XXIII. DEATH TO SIN THROUGH CHRIST
"Likewise reckon ye
also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord."-Romans 6:11.
THE connection of this passage will help us to understand its
meaning. Near the close of the previous chapter Paul had said, "The law
entered that the offence might abound; but where sin abounded, grace did much
more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign
through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." He
speaks here of sin as being a reigning principle or monarch, and of grace also
as reigning. Then, in chapter vi., he proceeds, "What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Likewise reckon ye also
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ
our Lord."
You observe here that Paul speaks of the man, the old sinner, as
being crucified with Christ, so destroyed by the moral power of the Cross that
he who was once a sinner shall no longer serve sin. When he speaks of our being
planted or buried with Christ, we must of course understand him as employing
figures of speech to teach the great truth that the Gospel redeems the soul
from sin. As Christ died for sin, so by a general analogy we die to sin; while,
on the other hand, as He rose to a new and infinitely glorious life, so the
convert rises to a new and blessed life of purity and holiness.
But recurring particularly to our text, let me say -- The
language used in our translation would seem to denote that our death to sin is
precisely analogous to Christ's death for sin; but this is not the case. We are
dead to sin in the sense that it is no longer to be our master, implying that
it has been in power over us. But sin never was in power over Jesus Christ --
never was His master. Christ died to abolish its power over us -- not to
abolish any power of sin over Himself, for it had none. The analogy between
Christ's death in relation to sin and our dying to sin, goes to this extent and
no farther: He died for the sake of making an atonement for sin and of creating
a moral power that should be effective to kill the love of sin in all hearts;
but the Christian dies unto sin in the sense of being divorced from all
sympathy with sin and emancipated from its control.
But I must proceed to remark upon the text itself, and shall
inquire,
I. What it is to be dead unto sin in the sense of the text.
II. What it is to be alive unto God.
III. What it is to reckon ourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive
unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
IV. What it is to be alive unto God through Jesus Christ.
V. What is implied in the exhortation of our text.
I. What it is to be
dead unto sin in the sense of the text.
Being dead to sin must obviously be the opposite of being dead
in sin. The latter must undeniably be a state of entire sinfulness -- a state
in which the soul is dead to all good through the power of sin over it. But
right over against this, to be dead to sin, must be to be indifferent to its
attractions -- beyond the reach of its influence -- as fully removed from its
influences as the dead are from the objects of sense in this world. As he who
is dead in the natural sense has nothing more to do with earthly things, so he
who is dead to sin has nothing to do any more with sin's attractions or with
sinning itself.
II. What is it to be
alive unto God?
To be full of life for Him -- to be altogether active and on the
alert to do His will; to make our whole lives a perpetual offering to Him,
constantly delivering up ourselves to Him and His service that we may glorify
His name and subserve His interests.
III. What is it to
reckon ourselves dead indeed unto Him?
The word rendered reckon is sometimes rendered account.
Abraham's faith was accounted unto him for righteousness. So, in this passage,
reckon must mean believe, esteem yourselves dead indeed unto sin. Account this
to be the case. Regard this as truly your relation to sin; you are entirely
dead to it; it shall have no more dominion over you.
A careful examination of the passages where this original word
is used will show that this is its usual and natural sense. And this gives us
the true idea of Gospel faith -- embracing personally the salvation which is by
faith in Jesus Christ. But more of this hereafter.
IV. What is meant by
reckoning yourselves alive indeed unto God through Jesus Christ?
Plainly this: that you are to expect to be saved by Jesus Christ
and to calculate on this salvation as your own. You are to esteem yourself as
wholly dead to sin and as consequently brought into life and peace in Christ
Jesus.
V. What is implied
in the exhortation of our text?
That there is an adequate provision for this expectation, and
for realizing these blessings in fact. For if there were no ground for
realization this, the injunction would be most absurd. A precept requiring us
to account ourselves dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God, would be
utterably untenable if there were no probability of the thing -- if no
provision were made for our coming into such relations to Sin on the one hand
and to God through Christ on the other. For if these blessings could not be
reasonably expected, there could be no rational ground for the expectation. If
it were not reasonable to expect it, then to enjoin us to expect it would be
palpably unreasonable. Who does not see that the very injunction implies that
there is a foundation laid and adequate provision made for the state required?
What is implied in complying with this injunction
1. Believing such a thing to be possible. Believing it possible
that through Christ we may live in the required manner, that we may avoid sin
-- desist from sinning -- give it up and abandon it altogether, and put it
forever away. There can be no such thing as an intelligent compliance with this
precept, except as there shall underlie it this belief in its practicability. A
state actually made practicable by adequate grace, adapted to the laws of mind
and to the actual moral condition of lost men.
2. That we cease from all expectation of attaining this state of
ourselves, and by our own independent, unaided efforts. There is no beginning
to receive by grace till we renounce all expectation of attaining by natural
works. It is only when empty of self that we begin to be filled of Christ.
3. A present willingness to be saved from sin. We must actually
renounce all sin as such -- that is, renounce sin because it is sin, and for
what it is. This position the mind must take: I can have nothing more to do
with sinning -- for God hates sin, and I am to Eve henceforth and for ever to
please and glorify Him. My soul is committed with its utmost strength of
purpose to this pleasing of God and doing His will.
4. It implies also an entire committal of your whole case to
Jesus Christ, not only for present, but for all future salvation from sin. This
is absolutely essential. It must always be the vital step -- the cardinal act
in this great work of salvation from sin.
5. It implies also the foreclosing of the mind against
temptation, in such a sense that the mind truly expects to live a life purely
devoted to God. This is the same sort of foreclosing of the mind as takes place
under a faithful marriage contract. The Bible everywhere keeps this figure
prominent. Christians are represented as the bride of Christ. They stand in a
relation to Him which is closely analogous to that of a bride to her husband.
Hence when they commit their whole hearts to Him, reposing their affections in
Him, and trusting Him for all good, their hearts are strongly foreclosed
against temptation. The principle here involved, we see illustrated in the
merely human relation. When parties are solemnly betrothed in mutual honest
fidelity, there is no longer any thought of letting the eye rove or the heart
go abroad for a fresh object of interest and love. The heart is fixed --
willingly and by plighted faith fixed, and this fact shuts out the power of
temptation almost entirely. It renders it comparatively an easy matter to keep
the heart safely above the influence of temptation to apostasy. Before the
sacred vows are taken, individuals may be excused for looking round and making
any observations or inquiries: but never after the solemn vow is made. After
the parties have become one by vow of marriage, never to be broken, there is to
be no more question as to a better choice -- no further thought about changing
the relation or withdrawing the heart's affections. No wavering is admissible
now; the pledge is made for everlasting faithfulness, settled once and forever!
This is God's own illustration, and surely none need be more apt or more
forcible. It shows how the Christian should look upon sin and upon all
temptation to sin. He must say, Away from my heart for ever! I am married to
Jesus Christ; how then can I look after other lovers? My mind is forever
settled. It rests in the deep repose of one whose affections are plighted and
fixed -- to rove no more! Sin? I can think of yielding to its seductions no
longer. I cannot entertain the question for a moment. I can have nothing to do
with sinning. My mind is settled -- the question forever foreclosed, and I can
no more admit the temptation to small sins than to great sins -- no more
consent to give my heart to worldly idols than to commit murder! I did not
enter upon religion as upon an experiment, to see how I might like it -- no
more, than a wife or husband take on themselves the marriage vow as an
experiment. No; my whole soul has committed itself to Jesus Christ with as much
expectation of being faithful forever as the most faithful husband and wife
have of fulfilling their vows in all fidelity till death shall part them.
Christians in this state of mind no more expect to commit small
sins than great sins. Hating all sin for its own sake and for its hatefulness
to Christ, any sin, however small, is to them as murder. Hence if the heart is
ever afterwards seduced and overcome by temptation, it is altogether contrary
to their expectation and purpose; it was not embraced in their plan by any means,
but was distinctly excluded; it was not deliberately indulged aforetime, but
broke on them unexpectedly through the vantage ground of old habits or
associations.
Again, the state of mind in question implies that the Christian
knows where his great strength lies. He knows it does not lie in works of
fasting, giving alms, making prayers, doing public duties or private duties --
nothing of this sort; not even in resolutions or any self-originated efforts,
but only in Christ received by faith. He no more expects spiritual life of
himself apart from Christ, than a man in his senses would expect to fly by
swinging his arms in the air. Deep in his soul lies the conviction that his
whole strength lies in Christ alone.
When men are so enlightened as truly to apprehend this subject,
then to expect less than this from Jesus Christ as the result of committing the
whole soul to Him for full salvation, is virtually to reject Him as a revealed
Saviour. It does not honour Him for what He is; it does not honour the revelations
He has made of Himself in His word by accepting Him as there presented. For
consider, what is the first element of this salvation? Not being saved from
hell, but being saved from sin. Salvation from punishment is quite a secondary
thing, in every sense. It is only a result of being saved from sin, and not the
prime element in the Gospel salvation. Why was the infant Messiah to be called
Jesus? Because He should save His people from their sins. And does the Bible
anywhere teach any other or different view from this?
REMARKS
1. This text alone, "Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ" most entirely justifies
the expectation of living without sin through all-abounding grace. If there
were no other passage bearing on this point, this alone is adequate, and for a
Christian to offer this only as a reason for such a hope in Him is to offer as
good a reason as need be given. There are indeed many others that fully justify
this expectation.
2. To teach that such an expectation is a dangerous error is to
teach unbelief. What if the apostle had added to this injunction which requires
us to account ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, this singular
averment: "Yet let me warn you, nobody can rationally hope to be free from
sin in this world. You must remember that to entertain such an expectation as
God enjoins in this language is a dangerous error." What should be thought
of this if it were attached to Rom. vi. 11?
No man can deny that the passage treats of sanctification. The
whole question is, Shall Christians "continue in sin" after having
been forgiven and accepted in their Redeemer? Paul labours to show that they
should, and of course that they may die to sin -- even as Christ died for sin;
and may also live a new, a spiritual life (through faith in His grace), even as
Christ does a higher and more glorious life.
Let me refer here to another passage, in which it is said he not
unequally yoked with unbelievers -- what agreement hath the temple of God with
idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. Wherefore come out from among
them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I
will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." "Having, therefore, these
promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the
flesh and of the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."-2 Cor.
vi. 11-18, and vii. 1. This is a very remarkable passage. Note how precept and
promise are intermingled, and how, finally, upon the basis of a most glorious
promise, is founded the precept enjoining us to perfect holiness. Now what
should we think of Paul and of the Divine Spirit who spake through Paul, if He
had immediately subjoined, "Take care lest any of you should be led by
these remarks to indulge the very dangerous and erroneous expectation that you
can "perfect holiness," or cleanse yourselves from any sin, either of
flesh or spirit, in this world? "Would not this have been trifling with
the intelligence and Christian sensibility of every reader of his words
throughout all time? Should we not account it as substantially blasphemous?
It so happens that the Bible never gainsays its own teachings;
but I ask -- What if it had? What if the Bible had solemnly asserted, "No
mere man, either of himself or by any grace received in this life, has ever
kept or shall ever keep the commandments of God wholly, but doth daily break
them in thought, word, and deed?
To teach that such an expectation is dangerous is a great deal
worse than no teaching at all. Far better to leave men to their own unaided
reading of God's word, for this could scarcely in any case so sadly mislead
them, however inclined they might be to the misapprehension. Dangerous to
expect salvation from sin? Dangerous? What does this mean? What! Dangerous to
expect victory over any sin? If so, what is the Gospel worth? What Gospel have
we that can be deemed good news at all?
Many indulge the very opposite expectation. Far from expecting
any such thing as the apostle authorizes them to expect, they know they have no
such expectation.
Of some yet more than this is true -- they expect to count
themselves always in sin. They depend on reckoning themselves, not dead indeed
unto sin, but somewhat alive to it through all their mortal life, and in part
alive to God through Jesus Christ. It follows as quite a thing of course that
expecting no such thing as complete victory over sin they will use no
appropriate means, since faith stands foremost among those means, and faith
must include at least a confidence that the thing sought is possible to be
attained.
In this and the following chapters we have the essence of the
good news of the Gospel. Any one who has been wounded and made sore by sin --
its bitter shafts sinking deep into his moral being-one who has known its
bitterness and felt the poison thereof drink up his spirit -- such an one will
see that there is glory in the idea of being delivered from sin. He, will
surely see that this deliverance is by far the greatest want of his soul, and
that nothing can be compared with escaping from this body of sin and death.
Look at Rom. vii. There you will have the state of a man who is more than
convinced, who is really convicted. It is one thing to be convinced, and a yet
further stage of progress in the right direction to be convicted. This term
implies the agency of another party. The criminal at the bar may be quite
convinced of his guilt by the view he was compelled to take of his own case;
but his being convicted is a still further step; the testimony and the jury
convict him.
Some of you know what it is to see yourself a sinner, and yet
the sight of the fact brings with it no smart -- no sting; it does not cut deep
into your very soul. On the other hand, some of you may know what it is to see
your sins all armed like an armed man to pierce you through and through with
daggers. Then you cry out as here -- O wretched man that I am! Who shall
deliver me from the body of this death? You feel a piercing sting as if your
soul were filled with poison -- with dark rankling venom, diffusing through the
depths of your soul the very agonies of hell! This is what I mean by being
convicted, as a state of mind beyond being merely convinced. The shafts and the
smiting of sin seem really like the piercings of an arrow, as if arrows from
the Almighty did really drink up your spirit. When you experience this, then
you can understand what the good news of the Gospel is. A remedy for such pangs
must be good news beyond all contradiction. Then to know that the blood of
Christ can save, is indeed a cordial of life to the fainting soul.
Place a man in this state of cutting, piercing conviction, and
then let him feel that there is actually no remedy, and he sinks under the iron
shafts of despair. See his agony! Tell him there can never be any remedy for
his guilty soul! You must lie there in you wailing and despair forever! Can any
state of mind be more awful?
I remember a case that occurred in Reading, Pa., many years ago.
There was a man of hard heart and iron frames strong, burly man, who had stood
up against the revival as if he could shake off all the arrows of the Almighty,
even as the Mastodon of which the tradition of the red man says, He shook off
all the arrows of the warriors from his brow and felt no harm. So he stood. But
he had a praying wife and a praying sister, and they gathered their souls in
the might of prayer close about him as a party of men would hem in a wild bull
in a net. Soon it was apparent that an arrow from the quiver of the Almighty
had pierced between the joints of his harness and had taken hold of his
innermost heart. O, was not he in agony then! It was night -- dark and
intensely cold. It seemed that absolutely he could not live. They sent for me
to come and see him. I went. While yet sixty rods from his house I heard his
screams and wailings of woe. It made me feel awfully solemn -- so like the
echoes of the pit of hell! I reached the house: there he lay on the floor
rolling in his agony and wailing, such as is rarely heard this side the pit of
despair. Cold as the weather was, he sweat like rain, every part of his frame
being in a most intense perspiration. Oh, his groans! and to see him gnaw his
very tongue for pain -- this could not but give one some idea of the doom of
the damned. O, said I, if this be only conviction, what is hell? But he could
not bear to hear anything about sin; his conscience was already full of it, and
had brought out the awful things of God's law so as to leave nothing more to be
done in that direction. I could only put Christ before him, and just hold his
mind to the view of Christ alone. This soon brought relief. But suppose I had
nothing else to say but this, "Mr. B., there is no help possible for your
case! You can wail on and wail on: no being in the universe can help you?"
Need you say to him hell has no fire? Oh, he has fire enough in his burning
soul already. It seems to him that no hell of fire can possibly be worse than
this.
How perfectly chilling and horrible for persons to oppose the
idea of expecting deliverance from sin and yet talk calmly of going on in sin
all the rest of their earthly days! As an elder whom I knew rose in meeting and
told the Lord he had been living in sin thus far, and expected to go on in sin
as long as he lived; he had sinned today and should doubtless sin tomorrow and
so on -- and yet he talked as calmly about it all as if it were foolish to make
any ado, as well as impossible to attempt any change for the better. Talk of
all this calmly -- think of that! Quite calmly of living alone in sin all the
rest of his days! How horrible! Suppose a wife should say to her husband, "I
love you some, but you know I love many other men too, and that I find. it
pleasant to indulge myself with them. You certainly must be aware that all
women are frail creatures, and liable to fall continually, and indeed you know
that I expect to fall more or less, as it may happen, every day I live, so that
you certainly will not expect from me anything so impracticable and fanatical
as unblemished virtue! You know we have none of us any idea of being perfect in
the present life -- we don't believe in any such thing!"
Now let me ask you to look at this woman and hear what she has
to say. Can you hear her talk so, without having your soul filled with horror?
What! is this woman a wife, and does she think and talk in this way about
conjugal fidelity?
And yet this is not to be compared in shacking guilt and treason
with the case of the Christian who says, "I expect to sin every day I
live," and who says this with unmoved carelessness. You expect to be a
traitor to Jesus each day of your life; to crucify Him afresh each day; to put
Him each day to an open shame; each day to dishonour His name, and grieve His
heart, and to bring sorrow and shame upon all who love Christ's cause; and yet
you talk about having a good hope through grace! But tell me, does not every
true Christian say, "Do not let me live at all if I cannot live without
sin; for how can I bear to go on day by day sinning against Him whom I so much
love!"
Those who are really opposed to this idea, are either very
ignorant of what the Gospel is, or they are impenitent and of course do not
care to be delivered from their sins; or at best they are guilty of great
unbelief. Into which of these classes the opposers of the doctrine may fall, is
a question for themselves to settle, as between their own consciences and their
God.
There are two distinct views of salvation entertained among
professed Christians, and correspondingly two distinct classes of professors --
often embraced within the same church. The one class regard the Gospel as a
salvation from sin. They think more of this and value it more than the hope of
heaven, or of earth either. The great thing with them is to realize the idea of
deliverance from sin. This constitutes the charm and glory of the Gospel. They
seek this more than to be saved from hell. They care more by far to be saved
from sin itself than from its penal consequences. Of the latter they think and
pray but little. It is their glory and their joy that Christ is sent to deliver
them from their bondage in iniquity -- to lift them up from their wretched
state and give them the liberty of love. This they labour to realize; this is
to them the good news of Gospel salvation.
The other clam are mostly anxious to be saved from hell. The
punishment due for sin is the thing they chiefly fear. In fact, fear has been
mainly the spring of their religious efforts. The Gospel is not thought of as a
means of deliverance from sin, but as a great system of indulgences -- a vast
accommodation to take off the fear and danger of damnation, while yet it leaves
them in their sin. Now, here I do not by any means imply that they will call
their system of Gospel faith a scheme of indulgences: the name doubtless will
be an offence to them. They may not have distinctly considered this point, and
may have failed to notice that in fact it is such and nothing better.
They seem not to notice that a scheme of salvation that removes
the fear of damnation for sin, and which yet leaves them in their sins to live
for themselves, to please themselves, and which holds that Christ will at last
bring them to heaven notwithstanding their having lived in sin all their days,
must be a vast scheme of indulgences. Indeed, it is a compromise on a most
magnificent scale. By virtue of it, the whole Church is expected to wallow on
in sin through life, and be none the less sure of heaven at last.
These opposite views are so prevalent and so palpable you will
see them everywhere as you go round among the churches. You will find many in
the Church who are altogether worldly and selfish; who live conformed to the
world in various neglects of duty, and who expect to indulge themselves in sin
more or less all the way through life. You may ask them -- Do you think that is
right? They answer -- No. Why, then, do you do it? Oh, we are all imperfect,
and we can't expect to be any better than imperfect, while here in the flesh.
Yet they expect to be saved at last from hell, and to have all their sins
forgiven; but how? Not on condition of sincerely turning away from all their
sins, but on the assumption that the Gospel is a vast system of indulgences --
more vast by far than Pope Leo X. ever wielded and worked to comfort sinning
professors in his day. For here are not merely those that sin occasionally as
there, but those who live in sin and know they do, and expect they shall as
long, as they live, yet expect to be saved without fail at last.
The other class of professed Christians have no expectation of
being saved only as they have a pure heart and live above the world. Talk to
them about living in sin, they hate and dread the very thought. To them the
poison of asps is in it. Sin is bitter to their souls. They dread it as they
dread death itself
No one can go round within this church or any other without
finding these two classes as distinct in their apprehension of the Gospel as I
have described them to be. The one clam are in agony if they find themselves
even slipping, and they are specially cautious against exposing themselves to
temptation.
Not so with the other class. Two ministers of the Gospel being
together, one urged the other strongly to engage in a certain service. The
other declined. "Why not go?" said the first. "Because I do not
think myself justified in exposing myself to such and so much temptation."
"But why stop for that? We expect to sin more or less
always; and all we have to do is to repent of it afterwards."
Horror-smitten, the other could only say, "I hold to a,
different Gospel from that altogether."
Suppose a wife should say to her husband, "I am determined
I will go to the theatre." "But, my dear," says he, "you know
bad people congregate there, and you may be tempted." But she replies,
"Never mind; if I sin I will repent of it afterwards."
The real Christian may be known by this, that the very thought
of being drawn into sin drives him to agony. He cannot bear the idea of living
in sin; no, not for one moment.
The young people here who are truly Christians, are careful
about this ensuing vacation. You will be on your guard, for you are afraid you
may be ensnared into sin. I do not mean that you need fear to go where God
calls you, but it is a terrible thing to be ensnared into sin, and you cannot
but feel it to be so. If you know what it is to be wounded by the arrows of sin
in your soul, you will go abroad into apparent danger, walking softly and with
caution, and much prayer. You "will surely be much on your guard. But if
you say, "Oh, if I sin I will repent," what shall I say of you? You
will repent will you? And this will make all right again so easily? Suppose you
foresaw that in going abroad for vacation you would get drunk a few times, and
would commit one or two murders, would you say, "Oh, I may be a good
Christian notwithstanding. I will be careful to repent of it after it is all
over." Horrible! And yet you can think yourself a good Christian! Let me
tell you, a Christian man who repents of sin, repents of it as sin. He makes no
such discriminations as between a little secret sin and a great sin -- for
example, a murder. He knows no such distinction between sins as will leave him
to commit the one class without scruple and to shrink from the other. With him
anything that grieves God is a horrible thing. Anything that displeases God,
"Ah," he cries out, "God will see it; it will grieve His
heart!" How it will affect God -- this is all in all with him. One who
knows what it is to appear guilty of sin before God, and then who knows also
what it is to be delivered from this condition, will understand how the
Christian ought to feel in circumstances of temptation, where he feels himself
in danger of sinning. His hair all stands on end! How awful to sin against God!
Hence, anything that seems likely to, bring him into danger will rouse up all
his soul within him, and put him on his guard.
The unbelief of the Church as to what they may receive from
Christ is the great stumbling-block, hindering themselves and others from
experiencing deliverance. Not only is this a great curse to professed
Christians, but it is also a great grief to Jesus Christ and a sore trial.
Many seem to have hardened their hearts against all expectation
of this deliverance from sin. They have heard the doctrine preached. They have
seen some profess to be in this state of salvation from sin, but they have also
seen some of this class fall again, and now they deliberately reject the whole doctrine.
But is this consistent with really embracing the Gospel? What is Christ to the
believer? What was His errand into the world? What is He doing, and what is He
trying to do?
He has come to break the power of sin in the heart, and to be
the life of the believer, working in him a perpetual salvation from sin, aiming
to bring him thus, and only thus, to heaven at last. What is faith? what but
the actual giving of yourself up to Christ that He may do this work for you and
in you? What are you to believe of Christ if not this, that He is to save His
people from their sins? Can you tell of anything else? Does the Bible tell you
to expect something different and less than this? The fact is, that it has been
the great stumbling-block to the Church that this thing has not been well
understood. The common experience of nominal Christians has misrepresented and
belied the truth. The masses forming their views much more from this experience
than from the Bible, or at best applying this experience to interpret the
Bible, have adopted exceedingly defective, not to say false, opinions as to the
nature and design of the Gospel. They seem to forget altogether that Paul,
writing to Christians at Rome, assures them that if they are under grace, sin
shall not have dominion over them.
When Christians do not expect this blessing from Christ, they
will not get it. While they expect so little as they usually do, no wonder they
get so little. According to their faith, and not ever very much beyond it, need
they expect to receive.
It is often the case that sanctification is held as a theory,
while the mind does not yet by any means embrace the truth in love. The due is
analogous to that of impenitent sinners who hold in theory that they must have
a new heart. They profess to believe thus, but do they really understand it?
No. Suppose it were revealed to their minds so that they should really see it
as it is, would they not see a new thing? Would they not be startled to see how
utterly far they are, while impenitent, from being acceptable to God, and how
great the change they must experience before they can enter the kingdom? So of
sanctification. Although this class of persons profess to hold it in theory,
yet the passages of Scripture which describe it do not enter into their
experience. They do not see the whole truth. If they were to see the whole
truth, and should then reject it, I believe it would be in them the
unpardonable sin. When the Spirit of God discloses to them the real meaning of
the Gospel, then if they deliberately reject it, how can the sin be less than
what the Scriptures represent as the unpardonable sin? Having once been
enlightened, and having received the knowledge of the truth that they might be
not thenceforth impossible that they should be renewed again to repentance? One
thing, at least, must be said, there is a peril which many of the professed
Christians of our day seem not to realize, in having so much light before the
mind as they actually have in regard to the provisions made in the Gospel for
present sanctification, and then in rejecting this light practically and living
still in sin as if the Gospel made no provision to save the Christian from his
sins. Into this awful peril how many rush blindly and to their own destruction!