not the effects of a faith which saves. Reformation is not regeneration, and a changed life does not always indicate a changed heart.

Have you been saved from a dislike of God’s commandments and a disrelish of His holiness?

Have you been saved from pride, covetousness, murmuring?

Have you been delivered from the love of this world, from the fear of man, from the reigning power of every sin?

The heart of fallen man is thoroughly depraved, its thoughts and imaginations being only evil continually (Gen. 6:5). It is full of corrupt desires and affections, which exert themselves and influence man in all he does. Now the Gospel comes into direct opposition with these selfish lusts and corrupt affections, both in the root and in the fruit of them (Titus 2:11, 12).

There is no greater duty that the Gospel urges upon our souls than the mortifying and destroying of them, and this indispensably, if we intend to be made partakers of its promises (Romans 8:13; Col. 3:5, 8). Hence the first real work of faith is to cleanse the soul from these pollutions, and therefore we read, “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Gal. 5:24). Mark well, it is not that they “ought to” do so, but that they have actually, in some measure or degree.

It is one thing really to think we believe a thing, it is quite another actually to do so. So fickle is the human heart that even in natural things men know not their own minds. In temporal affairs what a man really believes is best ascertained by his practice.

Suppose I meet a traveler in a narrow gorge and tell him that just ahead is an impassable river, and that the bridge across it is rotten: if he declines to turn back, am I not warranted in concluding that he does not believe me? Or if a physician tells me a certain disease holds me in its grip, and that in a short time it will prove fatal if I do not use a prescribed remedy which is sure to heal, would he not be justified in inferring that I did not trust his judgment were he to see me not only ignoring his directions but following a contrary course?

Likewise, to believe there is a hell and yet run unto it; to believe that sin continued in will damn and yet live in it—to what purpose is it to boast of such a faith?

Now, from what was before us in the above section, it should be plain beyond all room for doubt that when God imparts saving faith to a soul radical and real effects will follow.

One cannot be raised from the dead without there being a consequent walking in newness of life.

One cannot be the subject of a miracle of grace being wrought in the heart without a noticeable change being apparent to all who know him.

Where a supernatural root has been implanted, supernatural fruit must issue therefrom. Not that sinless perfection is attained in the life, nor that the evil principle, the flesh, is eradicated from our beings, or even purified. Nevertheless, there is now a yearning after perfection, there is a spirit resisting the flesh, there is a striving against sin. And more, there is a growing in grace, and a pressing forward along the “narrow way” which leads to heaven.

One serious error so widely propagated today in “orthodox” circles, and which is responsible for so many souls being deceived, is the seemingly Christ-honoring doctrine that it is “His blood which alone saves any sinner.” Ah, Satan is very clever; he knows exactly what bait to use for every place in which he fishes.

Many a company would indignantly resent a preacher’s telling them that getting baptized and eating the Lord’s supper were God’s appointed means for saving the soul; yet most of these same people will readily accept the lie that it is only by the blood of Christ we can be saved. That is true Godwards, but it is not true manwards. The work of the Spirit in us is equally essential as the work of Christ for us. Let the reader carefully ponder the whole of Titus 3:5.

Salvation is twofold: it is both legal and experimental, and consists of justification and sanctification. Moreover, I owe my salvation not only to the Son but to all three persons in the Godhead. Alas, how little is this realized today, and how little is it preached.

First and primarily I owe my salvation to God the Father, who ordained and planned it, and who chose me unto salvation (2 Thess. 2:13). In Titus 2:4, it is the Father who is denominated “God our Saviour.”

Secondly and meritoriously I owe my salvation to the obedience and sacrifice of God the Son Incarnate, who performed as my Sponsor everything which the law required, and satisfied all its demands upon me.

Thirdly and efficaciously I owe my salvation to the regenerating, sanctifying and preserving operations of the Spirit: note that His work is made just as prominent in Luke 15:8-10, as is the Shepherd’s in Luke 15:4-7! As Titus 3:5, so plainly affirms, God “saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit”; and it is the presence of His “fruit” in my heart and life which furnishes the immediate evidence of my salvation.

“With the heart man believeth unto righteousness” (Romans 10:10). Thus it is the heart which we must first examine in order to discover evidences of the presence of a saving faith. And first, God’s Word speaks of “purifying their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:9). Of old the Lord said, “0 Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved” (Jer. 4:14).

A heart that is being purified by faith (cf. 1 Peter 1:22), is one fixed upon a pure Object. It drinks from a pure Fountain, delights in a pure Law (Romans 7:22), and looks forward to spending eternity with a pure Saviour (1 John 3:3). It loathes all that is filthy—spiritually as well as morally—yea, hates the very garment spotted by the flesh (Jude 23). Contrariwise, it loves all that is holy, lovely and Christlike.

“The pure in heart shall see God” (Matt. 5:8). Heart purity is absolutely essential to fit us for dwelling in that place into which there shall in no wise enter anything “that defileth, neither worketh abomination” (Rev. 21:27). Perhaps a little fuller definition is called for. Purifying the heart by faith consists of, first, the purifying of the understanding, by the shining in of Divine light, so as to cleanse it from error. Second, the purifying of the conscience, so as to cleanse it from guilt. Third, the purifying of the will, so as to cleanse it from self-will and self-seeking. Fourth, the purifying of the affections, so as to cleanse them from the love of all that is evil. In Scripture the “heart” includes all these four faculties. A deliberate purpose to continue in any one sin cannot consist with a pure heart.

—A. W. Pink, Studies on Saving Faith: It’s Evidences^[i]

Read more of “Studies on Saving Faith” here.

Footnotes

1. Pink, A. W. (19). The doctrines of election and justification. “… materials found herein were first published in 1932, 1933 and 1937 …”; Includes indexes. Swengel, Pa.: Reiner.”

Why is it then so? Perhaps it is so because of two lines, that sin is deceitful and that man is fundamentally lazy. I see this first in my own life when I am being overtaken by sin and it goes on to entangle my soul ever tighter, it began in a lackadaisical attitude towards my own lusts and a carelessness towards my soul and the walk of holiness.

Oh! How often does such a thing occur in the lives of many. Is it not so too with you, dear reader? I bid you, if you are truly saved, consider to you heart this great task of mortification! I entreat your love to Christ, if indeed it is true and not superficial, be killing sin or it be killing you!

Believers ought to make the mortification of indwelling sin their daily work.

Having laid this foundation, a brief confirmation of the aforementioned principal deductions will lead me to what I chiefly intend, that:

The choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin. So the apostle, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth” (Col. 3:5). To whom does he speak? Such as were “risen with Christ” (v. 1); such as were “dead” with him (v. 3); such as whose life Christ was and who should “appear with him in glory” (v. 4).

Do you mortify;
do you make it your daily work;
be always at it while you live;
cease not a day from this work;
be killing sin or it will be killing you.

Your being dead with Christ virtually, your being quickened with him, will not excuse you from this work. And our Savior tells us how his Father deals with every branch in him that bears fruit, every true and living branch. “He purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (John 15:2). He prunes it, and that not for a day or two, but while it is a branch in this world. And the apostle tells you what was his practice: “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection” (1 Cor. 9:27). “I do it,” says he, “daily; it is the work of my life: I omit it not; this is my business.”

And if this were the work and business of Paul, who was so incomparably exalted in grace, revelations, enjoyments, privileges, consolations, above the ordinary measure of believers, where may we possibly bottom^[i]) an exemption from this work and duty while we are in this world? Some brief account of the reasons hereof may be given.

Indwelling Sin Always Abides, Therefore It Must Always Be Mortified

Indwelling sin always abides while we are in this world; therefore it is always to be mortified. The vain, foolish, and ignorant disputes of men about perfectly keeping the commands of God, of perfection in this life, of being wholly and perfectly dead to sin, I meddle not now with. It is more than probable that the men of those abominations never knew what belonged to the keeping of any one of God’s commands and are so much below perfection of degrees that they never attained to a perfection of parts in obedience or universal obedience in sincerity.

And, therefore, many in our days who have talked of perfection have been wiser and have affirmed it to consist in knowing no difference between good and evil. Not that they are perfect in the things we call good, but that all is alike to them, and the height of wickedness is their perfection. Others who have found out a new way to it, by denying original, indwelling sin, and tempering the spirituality of the law of God unto men’s carnal hearts, as they have sufficiently discovered themselves to be ignorant of the life of Christ and the power of it in believers, so they have invented a new righteousness that the gospel knows not of, being vainly puffed up by their fleshly minds.

For us, who dare not be wise above what is written, nor boast by other men’s lines of what God has not done for us, we say that indwelling sin lives in us, in some measure and degree, while we are in this world. We dare not speak as “though we had already attained, or were already perfect” (Phil. 3:12). Our “inward man is to be renewed day by day” while here we live (2 Cor. 4:16), and according to the renovations of the new are the breaches^[ii] and decays of the old.

While we are here we “know but in part” (1 Cor. 13:12), having a remaining darkness to be gradually removed by our “growth in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18); and “the flesh lusts against the Spirit . . . so that we cannot do the things that we would” (Gal. 5:17), and are therefore defective in our obedience as well as in our light (1 John 1:8). We have a “body of death” (Rom. 7:24), from whence we are not delivered but by the death of our bodies (Phil. 3:20). Now, it being our duty to mortify, to be killing of sin while it is in us, we must be at work. He that is appointed to kill an enemy, if he leave^[iii] striking before the other ceases living, does but half his work (Gal. 6:9; Heb. 12:1; 2 Cor. 7:1).

Indwelling Sin Not Only Abides, But Is Still Acting

Sin does not only still abide in us, but is still acting, still laboring to bring forth the deeds of the flesh. When sin lets us alone we may let sin alone; but as sin is never less quiet than when it seems to be most quiet, and its waters are for the most part deep when they are still, so ought our contrivances against it to be vigorous at all times and in all conditions, even where there is least suspicion.

Sin does not only abide in us, but “the law of the members is still rebelling against the law of the mind” (Rom. 7:23); and “the spirit that dwells in us lusts to envy” (James 4:5). It is always in continual work; “the flesh lusts against the Spirit” (Gal. 5:17); lust is still tempting and conceiving sin (James 1:14); in every moral action it is always either inclining to evil, or hindering from that which is good, or disframing^[iv] the spirit from communion with God.

It inclines to evil. “The evil which I would not, that I do,” says the apostle (Rom. 7:19). Whence is that? Why, “Because in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing.” And it hinders from good: “The good that I would do, that I do not” (v. 19)—“Upon the same account, either I do it not, or not as I should; all my holy things being defiled by this sin.” “The flesh lusts against the Spirit . . . so that you cannot do the things that you would” (Gal. 5:17).

And it unframes our spirit, and thence is called “the sin that so easily besets us” (Heb. 12:1); on which account are those grievous complaints that the apostle makes of it (Romans 7). So that sin is always acting, always conceiving, always seducing and tempting.

Who can say that he had ever anything to do with God or for God, that indwelling sin had not a hand in the corrupting of what he did? And this trade^[v] will it drive more or less all our days. If, then, sin will be always acting, if we be not always mortifying, we are lost creatures.

He that stands still and suffers^[vi] his enemies to double blows upon him without resistance will undoubtedly be conquered in the issue. If sin be subtle, watchful, strong, and always at work in the business of killing our souls, and we be slothful, negligent, foolish, in proceeding to the ruin thereof, can we expect a comfortable event?^[vii] There is not a day but sin foils or is foiled, prevails or is prevailed on; and it will be so while we live in this world.

I shall discharge him from this duty who can bring sin to a composition,^[viii] to a cessation of arms in this warfare; if it will spare him any one day, in any one duty (provided he be a person that is acquainted with the spirituality of obedience and the subtlety of sin), let him say to his soul, as to this duty, “Soul, take your rest.” The saints, whose souls breathe after deliverance from its [i.e., sin’s] perplexing rebellion, know there is no safety against it but in a constant warfare.

Indwelling Sin Is Not Only Active, But Will Produce Soul-Destroying Sins If Not Mortified

Sin will not only be striving, acting, rebelling, troubling, disquieting, but if let alone, if not continually mortified, it will bring forth great, cursed, scandalous, soul-destroying sins. The apostle tells us what the works and fruits of it are. “The works of the flesh are manifest, which are, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,^[ix] idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,^[x] wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like” (Gal. 5:1921).

You know what it did in David and sundry^[xi] others. Sin aims always at the utmost; every time it rises up to tempt or entice, might it have its own course, it would go out to the utmost sin in that kind. Every unclean thought or glance would be adultery if it could; every covetous desire would be oppression, every thought of unbelief would be atheism, might it grow to its head.^[xii]

Men may come to that, that sin may not be heard speaking a scandalous word in their hearts—that is, provoking to any great sin with scandal in its mouth; but yet every rise of lust, might it have its course, would come to the height of villainy: it is like the grave that is never satisfied.

And herein lies no small share of the deceitfulness of sin, by which it prevails to the hardening of men, and so to their ruin (Heb. 3:13)— it is modest, as it were, in its first motions and proposals, but having once got footing in the heart by them, it constantly makes good its ground, and presses on to some farther degrees in the same kind.

This new acting and pressing forward makes the soul take little notice of what an entrance to a falling off from God is already made; it thinks all is indifferently well if there be no further progress; and so far as the soul is made insensible^[xiii] of any sin—that is, as to such a sense as the gospel requires—so far it is hardened: but sin is still pressing forward, and that because it has no bounds but utter relinquishment of God and opposition to him; that it proceeds toward its height by degrees, making good the ground it has got by hardness, is not from its nature, but its deceitfulness.

Now nothing can prevent this but mortification; that withers the root and strikes at the head of sin every hour, so that whatever it aims at, it is crossed in. There is not the best saint in the world but, if he should give over this duty, would fall into as many cursed sins as ever any did of his kind.

—John Owen, Preface: Overcoming Sin and Temptation (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2006), p49-53

Read more of “Overcoming Sin and Temptation” here.

You can also purchase the book in paperback here, or read it in pdf here.

Footnotes

1. found, base (find a basis for
2. gaps, broken areas
3. cease
4. dismantling, undoing
5. course, path, way or manner of life
6. allows, permits, tolerates
7. result, outcome
8. truce, cessation of hostilities
9. wantonness, inclination to lust
10. jealousies, especially of power and position
11. various
12. ultimate outcome
13. apathetic, callous, uncomprehending

As glorious a grace it is for God to be patient with His people to work death in them that spiritual life in them may be given greater life, I’m convinced that it pales in comparison to God’s working great suffering in His people that His name may be magnified and His character glorified through the ages. The fulfilling of the plan of Redemption.

In God’s goodness and grace He counts us worthy in Christ to take part in His grand design as trophies of grace. We are called to suffer and die. God calls us to march onwards in all courage towards our final destination of death. But it is not the end. But is the consummation of God’s eternal plan to complete the redemption paid and purchased by Christ. That through suffering we too may be made perfect in Him.

Redeeming Through Suffering

In the life and passion of Christ we see most clearly that suffering is the way God has chosen to bring redemption to a fallen world. Jesus was known as a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. His life and ministry followed in detail the mission set forth by Isaiah of the Suffering Servant of the Lord.

We read a fascinating story in the Book of Acts:

Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is desert.

So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.

Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.”

So Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.

The place in Scripture which he read was this:

“He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His justice was taken away. And who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth.”

So the eunuch answered Philip and said, “I ask you of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?”

Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.

—Acts 8:26-35

Who is the Servant of the Lord? The Ethiopian eunuch asked Philip a crucial question. He had been reading from Isaiah 53 and was puzzled. His question is pivotal: “Of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?”

Philip’s answer was directly to the point. Isaiah was talking about Jesus.

The point may seem so obvious to the reader that one wonders why I take time to expand upon it. That the New Testament identifies Jesus with the Suffering Servant of Israel should be so obvious as to eliminate the need for discussion.

But it matters. It matters profoundly. Not only is our understanding of Jesus tied to this question, but the agonizing question of the meaning of our own suffering is tied to this.

I do not think it is an overstatement to declare that the New Testament portrait of Jesus stands or falls with this issue.

In modern times we have seen a kind of biblical scholarship that considers all references of Jesus to Isaiah’s Suffering Servant as contrived inventions of the New Testament writers. In a word, the charge is that the biblical writers fraudulently “doctored” the history of Jesus. After Jesus suffered and died, the early church had to invent an explanation for all this suffering. Therefore they created this link between Isaiah’s Suffering Servant and Jesus. Then they put words into Jesus’ mouth that He never uttered.

The critics have an ax to grind against the biblical view of Christ. Their ax is so heavy that they bump themselves in the head with it. If we know anything of the historical Jesus we know Him as one who suffered and died as the Servant of God.

In Luke’s Gospel Jesus utters these words:

For I say to you that this which is written must still be accomplished in Me: “And He was numbered with the transgressors.” For the things concerning me have an end.

—Luke 22:37

Here Jesus quotes directly from Isaiah 53. He identifies Himself with the Suffering Servant of God. The nation of Israel was called to be a suffering servant. That vocation was then personalized and crystallized in one man who represented Israel. Philip’s answer was clear: That man was Jesus.

Jesus suffers “for us.” Yet we are called to participate in His suffering. Though He was uniquely the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, there is still an application of this vocation to us. We are given both the duty and the privilege to participate in the suffering of Christ.

A mysterious reference to this idea is found in the writings of the Apostle Paul:

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church.

—Colossians 1:24

Here Paul declares that he rejoices in his suffering. Surely he does not mean that he enjoys pain and affliction. Rather, the cause of his joy is found in the meaning of his suffering. He says that he “fills up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.”

On the surface Paul’s explanation is astonishing. What could possibly be lacking in the afflictions of Christ? Did Christ only half finish His redemptive work only to wait for Paul to complete it? Was Jesus overstating the case when He cried from the cross, “It is finished”?

What exactly was lacking in the suffering of Christ? In terms of the value of Jesus’ suffering it is blasphemous to suggest anything was lacking. The merit of His atoning sacrifice is infinite. Nothing could possibly be added to His perfect obedience to be even more perfect. Nothing can be more perfect than perfect. What is absolutely perfect can be neither augmented nor diminished.

The merit of Jesus is sufficient to atone for every sin that has ever been or ever will be committed. His atoning death needs no repetition for His deed once-for-all. Old Testament sacrifices were repeated precisely because they were imperfect shadows of the reality that was to come.

It was not by accident that the Roman Catholic Church appealed to Paul’s words in this text to support their concept of a treasury of merits, by which the merits of the saints are added to the merit of Christ to cover the deficiencies of sinners. This doctrine was at the eye of the Protestant Reformation tornado. It was this eclipsing of the sufficiency and perfection of Christ’s suffering that was at the heart of Martin Luther’s protest.

Though we vigorously deny Rome’s interpretation of this passage we are still left with our question. If Paul’s suffering does not add merit to what is lacking in Christ’s sufferings, what then does it add?

Adding in Our Own Sufferings

The answer to this difficult question lies in the broader teaching of the New Testament of the believer’s call to participate in the humiliation of Christ. Our very baptism signifies that we are buried with Christ. Paul repeatedly points out that unless we are willing to participate in the humiliation of Jesus we will not participate in His exaltation. (2 Timothy 2:11-12.)

Paul rejoiced that his own suffering was a benefit to the church. The church is called to imitate Christ. It is called to walk the via dolorosa. Paul’s favorite metaphor for the church was the image of the human body. The church is called the Body of Christ. In one sense it is proper to call the church the “Continuing Incarnation.” The church is really the mystical body of Christ on earth.

Christ so linked His church to Himself that when He first called Paul on the Damascus Road He said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” Saul was not persecuting Jesus. Jesus had already ascended to heaven. He was already out of reach of Paul’s hostility. Saul was busy persecuting Christians. But Jesus saw such a relationship of solidarity with His church that He regarded an attack upon His body, the church, as a personal attack on Himself.

The church belongs to Christ. The church is redeemed by Christ. The church is the Bride of Christ. The church is indwelt by Christ. But the church is not Christ. Christ is perfect; the church is imperfect. Christ is the Redeemer; the church is the company of the redeemed.

The church participates in Christ’s suffering. But this participation adds no merit to Christ’s merit. The sufferings of Christians may benefit other people but they always fall short of atonement. I cannot atone for anyone’s sins, not even for my own. Yet my suffering may be of great benefit to other people. It may also serve as a witness to the One whose sufferings were an atonement.

The word for “witness” in the New Testament, martus, is the word from which we get the English word martyr. Those who suffered and died for the cause of Christ were called martyrs because by their suffering they bore witness to Christ.

What is lacking in the afflictions of Jesus is the ongoing suffering which God calls His people to endure. God calls people of every generation to fulfill His divine plan of redemption. Again this suffering is not to fulfill any deficiency in the merit of Christ but to fulfill our destinies as witnesses to the perfect Suffering Servant of God.

What does this mean in practical terms? Let me return to the illustration of my own father. I’m sure that while he was suffering he must have asked God the question, “Why?” On the surface his suffering seemed useless. It seemed as though his pain was for no good reason.

Now I must be very careful. I do not think that my father’s suffering was in any way an atonement for my sins. Nor do I think I can read God’s mind with respect to the ultimate reason for my father’s suffering. But I know this: My father’s suffering made a profound impact on my life. It was through my father’s death that I was brought to Christ. I am not saying that the ultimate reason my father was called to suffer and die was so that I could become a Christian. I don’t know the sovereign purpose of God in it. But I do know that God used that suffering in a redemptive way for me. My dad’s suffering drove me into the arms of the Suffering Savior.

We are followers of Christ.

We follow Him to the Garden of Gethsemane.

We follow Him into the Hall of Judgment.

We follow Him along the Via Dolorosa.

We follow Him unto death.

But the gospel declares, we follow Him through the gates of Heaven.

Because we suffer with Him, we shall also be raised with Him. If we are humiliated with Him we shall also be exalted with Him.

It is because of Christ that our suffering is not useless. It is part of the total plan of God who has chosen to redeem the world through the pathway of suffering.

—R.C. Sproul, (1996, c1988). Surprised by Suffering. Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.

Purchase the book “Surprised by Suffering” here, or read more here.

Alas! how often do I see it in my own heart and life. We should not be surprised that sin has overtaken us, the way of holiness lost from us, if we neglect such a duty as prayer. To, in essence, deprive your heart from being exposed to the throne of grace is to deprive your heart of the source of grace.

Dear beloved, take great caution for your soul! Take heed lest you fall (1 Cor 10:12)! Neglect not the great importance of prayer, nay, the infinitely tremendous privilege of prayer! Oh, for prayer with God that infuses the soul with joy unspeakable, peace that surpasses all understanding, confidence in His infallible promises, strength in His ineffable holiness, hope in His unchanging, steadfast and everlasting love! Oh, dear reader, I bid you, if you do nothing else, do this, PRAY!

“…Men ought always to Pray.”—Jesus, Luke 18:1
“I will that men pray everywhere.”—Paul, 1 Timothy 2:8

I have a question to offer you. It is contained in three words,

DO YOU PRAY?

The question is one that none but you can answer. Whether you attend public worship or not, your minister knows. Whether you have family prayers or not your relations know. But whether you pray in private or not, is a matter between yourself and God.

I beseech you in all affections to attend to the subject I bring before you. Do not say that my question is too close. If your heart is right in the sight of God, there is nothing in it to make you afraid.

Do not turn off my question by replying that you say your prayers. It is one thing to say your prayers and another to pray. Do not tell me that my question is unnecessary. Listen to me for a few minutes, and I will show you good reason for asking it.

I. I ask whether you pray, because prayer is absolutely needful to a person’s salvation.

II. I ask again whether you pray, because a habit of prayer is one of the surest marks of a true Christian.

III. I ask whether you pray, because there is no duty in religion so neglected as private prayer.

IV. I Ask whether you pray, because prayer is an act of religion to which there is great encouragement.

V. I ask whether you pray, because diligence in prayer is the secret of eminent holiness.

VI. I ask whether you pray, because neglect of prayer is one of the greatest causes of backsliding.

There is such a thing as going back in religion after making a good profession. People may run well for a season, like the Galatians, and then turn aside after false teachers. People may profess loudly while their feelings are warm, as Peter did, and then in the hour of trial deny their Lord. People may cool down in their zeal to do good, like John Mark the companion of Paul. People may follow an apostle for a season, and like Demas go back to the world. All these things people may do.

It is a miserable thing to be a backslider. Of all unhappy things that can befall a person, I suppose it is the worst. A stranded ship, a broken-winged eagle, a garden overrun with weeds, a harp without strings, a church in ruins, all these are sad sights, but a backslider is a sadder still. A wounded conscience-a mind sick of itself-a memory full of self-reproach-a heart pierced through with the Lord’s arrows- a-spirit broken with the inward accusation-all this is a taste of hell. It is hell on earth. Truly that saying of the wise man is solemn and weighty, “The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.” Proverbs 14:14.

Now what is the case of most backslidings? I believe, as a general rule, one of the chief causes is neglected private prayer. Of course the secret history of falls will not be know till the last day. I can only give my opinion as a minister of Christ and a student of the heart. That opinions, I repeat distinctly, that backsliding generally first begins with neglect of private prayer.

Bibles read without prayer;
sermons heard without prayer;
marriages contracted without prayer;
journeys undertaken without prayer;
residences chosen without prayer;
friendships formed without prayer;
the daily act of prayer itself hurried over, or gone through without heart:

these are the kind of downward steps by which many a Christian descends to a condition of spiritual palsy, or reaches the point where God allows them to have a tremendous fall.

This is the process which forms the lingering Lots, the unstable Samsons, the innocent Asas, the pliable Jehoshaphats, the over-careful Marthas, of whom so many are to be found in the church of Christ. Often the simple history of such cases is this: the became careless about private prayer.

You may be very sure people fall in private long before they fall in public. They are backsliders on their knees long before they backslide openly in the eyes of the world. Like Peter, they first disregard the Lord’s warning to watch and pray, and then like Peter, their strength is gone, and in the hour of temptation they deny their Lord.

The world takes notice of their fall, and scoffs loudly. But the world knows nothing of the real reason. The heathen succeeded in making a well-know Christians offer incense to an idol, by threatening them with a punishment worse than death. They triumphed greatly in the sight of their cowardice and apostasy. But the heathen did not know the fact of which history informs us, that on that very morning he had left his bed-chamber hastily, and without finishing his usual prayers.

If you are a Christian indeed, I trust you will never be a backslider. But if you do not want to be a backsliding Christian, remember the question I ask you:

DO YOU PRAY?

—J. C. Ryle, A Call To Prayer

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“The upright love thee”—Song of Solomon 1:4

Believers love Jesus with a deeper affection then they dare to give to any other being. They would sooner lose father and mother than part with Christ. They hold all earthly comforts with a loose hand, but they carry him fast locked in their bosoms. They voluntarily deny themselves for his sake, but they are not to be driven to deny him.

It is scant love which the fire of persecution can dry up; the true believer’s love is a deeper stream than this. Men have laboured to divide the faithful from their Master, but their attempts have been fruitless in every age. Neither crowns of honour, nor frowns of anger, have untied this more than Gordian knot.

This is no every-day attachment which the world’s power may at length dissolve. Neither man nor devil have found a key which opens this lock. Never has the craft of Satan been more at fault than when he has exercised it in seeking to rend in sunder this union of two divinely welded hearts.

It is written, and nothing can blot out the sentence, “The upright love thee.” The intensity of the love of the upright, however, is not so much to be judged by what it appears as by what the upright long for. It is our daily lament that we cannot love enough.

Would that our hearts were capable of holding more, and reaching further. Like Samuel Rutherford, we sigh and cry, “Oh, for as much love as would go round about the earth, and over heaven—yea, the heaven of heavens, and ten thousand worlds—that I might let all out upon fair, fair, only fair Christ.”

Alas! our longest reach is but a span of love, and our affection is but as a drop of a bucket compared with his deserts. Measure our love by our intentions, and it is high indeed; ’tis thus, we trust, our Lord doth judge of it. Oh, that we could give all the love in all hearts in one great mass, a gathering together of all loves to him who is altogether lovely!

—C.H. Spurgeon: Morning and Evening : Daily Readings.
Complete and unabridged; New modern edition.
Peabody, MA : Hendrickson Publishers, 2006, S.
August 7 AM

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