Are We Getting Holiness Wrong?

Are We Getting Holiness Wrong?

by | Jul 13, 2018

Are We Getting Holiness Wrong?

We can have the right doctrine of holiness; one that takes it as seriously as Scripture does. But in relation to its practical outworking and in our assumptions concerning it, we may have got it wrong. No doubt there could be many ways in which we could do this. We may fall into the error that we can contribute something, that there is a place for our personal merit. Or perhaps we subtly divorce holiness from happiness and find ourselves in a constant conflict between the two. This is a serious mistake because holiness is the only way to true happiness. If we secretly equate happiness with sinful pleasure or our own will rather than God’s, we have gone badly wrong.  We can only look at a few ways in which we may be inclined to get holiness wrong.

James Fraser of Brea takes an honest look at himself, searching into his motives and attitudes. The discovery is startling, while he values holiness he has certain attitudes that are hindering his progress. The evil one is insinuating false notions that confuse and divert. The following are only a few of the many things that Fraser identifies. Of course free unmerited grace must always be in view.

 

1. Thinking Repentance is Only Inward

In thinking that the essence of true repentance consists in contrition for sin more than in turning in heart and practice from it. When I have not found myself in a mourning, sorrowful spirit but limited in my affections, I have not turned from sin. I was still taken up with trying to sorrow for it, thinking there was no true repentance without this. When I have mourned I depended on this, thinking it was sufficient. But repentance mostly consists in turning to God, mourning is only the manner of this act of turning (Joel 2:12; Isaiah 58:6; Proverbs 21:3).

I have neglected the outward practice of repentance under the pretence that the Lord requires the heart. But we should serve the Lord both in body and in spirit. It is true, we should not rest in the outward, or mainly look to that but should look to the heart mostly; yet the outward act should not be neglected.

 

2. Wallowing in Self Pity

After falls and slips, Satan has sought to keep me astonished and confused by what I have done. In this way I was kept from getting up to my feet and going forward. Those who fall when they are running in a race lose much time and are far behind while they think about what to do. The best way is to get up, consider our ways, mourn, seek pardon, and then go to work. This is how it was with Joshua, God told him to get up and do his work rather than lie on his face (Joshua 7:10). When David sinned, he immediately goes to repentance: “I have sinned, yet now, Lord, forgive.”

 

3. Emphasising Holiness But Not Practising it

It is wrong to neglect to obedience in dependence on grace by resting in a resolve to do and it and mere thoughts of how good it is. Either I thought this was enough or else through complacency have not expected difficulty in practice. Yet those who know, approve and teach God’s requirements to other while neglecting it themselves, “say and do not” (Romans 2:13-14, 18; Matthew 7:21; Jeremiah 2:19- 20). Thus my thoughts delighting in obedience have not been so much to practise as to delight the understanding in dwelling on such subjects.

 

4. Rebranding Sin

Satan can transform himself into an angel of light, by gilding vices with the lustre and appearance of virtue, under spiritual pretences. I have been tempted to carelessness and excess under the pretence of avoiding unthankfulness and not using Christian liberty. I have neglected to have the heart rightly affected with the evil of sin, because repentance consists more in turning from sin than in sorrow for it. I have avoided prayer when not in the right spirit in case I make the easy yoke of Christ a grievous burden. Sin has prevailed in these ways and when it has overcome it appeared in its own clothing. The grace of God may be turned into lasciviousness (2 Corinthians 11:14; Romans 6:1). We have been “called to liberty” but we are not to use this to give opportunity for the flesh (Galatians 5:13).

 

5. A Legalistic Spirit

There is nothing does me more damage than a legalistic spirit or spirit of bondage. Satan presses duties in a violent way, presenting God as a hard master and an austere judge. He presents God as one that commands and requires duties in the way that tyrannical rulers make laws to entrap the subjects. He makes it seem as though God is urging hard duties and putting new wine into old bottles with the greatest threats and no promise of help. I am urged to obey hastily without being given time to breathe and extreme perfection is required or else it will not be accepted at all.  Finding the Lord’s yoke so hard, I have either cast it off or sometimes engaged in it disheartened. Nothing has influenced me worse than this. Talents have been slighted because God was viewed as a hard master. The Lord has not been served because our yoke is not made light. There is aversion and lack of love to God due to sinful fear (1 John 4:18).

 

6. Trying to Establish Our Own Righteousness

Satan and my own heart have held me fast for a long time in the snare of seeking to establish my own righteousness. When my heart has been in a good condition, with a felt sense of what I lack and desiring to obey it has resolved to use specific means to obtain this. I have found Satan deceiving me in this by making me love these duties, means, graces and obtaining them because it is the produce of my own desire and resolve. Thus, they have been my own (as it were) and my choice. I have despised other means because they were not my own choice. I have therefore been grieved when favour come in a different way and valued such mercy less. When I have fallen into sins I resolve to avoid I have grieved more because my resolutions have been broken and my will thwarted than because God has been wronged or my soul endangered. Thus God has been provoked to break down these resolutions and cast down the tower that reached to heaven (Proverbs 19:3; Romans 10:3; Mark 14:37; Isaiah 10:7; Psalm 58:3).

 

7. Thinking Holiness is All About Hardship

When difficult duties have been urged such as mourning, fasting, diligence etc. I have been brought to think that the purpose of the command was mostly to bring hardship on myself. I obeyed more often for this reason than to obey God’s command. It was like pagans who cut themselves or Roman Catholics who whip themselves and it did me harm. It engendered hard thoughts of God and made me do duties in a spiritless way and without spiritual benefit because I only sought hardship for myself.

 

8. Not Avoiding “Little Sins”

I have not avoided “little” evils, fearing that this would be like tithing “anise and cumin” (Matthew 23:23).

 

9. Focussing On Outward Sins Rather than Inward Corruption

In striving against the outward acts of sin I have not been considering the inward corruption of the heart. I have been “making clean the outside” but neglecting to cleanse it within; cutting the branches, and sparing the root (Matthew 23:25-26). I have not profited in holiness because the fountain has not been cleansed.

 

10. Depending on Our Own Strength

Going on in duties in my own strength without looking for divine assistance, has done me great harm. When I have gone on in confidence of my own strength the Lord has chastened me for my presumption, as it was with Peter. When duties have been difficult I have become discouraged because I was relying on and looking to my own strength.

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The Greatest Lie We Can Tell Ourselves

The Greatest Lie We Can Tell Ourselves

by | Apr 27, 2018

The Greatest Lie We Can Tell Ourselves

Pop psychology believes that the worst thing we can do is not think positively about ourselves. Apparently we just need to have the right mindset and then we can do anything. Our negative thoughts then become “the lies we tell ourselves”. Biblical wisdom is far different. It reveals glorious truths and realities that provide us with more motivation than we could imagine. Yet it also reveals the uncomfortable truth about ourselves, leaving us with nowhere to hide. Unless we come to terms with this we will only deceive ourselves. The most glorious thing that the Bible says we can have is fellowship with God. Yet it is hindered by the greatest lie.

Both of these are brought together in one verse. “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth” (1 John 1:6). Hugh Binning opens up the most glorious privilege and the greatest lie.

 

1. True Religion is in Fellowship with God

True religion consists not only in the knowledge of God but especially in conformity to Him and communion with him. Communion and fellowship with God is the great goal and design of the gospel. It is the great result of all a Christian’s efforts and progress. It is not only the greatest part of religion, but its very reward.

Godliness has its own reward of happiness without borrowing from external things. This sweet and fragrant fruit which perfumes the whole soul with delight and fills it with joy, springs out of conformity to God. This means assimilation of nature and disposition, some likeness to God imprinted on the soul again in holy affections and dispositions. It also means our will coinciding with the will of God, drowning it in the sea of His good pleasure and having His law in the inward parts.

What is the root of this conformity except the knowledge of God? This has the power to transform the soul into His likeness. You see then where true religion begins lowest and by what means it grows up to the sweet fruit of that eternal joy that shall be pressed out of the grapes of fellowship with God. So then, whatever is declared by God to us in His word concerning Himself is not only presented for our knowledge. It is especially also a pattern for imitation and an inflaming motive for our affection. This is the very substance of the verse “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

 

2. True Religion is Becoming More Like God

The end of your knowing God is to become more like God. Let us consider that we know only as much about God as we love, fear and are conformed to Him. Any knowledge which is not doing this or does not have this goal will serve no other purpose except to be a witness against us.

If you want fellowship with God then consider what you engage in and what kind of person He is. The intimate knowledge of one another is presupposed in all true friendship. You must know what God is if you want to have communion with Him. There is no communion without some conformity and no conformity without knowledge of Him. Therefore, as He is light, so the soul must be made light in Him and enlightened by Him. We must be transformed into that nature and made children of light who were children of darkness. Now, as there is a light of understanding and wisdom in God, and a light of holiness and purity, so there is in our souls, opposite to these, a darkness of ignorance, unbelief, sin, and impurity of affections. Now, “what communion can light have with darkness?”

Looking often on God until our souls are enlightened and our hearts purified advances the soul to the closest conformity with God. This gives the soul greatest capacity for blessed communion with God. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).

 

3. The Greatest Lie

There is nothing in which men allow themselves to be so easily deceived as in religion (the matter of greatest concern). The eternal welfare of their souls consists in this. There is no delusion either so gross or so universal in any other thing as in this thing. Delusion together with self-love (which always hoodwinks the mind and will not allow serious impartial self-examination) are at the bottom of this vain persuasion.

If anyone says they are a Christian they really say that they have fellowship with God.  In so far as you pretend to be Christians and yet do not profess holiness you fall under a twofold contradiction and commit a twofold lie. The first is between your profession and practice and the second is in your profession itself.

Your practice is directly contrary to the very general profession of Christianity. You affirm you are Christians and yet refuse the profession of holiness. You say you hope for heaven and yet do not so much as pretend to godliness and walking spiritually. Without this the name of Christian is empty, vain, and ridiculous.

This is the greatest most dangerous lie. It is the greatest lie because it takes in the whole of someone’s life. It is one great universal lie, a lie composed of infinite contradictions and innumerable individual lies. Every step, every word and action is in its own nature contrary to that holy profession. But all combined together it makes up a black constellation of lies—one powerful lie against the truth. And, besides, it is not against a particular truth but against the whole complex of Christianity.

Error is a lie against the particular truth it opposes but the whole course of an ignorant, ungodly life is one continued lie against the whole body of Christianity and Christian truth. It is a lie extended across the length of many weeks, months and years against the whole fabric of Christian profession. There is nothing in the calling of a Christian that is not retracted, contradicted and reproached by it.

O that you could examine your ways and see what a cluster of lies and inconsistencies is in them. See what reproaches these practical lies cast on the honour of your Christian calling. They tend by their very nature to disgrace the truth and blaspheme God’s name. It is no less than a denial of Jesus Christ and a real renunciation of Him. It puts you outside the refuge of sinners and is most likely to keep you outside the blessed city where nothing that makes a lie can enter (Revelation 21:27). What shall then become of them whose life all along has been but one continued lie?

 

4. The Greatest Lie We Can Tell Ourselves

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). Some are ready to think too highly of themselves. They do not see themselves in  a way that may intermingle humble mourning. Rather, they measure their attainments by their desires. Now, indeed, this is in effect, and really to say, “we have no sin” ( 1 John 1:8). We are infinitely below either our duty or our desire, and need to be reminded of this often in order not to be drunk with self-deceit in relation to this.

Are there not many Christians who, having experienced sorrow for sin and comfort by the gospel and engage in religious duties who stop in this without desiring further progress? They think that if they keep that attainment all is well with them. They make few endeavours after more communion with God, or purification from sin. This makes them degenerate into formalism. They wither and become barren and are exposed by this to many temptations which overcome them. Is this not to really say, “we have no sin?”

Do not your walk and frame of spirit imply as though you had no sin to wrestle with, no more holiness to aspire to, as if you had no further race to run to obtain the crown? Do not deceive yourselves, by thinking it sufficient to have so much grace as may (in your opinion) put you over the line. As though you would seek no more than what is precisely necessary for salvation. Some may find that this is a self destroying deceit and they have not in fact passed over that line between heaven and hell.

 

5. True Religion is Beautiful in Practice

There is nothing so contrary to religion as a false appearance. Religion is a most complete thing, harmonious in all its parts. It is the same inside and out, in expression and action, all corresponding together. Now, to mar this harmony and to compose it out of dissimilar parts and make one part contradict the other is to make religion ugly and deformed. This happens when the course of a man’s life, in ignorance, negligence, and sin declare what is contrary to the profession of Christianity.

Practice is real knowledge because it is living knowledge. It is the very life and soul of Christianity when nothing more is needed except the intimation of God’s will to move the whole being. This is what we should all aspire to and not satisfy ourselves in our poor attainments below this.

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Is the Moral Revolution Over?

Is the Moral Revolution Over?

by | Apr 6, 2018

Is the Moral Revolution Over?

What has happened to the #MeToo movement which followed the Harvey Weinstein controversy? It certainly gained huge prominence and publicly exposed the abuse that predators wanted to keep hidden. It was vitally important to hear such behaviour vilified. It was also refreshing to hear about any limits to our culture’s licentiousness. And yet it was only a matter of time before a backlash of liberal opinion re-asserted the “freedoms” of the sexual revolution. The liberty for anyone to do whatever they please. But we don’t seem to be hearing as much about it as we did. Was it just a moral panic in which the media has lost interest? Has the anti-#MeToo backlash won? But we need to recognise that the discovery of a moral sensitivity did not go remotely far enough. Our culture’s media and entertainment builds on abuse and promotes exploitation and objectification. No one seemed ready to acknowledge this. We desperately need a real moral revolution in relation to the seventh commandment.

Christ showed how the seventh commandment reaches into our hearts and covers our eyes (Matthew 5:28). The Westminster Larger Catechism refers to this in expounding the seventh commandment. It speaks of this commandment forbidding “all unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes, and affections”. It mentions other ways in which our senses may be defiled. Finally, it includes “all other provocations to, or acts of uncleanness, either in ourselves or others”.

None of these are matters one would prefer to handle but our current culture requires it. To avoid giving the Scripture’s clear teaching on the matter is to expose many to the most dangerous temptations. James Durham refers to this when he says that, due to our corrupt nature, it is hard to speak or hear of these things in a holy way. Both holiness and wisdom are necessary therefore in case we break this commandment even while speaking or hearing about it. It is necessary to mention it, however, because this sin is so rife and the Holy Spirit has considered it necessary to speak of it in Scripture. Indeed it is covered by a particular and distinct commandment by itself. Our most holy and blessed Lord Jesus Himself commented on it in Matthew 5:28. This is makes it a necessary consideration.

Durham also demonstrates that “these abominations are not restricted to the outward act but extend further”. There are many ways in which people commit this sin. It is not pleasant but it cannot be ignored.

 

1. In Our Hearts

Christ calls a man lusting after a woman committing adultery in his heart (Matthew 5:28). There are various degrees in this according to the extent to which it goes, the reception it gets and other similar circumstances. It is still reckoned by God to be heart-adultery and is called burning (1 Corinthians 7:9 and Romans 1:27). It is exceedingly loathsome to the Lord and hurtful to the inner man. This is so even when men neither resolve nor intend acting on it. They become guilty by not abhorring these imaginations but allowing them to roll in their thoughts (beware of this even in considering the matter now). If the inward fire is allowed to burn it often breaks out into a visible flame. The burning in 1 Corinthians 7:9 does of course differ from the burning mentioned in Romans 1:27, but we cannot enter into that matter just now.

 

2. In Our Senses

Men are guilty of this wickedness when they allow their outward senses sinfully to pursue what they want to. Thus, “eyes full of adultery” are spoken of in 2 Peter 2:14. A lustful look is adultery (Matthew 5:28) and Job says that he made a covenant with his eyes not to look upon a woman (Job 31:1). Thus also seeing as well as delighting in obscene pictures and visual performances cannot do anything except defile someone.

The ears are defiled by hearing and listening to obscene and filthy discourse. They are defiled by listening to drunken, unclean or light and immodest love songs. Touch is defiled with embracing and the mouth with kissing others. Such are spoken of in Proverbs 7:13: “she caught him and kissed him”. It is not suitable to go into this further but much guilt is contracted in this way which is scarcely noticed or mourned over.

 

3. In Our Gestures

People may become guilty of breaking this commandment in their gestures. They may be evidence of this vileness or make people more inclined to it. There may be indecent postures contrary to polite behaviour and godliness. See what is spoken about a wicked person in Proverbs 6:13-14 and Isaiah 3:16. This is the opposite of walking honestly and decently as commended in Romans 13:13. and a carnal wantonness reproved.

 

4. In Our Words

People become exceedingly guilty of this evil by lewd and obscene speech. But this sin should not be even named (Ephesians 5:3). In the same way, we should avoid reading salacious and licentious love songs or books because this is as though we were gathering ideas about such a subject. There are also ways of taunting and reproaching one another in kinds of communications that corrupt good behaviour. Also guilty are “filthiness”, “foolish talking” and inappropriate “jesting” (Ephesians 5:3-4). This is especially so if it is laughing at the expense of someone who has fallen in some act of filthiness (or anything else that comes close to something like this, see Ephesians 4:24 and 5:3-4 etc)

 

5. In Our Company

We can fall into this sin by being with light, vain and loose company in a close and unnecessary way. This is more especially true when we keep company with such in private. This is not only an appearance of evil and a snare to that but also evil and loose in itself. It is condemned by the apostle in Romans 13:13. Solomon urges men not to come near the door of such a woman’s house, much less to enter it (Proverbs 5:8).

 

6. In Our Attitude

People fall into this sin by a carelessness, immodesty and a lack of appropriate shamefacedness etc. Or by any other way in which they give over the reins to the loose, licentious, sensual impulse they have within.

 

Conclusion

Wouldn’t there be a moral revolution in the Church and in the lives of believers themselves if we were to take these things seriously? Have we allowed the immodest culture around us to shape our attitudes, thoughts and behaviour in a way that allows room for this sin to flourish? The seventh commandment has a positive side too: it is about preserving and promoting purity. Purity “in body, mind, affections, words, and behaviour…in ourselves and others” (Larger Catechism). To do this we need to make use of the grace that is in Christ and cultivate fellowship with Him. It is in “putting on the Lord Jesus Christ” that we avoid making provision for the flesh to fulfil its lusts (Romans 13:14).

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6 Times When We Best See Christ’s Intercession

6 Times When We Best See Christ’s Intercession

by | Mar 30, 2018

6 Times When We Best See Christ’s Intercession

​Christ’s intercession in heaven is unseen but that does not mean we cannot see the benefits and effects of it. Because it is unseen we are inclined to forget about it and not derive the comfort and help we should. The more we meditate on it, the more it ought to fill us with a sense of wonder. As we consider our own weakness and neglect in prayer by contrast it helps us to think that He is more conscious of our spiritual needs than we are. He knows the spiritual dangers we face better than we do. The more we contemplate Christ’s intercession the better we would be able to trace the benefits we experience from it.

​Christ’s intercession for believers is continual (Hebrews 7:25). Andrew Gray opens up something of its nature and benefits with a sense of wonder. He says that this “divine action of Christ’s interceding at the right hand of God for sinners, is that in which a sinner may behold much spotless condescension and much boundless compassion”. It is a great mystery indeed to “behold infinite majesty standing as a suppliant before the throne of God”.

If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me – Robert Murray M’Cheyne.

What is the nature of this intercession? Gray speaks of it as “successful” because Christ has infinite power. The Father also gives Christ whatever He requests (John 11:22). The Father has a “precious delight” in “doing good to sinners”. Christ “intercedes with a great deal of brotherly affection and sympathy for us”. “Christ is more affected with the miseries of His own than they themselves are”. It is also a constant intercession. This “consideration may sweetly engage our souls to Christ”:

when you are all asleep in the silent watches of the night, Christ is standing at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for you

Andrew Gray also draws out helpfully the following ways “in which Christ’s intercession reveals itself”.

1. When We Are Tempted

When a believer is surrounded with temptations, Christ intercedes for him, as we see in relation to Peter in Luke 22:31-32. Christ prays for His own in the world to be kept from evil (John 17:15). I would only say to you concerning this to lay more strength on Christ’s intercession than on your own prayers. Were you never convinced that all the strength that comes to you to put to death even one lust is by Christ’s intercession? I confess that there are many works that Christ does for us which we do not at all acknowledge He has done.

2. When We Are Discouraged

Christ’s intercession for us with the Father also shows itself when believers are under the spirit of discouragement. It is then that Christ prays for their consolation. “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever” (John 14:16). Is it not Christ’s great purpose to have His own refreshed in a strange land?

3. When We Pray

Christ’s intercession shows itself toward us in relation to our prayers. He stands at the throne of grace, pleading for the acceptance of the prayers and petitions that believers send up to God. An excellent purpose of His intercession is for believers to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5). In Revelation 8:3-4, John saw an angel standing at the altar (this is usually understood to be Jesus Christ). There was given unto Him much incense, which represents His merits making the prayers of His people to be accepted. He offered the incense with the prayers of the saints before God.

I desire then to mention the three works that Christ performs concerning the prayers of believers.

(a) Christ sweetly takes away the superfluities and redundancies that are in our prayers. Christ puts all the prayers of believers in a new frame, and He cuts off all expressions that may render our prayers unsavoury to God. Is that not an excellent work?

(b) Christ takes our prayers and supplications and presents them to the Father.

(c) Christ stands before the throne of God, pleading for an answer and return to our prayers. Do you know the reason why Christians get so few answers and returns to their prayers? It is because they do not make use of Christ’s intercession surely; otherwise they would get answers to their prayers. He has promised that whatever we ask in His name, that is, through His intercession, we receive it.

4. When Sin Has Ensnared Us

Christ’s intercession shows itself when sinners are taken and ensnared in sin. He intercedes for their pardon, “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). He answers the charges that are laid against us and intercedes with the Father for all our offences done against Him to be forgotten. He is praying today that our sins may be buried in that immense sea of everlasting forgetfulness. We see this in Zechariah 3:2-3 where Christ answers the challenges of the devil against believers.

5. When We Experience an Extended Time of Trouble

When believers are under a long and painful period of troubles, Christ prays that they may have release from that condition. This is clearly illustrated in Zechariah 1:12. In this passage, Christ as a priest is making intercession for believers. An explanation is made to Christ in verse 15 of chapter 1 “For I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction”.

6. When We Face Death

The last aspect in which Christ’s intercession reveals itself is this.  He intercedes with the Father, that those for whom He died should be where He is, to partake of the everlasting depths of that precious and blessed happiness that is above. We see this in the prayer of Christ recorded in John 17:24 that they may be “with me, where I am; that they may behold my glory”. We do not know whether that looks more like a prayer or a command, but certainly it is a most imperious prayer. Christ longs for believers to come where He is.

Conclusion

We need to make use of Christ’s intercession. Gray gives three reasons why believers make so little use of Christ’s intercession.

(a) most of us do not believe in the power of the spiritual virtue of Christ’s intercession. It is a mystery to us, a great mystery even to a Christian’s faith to believe the power of Christ’s intercession for them.

(b) we are not living under a spiritual conviction of the absolute necessity of the things we seek in prayer. The result is formalism in prayer.

(c) we are not deeply convinced of the sweet delight of that which we are seeking from God in prayer; therefore, we seek it with great coldness of affection.

We must value the benefits that we receive by Christ’s intercession, if we are believers.

(a) It strengthens justifying faith like a pillar (Romans 8:34). Indeed that verse mentions four pillars of justifying faith: Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension and intercession.

(b) It is evidence that Christ will finish the work of your salvation and lead you within the borders of eternity. Christ will save to the utmost all that come to Him through faith.

(c) It persuades Christians of Christ’s infinite love towards them.

(d) It is an excellent encouragement to go to the Father and pray to Him. It greatly helps the duty of prayer (Hebrews 4:14-16).

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Why Lies Spread Faster than the Truth

Why Lies Spread Faster than the Truth

by | Mar 16, 2018

Why Lies Spread Faster than the Truth

False news travels six times faster than the truth according to a scientific study. It’s 70% more likely to be retweeted. The study analyses 126,000 false stories tweeted by roughly three million people more than 4.5 million times. We’re aware of fake news and robots that generate it online. It seems that the robots are not responsible for the speed at which fake news travels–we are. What is it in human nature that is drawn to sharing falsehood?

It should be of great concern to us. The author of the study, Professor Aral makes a striking comment. “Some notion of truth is central to the proper functioning of nearly every realm of human endeavor. If we allow the world to be consumed by falsity, we are inviting catastrophe”. Of course the trend of post-modern thought has been to claim that truth is relative, not absolute. This undermines a concern for truth, even the facts because it is claimed that such truth claims are an exercise of power and privilege.

A biblical perspective gives us, however, a clear basis for distinguishing truth and lies. The study laments the effects of fake news: “False news can drive the misallocation of resources during terror attacks and natural disasters, the misalignment of business investments, and misinformed elections”. While these are important, it is also a matter of moral and eternal significance. The concern about the speed at which lies travel is of course not new.

If you want truth to go round the world you must hire an express train to pull it; but if you want a lie to go round the world, it will fly; it is as light as a feather, and a breath will carry it. It is well said in the old Proverb, ‘A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on.’ (C H Spurgeon)

It is not a unique feature of social media; we have the same tendency to want to share certain news more than others. Apparently false stories have greater novelty and produce greater surprise and disgust. It is just as true when we get news by word of mouth, text or email. These driving forces make people spring to a quick judgment about what they have heard and often want to share it. David, for instance was too hasty in accepting Ziba’s lie about Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 16). There may be many “spiritual” factors that cloud our judgment and make us rush to characterise another believer and their words or actions.

There are many reasons why this may be so. Fundamentally the problem is not so much with the mouth as with the heart. The mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart (Matthew 12:34). The following are some of the ways we rush to judgment in heart as outlined by James Durham. It comes from his exposition of the ninth commandment which forbids false witness. They are some of the reasons as to why lies travel faster than the truth.

 

1. Rushing into Suspicious Judgment

Suspecting others unjustly is called “evil surmising” in 1 Timothy 6:4 or as it is in the original Greek “evil suspicion”. This is when people are suspected of some evil without grounds for it, as Potiphar suspected Joseph. It is jealousy when this suspicion is mixed with fear of something that we love or value being endangered. Thus Herod was jealous when Christ was born, as were the neighbouring kings when Jerusalem was being built. There is, I grant, a right suspicion; e.g. that which Solomon had concerning Adonijah (1 Kings 1 and 2). Yet Gedaliah failed, in not crediting Johannans information anent Ishmael’s conspiracy against his life (Jeremiah 40).

 

2. Rushing into Unjust Judgment

We may be guilty of rash judging and concluding unjustly concerning someone’s state. This was what Job’s friends did. We may judge unjustly of someone’s actions, as Eli did with Hannah in saying that she was drunk, because of her lips moving. We may judge unjustly of someone’s objectives. The Corinthians did this with Paul when he took wages; they said it was covetousness. When he did not take wages from them they said it was lack of love (see Romans 14:4 and 2 Corinthians 11:41 following).

 

3. Rushing into Hasty Judgment

By hasty judging we pass a verdict too soon in our mind from some apparent evidence. We might draw conclusions about what we assume to be in the heart though it is not in the outward behaviour. This is merely to judge hastily and before the time (Matthew 7:1).

 

4. Rushing into Judgment on Weak Grounds

There is light judging, basing our conclusions on arguments or other means that will not support them. The Barbarians suspected Paul to be a murderer when they saw the viper on his hand (Acts 25:4). King Ahasuerus trusted Haman’s slander concerning the Jews too quickly.

 

5. Rushing into Presumptuous Judgment

The ninth commandment may be broken in our hearts when we are constantly suspicious of our neighbour failing. We act contrary to Matthew 18:15 when we are not willing to be satisfied but rather base our judgment on what we presume to be probable.

 

Conclusion

We ought to be thankful that there is mercy for such sins of the heart that rise all too easily. How much we need truth and a love of the truth in the inward part. There is grace for this from the One who is full of grace and truth. Durham also observes that the ninth commandment requires us to preserve and promote the truth. It advances honest, simple and straightforward attitudes and behaviour among people. We should have a sincere and cordial loving regard to the repute and good name of one another. We ought to take delight and joyful satisfaction in this as well as having a suitable love to and care for our own good name. These principles will restrain the rapid judgment that is ready to accept a false report concerning someone else whether they are in the public eye or in our circle of acquaintance.

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Forgiveness Does Not Trivialise Sin

Forgiveness Does Not Trivialise Sin

by | Feb 9, 2018

Forgiveness Does Not Trivialise Sin

Rachael Denhollander’s courageous courtroom statement needs to go on reverberating. It was heart-wrenching and harrowing yet God-glorifying. It was a testimony to God’s justice and grace in the face of horrifying evil. A paedophile and predator was forced to hear something of the destruction wreaked by his actions. This young woman went further and spoke of the eternal realities that lay behind all that was brought out in that Michigan courtroom. Her trust in God meant that she could speak of justice and absolute distinctions of good and evil. She could also speak of grace and forgiveness without in any way trivialising what sin is and what it deserves.

She spoke to the judge of the need for the courtroom to hear a sentence that would “the greatest measure of justice available.” Yet she also spoke of “final judgment where all of God’s wrath and eternal terror is poured out on men like you…Should you ever reach the point of truly facing what you have done, the guilt will be crushing. And that is what makes the gospel of Christ so sweet. Because it extends grace and hope and mercy where none should be found. And it will be there for you.”

“I pray you experience the soul crushing weight of guilt so you may someday experience true repentance and true forgiveness from God, which you need far more than forgiveness from me…though I extend that to you as well.”

 

Justice and Forgiveness

Rachael’s subsequent interview with Christianity Today also needs to reverberate. She makes it clear that justice must never be minimised in emphasising forgiveness. “I have found it very interesting, to be honest, that every single Christian publication or speaker that has mentioned my statement has only ever focused on the aspect of forgiveness. Very few, if any of them, have recognized what else came with that statement, which was a swift and intentional pursuit of God’s justice. Both of those are biblical concepts. Both of those represent Christ. We do not do well when we focus on only one of them.” She points out disturbingly that the Church in her experience does not handle cases of abuse at all well.

 

Repentance and Forgiveness

Rachael makes it clear that repentance is not a mere sorry but “a full and complete acknowledgment of the depravity of what someone has done in comparison with God’s holy standard. And I do believe that entails an acknowledgment of that, and a going in the opposite direction. It means you have repented to those you have harmed and seek to restore those you have hurt”. She explains what she meant by the call to repentance in her courtroom statement:

It means that I trust in God’s justice and I release bitterness and anger and a desire for personal vengeance. It does not mean that I minimize or mitigate or excuse what he has done. It does not mean that I pursue justice on earth any less zealously. It simply means that I release personal vengeance against him, and I trust God’s justice, whether he chooses to mete that out purely, eternally, or both in heaven and on earth.

What does it mean to forgive others? When Christ teaches us to pray “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12) it includes these elements of repentance and forgiveness. As we have a proper sense of what it means to be forgiven we will be those who are ready to forgive. David Dickson briefly but helpfully draws out some of these points.

 

1. Christians Need Repentance

None of Christ’s disciples are so fully sanctified in this life that sin will not be found in them. We are under a necessity to acknowledge our sins.

 

2. Christians Need Daily Repentance

That every day in many things we all offend and must confess not only sin but sins.

 

3. Christians Need Daily Forgiveness Even Though They are Forgiven

Although we may have a right to forgiveness of sins in Christ Jesus, yet we must seek to apply this right to our daily faults. We must beg the use of this right in seeking forgiveness.

 

4. Christians Know that Sin Deserves to be Punished

Our sins deserve due punishment (indeed death is what sin naturally deserves) and this makes us liable us to the penalty. This is why sins are called debts here.

 

5. Christians Know that Forgiveness Removes Punishment

When sin is forgiven, the avenging punishment is also forgiven. This is part of the meaning of what we are directed to say “forgive us our debts and forgive us our sins”. Sin cannot be forgiven and avenging punishment retained at the same time. Both the guilt and this sort of punishment are forgiven and taken away together.

 

6. Christians Must Not Trivialise Wrongs Done by Others

Wrongs done to us by others oblige those who have injured us to repair the wrong. Such wrongs make them not only debtors to God but also to us. Therefore our Lord calls such as have done wrong to us “our debtors”.

 

7. Christians are Not Wrong to Seek Justice in the Right Way

Public considerations may move us to seek redress wrongs by means of justice. We must not only, however, renounce private revenge for wrongs done to us but also forgive them, especially when the offender calls for it from us. Christ presupposes that those who seek forgiveness from God also themselves give forgiveness to others.

 

8. Christians Forgive as Well as Being Forgiven

When we forgive men their wrongs done against us it is an argument to persuade us of forgiveness from God for our own wrongs. Christ wills those who say “forgive us our trespasses” to say also “as we forgive those that trespass against us”.

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13 Things that Keep Us from Prayer

13 Things that Keep Us from Prayer

by | Jan 19, 2018

13 Things that Keep Us from Prayer

More than a quarter of Christians in the UK never pray according to a poll. Of those who do pray: only 19% pray daily, 10% hardly ever and 13% only in times of crisis. The poll was commissioned by Tear Fund. Perhaps the figures are not so surprising given that almost half of those identifying themselves as Christian also say they never attend Church. It seems likely, however, that prayer is in danger of being squeezed to the edges of our lives. What is it that makes us liable to downgrade the importance of prayer in everyday life?

​John Brown of Wamphray wrote a very full book on prayer. It is published as Godly Prayer and its Answers. He deals in a practical way with the nature of prayer, its difficulties and how we are to seek for answers to prayer. In stressing that it is a sin to neglect prayer he gives a full forty biblical reasons as to which this is the case. He even demonstrates that those who are unregenerate are obliged to pray. He makes it unavoidably clear that someone cannot claim to be a Christian if they never pray.

1. If We Are God’s Children We Will Pray. Their adoption and being brought into God’s family as His near children lays this obligation on them to cry to God and to pray to Him as their Father.

2. If We Have a New Nature We Will Pray. Their new nature inclines their hearts Godward. When Saul is made a convert, he is brought to his knees and found a praying man (Acts 9:11). The new converts continued steadfastly in prayers (Acts 2:42).

3. If We Are a Holy Priesthood We Will Pray.  The saints are a holy priesthood and must by office offer up spiritual sacrifice (1 Peter 2:5). Prayer is a chief part of their spiritual sacrifice, together with praises (v. 7).  We read of the sacrifice of thanksgiving (Psalm  116:17) and of the sacrifice of praise (Jer. 33:11).

4. If We Are Not of the Wicked We Will Pray. It is the description of the wicked that they do not call on God (Psalm 5:2, 4; 14:24, 10; 79:6; Jeremiah 10:25; Romans 3:9). And on the other hand, it is the description of God’s children that they call on God (1 Corinthians 1:2). David says, “I am in prayer” (Psalm 109:4), as if he had been wholly devoted to and taken up with that work and duty, and nothing else.

5. If We Are God’s Servants We Will Pray. Their relation to God as His servants carries this with it (see Psalm 116:16, 17).

But if all of this is the case, why do Christians need so many prompts and reasons to urge them to pray? We want to think of the hindrances to prayer as outside of us but the truth is they are mostly within us.

 

1. Cherished Sin

When any sin is yielded to and not resisted, the heart is made more unfit for any Christian work. We are not in the right frame for approaching God in a holy and humble way. He is a holy God and will be sanctified by all that draw near Him. We may keep up the form of the duty, but it is superficially performed without the delight the soul had previously. It becomes a cumbersome burden readily laid aside [see Psalm 66:18 and Psalm 32:3].

 

2. Paralysing Guilt

When the conscience is awakened after committing some sin and its dreadful guilt is presented to us the soul afraid to draw near to God. Guilt stares it in the face, and it is driven back and dare not approach the holy and righteous God. Satan can say it is in vain to seek the Lord, for He has no respect for the sacrifice of fools. He will not hear a sinner.

Thus there can be no hearty and cheerful drawing near to God, as long as guilt is thus charged and the blood of Christ not applied by faith to wash away that iniquity. The soul trembles to think of approaching God, lest it be consumed. The Lord must open the door of grace and show the freedom of the covenant and lead the soul to the fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.

 

3. Sense of Unworthiness

There may be a deep sense of unworthiness and inward abominableness of heart by nature. This  may cause some (when not mindful of the richness of free grace in the new covenant through Jesus Christ) to be afraid. They think to themselves, “Shall or dare such a vile wretch as I am presume to open my mouth to God?” Dare such a one draw near to Him who is of purer eyes than that He can behold evil (Habakkuk 1:13)?  Thus, as Peter in the like case said, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8), so they say, “We must not draw nigh to God, for we are sinful men.” Though the reasoning is bad, yet it may too much prevail with weak souls to keep them from this duty.

 

4. Sense of Distance From God

A deep sense of the greatness, holiness, purity, justice, and glory of God may have the same effect.

 

5. Indulging Neglect

When they on one occasion or other give way to the neglect of this duty, their praying spirit wears off. Their neglect continues. More difficulties stand up in the way. Ultimately their neglect turns to a listlessness and lack of delight in the duty. They have an unwillingness to set about it until the Lord sends some alarm to awaken them. When Peter and the other disciples with Christ in the garden neglected the duty at the first call of Christ when He bid them watch and pray, they became  even more unfit after further calls.

 

6. Superficial Formality

When Christians do not take care to watch over their heart in prayer and to guard against formality, all seriousness wears away.  If it is only done superficially, it soon becomes an unnecessary task. Satan can quickly make it become a heavy burden if it is already an unnecessary task. When the soul judges the duty of prayer a burden, it can very easily be induced to neglect it for some time unless conscience convicts. The longer the duty is neglected, the heart is more and more unwilling and unfit for it.

 

7. Worldly Mindedness

Worldly mindedness is a great enemy to prayer and a praying spirit. The cares of the world choke the word so that it cannot grow up in the soul (Matthew 13). Worldly mindedness takes away watchfulness—and a praying and a watching spirit go together (Luke 21:36). When the heart is taken up with the things of this life (Luke 21:54), the soul cannot watch and pray.

 

8. Excessive Sorrow

Excessive grief and sorrow for any outward reason may prevent the soul from praying or at least with heartiness and cheerfulness. This is one reason why the disciples could not pray in the garden, despite the great urgency of the situation (Matthew 26:43; Luke 22:45). Their eyes were heavy, and they were sleeping for sorrow.

 

9. Neglecting Prompts

The Spirit is provoked to withdraw when we do not respond to His promptings to pray. When He withdraws, deadness follows. Either the duty is laid aside or it becomes an unbearable burden. The apostle joins these two together: “Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks…. Quench not the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:17–19). If we want to be kept in a praying spirit, we must be careful not to quench the Spirit.

 

10. Dissatisfaction

When someone has been praying some considerable time for some special mercy or other and finds no answer (or answer that satisfies them) corruption may boil up in the heart. Satan may suggest that it is useless to be praying in this way. The soul may listen to this and out of a discontented, displeased attitude, resolve to abandon prayer (Isaiah 43:12).

 

11. False Notions

Errors concerning prayer may have been imbibed e.g. that we are not obliged to pray except when we are conscious of the Spirit’s moving us and setting us going. We may think we are therefore excused from this duty. The Lord may be provoked to let such live many months if not years without the free graces they desire for such a duty. There may then be a long neglect of this duty followed by an inward aversion. If at any time they are moved to the duty, He may allow their own spirit instead of His to set them going. This will never beget a spiritual delight in the duty.

 

12. Spiritual Laziness

A spirit of laziness may seize a person and they may give way to it and not stir themselves up to call on the Lord and take hold of Him (Isaiah 64:7). They become daily more and more unfit for the duty and more unwilling to do it. Those on whom this spiritual sloth seizes find it a grief and a weariness to do that which otherwise was a most easy thing (Proverbs 26:15).

 

13. Self-sufficiency

People may depend more on their gift in prayer than Jesus for fresh influences and supply of grace. The Lord in His righteousness may withdraw the ordinary influences of His Spirit and leave them to wrestle with the duty alone. Not finding the help they once experienced, they see that they cannot pray as formerly. This may cause inward grief (not due to the original cause of the withdrawing) and create dislike for the duty of prayer. Thus, corruption working in the soul and Satan using the situation to his advantage it may bit by bit be laid aside. Inward discontentment and pride may make them reluctant to pray because they see they cannot engage in it as before. They are now ashamed to pray, especially before others.

 

Conclusion

While this may seem all rather negative, we must recognise that prayer can be a struggle at times. We need to identify the things that make it difficult in order to deal with them. Prayerlessness can seriously damage your spiritual health. Brown’s book is overwhelmingly positive in bringing out many encouragements to pray. He shows what an encouraging thing it is to pray in Christ’s name and how God is glorified in Christ in answering our prayers. We “ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).

BOOK RECOMMENDATION

This blog article is updated and extracted from John Brown of Wamphray’s very full book on prayer called Godly Prayer and its Answers.  The book is available from James Dickson Books in Kilsyth.

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Should We Pray “Lead Us Not Into Temptation”?

Should We Pray “Lead Us Not Into Temptation”?

by | Dec 15, 2017

Should We Pray “Lead Us Not Into Temptation”?

The Pope says, “no” (as has been widely reported recently). “It is not a good translation because it speaks of a God who induces temptation.” There is nothing ambiguous about the wording of the original. Pope Francis does not suggest that the translation needs to be improved because of language but because of theology.  It is true that God does not tempt anyone (James 1:13-14) and that the word for tempt can also mean to test. But we also read that Jesus was led by God into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan (Matthew 4:1). We have to acknowledge the role of God’s Providence in this. How should we understand this part of the Lord’s Prayer?

​There is a lot more to this phrase than we might first assume. As Samuel Rutherford notes, when we pray “lead us not into temptation” we are acknowledging our dependence on God’s sovereignty. We pray against removal of the spiritual influences that we need to withstand temptation. “We crave the increase of faith and grace, and that we may have strength to stand against the devil, sin and all the troubles and the evil and curse in temptations as being weak of ourselves”.

Rutherford points to similar prayers in the Psalms: “Remove from me the way of lying” (Psalm 119:29). “Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men that work ini­quity” (Psalm 141:4). He notes that “praying to be led of God in His way, not to be led into temptation must include a petition that God would send influences, and not forsake us in the way of His obedience under our defections”.  This is a way for “a child of God submit to His deep sovereignty in withdrawings, and stoop humbly to the Lord’s holy decree”. It would be no comfort to believe that the temptations we face are outside of God’s control. Scripture makes it clear that He is sovereign over all things and has wise purposes in what He permits. It is difficult for us to fathom these mysteries but that does not make them any less real.

We acknowledge that (if left to ourselves) the desires of our hearts would lead us into temptation. We cannot blame God if we fall into temptation. David fell and yet acknowledged the guilt was solely his own (Psalm 51:1).

Rutherford together with the rest of the Westminster Assembly shone the light of Scripture on these great mysteries. They are matters of everyday practical concern to us, despite their difficulty. The Assembly considered it as an aspect of God’s providential dealings with His children. The experience of Job (Job 1:12), Paul (2 Corinthians 12:7) and David (2 Samuel 24:1) prove that this is true.

The most wise, righteous, and gracious God doth oftentimes leave for a season His own children to manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption, and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled; and, to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon Himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends (5:5).

The Westminster Assembly dealt with this matter more fully in expounding the Lord’s Prayer in the Larger Catechism (Q195).

In this petition, (which is, And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,) acknowledging, that the most wise, righteous, and gracious God, for divers [various] holy and just ends, may so order things, that we may be assaulted, foiled, and for a time led captive by temptation; that Satan, the world, and the flesh, are ready powerfully to draw us aside, and ensnare us; and that we, even after the pardon of our sins, by reason of our corruption, weakness, and want of watchfulness, are not only subject to be tempted, and forward to expose ourselves unto temptations, but also of ourselves unable and unwilling to resist them, to recover out of them, and to improve them; and worthy to be left under the power of them: we pray, that God would so over-rule the world and all in it, subdue the flesh, and restrain Satan, order all things, bestow and bless all means of grace, and quicken us to watchfulness in the use of them, that we and all his people may by his providence be kept from being tempted to sin; or, if tempted, that by his Spirit we may be powerfully supported and enabled to stand in the hour of temptation; or when fallen, raised again and recovered out of it, and have a sanctified use and improvement thereof: that our sanctification and salvation may be perfected, Satan trodden under our feet, and we fully freed from sin, temptation, and all evil, for ever.

 

1. God Has Holy and Just Purposes in Permitting Temptation

God had a purpose of testing Hezekiah and showing him what was in his heart (2 Chronicles 32:31) and therefore left him to himself for a time. God had a purpose of restraining pride in Paul and showing the all-sufficiency of His grace (2 Corinthians 12:8). God left enemies for Israel to face to test them (Judges 2:21-22).

As the Catechism goes on to show, we need to be shown sometimes how unable and unwilling we are of ourselves to resist temptation (Romans 7:23-24).  We need to be shown the power of the world, the flesh and the devil to draw us away and our weakness against them (James 1:14). Sometimes we are left to temptations to show that we deserve to be left in their power (Psalm 81:11-12). He also purposes to show us our need of watchfulness (Matthew 26:41). 

 

2. We need Grace to Benefit from Temptation

We need to learn lessons from experiencing temptation, particularly to pray for increased grace and watchfulness. If God has wise and holy purposes, we ought to learn what these are as far as possible. This is what the catechism means when it says that we need “to improve them”. Peter had to do this (Luke 22:32).

 

3. God’s Good Providence Can Provide Occasions for Temptation

We need to pray against being led into temptation because our natural corruption can make anything an occasion for temptation. We may not be fully aware of this. The Psalmist was tempted to envy because of the good providence of God towards the wicked (Psalm 73:4). He responded similarly to God’s chastisements designed for his own good (Psalm 73:14).  The good things of this life can be an occasion for temptation (Matthew 22:22; 1 Timothy 6:9; 2 Timothy 3:4).

It is not God’s providence that needs to change but our sinful response to it (Psalm 62:10). We need to pray, therefore “that God would so over-rule the world and all in it…quicken us to watchfulness…that we and all his people may by his providence be kept from being tempted to sin”.

 

4. We Are in Danger of Exposing Ourselves to Temptation

Peter was confident in himself and not being watchful, exposed himself to temptation (Matthew 26:35). He was sure that he was willing even to lay down his life for his Master (John 13:37). Yet, when the trial came he was not willing to be identified with Christ. Thus we need to pray for the flesh to be “subdued” as an enemy within (Psalm 19:13; Psalm 119:133).

 

5. We Need Strength to Withstand Temptation

In praying “lead us not into temptation” we pray to God that “by his Spirit we may be powerfully supported and enabled to stand in the hour of temptation” (Ephesians 3:16). As one older writer puts it, we pray that temptation “may be like a wave dashing against a rock, which remains unmoved thereby, or like a dart shot against a breast-plate of steel, which only blunts the point thereof, and returns it back without doing any execution” (Thomas Ridgeley).

The strength we need is sanctifying grace to keep us from falling (Jude 24). This enables us to hate sin and love holiness and so to resist temptation as Joseph did (Genesis 39:9). We need the mighty strength of God to stand equipped with the spiritual armour of grace (Ephesians 6:13-14). Such testing can have a strengthening effect, even if it does involve resisting a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8-10).

 

6. We Pray to be Delivered from Temptation

We also pray that we would not be left under the power of temptation but delivered from evil even if we have fallen. We pray that we would not be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin but rather restored (Psalm 51:12; Psalm 23:3). We need to pray for grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16) and that is why we must pray not to be led into temptation.

 

Conclusion

These are just some of the reasons we must pray “lead us not into temptation”. We certainly do need this prayer in our daily warfare with sin. It is a gross misinterpretation which ignores biblical teaching to say that this is God “pushing me into temptation to then see how I have fallen”. It is clear from Scripture that “the most wise, righteous, and gracious God” orders things “for just and holy” reasons “so that that “we may be assaulted, foiled, and for a time led captive by temptation”.

As one older writer (Thomas Ridgeley) suggests, we would do well to turn this Catechism answer into a prayer. We need to confess our weakness and that we are exposed to many difficulties. We find it hard to pass through the world without being allured and drawn aside or discouraged. We need to confess the deceitfulness and treachery of our own hearts which make us prone to yield ourselves the servants of sin and Satan. Thus, we seek the powerful help of God’s grace, that we may be kept in the hour of temptation. We pray from strength to overcome the world, mortify sin and resist the devil.  Though we are liable in ourselves to remain under temptation, we pray for grace to be recovered and delivered and kept through this life.

You may find further help in reading the following short ebook called War Against Sin by Andrew Gray.

War Against Sin

Few other things are more vital for spiritual life and health than putting sin to death. It is as stark a choice as John Owen emphasised: “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you”.

This free e-book called War Against Sin (PDF) shows the benefits of putting sin to death. Gray stresses how closely it accompanies vigorous spiritual growth, grace and assurance. We cannot call a truce in this warfare.

Download Free eBook

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Loving Christ Means Hating Sin

Loving Christ Means Hating Sin

by | Oct 20, 2017

Loving Christ Means Hating Sin

It’s no difficult thing to say or type the words “I love Jesus”. Many do this in their social media profiles or posts. They inform us that they love Jesus, and many other things too. The claim seems to have no context other than this person’s idea of Christ and the terms on which they wish to love Him. It may mean respect and strong interest or even follow, worship and obey. These are words, however, that can never be casually used by those that have come to understand the full measure and wonder of being savingly united to Christ. There is in fact no greater claim. We may prove the sincerity of such assertions to Christ Himself, ourselves and others in various ways. One of the clearest is in our attitude to sin. The extent of our love to Christ may be measured by the extent of our hatred of sin.

It has often been said that the believer should no more love sin than the wife should love her husband’s murderer or the murder weapon. The sting of death is sin and believers’ sins were the sting in Christ’s death. The cross shows us what sin is and what it deserves, it also shows us Christ’s love to its greatest extent and provides the greatest reasons for loving Christ. How much do we really value Christ and His sufferings on the cross if we are casual about sin?

James Durham focussed on these themes in preaching 72 sermons on Isaiah 53. These make an extensive volume but they are a treasure trove of the essence of the gospel of Christ crucified considered from many different perspectives. In expounding Isaiah 53:4 Durham notes the undervaluing of Christ in the words “we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted”. The sin of not loving and valuing Christ was made even worse by despising Him when His greatest love was poured out on the cross. Though Christ did this Durham says, we abused it and made it the rise of the greatest malice. There is nothing that gives sin a deeper dye than that it is against grace and condescending love, against Christ when suffering for us, and offered to us. That makes sin exceedingly sinful and abominable. It is a fearful thing to despise Christ crucified (the only remedy for sin) offered to us in the preaching of the gospel.

 

1. Sins Against Christ have the Greatest Guilt

This adds greatest guilt to the sins of believers. We “despised him, and esteemed him not”. It is true that, in some respects, the sins of believers are not so great as the sins of others. They are not committed so deliberately and with such full force of desire under the dominion of sin as others. Yet in another respect they are greater than the sins of others, because they are committed against special grace and love received. When the believer confiders that they have returned Christ’s love in this way it will grieve them more than anything else if they are truly sensitive.

 

2. Sins Against Christ Should Grieve Us Most

The believer that is most sensitive in this way is best assured of their right to Christ and His atonement. They will be most sensitive about their enmity and abominable guilt of despising and wronging Jesus Christ. The prophet Isaiah includes himself as one of those healed by Christ’s stripes. He accepts his guilt, “we despised and rejected him, we esteemed him not, we judged him smitten of God”.

If we are truly Christ’s our heart will be tender and any wrong done to Christ will affect us in a quicker and deeper way. We esteem Christ and have a holy sympathy with Him in all the concerns of His glory.  The members of the body have a fellow-feeling with the head. Suppose a man in a fit of madness was to smite and wound his head, or wrong his wife, his father or brother. When the fit of madness is over, he will be more
grieved with that wrong, than if it had been done to any other member of his body, or to other persons who either were not related or not so closely related.

There is something of this in Zechariah 12:10 “they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him”, as for an only son. It is if he had said, the strokes they have given the head shall then be very heavy and grievous for them. In their feelings the wounds will bleed afresh. They did not think much of wounding and piercing Him in this way before. When they come to believe in Him, however, they are keenly affected by the wrongs done to Him.

The believer’s wrongs against Christ will prick their conscience most. If the wrongs have been done by others, they grieve him but if they have been done by himself, they some way faint him. Wholeness of heart, under wronging of Christ, is too great an evidence that there is little or no ground for application of his satisfaction; but it is kindly like, when wrongs done to Christ affect most.

 

3. Sins Against Christ Should be Our Greatest Burden

We should be burdened when convicted for sinning against the law. Yet sins against Christ and grace offered in the gospel should become the greatest burden.

 

4. Sins Against Christ are the Worst Thing Possible

When the man is confronted with his secret enmity against Christ and how this increases the guilt of his sins, he can never be too vile in his own eyes. He has a holy indignation at himself. Like Paul he reckons himself the chief of sinners. Even though the evil was done in ignorance, it is much greater if it has been against knowledge. Such souls heap up the ways in which their guilt is increased because of their wrongs done to Christ. They cannot get suitable expressions to condemn it sufficiently. It is a bad sign if we are easily satisfied in our convictions of guilt for sin. There are many that will not admit to any convictions for wronging Christ. See how the prophet insists on the sin of despising Christ here, in previous verses, in these and in the following words. He can no more leave aside thoughts of this, than he can leave the thoughts of Christ’s sufferings.

Durham on Isaiah 53

This volume of sermons has been recently republished as Collected Sermons of James Durham: Christ Crucified: or, The Marrow of the Gospel in 72 Sermons on Isaiah 53. At 840 pages, the sermons on Isaiah 53 present one of the best commentaries ever written on Christ’s person and work in redemption. Spurgeon, who inscribed his personal copy with the words “much prized,” says of these sermons, “This is marrow indeed. We need say no more: Durham is a prince among spiritual expositors”. Principal John Macleod said: “He there opens up the truth of the sacrifice and the intercession of our Lord…the duties of preachers and hearers of the gospel, together with the diversified exercises of heart and soul that gospel truth is fitted to call forth”.

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Challenging the Deceits of our Youth-Obsessed Culture

Challenging the Deceits of our Youth-Obsessed Culture

by | Aug 4, 2017

Challenging the Deceits of our Youth-Obsessed Culture

It’s not just that our culture only seems to celebrate youth as successful – it makes it everything. Deep down there is a desperate fear of aging, losing our material pleasures…and of death. We live in a culture that wants to keep us in a state of perpetual adolescence. That way we will be more impulsive and self-focussed and therefore buy more. Social media (misused) often seems to feed the desire to be the centre of attention. Frequently it promotes immature use of language, reason, truth claims and emotion. Scripture makes a clear distinction between being childlike and childish. Do we know what that is?

Our culture doesn’t want to “put away childish things”: it wants to carry on speaking and reasoning in a childish way. This is of course the opposite of what the Apostle Paul says should happen (1 Corinthians 13:11). There are indeed spiritual characteristics similar to being childlike (Matthew 18:1-4). Yet these are quite different to childishness. One passage in Ecclesiastes speaks directly to the young in relation to matters of eternity and ultimate significance. Given that our culture keeps us from advancing beyond adolescence, it is a very appropriate message for us to hear.

There is an irony in Ecclesiastes 11:9 when it calls on the “young man” to “rejoice” in his “youth” and let his heart bring him hear in the days of youth. Walk according to the ways of your heart and as seems good in your own eyes, he says. It as though he says “follow your dreams and desires…but” and then introduces an unexpected and shocking warning. “Know that for all these things God will bring you into judgement”. As Alexander Nisbet says, Solomon is applying his exhortations about preparing for death and eternity to the young because they are most prone to put these thoughts off. They are most bent on their earthly pleasures and so he labours to stop them in their violent pursuit of them.

He is not encouraging them in their sinful pleasures but using a kind of holy scorn that mocks their carnal merriment.  He is speaking to those who rejoice in their foolish youthful lusts and provoke each other not to deny themselves any possible satisfaction in them. They make their own desires the rule of their lifestyle and so justly deserve to be given up by God to their own heart’s lusts. They think that they will “remove sorrow” by their sinful pleasures but they are only increasing grief and wrath for themselves. They must “put away evil” from their “flesh” and forsake these sinful pleasures. At the end he warns them that “childhood and youth are vanity” (verse 10). Of course this can only be done by grace through faith in Christ and with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Here is a resounding (albeit sobering) message challenging the deceits of our youth-obsessed culture.

1. If We Give Ourselves to Sinful Pleasure, God May Leave Us to it

Those who give themselves up to their sinful pleasures may justly fear that God will also give them up to follow their own way to their eternal ruin. If they scorn His efforts and often mock His messengers, He will ultimately mock them and scorn the scorners. This holy irony is intended to produce fears in their hearts, lest God give them up utterly to themselves.

2. By Nature We Want to be Unrestrained in Sin

Where God’s powerful renewing grace has not visited hearts, they will not only take pleasure in sin but provoke themselves to more and more wickedness. If their conscience suggests reluctance they will spur their hearts over its belly. They will withhold themselves from nothing which gives immediate satisfaction. It does not matter how dishonourable to God and destructive to their soul’s peace and happiness it may be. This ironic speech expresses what a bold sinner’s heart says to himself.

3. Great Earthly Pleasures Banish Thoughts of Eternity

When people have abundant earthly pleasures and are capable of enjoying their sweetness, they are in danger of banishing all serious thoughts of death and the last Judgement. But they do need to be reminded of this, as this verse warns.

4. Considering the Day of Judgement Restrains Sin

Serious and believing consideration of the Great Day of Judgement, is a special means to abate our eagerness in pursuing carnal pleasures.  Ministers ought therefore to be frequently and seriously stirring people up to consider it. The Spirit of God finds this to be a most appropriate bridle in the jaws of brazen youth, to restrain it from excess in carnal pleasures.

5. We Will Not Avoid Judgement

There will be no avoiding appearing at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Everyone must appear not matter how unwilling they may be. God will bring us “into judgement”.

6. Our Desires will be Judged as Well as Our Actions

The last Judgement will be so exact that not even the least sinful motion of wicked men’s hearts will pass without notice and deserved punishment. Everyone must not only give an account there of the gross sins they have committed, but also how they have inwardly encouraged their hearts to follow these sins. In speaking of young men cheering their hearts in their wicked ways, and in the sight of their eyes, he says that “for all these things” God will bring them into judgement.

7. Delighting in Youthful Lusts only Increases Sorrow

Deluded sinners dream that delighting in their lusts and banishing the thoughts of future judgement to come is the best way to remove sorrow from their hearts. The truth is, however, that by doing so, they are contracting sorrow and heaviness. They are depriving themselves of their true spiritual comfort and joy. They provoke the Lord to wrath against them. They are drinking down that sweet poison that will shortly  bring much sorrow to their heart (unless they vomit it again by sincere confession). He speaks to someone who in verse 9, cheers his own heart in his sin and banishes thoughts of judgement. The same person in verse 10 is said to have much sorrow of heart, i.e. much guilt which will end in sorrow. He also gives great cause for divine wrath against him. The word translated sorrow means this also, and this is why he is exhorted to remove sorrow from his heart.

8. Sorrow and Sin Cannot be Separated

“Flesh” here indicates the corrupt nature of man (often called flesh in Scripture) that incites to sin as well as the outward body that puts these desires into action and accomplishes them.  Putting to death and forsaking such evils may seem to them the most unpleasant and painful activity in the world. Yet they are in effect the only way to remove sorrow, and consequently bring true joy and peace into the soul. Putting away evil from the heart is the way to achieve removing sorrow from the heart.

9. The Sinful Delights of Youth Will Soon Vanish

The sinful delights of youth are transitory; those hot furious motions of passion, lust etc. will soon vanish. Considering this fact should move us more promptly to put sin to death and leave our lust before our lusts leave us.  For “childhood and youth are vanity”. The vanity spoken of primarily the transitory nature of soon vanishing of youthful pleasures. This is used as an argument for repentance.

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What to Do with Your Anxiety

What to Do with Your Anxiety

by | Jun 16, 2017

What to Do with Your Anxiety

The viral conversation #ThisIsWhatAnxietyFeelsLike is still going. It arose from fears due to a delayed response to a text message. “If you’re a human being living in 2017 and you’re not anxious, there’s something wrong with you”, says the originator Sarah Fader. We live in an age of anxiety. Every generation has its anxieties, but we have taken it to a new level. Generalised anxiety disorder (something different from depression) is common. Some say it is at epidemic level. The psychologist Jean Twenge observes that the average anxiety level of a Western teenager today is at a level that would have denoted a clinical anxiety disorder in the 1950s. A culture of self-obsession has not helped. But anxiety is neither to be trivialised nor valorised. It is very real in different levels and degrees and some situations require medical help. Yet it is also in part a spiritual issue. Self-help, mind tricks and “mindfulness” cannot treat it: these only mask the symptoms. The Bible has much to say about anxiety that is vital.

It is easy to repeat verses like 1 Peter 5:7 without insight into what it is to cast our cares and anxieties on the Lord. Alexander Nisbet has some helpful counsel on what this means. In general, he says, it teaches that believers should faith commit everything to the Lord in faith. They should commit their need to be sustained in fulfilling their duty, the outcome of their actions and their anxiety about these to the Lord. The Lord’s loving providence does not permit Him to neglect them, or any of their concerns. There is no anxiety He cannot bear for us and therefore no anxiety that we must hold onto and keep to ourselves.

1. Believers Are Subject to Anxiety

The Lord’s children are subject to much sinful anxiety in following their duty. This is apparent when they are hindered from their duty. This happens when they look more to their own weakness and the difficulties in the way of duty than to the sufficiency promised by the One that calls them to the duty (Exodus 3:11). It also evident when they are discouraged in their duty and filled with apprehension about probable hazards in the way of duty (Isaiah 51:12-13). The Spirit of the Lord wants to make them aware of this sin, since He finds it necessary to exhort them thus to cast all our care on Him.

2. Anxiety is Sinful When it Makes Us Unable to Do Our Duty to God

It is most commendable when Christians are concerned about discharging their duty aright and avoiding anything that may provoke the Lord in their way of going about it. This must stir them up to great diligence and making use of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 7:11). They may be concerned about the way they go about their duty or its success and outcome. Yet if such concern distracts their heart in duty and incapacitates them for it, it is sinful. It is to be shaken off by all that would discharge their duty acceptably. This is why the apostle directs us here to cast all our care on Him.

3. Prayer Frees Us from Anxiety

Prayer is the way to be liberated from anxiety and heart-dividing anxieties which indispose us for duty. Through prayer, we must commit to the Lord the success and outcome of our duty together with our being able to fulfil it (Philippians 4:6). We must commit them to Him by faith (Proverbs 16:3). This is how the Spirit of the Lord directs us to be free from sinful anxiety: to cast all our care on Him.

4. No Matter How Small, All Anxiety Must Be Cast on the Lord

The Lord allows His children to cast all their anxieties on Him. They may be about their souls and matters of highest concern or about their bodies and lesser matters. It does not matter how small the thing is about which their heart becomes anxious: He allows them to commit it to Him. He knows that a very small matter is ready to occasion much vexation of spirit to His own (Jonah 4:8). This is why He directs them to cast all their care on Him.

5. We Are Commanded to Cast Our Anxiety on the Lord

Believers have the privilege of unburdening themselves of their distrustful heart-dividing anxieties by casting them over on the Lord. Not only this, it is also the very great desire of our God that we should not sink under the insupportable burden of our own needless cares and fears. It is His authoritative command that we put these off ourselves and on Him. His people may not disobey this unless they wish to incur His displeasure and destroy themselves. This has the force of a command “Casting all your care upon him”.

6. Trusting God Relieves Anxiety about Outcomes

We cannot discharge any duty aright so long as we do not trust the Lord in our managing of it and for its outcome and success. We cannot do our duty aright while the heart is distracted with unbelieving anxiety about this. Trusting God with these is the best way to make speed in every duty. Having exhorted in previous verses in relation to duties toward their overseers, one another, and to God, Peter now introduces something to help attain all these. It is something without which none of them could be attained: cast all your care on the Lord.

7. Pride Holds onto Anxiety; Humility Casts It on the Lord

Unbelieving anxiety makes Christians break themselves with the burden of these anxieties which God requires us to cast on Himself. This is one of the greatest signs of pride there is in the world. Trusting God with the weight of these in following our duty is a prime evidence of true humility. This is a special way for the Lord’s people to prove themselves to be humbled under God’s mighty hand and without this they cannot but declare their pride. The way the words are constructed and their connection with the previous version imply this: “Humble yourselves…Casting all your care upon him” (1 Peter 5:6-7).

8. The Lord Cares for Your Wellbeing as Much as You Do

The Lord is altogether free from things such as anxiety and sorrow that are in us (Numbers 23:19). Yet those of His people that cast their care on Him will find no less proof of His love (keeping them from danger as far as necessary and providing everything they need) than if He were as careful for their wellbeing as they can be for themselves. Considering this should liberate their hearts from their distrustful anxieties. His care is asserted as a reason to enforce the direction to cast all their care on Him.

9. Keeping Anxiety to Ourselves Is Distrust of God’s Fatherly Providence

The Lord’s people must not take the weight of their concerns on themselves. They must not have their hearts distracted with anxiety about managing duties and their outcome. So long as they do this they do not believe the fatherly providence of God watching over them for their good. Such faith could not but banish their anxieties. This is implied in connecting God’s fatherly care as a reason for the direction to cast all our care on Him.

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The Soul of Christ’s Sufferings

The Soul of Christ’s Sufferings

by | May 19, 2017

The Soul of Christ’s Sufferings

Crucifixion is perhaps the most violent, humiliating and painful method of execution ever devised. The very word that we use for acute pain (excruciating) comes from crucifying. Yet we must never forget that the deepest sufferings were infinitely greater than the physical pain. As someone has put it, the soul of His sufferings was the sufferings of His soul. What do we mean by His soul sufferings? Samuel Rutherford puts it succinctly: the Saviour suffered in His soul “God’s wrath, which was a very hell to Christ”. He endured the felt wrath of God instead of the felt blessing that He never before lacked. Merely physical sufferings would not have satisfied divine justice.

This is a vital point. David Dickson gives several reasons for it:

  • The curse of the fall (breaking the covenant made with Adam) was death, both of body and soul. The redeemed had to be delivered from the death of both by the Redeemer enduring both for their redemption.
  • Sin infected the whole person, soul and body. No part or power of the soul is free from it. Justice therefore required that the Redeemer should feel the force of the curse both in body and soul in place of the persons redeemed.

 

Death to the soul consists in its separation from communion with God and this is what Christ endured. There are deep mysteries in this, Christ never ceased to be God of course even when He forsaken of God. Christ was deprived for a time of a clear vision of the blessedness of God, the quiet possession of the formerly felt peace, and the fruition of joy for a time. Thus He suffered an eclipse of light and consolation that otherwise shined from His God-head. In this sort of spiritual death He underwent some degrees of spiritual death.

David Dickson outlines various degrees of soul suffering that Christ endured. This is an updated extract from his book Therapeutica sacra: showing briefly, the method of healing the diseases of the conscience, concerning regeneration.

 

1. Imputed Sin

The guilt of all the sins, crimes, and vile deeds of the elect committed from the beginning of the world was imputed to Him. By accepting this imputation He did not pollute His conscience. Yet He burdened His soul, binding Himself to bear their deserved punishment.

The vilest sinners such as liars, thieves and adulterers cannot bear to hear themselves called liars or thieves. They cannot bear the shame of the vileness of which they are truly guilty. What suffering of soul, what clouding of the glory of His holiness was it then when our Lord took upon His shoulders such a dunghill of all vileness? Nothing could be more unseemly for His holy majesty.

 

2. Extreme Perplexity

Added to all the former degrees of suffering of His soul, the perplexity of his thoughts fell on Him. There was such astonishment of soul when the full cup of wrath was presented to Him in such a terrible way. It made all the powers of His sense and reason for a time to be at a stand still. The Evangelist describes this suffering of His soul saying that “he began to be sore amazed” and also to be “very heavy”. Christ expressed Himself in these words “My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death” (Mark 14:33-34). There was no imperfection in this only a sinless natural response to such a sudden terror. Daniel’s response to the terrifying appearance of the angel (Daniel 10:8-10) was not sinful.

 

3. Interrupted Communion

The conscious peaceful enjoyment of the happiness His human nature had in its personal union with His God-head was interrupted for a time. The vehemence of His trouble did not allow Him to hide His perturbation. In John 12:27 He cried out “Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say?” and in Mark 14:34 He declares, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death”. He implies by these words that death was at hand. It had seized hold on Him and wrapped Him up in the sorrows of death for the time, as in a net in which He knew He could not be held.

These miseries hid the happiness of His personal union with the God-head for a time. They hindered the conscious feeling of it for a time in His deep suffering. Yet, it was not taken away or eclipsed altogether.

 

4. Total Wrath

God’s justice, pursuing our sins in our Surety, showed Christ the cup of wrath in the garden. It held it to His head and pressed Him to drink it. The very dregs of the agreed curse of the law were poured into His patient and submissive mouth, as it were, filling the most inward part of soul and body. As a vehement flame, beyond all human comprehension, it filled both soul and body. It drew and drove forth a bloody sweat out of all His veins (the like of which was never heard of). It was like when a pot of oil, boiling up and running over with the fire beneath has the flame increased further still by a fiery mass of hot iron being thrust into it.

All His human strength was wasted and emptied, His mind thrown down, His joy fainted and a heavy weight of sorrow was on Him. He desired that small comfort of His weak disciples watching with Him a little and missed it when it was lacking. He also stood in need of an angel to comfort Him (Luke 22:43).

 

5. Extreme Fear

Christ’s human nature was like ours in all things except sin. It was indeed afraid when it saw and felt the wrath of God lest it should have been swallowed up by it. The apostle speaks of this fear in Hebrews 5:7 saying that Christ “offered up prayers and supplication and strong cries and tears, unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared”.

This seems the saddest part of all His sufferings, that He was afraid of being swallowed up. Yet this fear is not to be wondered at, nor is it inconsistent with His holiness. For when Christ assumed our nature, He also assumed all the common and sinless infirmities, passions, and perturbations of our nature. It is natural that the creature should tremble at the sight of an angry God. It is natural to man at the sight of something terrible or an evil coming on him or already come on him (especially if beyond all his natural strength) to tremble and fear the worst. Holy nature was right to fear present death, being cut off and swallowed up in the danger when God appeared angry and was hasting to be avenged on sinners in the person of their Surety. He did not doubt that He would escape from being swallowed up. Natural fear is very different from lack of faith in God’s faithfulness and power. Natural fear of the worst can be consistent with strong faith which helps to overcome natural fear.

If Christ had not been weakened and emptied of all human strength in His flesh, He could not have been humbled enough for us, He could not have suffered so much as Justice did exact for satisfying the law on our behalf. Yet if He had not also stood firm in faith and love towards God’s glory and our salvation He could not have satisfied Justice either. He would not have still been the innocent and spotless Lamb of God nor perfected the expiatory sacrifice for us.

 

6. Consciously Forsaken

Among the deepest degrees of the suffering of Christ in His soul was His being forsaken. In saying that He was forsaken of God He did not mean that the personal union of the natures in Him was broken. Nor did He mean that God had withdrawn His sustaining strength and help from the human nature. Neither was the love of the Father taken from Him or any aspect of the perfection of holiness taken from Him. It meant that God for a time had taken away conscious comfort and felt joy from His human soul. This was so that justice might be more fully satisfied in His sufferings. In this forsaking Christ is not to considered simply as the Son of the Father (in whom He is always well pleased) but as He stands in the room of sinners as Surety paying their debt. In this respect, He must be dealt with as standing in our name, guilty and thus paying the debt of being forsaken by God. We were bound to suffer this fully and forever, if He had not intervened for us.

 

7. Cursed Death

That which Christ suffered in torment was, in some respects, of the same kind as the torment of the damned. The punishment of the damned differs in their rebellious disposition of the mind and the duration of their punishment. Yet the punishment itself (torment of soul and body) compares with Christ’s suffering. This was the conscious torment of Christ’s soul and body in being made a curse for us.

 

Conclusion

Dickson’s friend James Durham makes appropriate application of these truths in one of his 72 sermons on Isaiah 53. He writes movingly of the horror Christ endured. It was as though many mighty squadrons of the highly provoked wrath of God were making a furious and mighty assault on the innocent human nature of Christ.

He says that considering Christ’s soul sufferings we ought to be stirred up to wonder at the love of God the Father and the love of the Son. If we consider the infinite glory of the One that suffered, the infinite wrath He endured and the infinite guilt of those for whom He suffered. Do you think it is appropriate, he says, that sinners who have hope of heaven through Christ’s sufferings should be so little moved at hearing and reading of them?

He suffers much by sinners, when His love shining forth in His sufferings is not taken notice of. I would put the question to you, ‘when was your heart suitably affected with thinking on them? Or, when did you purposely bless God for this, that He sent his Son to suffer, and that the Mediator came and suffered such things for you sinners?’ This is a part, and a considerable part of your duty; and gratitude should constrain you to do it. It should not let you diminish just esteem of His love.

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