Part 4 (2/2)
They do not know that all failure can have but one cause: _Men seek to do themselves what grace alone can do in them_, what grace most certainly will do.
Many will not be prepared to admit that this is their disease, that they are not living ”under grace.” Impossible, they say. ”From the depth of my heart,” a Christian cries, ”I believe and know that there is no good in me, and that I owe everything to grace alone.” ”I have spent my life,” a minister says, ”and found my glory in preaching and exalting the doctrines of free grace.” ”And I,” a missionary answers, ”how could I ever have thought of seeing the heathen saved, if my only confidence had not been in the message I brought, and the power I trusted, of G.o.d's abounding grace.” Surely you cannot say that our failures in prayer, and we sadly confess to them, are owing to our not living ”under grace”?
This cannot be our disease.
We know how often a man may be suffering from a disease without knowing it. What he counts a slight ailment turns out to be a dangerous complaint. Do not let us be too sure that we are not, to a large extent, still living ”under the law,” while considering ourselves to be living wholly ”under grace.” Very frequently the reason of this mistake is the limited meaning attached to the word ”grace.” Just as we limit G.o.d Himself, by our little or unbelieving thoughts of Him, so we limit His grace at the very moment that we are delighting in terms like the ”riches of grace,” ”grace exceeding abundant.” Has not the very term, ”grace abounding,” from Bunyan's book downward, been confined to the one great blessed truth of free justification with ever renewed pardon and eternal glory for the vilest of sinners, while the other equally blessed truth of ”grace abounding” in sanctification is not fully known. Paul writes: ”Much more shall they which receive the abundance of grace reign in life through Jesus Christ.” That reigning in life, as conqueror over sin, is even here on earth. ”Where sin abounded” in the heart and life, ”grace did abound more exceedingly, that grace might reign through righteousness” in the whole life and being of the believer. It is of this reign of grace in the soul that Paul asks, ”Shall we sin because we are under grace?” and answers, ”G.o.d forbid.” Grace is not only pardon of, but power over, sin; grace takes the place sin had in the life, and undertakes, as sin had reigned within in the power of death, to reign in the power of Christ's life. It is of this grace that Christ spoke, ”My grace is sufficient for thee,” and Paul answered, ”I will glory in my weakness; for, when I am weak, then am I strong.” It is of this grace, which, when we are willing to confess ourselves utterly impotent and helpless, comes in to work all in us, that Paul elsewhere teaches, ”G.o.d is able to make _all grace_ abound unto you, that ye, _always_ having _all sufficiency_ in _all things_, may abound unto _all good works_.”
It has often happened that a seeker after G.o.d and salvation has read his Bible long, and yet never seen the truth of a free and full and immediate justification by faith. When once his eyes were opened, and he accepted it, he was amazed to find it everywhere. Even so many believers, who hold the doctrines of free grace as applied to pardon, have never seen its wondrous meaning as it undertakes to work our whole life in us, and _actually give us strength every moment_ for whatever the Father would have us be and do. When G.o.d's light s.h.i.+nes into our heart with this blessed truth, we know what Paul means, ”Not I, but the grace of G.o.d.” There again you have the twofold Christian life. The one, in which that ”Not I”--I am nothing, I can do nothing--has not yet become a reality. The other, when the wondrous exchange has been made, and grace has taken the place of our effort, and we say and know, ”I live, yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me.” It may then become a lifelong experience: ”The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant, with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.”
Beloved child of G.o.d! what think you, is it not possible that this has been the want in your life, the cause of your failure in prayer? You knew not how grace would enable you to pray, if once the whole life were under its power. You sought by earnest effort to conquer your reluctance or deadness in prayer, but failed. You strove by every motive of shame or love you could think of to stir yourself to it, but it would not help. Is it not worth while asking the Lord whether the message I bring you as His servant may not be more true for you than you think? Your lack of prayer is owing to a diseased state of life, and the disease is nothing but this--you have not accepted, for daily life and every duty, the full salvation which the word brings: ”Ye are not under the law, but under grace.” As universal and deep-reaching as the demand of the law and the reign of sin, yea, more exceeding abundant, is the provision of grace and the power by which it makes us reign in life. (Note B.)
In the chapter that follows that in which Paul wrote, ”Ye are not under the law, but under grace,” he gives us a picture of a believer's life under law, with the bitter experience in which it ends: ”O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” His answer to the question, ”I thank G.o.d through Jesus Christ our Lord,” shows that there is deliverance from a life held captive under evil habits that have been struggled against in vain. That deliverance is by the Holy Spirit giving the full experience of what the life of Christ can work in us: ”The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” The law of G.o.d could only deliver us into the power of the law of sin and death. The grace of G.o.d can bring us into, and keep us in, the liberty of the Spirit. We can be made free from the sad life under the power that led us captive, so that we did not what we would. The Spirit of life in Christ can free us from our continual failure in prayer, and enable us in this, too, to walk worthy of the Lord unto all well-pleasing.
Oh! be not hopeless, be not despondent; there is a balm in Gilead; there is a Physician there; there is healing for our sickness. What is impossible with man is possible with G.o.d. What you see no possibility of doing, grace will do. Confess the disease; trust the Physician; claim the healing; pray the prayer of faith, ”Heal me, and I shall be healed.”
You too can become a man of prayer, and pray the effectual prayer that availeth much.[1]
[1] I ought to say, for the encouragement of all, that the gentleman of whom I spoke, at a Convention a fortnight later, saw and claimed the rest of faith in trusting G.o.d for all, and a letter from England tells that he has found that His grace is sufficient.
A PLEA FOR MORE PRAYER
CHAPTER VIII
Wilt Thou be made Whole?
”Jesus saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool. Jesus saith unto him, Rise and walk. Immediately the man was made whole, and walked.”--JOHN v. 6-9.
”Peter said, In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.... The faith which is by Him hath given this man this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.”--ACTS iii. 6, 16.
”Peter said, aeneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole: arise. And he arose immediately.”--ACTS ix. 34.
Feebleness in prayer is the mark of disease. Impotence to walk is, in the Christian, as in the natural life, a terrible proof of some evil in the system that needs a physician. The lack of power to walk joyfully in the new and living way that leads to the Father and the throne of grace is specially grievous. Christ is the great Physician, who comes to every Bethesda where impotent folk are gathered, and speaks out his loving, searching question, Wilt thou be made whole? For all who are still clinging to their hope in the pool, or are looking for some man to put them in, who are hoping, in course of time, somehow to be helped by just continuing in the use of the ordinary means of grace, His question points to a better way. He offers them healing in a way of power they have never understood. And to all who are willing to confess, not only their own impotence, but their failure to find any man to help them, His question brings the sure and certain hope of a near deliverance. We have seen that our weakness in prayer is part of a life smitten with spiritual impotence. Let us listen to our Lord as He offers to restore our spiritual strength, to fit us for walking like healthy, strong men in all the ways of the Lord, and so be fit rightly to fill our place in the great work of intercession. As we see what the wholeness is He offers, how He gives it, and what He asks of us, we shall be prepared for giving a willing answer to His question.
WHAT THE HEALTH THAT JESUS OFFERS.
I might mention many marks of spiritual health. Our text leads us to take one,--walking. Jesus said to the sick man, Rise and walk, and with that restored him to his place among men in full health and vigour, able to take his part in all the work of life. It is a wonderfully suggestive picture of the restoration of spiritual health. To the healthy, walking is a pleasure; to the sick, a burden, if not an impossibility. How many Christians there are to whom, like the maimed and the halt and the lame and the impotent, movement and progress in G.o.d's way is indeed an effort and a weariness. Christ comes to say, and with the word He gives the power, Rise and walk.
Just think of this walk to which He restores and empowers us. It is a life like that of Enoch and Noah, who ”walked with G.o.d.” A life like that of Abraham, to whom G.o.d said, ”Walk before Me,” and who himself spake, ”The Lord before whom I walk.” A life of which David sings, ”They shall walk in the light of Thy countenance,” and Isaiah prophesies, ”They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Even as G.o.d the Creator fainteth not nor is weary, shall they who walk with Him, waiting on Him, never be exhausted or feeble. It is a life concerning which it could be said of the last of the Old Testament saints, Zacharias and Elisabeth, ”They were both righteous before G.o.d, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” This is the walk Jesus came to make possible and true to His people in greater power than ever before.
Hear what the New Testament speaks of it: ”That like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life.” It is the Risen One who says to us, Rise and walk: He gives the power of the resurrection life. It is a walk in Christ. ”As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye also in Him.” It is a walk like Christ. ”He that saith he abideth in Him ought so to walk even as He walked.” It is a walk by the Spirit and after the Spirit. ”Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the l.u.s.ts of the flesh.” ”Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” It is a walk worthy of G.o.d and well pleasing to Him. ”That ye would walk worthy of the Lord, unto all well pleasing, being fruitful in every good work.” ”I beseech you, that as ye received of us, how ye should walk and please G.o.d, _even as ye do walk_, that ye would abound more and more.” It is a walk in heavenly love. ”Walk in love, even as Christ loved you.” It is a ”walk in the light, as He is in the light.” It is a walk of faith, all its power coming simply from G.o.d and Christ and the Holy Spirit, to the soul turned away from the world. ”We walk by faith, and not by sight.”
How many believers there are who regard such a walk as an impossible thing--so impossible that they do not feel it a sin that they ”walk otherwise”; and so they do not long for this walk in newness of life.
They have become so accustomed to the life of impotence, that the life and walk in G.o.d's strength has little attraction. But some there are with whom it is not thus. They do wonder if these words really mean what they say, and if the wonderful life each one of them speaks of is simply an unattainable ideal, or meant to be realised in flesh and blood. The more they study them, the more they feel that they are spoken as for daily life. And yet they appear too high. Oh that they would believe that G.o.d sent his Almighty Son, and His Holy Spirit, indeed to bring us and fit us for a life and walk from heaven beyond all that man could dare to think or hope for.
HOW JESUS MAKES US WHOLE.
When a physician heals a patient, he acts on him from without, and does something which is, if possible, ever after to render him independent of his aid. He restores him to perfect health, and leaves him. With the work of our Lord Jesus it is in both respects the very opposite. Jesus works not from without, but from within, by entering Himself in the power of His Spirit into our very life. And instead of, as in the bodily healing, being rendered, if possible, independent of a physician for the future, Christ's one purpose in healing is, as we said, the exact opposite. His one condition of success, is to bring us into _such dependence upon Himself as that we shall not be able one single moment to do without Him_. Christ Jesus Himself is our life, in a sense that many Christians have no conception of. The prevailing feeble and sickly life is entirely owing to the lack of the apprehension of the Divine truth, that as long as we expect Christ continually to do something for us from heaven, in single acts of grace from time to time, and each time trust Him to give us what will last a little while, we cannot be restored to perfect health. But when once we see how there is to be nothing of our own for a single moment, and it is to be all Christ moment by moment, and learn to accept it from Him and trust Him for it, the life of Christ becomes the health of our soul. Health is nothing but life in its normal, undisturbed action. Christ gives us health by giving us Himself as our life; so He becomes our strength for our walk.
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