In the first seven chapters we
considered freedom in the present life from the bonds of sin. Now we turn to
consider the question of freedom in the present life from the results of the
bonds of sin. Or we could call it “Wider Considerations of the True
Christian Life.” At this point we begin to come into very sharp conflict
with the intellectual thinking of the second half of the twentieth century,
and we will see what Christianity has to say to this.
With this chapter we begin our consideration with the question of “true
spirituality” in relation to my separation from myself, which is
a result of the fall and a result of sin. Now we must keep this in the
right order. We must not get it reversed. The sin causes the bondage and
the results. Sin causes the bondage, and not the other way round. So the
comprehension of and acting upon the freedom from the bonds of sin must be
seen as basic and before the consideration of the freedom from the
results of those bonds of sin. We cannot have the biblical answer, the
promises God makes, to the Christian concerning freedom from the results of
the bonds of sin in this present life until two things are true: first, that
we are truly Christians; and second, that we are acting upon the biblical
teaching concerning freedom from the bonds of sin. That is why the first
seven chapters of this book must be the base of that which we begin to
consider now.
Any meaning becomes only a psychological trick, a cruel illusion, unless
certain things are true – objectively true – or are propositional truths, to
use the twentieth-century terminology. What are these facts that must be
objectively true?
The first of them is the objective reality of a supernatural view of the
universe, and the reality of salvation in the biblical sense. Without these,
modern man’s effort to reach out and scoop some of the blessing off the top
of Scripture, as it were, can be no more than a psychological trick. But
behind this truth, there stands a yet more basic truth; the existence of a
personal-infinite God in whose image man is made. And as we have been
created by him, in his image, there is a reality to the concept of human
personality. This is in contrast to all deterministic concepts, which say
that we are merely a set of psychological or chemical conditions.
The third thing that must be understood is the truth about the human
dilemma. The biblical answer is that the dilemma of the human race, this
dilemma that twentieth-century man is wrestling with so much, is moral.
The basic problem of the human race is sin and guilt – a real moral guilt,
not just guilt feelings, and a real moral sin, because we have sinned
against a God who is there and a God who is holy. In opposition to
neo-orthodoxy and all the other modern theologies, we must understand that
sin and guilt really are moral. They are not simply due to certain
metaphysical or psychological limitations. Man is really guilty before a
holy God who exists and against whom we have sinned. Except on these bases,
the hope given by Scripture concerning freedom from the bonds of sin is only
a cruel illusion.
At this point we should consider the question of freedom from my conscience.
There are two attitudes which the Word of God and the study of church
history warn us against if we are to avoid mistakes. The first one is
perfectionism, as it has been called theologically. This is the teaching
that a Christian can be perfect in this life. This view falls into two
areas. The first is the teaching, sincerely held by many, that at a certain
point in a man’s life there comes some second blessing, after which he never
sins again. The early Wesley taught this – not the later Wesley, for he
began to see that this could not be consistently held. But there is another
form of perfectionism, which holds that we may know perfection for the
moment. As we have seen, it is true that our lives are lived on a
moment–by-moment basis; this view talks of a moment-by-moment total moral
“victory”.
Now the question arises whether we could expect to have perfection, either
totally or even for this one moment. And I would suggest that such an
expression simply gets us caught in a swamp, in which we have endless
discussions concerning some abstract idea of complete victory, even in this
one moment. The phrase that often is used is that we can have freedom from
“all known sin.” But I feel that as we consider first the Word of God and
then human experience, we must understand that there is a problem in the
word “known,” and also a problem in the word “conscious,” if we talk of
“conscious” sin. The problem in using either or both of these words is the
fact that since the fall, man has habitually fooled himself. We fool
ourselves deep inside our subconscious and unconscious nature.
The more the Holy Spirit puts his finger on my life and goes down deep into
my life, the more I understand that there are deep wells to my nature.
Modern psychology has dealt with these under the terms unconscious and
subconscious, and though the philosophy behind modern psychology is often
fundamentally wrong, surely it is right in pointing out that we are more
than merely that which is on the surface. We are like the iceberg: one-tenth
above and nine-tenths below. It is a very, very simple thing to fool
ourselves, and that is why we must question this word “known.” If I say I
can have freedom from all “known” sin, surely I must acknowledge the
meaningfulness of the question: What do I know? Until I can describe
what I know, I cannot go on meaningfully to ask whether I can have freedom
from “known” sin. As the Holy Spirit has wrestled with me down through the
years, more and more I am aware of the depths of my own nature, and the
depths of the results of that awful fall in the Garden of Eden. Man is
separated from himself.
Now we must understand, too, in the framework of the Scripture, that since
the Fall everything is under the covenant of grace. The covenant of works is
destroyed by the deliberate, free, unconditioned choice of Adam and Eve. In
its place, by the grace of God, with the promises begun in Genesis 3:15, man
was immediately given the promise of the work of the Messiah coming in the
future. Thus from the time of the Fall onwards, everything rests upon the
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, not upon ourselves, not
in ourselves. Hence if there is any real victory in my life, it must
not be thought of as my victory or my perfection. Such a
notion does not fit the scriptural picture of man or God’s dealing with us
since man has sinned. It is not my victory, it is always Christ’s victory;
it is never my work or holiness, it is always Christ’s work and Christ’s
holiness. When I begin to think and to grow in the idea of my victory, there
is really no true victory. To the extent that I am thinking about my
sanctification, there is no real sanctification. I must see it always as
Jesus Christ’s.
Indeed, it is only as we consciously bring each victory to his feet, and
keep it there as we think of it – and especially as we speak of it – that we
can avoid the pride of that victory, which can be worse than the sin over
which we claim to have had the victory. The greater the victory, the greater
the need of placing it consciously (and as we speak of it, vocally) at his
feet.
We have said that there are two false attitudes against which we must stand,
and not just one. The second is just as mistaken as the first.
In the Westminster Catechism there is the emphasis that we sin daily in
thought, word, and deed. This is not wrong, but it can be distorted by our
sinful hearts into something which is exceedingly wrong. As we teach our
children that we sin daily in thought, word, and deed, we must be very
careful to warn them of the danger of thinking that they can look lightly or
abstractly at sin in their lives. If I count of Christ’s victory for my
entrance to heaven, will I deny him the glory he would gain in victories
won, in me and through me, in my present life? If I look to Jesus Christ and
his victory on the cross for my entrance into a future heaven, dare I deny
to him what that victory should produce in the battles of the present life –
the battles before men and angels and the supernatural world? What an awful
thought!
The Bible makes a clear distinction between temptation and sin. Christ was
tempted in every point like as we are, yet, the Bible says with great
emphasis, he never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). Consequently, there is a
difference between temptation and sin, and the Bible says that just because
we are tempted does not mean that we must follow through in that temptation
and fall into sin.
There has not temptation taken you but such as is
common to man:
but God if faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that
ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape,
that ye may be able to bear it. (1 Corinthians
10:13)
For this is the love of God, that we keep his
commandments: and
his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the
world, even our faith. (1John 5:3-4)
It is not we who overcome the world in our own strength. We do not have a
power plant inside ourselves that can overcome the world. The overcoming is
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we have already seen. There can be a
victory, a practical victory, if we raise the empty hands of faith moment by
moment and accept the gift. “This is the victory that overcometh the world.”
God has promised, and the Bible has said, that there is a way to escape
temptation. By God’s grace we should want that escape.
Having spoken of these two dangers, let us go on.
Let us say now that I have been living in the light of what God has been
giving us for the present life. As a born-again child of God, I have been
practicing the reality of true spirituality, as Christ has purchased it for
us. And then sin reenters. For some reason my moment by moment belief
in God falters – a fondness for some specific sin has caused me at that
point not to draw in faith upon the fact of a restored relationship with the
Trinity. The reality of the practice of true spirituality suddenly
slips from me. I look up some morning, some afternoon, some night – and
something is gone. It is not that I am lost again, because justification is
once for all. But as far as man can see, or even I myself at this point
there is no exhibition of the victory of Christ upon the cross. Looking at
me at this point, men would see no demonstration that God’s creation of
moral rational creatures is not a complete failure, or even that God exists.
Because God still holds me fast, I do not have the separation of lostness,
but I do have the separation from my Father in the parent-child
relationship. And I remember what I had.
At this point a question must arise: Is there a way back? Or is it like a
fine Bavarian porcelain cup, dropped to a tile floor so that it is smashed
beyond repair?
Thank God, the gospel includes this. The Bible is always realistic; it is
not romantic, but deals with realism – with what I am. There is a way back,
and the basis of the way back is nothing new to us. The basis is again the
blood of Christ, the finished work of the Lamb of God: the once for all
completed work of Christ upon the cross, in space, time, and history.
And the first step of the way back is not new either. No man is justified;
no man becomes a Christian, until he acknowledges he is a sinner. No man can
accept Jesus as Savior until he acknowledges he is a sinner. And 1 John
1:4-9 makes it plain that the first step in the restoration of the Christian
after he has sinned is to admit to God that what he has done is sin. He must
not excuse it; he must not call it by another name; he must not blame it
upon somebody else; he must not call it less that sin, He must be sorry for
it.
And these things write we unto you, that your joy
may be full.
this then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare
unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we
say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie,
and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light,
[and that light is not just a general illumination; it is clearly his
holiness],
we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his
Son cleanseth us from all sin [a present cleansing]. If we say we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. (1John 1:4-9)
This is the gentle dealing of God with his children after we have fallen.
This is the purpose of Gods chastisement of the Christian; it is to cause us
to acknowledge that the specific sin is sin.
And ye have forgotten the exhortation which
speaketh unto you as
unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord,
nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for whom the Lord loveth
he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye
endure chastening, god dealeth with you as with sons; for what son
is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastise-
ment, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
(Hebrews 12:5-8)
If we have sin in our lives, and we go on, and God does not put his hand in
loving chastisement upon us, then we are not children of God. God loves us
too much for that. He loves us tremendously. He loves us as his adopted
children.
Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which
corrected us,
and we have 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 own pleasure [as seemed good to them];
but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now
no chastening for the present seemeth to be peaceable fruit of
righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
(Hebrew 12:9-11)
He does all this for a purpose. It is not only to bring righteousness into
my life, but it is also that I might have that “peaceable
fruit of righteousness” – that these things being dealt with, I
may be at peace. That is God’s loving care.
But there is a condition to it. Those who have this peaceable fruit of
righteousness are those who are exercised by God’s chastening: in other
words, learning what he is teaching them in the midst of it. God the
Father’s chastening is to cause us to acknowledge that a specific sin is
sin; his hand can grow increasingly heavy until we come to acknowledge that
it is sin and stop trying to get out from under it through fancy terms,
blaming it on other people or excusing it in some way. Do we want a restored
relationship? We may have it, as children of God. We may have a restored
relationship any moment, but we are not ready for it until we are willing to
call specific sin sin.
And the emphasis is on specific sin. It will not do just say, “I
sinned.” This is nothing. There must be a willingness to call my specific
sin sin. I must take my place in the Garden of Gethsemane with
Christ. There Christ is speaking as a true man, and he speaks the absolute
reverse of Adam and Even in the Garden of the Fall, when he says, “Not
my will, but thine be done.” I, too, must say with
meaningfulness, “Not my will, but thine be done,”
at the point of that specific sin; not just a general statement, “I
want your will,” but “I want your will in reference to this thing
that I acknowledge to be sin.”
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk
in darkness,
we lie, and do not the truth. (1John 1:6)
There is no such thing as to continue deliberately to walk in darkness and
to have an open fellowship with him who is only light and holiness. This is
simply not possible.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the
flesh, and the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
(1John 2:16)
Here is something that is the antithesis not only of God’s external law, but
of his character and what he is. How can we say we have fellowship with him
if we deliberately walk in that which is the antithesis of himself?
Thus we say, “Not my will, but thine be done.”
And as I say this in reference to this specific sin, I am once again the
creature before God: I am in the place for which I was made. As a child of
the Fall, self is crucified again, for there can be no resurrection without
the crucifixion. We have seen that the order of the Christian life is plain:
there can be no restitution without repentance and confession directly to
God. In the unity of the teaching of Scripture, this is exactly what one
would expect if one begins with the central biblical teaching that God
really exists. He is a personal-infinite God, and he has a character. He is
holy. This is not some strange thing pulled in from a peripheral point; it
stands at the very heart of the matter. If this is what God is, the God who
exists, and if I have become his child, should one not expect that when I
have sinned, when I have done that which is the antithesis of his character,
I must go back to him as a person, and say I am sorry? He is not just a
doctrine, or an abstraction; he is a person who is there. In practice we may
not comprehend all that is involved in the sin and especially if a person is
psychologically disturbed, he may not always be able to sort out what really
is sin and what is just confusion on his part. Here is the concept of the
iceberg again, the nine-tenths below the surface and only one-tenth above,
so that we cannot always sort out all that we are in the midst of our sin.
Much of the sin may be below the surface; much may even be in the
subconscious boiling up, just showing itself in spots. But whatever evil may
be above the surface, the portion that we do comprehend is sin, and that
portion must be taken with honesty before the God who know our whole being,
and we must say to him, “Father, I have sinned.” There must be real sorrow
for the sin that I know, that is above the surface of myself.
We have seen earlier that there is a parallel between justification and
sanctification, that is, between becoming a Christian and living the
Christian life. The first step in justification is that I must acknowledge
that I am a sinner, that I am justly under the wrath of God, and that I
cannot save myself. The first step in living the true Christian life is that
I must acknowledge that I cannot live the Christian life in my own strength
or in my own goodness. The first step of restoration after I have sinned is
in exactly the same line: I must acknowledge that my specific sin is sin.
There are not three different principles; there is one principle in these
three places, because we are dealing with the same God and basically the
same problem. But neither in becoming a Christian, nor in fruit bearing as a
Christian, is the first step enough on its own. In each of the three
situations, I must then raise the hands of faith for God’s gift in that
place. And when I, a Christian, have sinned, it is only the finished work of
Jesus Christ in space, time, and history, back there on Calvary’s
cross, that is enough. It is only the blood of Jesus Christ that is enough
to cleanse my sin as a Christian, and it is only upon the basis of the blood
of Christ that the spot is removed. I must bring the specific sin under the
blood of Jesus Christ, by faith. So it is the same thing again; here is the
active passivity which we have already discussed. We cannot do it of
ourselves, but neither are sticks or stones. God has made us in his own
image, and he will always deal with us on that ground.
Now just as in the conscious area of sanctification as a whole, so here in
restoration; everything rests upon the reality of the fact that the blood of
Christ has meaning in our present life, and restoration takes
place as we, in faith, act upon that fact in specific cases of sin. I think
that much of the emphasis of the traditional, orthodox church in the
historic stream of the Reformation has laid insufficient stress on the
conscious side of the Christian life. This is not a “second
blessing,” but it is learning the reality of the meaning of the work of
Jesus Christ on the cross, in our present life, and consciously beginning to
act upon it.
I think this is what John Wesley knew. He knew a direct working of God in
his life on the basis of the finished work of Jesus Christ. I think his
theology in this area was mistaken, and he used the wrong terminology, but
certainly he did not have the wrong aspiration, but the right one; the
knowledge and practice of the availability of the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ in the present meaning of our life. No matter what terms we use to
express it, the reality of it rests upon the knowledge of what Christ has
purchased for us – not only in taking us to heaven, but in the present life
– and then beginning to act upon this in moment by moment faith.
And in the question of restoration: the blood of Christ has meaning for me
in my present life when I have fallen and my peace is gone. Restoration must
be first upon the understanding of what Christ has done for us in
this area, and then beginning to practice this moment by moment. It is not a
mechanical process; the meaning of the work of Christ in our present life is
to be consciously acted upon. But the base is the finished work of Christ in
history.
How glad we should be for Christ’s story of the Prodigal Son. Here is one
who is a son and yet has gone deeply into sin, down into the mire. Scripture
makes it plain that he has not just sinned a little, even in the world’s
view of sin. He has sinned the “big” sins. Yet the father stands waiting
when the prodigal returns, his arms ready to close about him. The blood of
Christ can cleanse the darkest sin. There is no sin so great that our
fellowship cannot be restored, if we humbly call it sin and, through faith,
bring that specific sin under the blood of Christ. When my heart condemns me
and cries, “You have done it again,” I am to believe God again as to the
value of the finished work of Jesus Christ. There must be death, we have
seen, before there can be resurrection. But on the basis of the victory of
Christ, resurrection should follow death. The Christian life never ends on
the negative. There is a negative, because man is a rebel. But it
does not end there; it always goes on to the positive. As my body will one
day be raised from the dead, so I am meant to live a resurrected life now.
I have found it extremely helpful that when a man has accepted Christ as his
Savior, he should bow his head and say “Thank you” to the God who is there –
“Thank you for the completed work.” Undoubtedly men have been saved and have
gone away not consciously saying “Thank you” but how wonderful it is when a
man has seen himself as a sinner, and has understood his lostness, for that
man to have accepted Christ as his Savior and then to have bowed his head
consciously to say “Thank you” for a work that is absolute and
complete. It is usually when the newly-born one thanks God that the
assurance comes, that he comes to rest in certainty and in peace.
It is the same in restoration. There is a continuing parallel here. If we
have sinned, it is wonderful consciously to say, “Thank you for a completed
work,” after have brought that specific sin under the finished work of
Christ. While not absolutely necessary for restoration, the conscious giving
of thanks brings assurance and peace. We say “Thank you” for work completed
upon the cross, which sufficient for a completely restored relationship.
This is not on the basis of my emotions, any more than in my justification.
The basis is the finished work of Christ in history and the objective
promises of God in the written Word. If I believe him, and if I believe what
he has taught me about the sufficiency of the work of Christ for
restoration, I can have assurance, no matter how black the blot has been,
this is the Christian reality of salvation from one’s conscience.
Martin Luther, in his commentary on Galatians, shows a great understanding
of the fact that our salvation includes salvation from the bondage of our
conscience. It is , or course, natural and right that as we become
Christians our consciences should become ever more tender. This is a work of
the Holy Spirit. However, I should not be bowed down by conscious year after
year over sins that are past. When my conscience under the Holy Spirit makes
me aware of a specific sin, I should at once call that sin sin and
bring it consciously under the blood of Christ. Now it is covered, and it is
not honoring to the finished work of Jesus Christ to worry about it, as far
as my relationship to God is concerned. Indeed, to worry about it is to do
despite to the infinite value of the death of the Son of God. My fellowship
with God is restored.
Now there may be a price yet to pay for my sins in regard to the state;
there may a harm to individuals that I have to deal with. These things still
have to be faced. We will consider this later. But as far as my fellowship
with the Father is concerned, God says it is restored upon the basis of the
value of the blood of Jesus Christ. And if his blood is of such a value as
to bring a rebel and sinner from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of
God’s dear Son at justification, what sin is so black that it cannot cover
it?
As I consciously say “Thank you” to God for completed work, my
conscience should come into rest.
For myself, through the twenty years or so since I began to struggle with
this in my own life, I rather picture my conscience as a big black dog with
enormous paws which leaps upon me, threatening to cover me with mud and
devour me. But as this conscience of mine jumps upon me, after a specific
sin has been dealt with on the basis of Christ’s finished work, then I
should turn to my conscience and say, in effect, “Down! Be still!” I am to
believe God and be quiet in my practice and experience. My fellowship with
God has been supernaturally restored. I am cleansed, ready again to resume
the spiritual life, ready again to be used by the Spirit for warfare in the
external world. I cannot be ready until I am cleansed, but when I am, then I
am ready. And I may come back for cleansing as many times as I need, on this
basis.
This is for many Christians the point of reality. All of us battle with this
problem of reality. Men go to strange extremes to touch reality, but here is
the point of it: “My little children, these things
write I unto you, that yes sin not [so naturally the call is not
to sin]. And if any man sin, we
[including John himself, who puts himself in this category]
have an advocate with Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous.” (1John 2:1)
This is the point of reality for me personally. If I lay hold upon the blood
of Christ in faith, reality rests here, not in trying to live as though the
Bible teaches perfectionism. That is no basis for reality; that is only a
basis either for subterfuge or despair. But there is reality here: the
reality of sins forgiven; the reality of a certainty that when a specific is
brought under the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is forgiven. This is
the reality of restored relationship. Reality is not meant to be only
creedal, though creeds are important. Reality is to be experienced, and
experienced on the basis of a restored relationship with God through that
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
One thing more needs to be said on this subject: “For
if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are
judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with
the world” (1Corinthians 11:31-32)
This teaches us that we do not need to wait to be chastened before our
fellowship with God can be restored. God’s chastening is not a punishment.
The punishment is altogether dealt with on Calvary’s cross. It is a
correction to bring us back to fellowship with himself, and we do not need
to wait to be chastened before our fellowship can be restored. The
chastening of a child of God does not have a penal aspect. That was finished
on the cross. There is no double jeopardy when the holy God is the Judge.
Our guilt is gone, once and forever. Therefore if we judge ourselves, we are
not chastened.
Consequently we may read these two verses backwards. And that is, God is not
going to have us condemned with the world, so he will chasten us. But if we
judge ourselves, and call the sin sin, and bring it under the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, then he will not have to chasten us. This is what Paul
was urging upon us. It is overwhelmingly better not so sin. But is it not
wonderful that when we do sin, we can hurry to the place of restoration?
So God means us to have, as one of his gifts in this life, freedom from a
false tyranny of the conscience. Most, if not all, Christians find that the
first step in the substantial healing that they can have in the present life
is the substantial healing of the separation from themselves that is a
result of the Fall and of sin. Man is first of all separated from God, then
from himself, and finally from his fellow men and from nature. The blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ will give an absolute and perfect restoration of all
these things when Jesus comes. But in the present life there is to be a
substantial healing, including the results of the separations between a man
and himself. This is the first step towards freedom in the present life from
the results of the bonds of sin.
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