Secondly, by sore
chastenings. This is another means which God uses in delivering His people from
sin’s dominion. "We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and
we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the
Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after
their pleasure: but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His
holiness" (Heb_12:9-10). Those chastenings assume varied forms:
sometimes they are external, sometimes internal, but whatever be their nature
they are painful to flesh and blood. Sometimes these Divine chastisements are
of long duration, and then the soul is apt to ask "why standest Thou afar
off, O Lord? Why dost Thou hide Thyself in times of trouble?" (Psa_10:1),
for it seems as though God has deserted us. Earnest prayer is made for a
mitigation of suffering, but no relief is granted; grace is earnestly sought
for meekly bowing to the rod, but unbelief, impatience, rebellion, seems to wax
stronger and stronger, and the soul is hard put to it to believe in God’s love;
but as Heb_12:11 tells us, "Now no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the
peaceful (peaceable, AV) fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby."
This life is a
schooling, and chastenings are one of the chief methods God employs in the
training of His children. Some
times they are sent for the correcting of our
faults, and therefore we must pray, "Cause me to understand wherein I have
erred" (Job_6:24). Let us steadily bear in mind that it is the
"rod" and not the sword which is smiting us, held in the hand of our
loving Father and not the avenging Judge. Sometimes they are sent for the
prevention of sin, as Paul was given a thorn in the flesh, "lest he should
be exalted above measure, through the abundance of the revelations" given
him. Sometimes they are sent for our spiritual education, that by them we may
be brought to a deeper experimental acquaintance with God: "It is good for
me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn Thy statutes" (Psa_119:71).
Sometimes they are sent for the testing and strengthening of our graces:
"We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
and patience, experience; and experience, hope" (Rom_5:3-4);
"count it all joy when ye fall into varied trials: knowing this, that the
trying of your faith worketh patience" (Jam_1:2-3).
Chastening is
God’s sin-purging medicine, sent to wither our fleshly aspirations, to detach
our heats from carnal objects. to deliver us from our idols, to wean us more
thoroughly from the world. God has bidden us "Be not unequally yoked
together with unbelievers . . . come out from among them, and be ye
separate" (2Co_6:14, 2Co_6:17); and we are slow to respond,
and therefore does He take measures to drive us out lie has bidden us
"love not the world," and if we disobey we must not be surprised if
He causes some of our worldly friends to hate and persecute us. God has bidden
us "mortify ye therefore your members which are upon the earth" (Col_3:5):
if we refuse to comply with this unpleasant task, then we may expect God
Himself to use the pruning-knife upon us. God has bidden us "cease ye from
man" (Isa_2:22), and if we will trust our fellows, we are made to
suffer for it.
"Despise
not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of
Him" (Heb_12:5). This is a salutary warning. So far from despising
it, we should be grateful for the same: that God cares so much and takes such
trouble with us, and that His bitter physic produces such healthful effects.
"In their affliction they will seek Me early" (Hos_5:15):
while everything is running smoothly for us, we are apt to be self-sufficient;
but when trouble comes, we promptly turn unto the Lord. Own, then, with the
Psalmist "In faithfulness Thou hast afflicted me" (Psa_119:75).
Not only do God’s chastisements, when sanctified to us, subdue the workings of
pride and wean us more from the world, but they make the Divine promises more
precious to the heart: such an one as this takes on new meaning; "When
thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, . . . when thou walkest
through the fire, thou shalt not be burned" (Isa_43:2). Moreover,
they break down selfishness and make us more sympathetic to our
fellow-sufferers: "Who comfortest us in all our tribulation, that we may
be able to comfort them which are in any trouble" (2Co_1:4).
Third, by
bitter disappointments. God has plainly warned us that "all is vanity and
vexation of spirit, and there is no profit under the sun" (Ecc_2:11),
and that by one who was permitted to gratify the physical senses as none other
ever has been. Yet we do not take this warning to heart, for we do not really
believe it. On the contrary, we persuade ourselves that satisfaction is to be
found in things under the sun, that the creature can give contentment to our
hearts. As well attempt to fill a circle with a square! The heart was made for
God, and He alone can meet its needs. But by nature we are idolaters, putting
things into His place. Those things we invest with qualities they possess not,
and sooner or later our delusions are rudely exposed to us, and we discover
that the images in our minds are only dreams, that our golden idol is but clay
after all.
God so orders
His providences that our earthly nest is destroyed. The winds of adversity
compel us to leave the downy bed of carnal ease and luxuriation. Grievous
losses are experienced in some form or other. Trusted friends prove fickle, and
in the hour of need fail us. The family circle, which had so long sheltered us
and where peace and happiness was found, is broken up by the grim hand of
death. Health fails and weary nights are our portion. These frying experiences,
these bitter disappointments, are another of the means which our gracious God
employs to save us from the pleasure and pollution of sin. By them He discovers
to us the vanity and vexation of the creature. By them He weans us more
completely from the world. By them He teaches us that the objects in which we
sought refreshment are but "broken cisterns," and this that we may
turn to Christ and draw from Him who is the Well of living water, the One who
alone can supply true satisfaction of soul.
It is in this
way we are experimentally taught to look off from the present to the future,
for our rest is not here. "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen
is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" (Rom_8:24).
Let it be duly noted that this comes immediately after "we ourselves groan
within ourselves." Thus to be "saved by hope" respects our
present salvation from the power of sin. Complete salvation is now the
Christian’s only in title and expectation. It is not here said that we
"shall be saved by hope,’ but we are saved by hope — that hope which looks
for the fulfilling of God’s promises. Hope has to do with a future good, with
something which as yet "is seen not:" we "hope" not for
something which is already enjoyed. Herein hope differs from faith. Faith, as
it is an assent, is in the mind; but hope is seated in the affections, stirred
by the desirability of the things promised.
And, my reader,
the bitter disappointments of life are naught but a dark background upon which
hope may shine forth the more brightly. Christ does not immediately take to
Heaven the one who puts his trust in Him. No, He keeps him here upon earth for
a while to be exercised and tried. While he is awaiting his complete
blessedness there is such a difference between him and it, and he encounters
many difficulties and trials. Not having yet received his inheritance, there is
need and occasion of hope, for only by its exercise can things future be sought
after. The stronger our hope, the more earnestly shall we be engaged in the
pursuit of it. We have to be weaned from present things in order for the heart
to be fixed upon a future good.
Fourth, by the
gift of the Spirit and His operations within us. God’s great gift of Christ for
us is matched by the gift of the Spirit for us, for we owe as much to the One
as we do to the Other. The new nature in the Christian is powerless apart from
the Spirit’s daily renewing. It is by His gracious operations that we have
discovered to us the nature and extent of sin, are made to strive against it,
are brought to grieve over it. It is by the Spirit that faith, hope, prayer, is
kept alive within the soul. It is by the Spirit we are moved to use the means
of grace which God has appointed for our spiritual preservation and growth. It
is by the spirit that sin is prevented from having complete dominion over us,
for as the result of His indwelling us, there is something else besides sin in
the believer’s heart and life, namely, the fruits of holiness and
righteousness.
To sum up this
aspect of our subject. Salvation from the power of indwelling sin is not the
taking of the evil nature out of the believer in this life, nor by effecting
any improvement in it: "that which is born of the flesh is flesh" (Joh_3:6)
and it remains so, unchanged to the end. Nor is it by the Spirit so subduing
indwelling sin that it is rendered less active, for the flesh not merely lusts,
but "lusteth (ceaselessly) against the spirit:" it never sleeps, not
even when our bodies do, as our dreams evidence. No, and in some form or other,
the flesh is constantly producing its evil works. It may not be in external
acts, seen by the eyes of our fellows, but certainly so internally, in things
seen by God — such as covetousness, discontent, pride, unbelief, self-will,
ill-will towards others, and a hundred other evils. No, none is saved from
sinning in this life.
Present
salvation from the power of sin consists in, first, delivering us from the love
of it, which though begun at our regeneration is continued throughout out
practical sanctification. Second, from its blinding delusiveness, so that it
can no more deceive as it once did. Third, from our excusing it: "that
which I do, I allow not" (Rom_7:15). This is one of the surest
marks of regeneration. In the fullest sense of the word the believer
"allows" it not before he sins, for every real Christian when in his
right mind desires to be wholly kept from sinning. He "allows" it not
fully when doing it, for in the actual committing thereof there is an inward
reserve — the new nature consents not. He "allows" it not afterwards,
as Psalm 51 evidences so plainly of the case of David.
The force of
this word "allow" in Rom_7:15 may be seen from "truly ye
bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they killed them (the
prophets) and ye build their sepulchers" (Luk_11:48). So far from
those Jews being ashamed of their fathers and abhorring their wicked conduct,
they erected a monument to their honour. Thus, to "allow" is the
opposite of to be ashamed of and sorrow over: it is to condone and vindicate.
Therefore, when it is said that the believer "allows not" the evil of
which he is guilty, it means that he seeks not to justify himself or throw the
blame on some one else, as both Adam and Eve did. That the Christian allows not
sin is evident by his shame over it, his sorrow for it, his confession of it,
his loathing himself because of it, his renewed resolution to forsake it.
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