“Study is like a winter sun that hath little warmth and influence: meditation . . . melts the heart when it is frozen, and makes it drop into tears of love…”
“Some hearers have spiritual anorexia, Baxter said, for they have neither appetite nor digestion,. but others have spiritual bulimia..they have appetite, but no digestion.”
C. H. Spurgeon preached on the text of John 6:44,
“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.”
on March 7, 1858. In his sermon, “Human Inability,” Spurgeon exposits on the doctrine of regeneration, a doctrine that remains tragically misapprehended by many professing Christians. This timeless sermon is perhaps one of Spurgeon’s most encouraging for those who have truly “come to Christ”–and sobering for those who have not.
“Coming to Christ” is a very common phrase in Holy Scripture. It is used to express those acts of the soul wherein, leaving at once our self-righteousness, and our sins, we fly unto the Lord Jesus Christ, and receive his righteousness to be our covering, and his blood to be our atonement. Coming to Christ, then, embraces in it repentance, self-negation, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it sums within itself all those things which are the necessary attendants of these great states of heart, such as the belief of the truth, earnestness of prayer to God, the submission of the soul to the precepts of God’s gospel, and all those things which accompany the dawn of salvation in the soul. Coming to Christ is just the one essential thing for a sinner’s salvation. He that cometh not to Christ, do what he may, or think what he may, is yet in “the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity.” Read the rest of this crucial sermon.
…in order that their hearts may be confirmed, being united in love and to all the wealth of the full conviction of the understanding, to knowledge of the secret of God of Christ…
Dr. Clark asks,
“What does the wealth of a Christian consist of? Answer: It consists of the fullness of the understanding. One’s full conviction of the understanding is the settled and fixed persuasion that one comprehends the truth, and that it is the truth that is comprehended. Such a one is not blown hither and yon by every wind of doctrine. A person ever learning and never able to grasp the truth is not Paul’s ideal.”
Dr. Clark emphasizes the same idea, but addresses Christian maturity, in his exposition of Colossians 1:28, particularly the phrase, [Christ] whom we preach:
“To be mature is to have an extensive knowledge of Christ. Since God would not have put a means in Paul’s hands insufficient to attain God’s and Paul’s purpose, and since the means was the preaching of Pauline theology, it follows that maturity is a knowledge and belief in those holy doctrines. That is why, again, he said, “Whom we preach.”
And so, according to Dr. Clark, Christian maturity is knowledge and belief in the doctrine taught by Paul, and the wealth of the Christian is full understanding of the truth of this doctrine. Wealth and maturity are, for the Christian, effectively the same blessing.
John Owen, the greatest of Puritan theologians, says this of the motives of those who study theology:
For those laboring in the vineyard of the Lord, the Providence of God provides, more usually than not, a wonderful additional consolation. The seed that they sow in the earth may well be raked by malicious attacks and covered with the dung of abuse, but it will spring up more mightily and abundantly than any which saw nothing but the sweet smelling breezes of popular applause. . . .
The greatest obstacle to all students of theology is an inborn and destructive darkness of mind. Seek to break through that by the power and Spirt of Him who once commanded light to shine forth out of darkness. – (John Owen: Biblical Theology, “Epistle to the reader,” pp. xxiii-xxvi)
“When God corrects us or ours for sin, it is our duty to be silent under the correction, not to quarrel with God, arraign his justice, or charge him with folly, but to acquiesce in all that God does; not only bearing, but accepting, the punishment of iniquity, and saying, as Eli, in a case not much unlike this, It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good….
“The most effectual arguments to quiet a gracious spirit under afflictions are those that are fetched from God’s glory; this silenced Aaron. It is true he is a loser in his comforts by this severe execution, but Moses has shown him that God is a gainer in his glory, and therefore he has not a word to say against it: if God be sanctified, Aaron is satisfied. Far be it for him that he should honour his sons more than God, or wish that God’s name, or house, or law, should be exposed to reproach or contempt for the preserving of the reputation of his family. No; now, as well as in the matter of the golden calf, Levi does not acknowledge his brethren, nor know his own children; and therefore they shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law.“ (Deuteronomy 33:9-10.)
–Matthew Henry: Commentaries, Leviticus 10.
“If we would live in peace, let us make the best constructions of one another’s words and actions. Charity judgeth the best, and thinks no evil. If words and actions may be construed to a good sense, let us never put a bad construction upon them. How much hath the peace of Christians been broken by an uncharitable interpretation of words and actions? As some lay to the charge of others that which they never said; so, by straining men’s words, others lay to their charge that which they never thought.”
–John Bunyan: Exhortation to Unity and Peace
Calvin concluded a discourse on Beauty and Bands, at Zechariah 11:7, with this prayer:
Grant, Almighty God, that as thou hast hitherto so kindly showed Thyself to be our Shepherd, and even our Father, and hast carefully provided for our safety–O grant, that we may not by our ingratitude deprive ourselves of thy favors, so as to provoke thy extreme vengeance, but on the contrary suffer ourselves to be gently ruled by thee, and render thee due obedience: and as thine only-begotten Son has been by Thee set over us as our only true Shepherd, may we hear his voice, and willingly obey him, so that we may be able to triumph with thy Prophet, that thy staff is sufficient for us, so as to enable us to walk without fear through the valley of the shadow of death, until we shall at length reach that blessed and eternal rest, which has been obtained for us by the blood of thine only Son. Amen. From: Calvin’s Commentaries, Zechariah XI:7.
Blaise Pascal wrote this to a bereaved friend, comforting him with the Calvinist doctrine of predestination:
“If we regard this event, not as an effect of chance, not as a fatal necessity of nature, but as a result inevitable, just, holy, of a decree of His Providence, conceived from all eternity, to be executed in such a year, day, hour, and such a place and manner, we shall adore in humble silence the impenetrable loftiness of His secrets; we shall venerate the sanctity of His decrees; we shall bless the acts of His providence; and uniting our will with that of God Himself, we shall wish with Him, in Him and for Him, the thing that He has willed in us and for us for all eternity.” (quoted in Loraine Boettner: The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, p. 330)
Boettner observes,
“Since the true Calvinist sees God’s hand and wise purpose in everything, he knows that even his sufferings, sorrows, persecutions, defeats, etc., are not the results of chance or accident, but that they have been foreseen and foreappointed, and that they are chastisements or disciplines designed for his own good. He realizes that God will not needlessly afflict His people; that in the divine plan these are all ordered in number, weight, and measure; and that they shall not continue a moment longer than God sees necessary.” (loc cit.)
“Love and gratitude to God for what he has done for us is the strongest possible and only permanent basis for morality.” –Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination
“In one sense we can say that the kingdom of heaven is a democratic kingdom, paradoxical as that may sound. The essential principle of a democracy is that it rests on ‘the consent of the governed.’ Heaven will be truly a kingdom, with God as the supreme Ruler; yet it will rest on the consent of the governed. It is not forced on believers against their consent. They are so influenced that they become willing, and accept the Gospel, and find it the delight of their lives to do their Sovereign’s will.” (Loraine Boettner: The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, pp. 209-210)
There is no inconsistency between free agency and God’s absolute sovereignty over every thought, action, and event. As Boettner observes,
“…the Scriptures contain predictions of many events, great and small, which were perfectly fulfilled through the actions of free agents. Usually these agents were not even conscious that they were fulfilling divine prophecy. They acted freely, yet exactly as foretold. . . .It is plain that the writers of Scripture believed these free acts to be fully foreknown by the divine mind and therefore absolutely certain to be accomplished. . . .The doctrines of God’s foreknowledge and foreordination stand or fall together.” (loc. cit.)
“When the atonement is made universal its inherent value is destroyed. If it is applied to all men, and if some are lost, the conclusion is that it makes salvation objectively possible for all but that it does not actually save anybody. According to the Arminian theory the atonement has simply made it possible for all men to co-operate with divine grace and thus save themselves–if they will. . . .The nature of the atonement settles its extent. If it merely made salvation possible, it applied to all men. If it effectively secured salvation, it had reference only to the elect. As Dr. Warfield says, ‘The things we have to choose between are an atonement of high value, or an atonement of wide extension. The two cannot go together.’ The work of Christ can be universalized only by evaporating its substance.” (Loraine Boettner: The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, pp. 152-153)
From Calvin, on the subject of what we might call ”standing tough” in the face of adversity:
“Now, among the Christians there are also new Stoics, who count it depraved not only to groan and weep but also to be sad and care ridden. These paradoxes proceed, for the most part, from idle men who, exercising themselves more in speculation than in action, can do nothing but invent such paradoxes for us. Yet we have nothing to do with this iron philosophy which also by our Lord and Master has condemned not only by his word, but also by his example. For he groaned and wept both over his own and others’ misfortunes. And he taught his disciples in the same way: ‘The world,’ he says, ‘will rejoice; but you will be sorrowful and will weep’ [John 16:20]. And that no one might turn it into a vice, he openly proclaimed, ‘Blessed are those who mourn’ [Matthew 5:4]. No wonder! For if all weeping is condemned, what shall we judge concerning the Lord himself, from whose body tears of blood trickled down [Luke 22:44]? If all fear is branded as unbelief, how shall we account for that dread with which, we read, he was heavily stricken [Matthew 26:37; Mark 14:33]? If all sadness displeases us, how will it please us that he confesses his soul ’sorrowful even to death’ [Matthew 26:38]?” (Institutes III.VIII.8)
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive… (Ephesians 4:14)
Dr. Gordon Clark, Loraine Boettner, and B. B. Warfield arguably were our era’s greatest advancers of Christian epistemology. Dr. Clark, in particular, decried the anti-intellectualism that threatens to subsume doctrinal integrity in today’s emotional religious movements.
“A recent convert is ipso facto immature,” says Dr. Clark. “He is a babe in Christ; and this is no disgrace. But it becomes a disgrace if he never grows up. We are to advance beyond the elementary lessons of Christianity…” (Gordon Clark: Ephesians, 4:14)
Dr. Clark is the author of numerous commentaries on Scripture and other doctrinal works, available through The Trinity Foundation.
“The great difference between modern marriage and Christian marriage, and therefore the insistence on ‘rights’ rather than on duties, is that Christian marriage is based on love ’till death us do part,’ and modern marriage is a legal contract of temporary convenience. If there is love, it is not Christian love, and therefore this secular marriage can survive neither the occasional severe strains of life nor even boredom and a roving eye.
“Paul teaches that the husband must love his wife as Christ loved the church. The church has not always been very lovable. But Christ gave his life for it.”
(Gordon Clark: Ephesians, 5:25)
Epignosis translates as “knowledge,” or, more deeply, “conscious knowledge” in the New Testament. Knowledge is a necessary platform for doctrine; our feelings simply cannot apprehend the Word of God. The Word, or logos, is presented to the mind and is to be apprehended with the mind. Pastor Peter Masters of London’s Metropolitan Tabernacle expands on this idea in an excellent hermeneutical study on this subject in a recent Trinity Review.
Anti-intellectualism dominates religious profession entirely too often. If true Christianity is to be properly represented, Christians must be willing and competent to engage their minds. Only the knowledge–not a sense or a feeling–of the God of the Bible is the foundation of Christianity.
Christian philosopher Gordon Clark writes,
“…the anti-intellectualism of the present age, which has infected the majority of Christians, needs to be combatted by pointing out the New Testament’s recurring emphasis on knowledge. As Peter says (2 Peter 1:3), all things that pertain to godliness come through knowledge (epignosis).” (Gordon Clark: Ephesians, 1:15-17)
The heart in the New Testament stands for the mind or intellect. (ibid., 1:18) …the eyes of your heart having been enlightened in order that you might know what is the hope of his calling…(Ephesians 1:18) The New Testament consistently represents the heart as the center of knowing, not of emotion. God manifest himself in His Word, that we might know Him whom we have believed (2 Timothy 1:12). The Apostle John affirms that we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true (1 John 5:20). The understanding we are given is given to our minds as we hear the Word preached and as we read the written Word. There is simply no Scriptural authority for an emotional Christianity.
“The blessed state of all true Christians: He that believes on the Son hath everlasting life. Note, 1. It is the character of every true Christian that he believes on the Son of God; not only believes him, that what he saith is true, but believes on him, consents to him, and confides in him. The benefit of true Christianity is no less than everlasting life; this is what Christ came to purchase for us and confer upon us; it can be no less than the happiness of an immortal soul in an immortal God. 2. True believers, even now, have everlasting life; not only they shall have it hereafter, but they have it now. For, (1.) They have very good security for it. The deed by which it passeth is sealed and delivered to them, and so they have it; it is put into the hands of their guardian for them, and so they have it, though the use be not yet transferred into possession. They have the Son of God, and in him they have life; and the Spirit of God, the earnest of this life. (2.) They have the comfortable foretastes of it, in present communion with God and the tokens of his love. Grace is glory begun.” (This exceptional passage is from Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible, John 3:36.)
I have excerpted here a discourse by John Owen, titled, “The Spirit an earnest, and how,” which appears as Chapter VII in Volume 4 of the Banner of Truth publication of The Works of John Owen. The concepts of “earnest,” “inheritance,” and “interest” can become as banners in the wind if not grounded in sound doctrine. ”The Spirit as Earnest” is the best thing I have read in a very long time–perhaps, ever.
“It is not any act or work of the Holy Spirit on us or in us that is called his being an ‘earnest.’ It is he himself who is this earnest. . . .The giving of this earnest is constantly assigned to be the act of God the Father, who, according to the promise of Christ, would send the Comforter unto the church. . . .
“Wherefore, the Spirit himself is the earnest, as given unto us from the Father by the Son. And this act of God is expressed by giving or putting him into our hearts, 2 Corinthians 1:22…. The meaning, therefore, of the words is, that God gives unto us his Holy Spirit to dwell in us, and to abide with us, as an earnest of our future inheritance. . . .
“[A]n earnest is the confirmation of a bargain and contract made on equal terms between buyers and sellers or exchangers. But there is no such contract between God and us. It is true, there is a supposition of an antecedent covenant, but not as a bargain or contract between God and us. The covenant of God, as it respects the dispensation of the Spirit, is a mere free, gratuitous promise; and the stipulation of obedience on our part is consequential thereunto. . . .So doth God, in a way of sovereign grace and bounty, give his Holy Spirit unto believers, and withal lets them know that it is with a design to give them yet much more in his appointed season; and here is he said to be an earnest. . . .
“The third place, affirms him to be an ‘earnest of our inheritance,’ Ephesians 1:14. . . .[A]s we receive the Spirit from him, and as his Spirit, so he is given unto us to make us conformable unto him, and to give us a participation of his gifts, graces, and privileges. . . .
“Christ himself, in his own person, is the ‘heir of all things.’ So he was appointed of God, Hebrews 1:2; and therefore the whole inheritance is absolutely his. What this inheritance is, what is the glory and power that is contained therein.
“Man by his sin had universally forfeited his whole right unto all the ends of his creation, both on the earth below and in heaven above. Death and hell were become all that the whole race of mankind had either right or title unto. But yet all the glorious things that God had provided were not to be cast away; an heir was to be provided for them.
“Abraham when he was old and rich had no child, and complained that his steward, a servant, was to be his heir, Genesis 15:2-4; but God lets him know that he would provide another heir for him of his own seed. When man had lost his right unto the whole inheritance of heaven and earth, God did not so take the forfeiture as to seize it all into the hands of justice and destroy it; but he invested the whole inheritance in his Son, making him the heir of all. This he was meet for, as being God’s eternal Son by nature; and hereof the donation was free, gratuitous, and absolute. And this grant was confirmed unto him by his unction with the fullness of the Spirit. . . .
“The way whereby we come to have an interest in Christ, and thereby a right unto the inheritance, is by the participation of the Spirit of Christ, as the apostle fully declares, Romans 8:14-17; for it is by the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of the Son, that we are made children. . . .
“Children are heirs unto their father; and those who are children of God are heirs of that inheritance which God hath provided for his children, ‘heirs of God.’ And all the good things of grace and glory which believers are made partakers of in this world or that which is to come are called their ‘inheritance,’ because they are the effects of free, gratuitous adoption. They are not things that themselves have purchased, bargained for, earned, or merited, but an inheritance depending on and following solely upon their free, gratuitous adoption.
“But how can they become ‘heirs of God,’ seeing God hath absolutely appointed the Son alone to be ‘heir of all things,’ Hebrews 1:2; he was the heir, unto whom the whole inheritance belonged? Why, saith the apostle, by the participation of the Spirit of Christ we are made joint heirs with Christ. . . .
“And it is so in this case. The ‘earnest of the Spirit’ given unto us, whereby we become co-heirs with Christ, whose Spirit we are made partakers of, secures the title of the inheritance in and unto our whole persons; but before we can come unto the full possession of it, not only have we many spiritual trials and temptations to conflict withal in our souls, but our bodies also are liable unto death and corruption. . . .
“Hence also is it manifest how abundantly willing he is that ‘the heirs of promise should receive strong consolation in all their distresses, when they flee for refuge unto the hope that is set before them.’”
For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. Isaiah 30:15
“Would we be strengthened to do what is required of us and to bear what is laid upon us? It must be in quietness and in confidence; we must keep our spirits calm and sedate by a continual dependence upon God, and his power and goodness; we must retire into ourselves with a holy quietness, suppressing all turbulent and tumultuous passions, and keeping the peace in our own minds. And we must rely upon God with a holy confidence that he can do what he will and will do what is best for his people. And this will be our strength; it will inspire us with such a holy fortitude as will carry us with ease and courage through all the difficulties we may meet with.” (Matthew Henry, Commentary, Isaiah 30:15)
When I pray for strength, I must know that it is God’s strength that I am asking Him to impart, not strength of my own; for anything added to my own is still none.
Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. Isaiah 26:12
“Whatever good work is done by us, it is owing to a good work wrought by the grace of God in us; it is he that puts good thoughts and affections into our hearts if at any time they be there, and that works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. . . .And if any kindness be shown us, or any of our affairs be prosperous and successful, it is God that works it for us. Every creature, every business, that is in any way serviceable to our comfort, is made by him to be so; and sometimes he makes that to work for us which seemed to make against us.” (Matthew Henry, Commentary on Isaiah)
“Theologians are accustomed to distinguish those two parts of the saving work of Christ by calling one of them His passive obedience and the other of them His active obedience. By His passive obedience — that is, by suffering in our stead — He paid the penalty for us; by His active obedience –that is, by doing what the law of God required — He has merited for us the reward. . . .
“How shall we distinguish Christ’s active obedience from His passive obedience? Shall we say that He accomplished His active obedience by His life and accomplished His passive obedience by His death? No, that will not do at all. During every moment of His life upon earth Christ was engaged in His passive obedience. It was all for Him humiliation, was it not? It was all suffering. It was all part of His payment of the penalty of sin. On the other hand, we cannot say that His death was passive obedience and not active obedience. On the contrary, His death was the crown of His active obedience. It was the crown of that obedience to the law of God by which He merited eternal life for those whom He came to save. . . .
“Every event of His life was a part of His payment of the penalty of sin, and every event of His life was a part of that glorious keeping of the law of God by which He earned for His people the reward of eternal life. The two aspects of His work, in other words, are inextricably intertwined. Neither was performed apart from the other. Together they constitute the wonderful, full salvation which was wrought for us by Christ our Redeemer.” (J. Gresham Machen: God Transcendent, “The Active Obedience of Christ,” pp. 190-191)
In find this an excellent clarification of the “active” and “passive” obedience of Christ and their particular applications to His glorious work of our salvation.
God’s Will and Healing
John W. Robbins
Since I was diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic colon cancer in September 2005, some strangers, friends, and acquaintances have given me different opinions on the topic of God’s will and healing. All of the opinions are offered by sincere people, but most sincere people are sincerely wrong. Only one opinion is Biblical. This should not be surprising, for there is an indefinite number of ways to go wrong, but only one way to go right. There is only one right answer to the question, “How much is 2 plus 2?” and an infinite number of wrong answers. That is why the Bible in general and Jesus in particular stress the importance of finding the narrow way and repeatedly warn against the broad way.
The many opinions on healing I have received distill to three. The first is that it is not God’s will that anyone – or at least any Christian – be sick. Being sick is being “outside God’s will.” By not getting well, a Christian is showing his rebellion against God’s will that everyone be well. In this opinion, every Christian who is sick for any length of time (I suppose they make exceptions for colds), is not “submitting to God’s will that he be well.”
The second opinion seems to be the opposite. It is that a Christian must “submit himself to God’s will,” and if he is not getting better, God’s will is that he remain sick, and perhaps die from the affliction. He also is told to “submit himself to the will of God,” but to an opposite end, not to get well, but perhaps to die.
The third opinion does not speak of “submitting to the will of God,” but tells us to seek and pray for the desires of our hearts. It certainly sounds like the least pious of the three opinions, doesn’t it? But it is the Biblical position. The Bible is not a very religious book, as men count religion.
Let us examine each of these three opinions.
Take the first opinion first: Is it God’s will that no Christian be sick or afflicted? Of course not. If it were not God’s will that some people are sometimes sick, no one would ever be sick, since nothing, not even the death of a sparrow or the fall of a hair from our heads, happens apart from God’s will. God causes both sickness and health in his and in all people. This is taught so clearly in the Bible that one must deliberately ignore and disbelieve scores of passages that teach it. Here are a few:
“And I [God] will afflict the descendants of David because of this, but not forever” (1 Kings 11:39).
“For you, O God, have tested us; you have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; you laid affliction on our backs. You have caused men to ride over our heads” (Psalm 66:1-12).
“…when they pray toward this place and confess your name, and turn from their sin because you [God] afflict them….” (2 Chronicles 6:26).
“And it shall come to pass, that as I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:28).
In the New Testament, Paul tells us that “For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep, for if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged, but when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world” (1 Corinthians 11:30-32).
These verses clearly show that it is God’s will to afflict even his own people at times, even to the point of killing them. From many more verses, too numerous to list here, it is clearly God’s will that whatever happens happen, for there is nothing outside God’s will. He is sovereign and omnipotent, and nothing can happen apart from his plan and will. It is logically and theologically impossible to be “outside God’s will.”
The second opinion is that sickness or affliction that does not go away in a relatively short period of time (I suppose these people also make exceptions for colds) indicates that it is God’s will that the afflicted person remain sick, and perhaps even die from his affliction. This is made especially convincing if a medical professional pronounces the condition “incurable.”
But there are many examples of suffering people in Scripture – commendable examples – that refute this notion as well. Take, for example, the woman who hemorrhaged for twelve years, spending all her money on physicians, none of whom could cure her. Did she submit to “God’s will” and resign herself to being sick and perhaps dying of her disease? Of course not. She did not confuse the inability of physicians to help her with the will of God. She kept seeking the desire of her heart, and this desire led her to Jesus, who cured her and who did not upbraid her for refusing for twelve years to “submit to God’s will for her life.” Nor does he scold her for being “outside the will of God” for twelve years.
There are many similar examples – even cases where parents of dying and dead children sought help rather than submitting to the “will of God.” They sought the desire of their hearts, not even accepting imminent and present death as “God’s will” for their child. Were they wrong to do so? Were they also – like the sick allegedly outside the will of God – in rebellion to the will of God? Of course not. Christ never scolds any of these people for refusing to “submit to the will of God.”
In both these erroneous opinions – (1) God’s will is that no Christian should be sick, and one is not submitting to God’s will if one is sick; and (2) in cases of extended illness, one should submit to the will of God by recognizing it is his will that you remain sick and perhaps die of this sickness – the same serious theological mistake is being made: The mistake is an error – a presumption – of knowledge: It presumes that we can know what the will of God for the future is by reading present circumstances, and therefore know how to “submit ourselves to the will of God.”
The second opinion assumes that one’s present affliction indicates the ultimate outcome (which is false) – and that the Christian should submit to that anticipated outcome as if it were the “will of God.” The first opinion assumes, contrary to Scripture, that the will of God is that every Christian be well, and that those who are not well are “outside God’s will” and need to submit to it. In both cases – though they reach opposite conclusions, death and health – they share the presumption that one can know from present circumstances what the will of God is for the future. That simply is not true. Apart from divine propositional revelation, we cannot know what God’s will and plan for the future is.
The third opinion is that one should pray for the desires of one’s heart, not guessing or presuming what the will of God for the future is. That is the rule followed by the “incurable” woman, by the parents of dying and dead children in Scripture, and by many others, including Jesus himself, who prayed that this cup would pass from him, if possible. What makes Christ’s case different, of course, is that, unlike us, who do not and cannot know the future, he could and did know the future – and still he prayed for the desires of his heart.
The notion that we should “submit to the will of God” when we do not and cannot know the will of God is not a Christian idea at all, but a Muslim idea. Islam means “submission,” and it teaches the same error of presuming that the will of God can be known before God reveals it. In Christian theology, the proper verb is “obedience,” not submission, and it is obedience to his revealed commands, not submission to an unknown (and apart from revelation, unknowable – see Deuteronomy 29:29) will of God. Psalm 37:3-6 read: “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.”
The Bible nowhere commands Christians to “submit to the will of God,” precisely because we do not know that will. The Bible commands us hundreds of times to obey God’s commands. We must never confuse our guesses about the future with “God’s will” and piously submit to those guesses – or more likely the guesses of clerics who think they know the future. God’s commands we know, because they are revealed to us in Scripture, but apart from revelation, we cannot know his will, and therefore we cannot “submit” to it, nor need we try to do so.
Copyright, The Trinity Foundation 2007
Thank you, Dr. Robbins. And may God uphold you and heal you and restore you to your magnificent service to His kingdom.
”Temptation is God’s school, wherein he gives his people the clearest and sweetest discoveries of his love; a school wherein God teaches his people to be more frequent and fervent in duty. When Paul was buffeted, then he prayed thrice, i.e. frequently and fervently; a school wherein God teaches his people to be more tender, meek, and compassionate to other poor, tempted souls than ever; a school wherein God teaches his people to see a greater evil in sin than ever, and a greater emptiness in the creature than ever, and a greater need of Christ and free grace than ever; a school wherein God will teach his people that all temptations are but his goldsmiths, by which he will try and refine, and make his people more bright and glorious. . . . Those hands of power and love, that bring light out of darkness, good out of evil, sweet out of bitter, life out of death, heaven out of hell, will bring much sweet and good to his people, out of all the temptations that come upon them.” (Thomas Brooks: Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices)
“Did Christ upon the cross die merely to make possible my salvation? Did He die merely for the great mass of humanity and then leave it to the decision of individuals in that mass whether they would make any use of what Christ purchased for them at such cost? Was I, in the thought of the Son of God when He died there on Calvary, merely one in the great mass of persons who might possibly at some future time accept the benefits of His death?
“I tell you, my friends, if I thought that–if, in other words, I became a consistent Arminian instead of a Calvinist–I should feel almost as though the light had forever gone out of my soul. No, indeed, my friends, Christ did not die there on Calvary merely to make possible our salvation. He died to save us. He died not merely to provide a general benefit for the human race from which we might at some future time draw, as from some general fund, what is needed for the salvation of us individually. He called us, when He died for us, by our names. He loved us not as infinitesimal particles in the mass of the human race, but He loved us every one.” (J. Gresham Machen: God Transcendent, “Constraining Love,” p. 147)
The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops? (Isaiah 22:1)
Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou has brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;Let me find thy light in my darkness,
thy life in my death,
thy joy in my sorrow,
thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty
thy glory in my valley.
(Arthur Bennett, ed.: The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions, pp. xxiv-xxv)
’Tis a point I long to know,
Oft it causes anxious thought;
Do I love the LORD, or no?
Am I his, or am I not?
If I love, why am I thus?
Why this dull and lifeless frame?
Hardly, sure, can they be worse,
Who have never heard his name!
Could my heart so hard remain,
Prayer a task and burden prove;
Every trifle give me pain,
If I knew a Savior’s love?
When I turn my eyes within,
All is dark, and vain, and wild;
Filled with unbelief and sin,
Can I deem myself a child?
If I pray, or hear, or read,
Sin is mixed with all I do;
You that love the LORD indeed,
Tell me, Is it thus with you?
Yet I mourn my stubborn will,
Find my sin, a grief, and thrall;
Should I grieve for what I feel,
If I did not love at all?
Could I joy his saints to meet,
Choose the ways I once abhorred,
Find, at times, the promise sweet,
If I did not love the LORD?
Lord decide the doubtful case!
Thou who art thy people’s sun;
Shine upon thy work of grace,
If it be indeed begun.
Let me love thee more and more,
If I love at all, I pray;
If I have not loved before,
Help me to begin to-day.
(John Newton–who else?)
“There are those who say, ‘Scripture says, ‘He that believeth on him is not condemned’ but shall receive ‘everlasting life’; ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved’; ‘Whosoever believeth in his heart and confesseth with his mouth shall be saved.’” They interpret such statements as meaning that as long as they acknowledge and say certain things about the Lord Jesus Christ, they are automatically saved. Their error is surely this: the man who is truly saved and who has a genuine assurance of salvation does make, and must make, these statements, but the mere making of these statements does not of necessity guarantee, or assure, a man of his salvation. The very people with whom our Lord is dealing do say: ‘Lord, Lord,’ and they seem to put the right content into that statement; but, as we have seen, James reminds us in his Epistle that ‘the devils also believe, and tremble’. If we read the Gospels, we discover that the evil spirits, the devils, recognize the Lord. They refer to Him as ‘the Holy One of God’. They know who He is; they say the right things about Him. But they are devils and they are lost. So we must be wary of that very subtle temptation, and remember the way in which people wrongly persuade themselves. They say: ‘I do believe, and I have said with my mouth that I believe Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, and that He has died for my sins, therefore…’–but the argument is incomplete. The believer, the Christian, does say these things, but he does not stop at merely saying them. That is what is sometimes described as ‘fideism’ or ‘believism’, which means that a man is really putting his final trust in his own faith and not in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is relying on his own belief, and on his mere assertion of it. . . .
“The moment we begin to rest our faith solely upon repeating a formula, without being sure that we are regenerate and that we have evidence of the life of God within us, we are exposing ourselves to this terrible danger of self-delusion. And there are many who state and defend their doctrine of assurance in that way. They say: Do not listen to your conscience. If you have said that you believe, that is enough. But it is not enough, for ‘many will say…Lord, Lord’. But He will say: ‘I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity’. A superficial doctrine of assurance, therefore, or a false doctrine of assurance, is one of the most common causes of self-delusion.” (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, “Unconscious Hypocrisy,” pp. 528-529)
“According to Scripture it is quite impossible to be justified by faith and not to experience the commencement of true sanctification, because the spiritual life communicated by the Spirit in the act of regeneration (which introduces a new power to believe) is morally akin to the character of God and contains within it the germ of all holiness. Thus saving faith is never found in isolation. As the Westminster Confession teaches, faith ‘is the alone instrument of justification; yet it is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces.’
“Because they teach this, the doctrines of grace are a barrier against carelessness and superficiality. The very system which has been accused of lessening man’s responsibility has wherever it has prevailed, produced generations of serious, God-fearing and saintly people, for Calvinism has always emphasized that it is by obedience and holiness that we fulfil the apostolic command to make our calling and election sure: ‘If the divine calling has produced in us the fruit of obedience, then we may assuredly believe that we were separated unto God ere time began, and that this separation was according to the eternal purpose and will of God.’” (Iain Murray: The Forgotten Spurgeon, p. 109)
Murray thoughtfully articulates faith in its proper context: the knowledge of Christ’s finished work on our behalf, and the vitality that our works impart to our faith (James 2:26).
“You cannot fight God’s battle against God’s enemies unless you are at peace with Him.
“But how shall you be at peace with Him? Many ways have been tried. How pathetic is the age-long effort of sinful man to become right with God: sacrifice, lacerations, almsgiving, morality, penance, confession!…But the real trouble remains; the burden is still on the back; Mount Sinai is still ready to shoot forth flames; the soul is still not at peace with God. How then shall peace be obtained?
“…We can never be at peace with God unless God first be at peace with us. But how can God be at peace with us? Can He be at peace with us by ignoring the guilt of sin, by descending from His throne, by throwing the universe into chaos, by making wrong to be the same as right, by making a dead letter of His holy law, ‘The soul that sinneth shall die,’ by treating His eternal laws as though they were the changeable laws of man?….Oh, no, my friends, peace cannot be attained for man by the great modern method of dragging God down to man’s level; peace cannot be attained by denying that right is right and wrong is wrong; peace can nowhere be attained if the awful justice of God stand not forever sure….
“How then can we sinners stand before that throne? How can there be peace for us in the presence of the justice of God? How can He be just and yet justify the ungodly? There is one answer to these questions. It is not our answer. Our wisdom could never have discovered it. It is God’s answer….We deserved eternal death because of sin; the eternal Son of God, because He loved us, and because He was sent by the Father who loved us too, died in our stead, for our sins, upon the cross….The cross remains foolishness to the world, men turn coldly away, and our preaching seems but vain. And then comes the wonder of wonders! The hour comes for some poor soul, even through the simplest and poorest preaching; the message is honoured, not the messenger; there comes a flash of light into the soul, and all is as clear as day. ‘He loved me and gave himself for me,’ says the sinner at last, as he contemplates the Saviour upon the cross. The burden of sin falls from the back, and a soul enters into the peace of God.”
(J. Gresham Machen: “The Good Fight of Faith,” in, God Transcendent, pp. 135-137)
“For my part, I like to believe great truths which are beyond my reason. A religion without mysteries seems to me to be false on the face of it. If there be an Infinite God, it is not possible that poor I, with my finite mind, shall ever be able to understand everything about him. If the Lord chooses to tarry till thousands of years have passed away, yea, till millions of years have elapsed, yet let him do as he wills. Is he not infinitely wise and good; and who are we that we should put him to the question? Let him tarry his own time; only let us watch, and wait, for he will come, and they that wait for him shall have their reward.” (Spurgeon preached the sermon from which this excerpt is taken, “God’s Longsuffering: An Appeal to the Conscience,” from 2 Peter 3:15. The full text of the sermon may be read here.)
This hearkens to Acts 1:7, “And he said unto them, It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father hath set within his own authority.” Christ asserted the sovereignty of God over all times and seasons: the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to judge the earth; the time of birth and death of every living creature, and the times of all things coming to pass in this world and the world to come. There are no times or seasons not under the Father’s authority, and these things are not for us to know. What a good thing this is! What would we do with such information were it given us? Having told his apostles this, the Lord promises them the power of the Holy Spirit, the abiding power that sanctifies every Christian, and enables him to execute his true calling: to watch, and to wait.
But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:13)
“If Christians do not exhort one another daily, they will be in danger of being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. There is a great deal of deceitfulness in sin; it appears fair, but is filthy; it appears pleasant, but is pernicious; it promises much, but performs nothing. The deceitfulness of sin is of a hardening nature to the soul; one sin allowed prepares for another; every act of sin confirms the habit; sinning against conscience is the way to sear the conscience; and therefore it should be the great concern of every one to exhort himself and others to beware of sin.” (Matthew Henry: Commentary, Hebrews 3:13)
Encouragement, direction, diversion from sin, and pointing one another to Christ are the duties of Christian love and charity. To keep one another from sinking in the mire of spiritual lassitude, we must not forsake exhortation of ourselves and one another for a single day.
