The Law and Grace

"I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the Law.  The Law is the needle, and you cannot draw the silken thread of the gospel through a man's heart unless you first send the needle of the Law to make way for it."

C. H. Spurgeon

A man must see the enormity of his sin and his offense before God before he can truly repent of it.  There may be many clever analogies used by preachers unfortunately without a basis in scripture, but this is not one of them.  Paul wrote, "I would not have known sin except by the Law." (Romans 7:7)  Sin is so natural to a human being we would never recognise it as wrong without the clean mirror of God's Law.  Without knowledge of sin there can be no repentance, and without repentance there is no hope for forgiveness or salvation.  A man must submit to the reality of his deadly disease before he will seek and receive the cure.  Unless a man submits to his condemnation under the Law, spiritual regeneration by the Holy Spirit - the Living Water Jesus spoke of - could not be received.

The truth of Spurgeon's claim is presented in a remarkable passage in the book of Numbers.  The children of Israel had been delivered by the mighty hand of God from Egypt, and God provided water from a spring in a miraculous fashion.  Numbers 21:16-18 says, "From there they went to Beer, which is the well where the LORD said to Moses, "Gather the people together, and I will give them water." ¹⁷ Then Israel sang this song: "Spring up, O well! All of you sing to it-- ¹⁸ the well the leaders sank, dug by the nation's nobles, by the lawgiver, with their staves." And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah..."  The Moabites had refused to provide the Israelites with water, but God would give them water.  He commanded them to gather together and sing.  God was the lawgiver who committed the Law to Moses who then passed God's directives to the people.  As the people sung in obedience and the nobles dug with their staves into the wilderness - which were symbols of authority - living water burst from beneath their feet.

Our hearts are naturally a dry wilderness, devoid of life.  It is significant God is called the Lawgiver, for the staff of Aaron which budded was proof of God's authority (Numbers 17).  God wrote the 10 Commandments on tablets of stone and effectively rendered the entire world guilty before Him (Romans 3:19).  The Law can only condemn and is compared to a schoolmaster which leads us by the hand to salvation through faith in Christ.  The Good News of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ is only good news when a man recognises he is damned and cut off without hope for eternity because of his sin.  When the Law breaks through the heart of stone of a guilty sinner, only then is the way cleared for repentance and salvation.  Drinking from the clear spring of Beer did not prevent eventual death for the thirsty Israelites, but Jesus promised Living Water who brings salvation in John 4:13-14:  "Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."  The needle of the Law makes the way for the Gospel, even as the staff directed by the Lawgiver made way for Living Water to flow forth.  Amazing truth from an awesome God!

Why Do You Weep?

God knows perfectly all motives and intentions of people.  We are called, as followers of Jesus Christ, to examine carefully ourselves with the probing sharpness of God's Word.  A splinter of wood covered by a callous of skin can be uncovered and removed only with a sharp instrument, and the sin which festers in our hearts is revealed by the sterilised scalpel of scripture in the hand of the Holy Spirit.  Our actions are more easily observed and judged than our motives.  Because it is outwardly visible our aim can be mistakenly on modifying our behaviour rather than dealing with the underlying sinful motive hidden within.  Man's tendency is to focus on relieving symptoms and with little thought of the root source.

Nothing is hid from God's sight, even when it is our motive in grief.  Tears do not fall from our eyes without a reason.  David recognised God's careful observance and divine documentation of his troubles and tears.  He wrote in Psalm 56:8, "You number my wanderings; put my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your book?"  While this verse can be used to offer consolation to those who mourn and weep (and there is real comfort here), it is important we recognise not all tears are equal in God's sight.  There are tears flavoured with love and compassion for others, tears of repentance which mourn our sin before a holy God.  These tears are accepted by God.  But there are tears of self-pity, pride, hatred, and bitterness without the motive of love which are detestable and abominable, evidence of a heart opposed to God which only add to our guilt.

This fact is proved by Esau, a man who despised his birthright and was denied his blessing.  His only thoughts were for himself, his loss, and nursed a murderous grudge toward Jacob his brother (Genesis 27:38-41).  Further insight into Esau's weeping is seen in Hebrews 12:14-17:  "Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: ¹⁵ looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; ¹⁶ lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. ¹⁷ For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears."  Esau wept much, but he did not weep tears of repentance.  He was sorrowful, but it was a work of the flesh.  His tears were the result of a sinful heart, and he was rejected - despite his show of contrition.  God knew his heart, and He knows our hearts too.

Consider the connection between God-honouring motives borne of faith and those of the flesh mentioned in Jeremy Taylor's classic book The Rules and Exercises of Holy Living:

Hezekiah repeated his good deeds upon his sick-bed, and obtained favour of God; but the Pharisee was accounted insolent for doing the same thing:  because this man did it to upbraid his brother, the other to obtain a mercy of God.  Zacharias questioned with the angel about his message, and was made speechless for his incredulity; but the blessed Virgin Mary questioned too, and was blameless:  for she did it to inquire after the manner of the thing, but he did not believe the thing itself:  he doubted of God's power, or the truth of the messenger; but she only of her own incapacity.  This was it which distinguished the mourning of David from the exclamation of Saul; the confession of Pharaoh from that of Manasses; the tears of Peter from the repentance of Judas:  for the praise is not in the deed done, but in the manner of its doing.  If a man visits his sick friend, and watches at his pillow for charity's sake, and because of his old affection, we approve it; but if he does it in hope of a legacy, he is a vulture, and only watches for the carcass.  The same things are honest and dishonest:  the manner of doing them and the end of the design makes the separation.

Holy intention is to the actions of a man that which the soul is to the body, or form to its matter, or the root to the tree, or the sun to the world, or the fountain to a river, or the base to a pillar:  for without these the body is a dead trunk, the matter is sluggish, the tree is a block, the world is darkness, the river is quickly dry, the pillar rushes into flatness and ruin; and the action is sinful, or unprofitable and vain. (Taylor, Jeremy. The Rules and Exercises of Holy Living. New York: E.P. Dutton. Print. pages 12-13)

Take care to examine your heart as well as your tears:  why do you weep?  Do your tears spring from a pure source, as when Christ wept over the city of Jerusalem, longing to gather the beloved of His soul?  These tears were evidence of great love.  Or is your spring of tears polluted with selfishness and spite as with Esau?  Only the LORD can give a man a new heart and purify our motives from within.  Invite the searching gaze of the Holy Spirit to examine your feelings and tears, for He is a faithful and true discerner of hearts.  Psalm 139:23-24 says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; ²⁴ and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Cut Off Sin

"Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes! ⁸ If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. ⁹ And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire."

Matthew 18:7-9

Jesus spoke these words to show the gravity of sin's consequences.  It would be better to endure pain or lack on earth than deny yourself the ultimate joy of eternity shared with God in heaven.  Jesus was not suggesting men should mutilate their bodies, for the whole of scripture makes clear what is needed is inner transformation, not outer reformation.  Cutting off a hand or gouging out an eye does not eliminate the source of sin in a man:  his depraved heart and mind.  Only when one is born again can he be forgiven of sin, walk uprightly in the power of the Holy Spirit, and be deemed righteous before God. 

Hands and eyes are part of a human body, and those who have these functional body parts use them almost continually during waking hours.  They can represent, then, any part of the flesh which causes us to sin.  Sinful behaviour is as natural to a man as using his hands or eyes.  A baby does not need to be taught to rely upon his hands or eyes, and no person born with the fallen nature of Adam need be taught how to lie, cheat, or steal.  The sinful tendencies we rely upon to gain advantage for our flesh must be cut off as we learn and adopt God's ways.  Whatever causes us to sin must be willingly cut off, or else we cut ourselves off from fellowship and life with God.

The second important point is this:  we are called to cut off what causes us to sin.  This is something every man must do for himself.  I am not called to cut off the hands or feet of others, and no one has been granted permission to cut off my own.  All men will stand before God to give account for their lives, and I will never need to answer for another man.  No sailor who stands at attention must provide an explanation to his superior why his shipmate's shirt is wrinkled and shoes unpolished.  He must answer for himself and face the consequences.  God has taken the initiative to reveal His perfect will and ways, and we are each called to respond appropriately in obedience concerning ourselves.

Sin brings infinite woe, and only Jesus provides the atonement and reconciliation with God all men need.  When we take seriously this call to cut off ourselves from sin - not sharpening our swords to dismember others from their sins - we save ourselves from much future pain!

Christian Vanity or Reality?

In my youth when I read Martyr of the Catecombs, Jesus Freaks, or Foxe's Book of Martyrs, I at times pictured myself facing the life and death decision of those faithful saints who gave all:  would I boldly stand for Christ or would I capitulate?  I would always convince myself I would take a stand for Christ if it came down to it, but didn't Peter say the same thing in the upper room to Jesus?  It only took a few questions from servants to bring his fantasy crashing down.  Boiling down a decision to follow Jesus into one climactic moment in time is easy when it is fantasy and because it is one decision, not a continuous one.  We can deny Christ without a gun being placed to our heads through disobedience or indifference without even knowing it.  The little decisions provide evidence of how we likely would respond to great challenges of faith.

Separating fantasy from reality is a product of renewing our mind according to God's Word.  It is easy for Christians to live in a fantasy world, imagining ourselves as possessing great faith because we view it through a microscope!  We tell ourselves things like, "Seeing a miracle would really build my faith."  Maybe it would.  But more likely we would fall into the trap of needing to see a miracle to believe, which is not faith.  It is not for a lack of miracles our belief remains small, but because our flesh longs to walk by sight rather than simple faith in God and His Word.  We are masters of spin, convincing ourselves that the overtly miraculous (whatever we fancy at the time) is the precise way God will receive the most glory from a given situation.  The truth remains:  miracles don't make believers.  It is from knowing God and recognising His power, presence, and praising God despite difficulties where our faith grows best.

Consider this quote from William Law in his book A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life:

There is nothing that so powerfully governs the heart, that so strongly excites us to wise and reasonable action, as a true sense of God's presence.  But as we cannot see, or apprehend the essence of God, so nothing will so constantly keep us under a lively sense of the presence of God, as this holy resignation which attributes everything to Him, and receives everything as from Him.

Could we see a miracle from God, how would our thoughts be affected with an holy awe and veneration of His presence!  But if we consider everything as God's doing, either by order or permission, we shall then be affected with common things, as they would be who saw a miracle.

For as there is nothing to affect you in a miracle, but as it is the action of God, and bespeaks His presence; so when you consider God as acting in all things, and all events, than all things will become venerable to you, like miracles, and fill you with the same awful sentiments of the Divine presence.

Now you must not reserve the exercise of this pious temper to any particular times of occasion, or fancy how resigned you will be to God, if such or such trials should happen.  For this is amusing yourself with the notion or idea of resignation, instead of the virtue itself.

Do not therefore please yourself with thinking how piously you would act and submit to God in a plague, or famine, or persecution, but be intent upon the perfection of the present day; and be assured, that the best way of showing a true zeal is to make little things the occasions of great piety.

Begin therefore in the smallest matters, and most ordinary occasions, and accustom your mind to the daily exercise of this pious temper, in the lowest occurrences of life.  And when a contempt, an affront, a little injury, loss, or disappointment, or the smallest events of every day, continually raise your mind to God in proper acts of resignation, then you may justly hope that you shall be numbered amongst those that are resigned and thankful to God in the greatest trials and afflictions." (Law, William. A Serious Call To a Devout and Holy Life. London: J.M. Dent, 1902. pages 323-324, Print.)

As followers of Jesus, we are called to no longer entertain vain and futile thoughts which can deceive us.  According to God's Word we are to put off the old man, be renewed in the Spirit of our mind, and put on the new man.  Ephesians 4:17-24:  "This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, ¹⁸ having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; ¹⁹ who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. ²⁰ But you have not so learned Christ, ²¹ if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: ²² that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, ²³ and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴ and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness."

When we recognise the presence of God in the little things, even the smallest details shout thunderous praise unto the God we love, serve, and worship.  What rejoicing and thanksgiving we experience in His presence!  Instead of feeding on the wind of fantasy, we are to sink our teeth into the reality of our fantastic God who loves and cares for us.  In this way the mundane becomes miraculous, God receives the glory, and our faith will steadily grow.