And being not weak in faith … he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.
The sinfulness of staggering
I. What is it to stagger at the promise? The word “staggered” is properly to make use of our own judgment and reason, in discerning of things, of what sort they be (1 Corinthians 11:29). In the sense wherein it is here used (as also Matthew 21:21). It holds out a self-consultation and dispute, concerning those contrary things that are proposed to us (so also Acts 10:20). To stagger then at the promise is to take into consideration the promise, and all the difficulties that lie in the way of its accomplishment, and so to dispute it, as not fully to cast it off, nor fully to close with it. E.g., the soul considers the promise of free grace in the blood of Jesus, weighs those considerations which might lead the heart to rest firmly upon it; but considers his own unworthiness, etc., which, as he supposes, staves off the efficacy of the promise. If he add a grain of faith, the scale turns on the side of the promise; the like quantity of unbelief makes it turn upon him; and what to do he knows not: let go the promise he cannot, take fast hold he dares not, but wavers to and fro. Thus the soul comes to be like Paul (Philippians 1:23), or as David (2 Samuel 24:14). He sees, in a steadfast closing with the promise, presumption; on the other hand, destruction; arguments arise on both sides, he knows not how to determine them, and so hanging in suspense, he staggers. Like a man meeting with two paths, that promise both fairly, and knows not which is his proper way, guesses and guesses, and at length sits down until someone comes that can give direction. The soul very frequently in this hesitation refuses to go one step forward till God come mightily and lead out the spirit to the promise, or the devil turn it aside to unbelief. It is as a light in the air: the weight that it hath carries it downwards; and the air, with some breath of wind, bears it up again. Sometimes it seems as though it would fall by its own weight; and sometimes, again, as though it would mount quite out of sight; but poised between both it tosseth up and down, without any great gaining either way. The promise draws the soul upward, and the weight of its unbelief sinks it downward; but neither prevails. Like the two disciples going to Emmaus (Luke 24:14), “They talked together of the things that had happened,” and (Romans 4:22) they gave up. Yet they cannot quite give over all trusting in Christ (Romans 4:23-25): hereupon they staggered (Romans 4:17); much appears for them, something against them, they know not what to do.
II. Notwithstanding any pretences whatever staggering is from unbelief. The two disciples just mentioned thought they had good cause of all their doubtings (Luke 24:20). But our Saviour tells them that they “are foolish, and slow of heart to believe.” Peter venturing upon the waves at the command of Christ (Matthew 14:1-36), seeing the “wind to grow boisterous,” also hath a storm within, and cries out, Oh; save me! The real cause of his fear was merely unbelief (verse 31). And upon several occasions doth our Saviour lay all the staggering of His followers as to any promised mercy upon this score (Matthew 6:30, Matthew 8:26; see also Isaiah 7:7, Isaiah 7:9; Hebrews 4:2). But these things will be more clear if we consider that when a man doubts his reasonings must have their rise, either from something within himself, or from something in the things concerning which he staggereth. He that doubteth whether his friend be alive or not, his staggering ariseth from the uncertainty of the thing itself; when that is made out, he is resolved, as it was with Jacob in the case of Joseph. But he that doubteth whether the needle in the compass being touched with the lodestone will turn northward all the uncertainty is in his own mind. If when men stagger at the promises we demonstrate that there is nothing in the promise that should occasion any such staggering, we lay the blame on unbelief. Let us now see weather anything be wanting to the promises.
1. Is there truth in these promises? If there be the least occasion to suspect their truth, or the veracity of the Promiser, then our staggering may arise from thence, and not from our own unbelief. But now the Author of the promises is the God of truth, who has used all possible means to cause us to apprehend the truth of His promises.
(1) By often affirming the same thing. There is not anything that He hath promised us but He hath done it again and again; e.g., as if He would say, “I will be merciful to your sins,” I pray believe Me, for “I will pardon your iniquities,” yea, it shall be so, “I will blot out your transgressions as a cloud.”
(2) By confirming the truth with an oath (Hebrews 6:13-18).
(3) By entering into covenant to accomplish what He has spoken.
(4) By giving us a hostage to secure us of His truth, one exceedingly dear to Him, of whose honour He is as careful as of His own. Jesus Christ is the pledge of His fidelity in His promises (Isaiah 7:14). “In Him are all the promises of God yea and amen.” Thus also to His saints He gives the further hostage of His Spirit, and the first fruits of glory.
2. But though there be truth in the promise, yet there may want ability in the promiser. A physician may promise a sick man recovery who, though he could rely upon the physician’s truth, yet doubts his ability, knowing that to cure is not absolutely in his power; but when He promises who is able to perform, then all doubting is removed. See then whether it be so in respect of God’s promises (Genesis 17:1). When difficulties, temptations, and troubles arise, remember God is not only true and faithful, but Almighty (Romans 4:21; chap. 11:23; Ephesians 3:20). When men come to close with the promise, to make a life upon it, they are very ready to inquire whether it be possible that the word should be made good to them. He that sees a little boat swimming at sea looks upon it without any solicitousness; but let this man commit his own life to sea in it, what inquiries will he make? So whilst we consider the promises at large, as they lie in the Word, they are all true; but when we go to venture our souls upon a promise, in an ocean of temptations, then every blast we think will overturn it. Now here we are apt to deceive ourselves. We inquire whether it can be so to us, as the Word holds out, when the question is not about the nature of the thing, but about the power of God. Place the doubt aright, and it is this: Is God able to accomplish what He hath spoken? Can He pardon my sins? Now, that there may be no occasion of staggering upon this point, you see God reveals Himself as an all-sufficient God, as one that is able to go through with all His engagements. But you will say, Though God be thus able, yet may there not be defects in the means whereby He worketh? As a man may have a strong arm able to strike his enemies to the ground, but yet if he strike with a feather, or a straw, it will not be done. But--
(1) God’s instruments do not act according to their own virtue, but according to the influence by Him to them communicated.
(2) It is expressly affirmed of the great mediums of the promise, that they also are able. There is
(a) The procuring means, Jesus Christ (Heb 5:27; Hebrews 2:18).
(b) The means of manifestation, the Word of God (Acts 20:32).
(c) The means of operation, the Spirit of grace (1 Corinthians 12:11).
3. But there may be want of sincerity in promises, which, whilst we do but suspect, we cannot choose, but stagger at them. But there can be no room for staggering here; for nothing can be plainer or more certain than that the promises of God signify His purpose, that the believer of them shall be the enjoyer of them. So that upon the making out of any promise, you may safely conclude that upon believing the mercy of this promise is mine. It is true, if a man stand staggering, whether he have any share in the promise, and close not with it by faith, he may come short of it; and yet without the least impeachment of the sincerity of the Promiser; for God hath not signified that men shall enjoy them whether they believe or not. If proclamation be, made granting pardon to all such rebels as shall come in by such a season, do men use to stand questioning whether the State bear them any goodwill or not? The gospel proclamation is of pardon to all comers in; it is for thee therefore to roll thyself on this, there is an absolute sincerity in the engagement which thou mayest freely rest upon.
4. But though all be present, truth, power, sincerity; yet if he that makes the promise should forget, this were a ground of staggering. Pharaoh’s butler probably spake the truth according to his present intention, and afterwards had doubtless power to have procured the liberty of a prisoner; but “he did not remember Joseph.” This forgetting made all other things useless. But neither hath this the least colour of Divine promises (Isaiah 49:14). The onuses of forgetfulness are--
(1) Want of love. But infinite love will have infinite thoughtfulness and remembrance.
(2) Multiplicity of business. But although God rules the world, He will not forget (Psalms 77:9).
5. But where all other things may concur, yet if the promiser may alter his resolution, a man may justly doubt the accomplishment of the promise. Wherefore the Lord carefully rejects all sinful surmises concerning the least change or alteration in Him, or any of His engagements (James 1:18; Malachi 3:6). In conclusion, then, such staggering must dishonour God, for--
1. It robs Him of the glory of His truth 1 John 5:10).
2. It robs Him of the glory of His fidelity to His promises (1 John 1:9).
3. It robs Him of the glory of His grace.
In a word, if a man should choose to set himself in a universal opposition unto God, he can think of no more compendious way than this. This then is the fruit, this the advantage of our staggering; we rob God of glory, and our own souls of mercy. (J. Owen, D. D.)
Unstaggering faith
It was God’s purpose that Abraham should be a surpassingly excellent example of the power of faith. It was therefore necessary that his faith should be exercised in a special manner. To this end God gave him a promise that in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed, and yet for many a year he remained without an heir. Doubtless he weighed the natural impossibilities, but he maintained a holy confidence, and left the matter in the hands of the Sovereign Ruler. His faith triumphed in all its conflicts. Had it not been that Sarah and Abraham were both at such an advanced age there would have been no credit to them in believing the promise of God, but the more difficult its fulfilment, the more wonderful was Abraham’s faith. By such unquestioning confidence Abraham brought glory to God. It glorifies God greatly for His servants to trust Him; they then become witnesses to His faithfulness, just as His works in creation are witnesses to His power and wisdom. Let us view the text in regard to--
I. The individual worker.
1. You are conscious of your spiritual weakness. You say, “If God intends to bless souls, I cannot see how they can be blessed through me. I feel myself to be the most unworthy instrument in the world.”
(1) Such a lowly sense of our own unfitness is common at the beginning of Christian labour, and arises from the novel difficulties with which we are surrounded. We have not gone this way heretofore, and being quite new to the work, Satan whispers, “You are a poor creature to pretend to serve God; leave this service to better men.” But take comfort; this is part of your preparation; you must be made to feel early in the work that all the glory must be of God.
(2) This sense of weakness grows on the Christian worker. To continue in harness year after year is not without its wear and tear; our spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak, and faintness in pursuing reveals to us that our own strength is perfect weakness. The more earnest your labours for the Lord, the more clear will be your sense of your own nothingness.
(3) There are times when a want of success will help to make us feel most keenly how barren and unfruitful we are until the Lord endows us with His Spirit. Those whom we thought to be converted turn out to be merely the subjects of transient excitement, those who stood long, turn aside, and then we cry out, “Woe is me! How shall I speak any more in the name of the Lord?” Like Moses, we would have the Lord send by whomsoever He would send, but not by us; or like Elias, we hide ourselves for fear, and say “Let me die, I am no better than my fathers.” I suppose there is no worker who is quite free from times of deep depression, times when his fears make him say, “Surely I ran without being called.” At such moments it only needs another push from Satan to make us like Jonah to go down to Joppa, that we may no longer bear the burden of the Lord. I am not sorry if you are passing through this fiery ordeal, for it is in your weakness God will show His own strength, and when there is an end of you there will be a beginning of Him.
2. It may be also that our sphere of Christian effort is remarkably unpromising. In that Sunday school class the boys are obstinate, the girls frivolous. You had not reckoned upon this. The more you try to influence their hearts the less you succeed. It is possible you are called to labour where the prejudices, temptations, and habits and ways of thought are all dead against the chance of success. But Christian work never succeeds until the worker rates the difficulties at their proper rate. The fact is, to save a soul is the work of Deity; and unless we have made up our minds to that, we had better retire, for we are not ready for labour.
3. Yet the godly worker has that which sustains him, for he has a promise from God. Abraham had received a promise, and he knew the difficulties and weighed them; but having done so, he put them away as not worth considering. God had said it, and that was enough, The promise of God was as good as its fulfilment; just as in trade some men’s bills are as good as cash. Now if we are to be successful we must get hold of a promise too. You say, “If I could have a special revelation, just as Abraham had, I would doubt no more.” Now God gives His promises in many ways. Sometimes He gives them to individuals, at other times to classes of character. Now God has been pleased to give the revelation, in your case, to character. “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” Now if you have gone forth, wept, and carried forth precious seed, the Lord declares that you shall doubtless come again rejoicing. “My word shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Have you delivered God’s word? if so, then God declares it shall not return unto Him void; and these promises are quite as good as though they had been spoken to you by the voice of an angel. A promise however given is equally binding upon a man of honour, and a promise of God, no matter how delivered, is sure of fulfilment; all you have to do is to lay hold upon it.
II. The church.
1. We have set our hearts upon a revival. But I fear that our temptation is to suppose there is some power in the ministry, or in our organisation, or our zeal. Let us divest ourselves of all that. As to causing a genuine revival by our own efforts, we might as well talk of whirling the stars from their spheres. If God help us we can pray, but without His aid our prayer will be mockery. If God help us we can preach, but apart from Him our preaching is but a weary tale told without power.
2. There is not only difficulty in ourselves, but in the work. We want to see all these people converted. But what can we do? The preacher can do nothing, for he has done his best and has failed, and all that any can suggest will fail also. The work is impossible with us, but do we therefore give up the attempt? No, for is it not written, “I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye My face in vain”? Christ must see of His soul’s travail, must see of it in this place too. We have God’s promise for it; we cannot do it, but He can.
III. Every pleading soul. If your heart has been set upon any special object in prayer, if you have an express promise for it, you must not be staggered if the object of your desire be farther off now than when you first began to pray. Wait at the mercy seat in the full persuasion that although God may take His time, and that time may not be your time, yet He must and will redeem His promise when the fulness of time has come. If you have prayed for the salvation of your child, or husband, or friend, and that person has grown worse instead of better, still God must be held to His word; and if you have the faith to challenge His faithfulness and power, assuredly He never did and never will let your prayers fall fruitless to the ground. Remember that to trust God in the light is nothing, but to trust Him in the dark--that is faith.
IV. The seeker. You imagined at one time that you could become a Christian at your own will at any moment; and now how to perform that which you would you find not. You desire to break the chains of sin, but they are far easier to bind than to loose. You want to come to Jesus with a broken heart, but your heart refuses to break. You long to trust Jesus, but your unbelief is so mighty that you cannot see His Cross. I am glad to find you in this poverty-stricken state, for I believe that in your case you must know your own powerlessness. Every sinner must learn that he is by nature dead in sins, and that the work of salvation is high above out of his reach. Self-despair throws a man upon his God; he feels that he can do nothing, and he turns to one who can do all things. Now the next thing is to find a promise. “Whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Have you called upon the name of the Lord? Have you cried to Him, “God be merciful to me a sinner”? If you so call you must be saved. “Whosoever cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” Do you come? If so, you cannot be cast out. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Religious faith rational
That its object is marvellous is quite true; and it is also true that no mind will form itself to a habit of faith without the influences of Divine grace. But to say that such a faith as that of Abraham, which led him to believe God’s word when opposed to his own experience, is a strange principle and irrational, is absurd.
I. For we act on trust every hour of our lives.
1. We trust to our memory, and our confidence in it is so strong that no man could persuade us to reject its testimony.
2. We trust our reasoning powers. Who of us would doubt, on seeing strong shadows on the ground, that the sun was shining, though our face happened to be turned the other way?
3. And we trust our memory and our reasoning powers in this way, though they often deceive us; because on the whole they are faithful witnesses, and because in all practical matters we are obliged to decide by not what may be possibly, but what is likely to be. There is a chance, e.g., that our food today may be poisonous, but it looks and tastes the same, and we have good friends round us; so we do not abstain from it, for all this chance.
4. But it may be said that such belief is not what is meant by faith--that to trust our senses and reason is to trust ourselves--and though these do sometimes mislead us, yet we can use them to correct each other; but it is a very different thing to trust another person, which is faith in the Scripture sense of the word. But reliance on the word of another is no irrational or strange principle of conduct in the concerns of this life. For what do we know without trusting others?
(1) Are there not towns within fifty or sixty miles of us which we have never seen, but in which we fully believe? What convinces us? The report of others--this faith in testimony which, when religion is concerned, is called irrational.
(2) Consider how we are obliged to confide in persons we never saw, or know but slightly; nay, in their handwritings, which, for what we know, may be forged.
(3) It is certain that we all must sooner or later die, and men arrange their affairs accordingly. Yet what proof have we of this? because other men die? how does he know that? has he seen them die? he can know nothing of what took place before he was born, nor of what happens in other countries. How little, indeed, he knows about it at all, except that it is a received fact.
(4) We constantly believe things against our own judgment; i.e., when we think our informant likely to know more about the matter under consideration than ourselves, which is the precise case in the question of religious faith. And thus from reliance on others we acquire knowledge of all kinds, and proceed to reason, judge, decide, act, form plans for the future. But it is needless to proceed; the world could not go on without trust. The most distressing event that can happen to a state is the spreading of a want of confidence between man and man. Distrust, want of faith, breaks the very bonds of human society.
5. Now, shall we account it only rational for a man to yield to another’s judgment as better than his own, and yet think it against reason when one, like Abraham, sets the promise of God above his own short-sighted expectation?
II. The main reason for disbelief. It may be objected, “If God had spoken to us as He did to Abraham, it were madness to disbelieve; but it is not His voice we hear, but man’s speaking in His name. How are we to know whether they speak truth or not?”
1. Whatever such may say about their willingness to believe, in a great many cases they murmur at being required to believe, dislike being bound to act without seeing, and prefer to trust themselves to trusting God, even though it could be plainly proved to them that God was speaking to them. Their conduct shows this. Why otherwise do they so frequently scoff at religious men, as if timid and narrow-minded, merely because they fear to sin? Clearly, it is their very faith itself they ridicule. To trust another implicitly is to acknowledge one’s self to be his inferior; and this man’s proud nature cannot bear to do. It is therefore very much to our purpose to accustom our minds to the fact that almost everything we do is grounded on mere trust in others, and that visible dependence reminds us forcibly of our truer and fuller dependence upon God.
2. Unbelievers condemn themselves out of their own mouth. Our obedience to God is not founded on our belief in the word of such persons as tell us Scripture came from God. We obey God primarily because we feel His presence in our consciences bidding us obey Him. Now, if they trust their senses and their reason, why do they not trust their conscience too? Their conscience is as much a part of themselves as their reason is; and it is placed within them in order to balance the influence of sight and reason and yet they will not attend to it; for they love to be their own masters, and therefore they will not attend to that secret whisper of their hearts, which tells them they are not their own masters, and that sin is hateful and ruinous. Nothing shows this more plainly than their conduct. Supposing a man says to them, “You know in your heart that you should not do so”; they get angry; or attempt to turn what is said into ridicule; anything will they do, except answer by reasoning. Their boasted argumentation flies like a coward before the stirring of conscience; and their passions are the only champions left for their defence. They in effect say, “We do so, because we like it”; perhaps they even avow this in so many words. And are such the persons whom any Christian can trust? Surely faith in them would be of all conceivable confidences the most irrational. For ourselves, let us but obey God’s voice in our hearts, and we shall have no doubts practically formidable about the truth of Scripture. Our doubts will be found to arise after disobedience. And if we but obey God in time faith will become like sight; we shall have no more difficulty in finding what will please God than in moving our limbs, or in understanding the conversation of our familiar friends. (J. H. Newman, D. D.)
But was strong in faith, giving glory to God.--
Strong faith
I. What it is.
1. Abraham grew strong in faith; faith grows by exercise.
2. He was made strong by faith; faith is a bracing grace. The world’s heroes are strong by faith in themselves, God’s by faith in Him (Judges 6:14; Hebrews 11:1-40; David, Daniel, etc.). Weak faith is not rejected, but strong faith is commended. Strong faith triumphs over doubts and fears (Matthew 14:30-31).
II. What it does. It glorifies God as unbelief dishonours Him. It gives glory to all His attributes, especially His faithfulness, benevolence, almightiness, for it builds on them alone. Honouring God is therefore honoured by Him. Not to believe Him is to offer Him the greatest insult (1 John 5:10). God’s honour and man’s interest, both combined. Faith secures both. Abraham giving glory to God waxed strong in faith. As faith glorifies God it becomes stronger and stronger, and is a worthy medium of justification as giving God all the glory. (T. Robinson, D. D.)
Strong faith
I. Strong faith is supported by abundant reasons.
1. All the reasons which justify our believing in God at all justify our believing in Him most firmly. It can never be right to believe unless the statements are true, and if true they deserve undivided faith. If anything be strong enough for you to trust your eternal destiny to it, your trust ought to be immovable as a granite rock. If it be right to enter into faith’s stream at all, every possible argument proves that the deeper you go the better.
2. Reasons for strong faith may be found in the character of God. Our reliance upon man must be cautiously given; but--
(1) “The Lord is not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent.” Should we not have strong faith who believe in a God whose very essence is pure truth?
(2) God is omnipotent, and therefore believing should be strong. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” “With God all things are possible.”
(3) All things else change, but God knoweth no shadow of a turning. Believe immutably in an immutable God.
(4) He is the God of love. What a wanton insult it is to mistrust one who cannot be unkind.
3. When I turn mine eyes to our Lord Jesus it appears incongruous that the Son of God should be received with meagre confidence. Can we doubt His ability to save? Abraham had strong confidence when he saw the type--the burning lamp passing between the pieces of the slain victims. With how much greater confidence should we rest in the antitype.
4. We ought to give God strong faith, because there is no evidence which could justify mistrust.
(1) All down the ages those who have trusted in Him have never been confounded. We read in the eleventh of Hebrews the record of what the Lord wrought in those who believed in Him. Now, per contra, there standeth nothing.
(2) On the bed of death the truth generally comes out, yet who ever heard a solitary believer declare that it is a mistake to confide in the blood of Jesus, or to rest in the faithfulness of God? Somewhere or other this thing would have come out if it had been so.
(3) Have you experienced anything which casts suspicion upon the character of God? When you have trusted Him has He failed you? Will you put your finger upon a promise which He has broken?
II. Strong faith produces the most desirable results. We can only dwell upon the one mentioned here, “giving glory to God.” This is “man’s chief end.” Strong faith answers that end because--
1. It treats him like God. Unbelief is practical atheism; because, denying the truthfulness of God, it takes away what is a part of His essential character. I would not grieve those who have but little faith, but still weak faith limits the Holy One of Israel! It believes Him up to such a point, or under such and such circumstances, whereas strong faith treats God according to His infinite character.
2. It treats Him as a father, and acts towards Him in the childlike spirit, i.e., with unlimited confidence. Can my Father do an unkind thing, be untrue, be false or changeable? Impossible!
3. It strengthens all the other graces, and all these bring glory to God.
4. It gives a striking testimony to the world, The faith which can practise eminent self-denial or achieve great enterprises attracts the eyes of men; they see your strong faith, and they glorify your Father which is in heaven. I have known some faith which would have required a microscope to perceive it, and when we have declared that little faith saves the soul, the worldling has replied, “Well, it is a very small concern at any rate.”
5. It enables Him to work in us and through us. As our Saviour could not do many mighty works in a certain place because of their unbelief, so is God hampered with regard to some of us.
III. Strong faith which gives glory to God may be exercised by persons who are otherwise exceedingly weak.
1. What a joy this is to you who are sufferers in body! You cannot do apostolic work and range a continent, but you may exhibit a placid patience, a sweet resignation, a sacred hopefulness as to the future, a Divine disdain as to the fear of death.
2. So you may have few talents, and yet you may have strong faith. You need not be a genius in order to give glory to God, for the strength of your faith will do it. You can glorify God by holding firmly to the truth of which you understand so little, but which you love so heartily.
3. Some saints are conscious of weakness of every sort, but they must not, therefore, think that they cannot honour God by strong faith, for Abraham was so old that his body was now dead, and yet he believed that he would be the progenitor of the chosen seed. The depth of your weakness is just the height of your possibilities of honouring the Lord.
IV. This strong faith varies as to its manner of working, very much according to the person and his circumstances.
1. There is one thing that strong faith does not do, it never talks big and boasts of what it will accomplish. There is a great deal of difference between confidence in yourself and confidence in God. Barking dogs do not often bite, and those men who promise much very seldom perform. Point me to one boastful word that fell from Abraham. David said little to his envious brothers, but he brought home the giant’s head.
2. Faith exercises itself as in the case of Abraham, by believing God’s word. God had said many things to him, and he believed them all.
3. But Abraham’s was not alone receptive faith: his was a faith which obeyed the precept. The test of obedience was the strange command to take his only son and offer him up for a sacrifice, but he went to do it.
4. Abraham’s faith awakened in him great expectations. He was looking for an heir, from whom should spring a seed as the stars of heaven for multitude. We shall be full of expectation if we have strong faith: looking for blessings, expecting prayers to be answered, and promises to be fulfilled.
V. Strong faith is especially to be expected in certain quarters.
1. In those who know God. “They that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee, for Thou Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee.”
2. Those who have had a long experience of Him. Speak well of the bridge which has carried you over so many times. Let tdly blossom into self-idolatry.
(4) “Death to sin” is not secured by orthodox creed, ceremonial exactness, or even religious zeal. These are all occasionally confounded with it, but they may be all compatible with a “life of sin.” Church history is full of proofs that neither articles, nor sacraments, nor profession, nor even great sacrifices for religion, avail to slay the sin of the heart or render the soul alive to God.
(5) By this process of exclusion we have brought the meaning of the phrase “death to sin” to a much more limited group of experiences. The apostle identifies it with union to Christ, that which he sometimes calls “faith in His blood,” “baptism into Christ,” or “living by faith on the Son of God,” because “Christ liveth in us.” Paul knew he was appealing to a safe and sure tribunal when he went right to the consciousness of his converts. “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” It is certain that the apostle would not have these Romans reckon thus unless it were true. Observe, it is not merely that they are to reckon that Christ died for their sins, but they are also to reckon that they too are dead unto sin through Jesus Christ.
4. The way, then, in which this change is effected is by union with Christ--
(1) In His Passion. “By the Cross the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world”; “I am crucified with Christ”; “If we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him.” We are “buried with Him by baptism into His death.” The thought often recurs that our faith in Him nails our own hands to the cursed tree and films our eye on worldly glory. If we have taken up this thought into our entire spiritual nature, that “Christ died for our sins,” then we are dead. As we become alive to what the death of Christ really is and means, how it prepares the only way by which a new life could enter our race, and a new spirit be given to transgressors, by which God could justify the ungodly, and still be just; it is not difficult to understand that faith in Christ, that union to Christ, involves dying with Christ to sin. A true and deep faith in Christ, a recognition by mind and heart of His work, is such an intuition of law, such a sense of God, such a revelation of the evil of sin, such a burning of the heart against the world, the flesh, and the devil, that the apostle was justified in saying that Christians might reckon themselves dead unto sin.
(2) In His life and resurrection. The new life of the soul is a resurrection life, charged with all the associations and aspirations which would be possessed by one who had passed, through dying, from death to life. The life unto God flows out of the life of God in the soul. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.)
Christ’s legislative glory to be preached
The following curious incident once happened to a clergyman. One day, after preaching, a gentleman followed him into the vestry, and, putting a £10 note into his hand, thanked him most energetically for the great comfort he had derived from his sermon. The clergyman was very much surprised at this, but still more so when shortly afterwards the same thing again took place; and he determined to sift the affair to the bottom, and find out who this man was that was so comforted by his discourse. He discovered that he was a person at that very time living in the most abominable wickedness and in the very depths of sin. “Certainly,” said he to himself, “there must be something essentially wrong in my preaching when it can afford comfort to such a profligate as this!” He accordingly examined into the matter closely, and he discovered that, whilst he had been preaching Christ’s sovereignty, he had quite forgotten his legislative glories. He immediately altered the style of his sermons, and he soon lost his munificent friend. I am told that, by preaching Christ’s legislative glory, I also have driven some from my chapel. Pray for me, my brethren, that I may still preach doctrine, and that Longacre may become too hot for error in principle or sin in practice; pray for me that with a giant’s arm I may lash both. (Howels, of Longacre.)
The atonement gives no encouragement to sin
There is no influence more mischievous on the morals of a people than to interpret the atonement in such a way as to make it independent of good works, if to the atonement you give any other than purely legal connection. If it includes state of nature and character in its connections, then must it stand forever associated with human endeavour and conditioned upon it. Else the sacrifice of Jesus becomes a harbour for thieves--a port into which sinners can at any moment steer with all their sins on board, the moment that the winds of conscience begin to blow a little too hard and threaten wreck to their peace. And this is what I call a plain accommodation of sinners, and hence a premium on sin. For sin is sweet to the natural man, sweet to his pride, his cruelty, his senses; and who would not sin and have the sweetness of it, if when he found it troublesome he could, by the saying of a prayer, or the utterance of a charmed word, be in an instant delivered from it forever? And yet I believe that in just this supposition multitudes in Christendom are living. Salvation is something to be visited upon them, independent of their conduct; nay, in spite of their conduct. Jesus is a cabalistic word which, no matter how they live, if they but whisper it with their dying gasp into the ear of death, he is bound to pass them up into heaven and not down into hell, where their deeds would consign them and which their characters fit. They cheat, they lie, they slander, they hate, they persecute, but then is not there mercy for all? Will not faith save a man; and have not they faith? And are they not told that God will do anything in answer to prayer; and did you ever see men pray as fast as these fellows can when they are sick? This is what I call making Christ a harbour for thieves and Christianity a premium on sin. This is what I call the most horrible perversion of the gospel plan of salvation conceivable! (H. W. Beecher.)
Death to sin, a difficulty
There is nothing so hard to die as sin. An atom may kill a giant, a word may break the peace of a nation, a spark burn up a city; but it requires earnest and protracted struggles to destroy sin in the soul. (D. Thomas, D. D.)