This week's "thought"
comes from one of my favorite 19th century pastors -- Horatius
Bonar -- a Scottish minister, author, and hymn writer. One of his more
famous sayings is taped to my computer screen for constant reference: "Upon a life I did not live; Upon a death I did not
die; Another's life, Another's death, I stake my whole eternity."
His book "God's
Way of Holiness" -- from which today's thought comes -- is, in my
humble estimation, the best book ever written on the subject. It's 128
pages drip with Gospel truth at every turn. It is extremely well-written (and
illustrated and defended!), shows an immense knowledge of the inner workings of
the human soul -- from its captivity to sin, to it's liberation and
transformation through regeneration and the grace of the Gospel -- and is, unlike
many books on the topic today, based in a biblical anthropology and not
secular psychology.For those truly seeking to be holy (in the Scriptural sense), it is a refreshing goldmine of help! He writes in a way that is understandable to those young in the faith, though deep enough to challenge the mature believer by its profound insights. And I must add that the view of holiness he presents is entirely opposite that of the more "legalistic" brands we often tend to think of. In fact, it was written in 1864 to counter such errant views. And if you could not tell by now, yes, I do HIGHLY recommend picking up a copy and reading it! Enjoy.
Strength Against Sin
"By
rules of no gentle kind, by terror, by pain, by visions of death and the grave,
by pictures of a fiercely flaming hell, by the denial of all certainty in
pardon, people have sought to terrify or force themselves (and others) into
goodness. By long prayers, by bitter practices of self-denial, by slow
chants at midnight or early morn in dim cathedrals, by frequent sacraments, by
deep study of old (church) fathers, by the cold of wintry solitude's, by
multiplied deeds of merit and will-worship, they have thought to expel the
demon and eradicate the ineradicable taint of sin.
But
success has not come in this way. The enterprise was a high but fearful one...
but they had quite underrated the might of the enemy, while over-estimating
their own... They knew not what the power of the human will is for evil; what
is man's hostility to God; what is the vitality of sin; what is the
exasperating tendency of naked law, and the elasticity of man's resistance to
goodness and the law of goodness; what all these together must be when fostered
from beneath, and backed by the resources of hell.
In
all this there is not one thought of grace or divine free love. No
recognition of forgiveness as the root of holiness. (Man) is slow to
learn that all legal deterrents are in their very nature irritants, with no
power to produce or enforce anything but constrained externalism. The
interposition of forgiving love, in absolute completeness and freeness, is
resisted as an encouragement to evil-doing. And, at the most, only a very
conditional and restricted form of grace is allowed to come into play...
That God should act in any other character than as the rewarder of the
deserving and the punisher of the undeserving; that He should go down to the
depths of a human heart, and there touch the springs which were reckoned
inaccessible or perilous to deal with; that His gospel should throw itself upon
something nobler than man's fear of wrath, and begin by proclaiming pardon as
the first step to holiness -- this is so incredible to man, that, even with the
Bible and the cross before his eyes, he turns away from it as foolishness. (He
can't believe that the gospel alone can transform someone). Nevertheless,
this is "the more excellent way." No, the true and only way of
getting rid of sin.
Forgiveness
of sins, in believing God's testimony to the finished propitiation (the
wrath-appeasing death of Jesus on the cross), is not simply indispensable to a
holy life, in the way of removing terror and liberating the soul from the
pressure of guilt, but of imparting an impulse, and a motive, and a power which
nothing else could do. Forgiveness at the end, or in the middle (a forgiveness
one must earn), or a grudging forgiveness, would be of no avail. It would only
tantalize and mock. But a complete forgiveness, presented in such a way as to
carry its own certainty along with it to everyone who will take it at the hands
of God -- this is a power in the earth, a power against self, a power against
sin, a power over the flesh, a power for holiness -- such as no amount of
suspense or terror could create...
It
is forgiveness that sets a man working for God. He does not work in order to be
forgiven, but because he has been forgiven, and the consciousness of his sin
being pardoned makes him long more for its entire removal than ever he did
before. An unforgiven man cannot work. He has not the will, nor the power, nor
the liberty. He is in chains. Israel in Egypt could not serve Jehovah.
"Let my people go, that they might serve Me," was God's message to
Pharaoh (Exodus 8:1). First liberty (through forgiveness of the binding chains
of guilt), then service.
A
forgiven man is the true worker and true Law-keeper. He can, he will, he
must work for God. He has come into contact with that part of God's
character which warms his cold heart. Forgiving love constrains him. He cannot
but work for Him who has removed his sins from him as far as the east is from
the west. Forgiveness has made him a free man, and given him a new and most
loving Master. Forgiveness, received freely from the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, acts as a spring, an impulse, a stimulus of divine
potency. It is more irresistible than law, or terror, or threat. A
half forgiveness, an uncertain justification, a changeable peace, may lead to
careless living and more careless working, may slacken the energy and freeze up
the springs of action (for it shuts out that aspect of God's character which
gladdens and quickens the heart); but a complete and assured pardon can have no
such effect. It is assurance of forgiveness that carries with it
tendencies toward holiness and consistency of life which are marvelous in their
power and certainty...
(Though
some would say) men could be made unholy by knowing certainly with what
a holy love they have been freely loved, or made holy by being kept in
suspense as to their own personal reconciliation with God, a pardon doled out
in crumbs or drops (or so cautiously held out, or held back, that a man can
hardly ever be sure of having them) cannot make a man more fruitful in good
works than a pardon given at once, and given in such a way as to assure even to
the chief of sinners that it is great and free and a gift of the boundless
generosity of God!"
In the well-known
hymn, "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing."
Charles Wesley captured this very thought when he wrote: "He breaks the power of canceled sin, He sets the
prisoner free." Or if I can paraphrase it, "God breaks the power sin has over us by forgiving
it, and pardoning the sinner, which sets him free..."
That is, sets him free from the enslaving shackles of sin so that he may
now pursue true holiness and not be forever stuck in "a constrained external-ism." Tim Keller picked up on this same principle and
calls it the difference between "a
legally restrained heart and a grace changed heart." Enforced religious laws do constrain outward behaviors, but
they leave the heart chained to the sin, which due to our fallen nature,
enslaves it.
Bonar is right.
Only free and complete forgiveness, given as a gift and not earned or
conditioned on performance, liberates the soul and transforms the life.
Living by the Grace
of Jesus, Pastor Jeff
