Before we get to today’s article, I just want to mention that am writing from the perspective of a man that has experienced many of the challenges of which I write…. and those spiritual battles continue daily. The articles are implications of what it means to obey the commandment to raise your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. They require some reflection and are particularly for Christians who, as Peter would say, are diligently seeking to confirm their calling and are making every effort to supplement their faith. Said more succinctly, serious Christians. If you know other believers who desire to walk more faithfully with the Lord, please forward an article to them and tell them to sign up for future articles. Thanks so much!
I have been anxious to get to this point in our journey on the topic of holiness. Why? Because I want to address the danger of spending time on any one Biblical truth. Let me explain.
During my time as the head of a Christian school, I enjoyed getting together with a handful of men each week to study the Bible early in the morning. The men were from a variety of denominations and churches with different doctrinal views that occasionally clashed with what we were finding in the Scriptures. One of the Biblical truths that caused some commotion in our group was the truth about sin.
One dear brother with a particularly sensitive heart slowly grew irritated with our study and felt that we were being too negative. Thankfully, he did not reject the plain teaching from the Bible, but he began to become discouraged, and I think, somewhat depressed. He was being weighed down by our focus on the topic of sin.
As we have learned in just a couple of articles on holiness, sin is ugly, and we typically don’t want to look at ugly things. Similar to other things that we see in life like the homeless person, or a person who has deformities, or the death of a loved one, we take a look but quickly look away. If we continue to look, it plays on our minds in unpleasant ways. But sin is also dissimilar to those kinds of things in one critical way- we can look away from all of those ugly things around us without significant consequences, but if we ignore our sin, there are eternal consequences. Paul writes to the Corinthian church on two separate occasions and tells them to examine themselves. The first time in the context of examining themselves regarding ongoing sin prior to partaking in the Lord’s Supper, and the second in the context of them examining themselves to see if they are really in the faith (1 Corinthians 11:28, 2 Corinthians 13:5).
But here is the danger: if we spend time thinking about the ugliness and guilt of our sins, but don’t spend an equal or greater time thinking about our life in Christ, we will find ourselves like the character “Christian” in the famous book/allegory called, Pilgrims Progress, stuck and sinking in a swamp. For that matter, if you think long and hard about any negative thing in your life, you can find yourself swimming in a swamp. But God does not intend us to think that way. In Pilgrims Progress, a man called, “Help” tells Christian that the King of the land has placed steps in the swamp so he can extricate himself from sinking below the surface of that smelly, slimy swamp, and those steps are God’s promises. Important note: We can study any particular truth from the Bible, but we must always do it in the context of the entire Bible. Psalm 40:2 says, He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
Speaking to this point in J.C. Ryle’s book called Holiness, Ryle takes the time to mitigate the danger of swimming in the swamp of sin. I can do no better than to quote this great teacher. After stating the need to understand sin, he pivots and makes these observations and encouragements:
“On the other hand, I ask my readers to observe how deeply thankful we ought to be for the glorious gospel of the grace of God. There is a remedy revealed for man’s need, as wide and broad and deep as man’s disease. We need not be afraid to look at sin and study its nature, origin, power, extent and vileness, if we only look at the same time at the almighty medicine provided for us in the salvation that is in Jesus Christ.” This is so important, it bears repeating.
“We need not be afraid to look at sin and study its nature, origin, power, extent and vileness, if we only look at the same time at the almighty medicine provided for us in the salvation that is in Jesus Christ.”
Reading that from Ryle, I thought of a glorious example of this is in Luke 7:44-48 where Jesus says to a man at a gathering, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”
So, it is critical to note what came first- did she first love Jesus and then begin to think about her sins, or did she think about her sins, seek the forgiveness that only Jesus could provide, and then love Him for His grace and love shown to her? It is clear that recognition of her sin and repentance came before she could possibly love the King and to the depth that she could understand the magnitude of forgiveness, she loved.
I don’t have enough of what she had, and I want it. This is why we look deeply at our sins. We search out our history and our hearts and delve into the forgiveness that Christ bought for us at the cross. And we are called to do it not only that day we were saved, but every day. Oh, what love is this?
Speaking of Christ, Ryle reminds us, “His power to save to the uttermost the chief of sinners, His willingness to receive in pardon the vilest, his readiness to bear with the weakest.”
“In all this, I say, there is a full, perfect and complete medicine for the hideous disease of sin. Awful and tremendous as the right view of sin undoubtedly is, no one need faint and despair if he will take a right view of Jesus Christ at the same time.”
Ryle then moves to state for us some of the positive things that will come out of a Biblical view of sin. But, before we go there, I want to mention that this book was written 143 years ago. I am glad for Ryle that he isn’t with us today to observe the current state of Christianity!
Moving on, he says, “That a scriptural view of sin is one of the best antidotes to that vague, dim, misty, hazy kind of theology which is so painfully current in the present age. It is vain to shut our eyes to the fact that there is a vast quantity of so-called Christianity nowadays which you cannot declare positively unsound, but which nevertheless is not full measure, good weight and 16 ounces to the pound. It is a Christianity in which there is undeniably something about Christ and something about grace and something about faith and something about repentance and something about holiness, but it is not the real thing as it is in the Bible.”
“It neither exercises influence on daily conduct, nor comforts in life, nor gives peace in death; and those who hold it often awake too late to find that they have nothing solid under their feet.” Ryle is concerned that, “Without thorough conviction of sin, men may seem to come to Jesus and follow him for a season, but they will soon fall away and return to the world.”
Ryle writes, “in the last place, a scriptural view of sin will prove an admirable antidote to the low views of personal holiness, which are so painfully prevalent in these last days of the church. This is a very painful and delicate subject, I know, but I dare not turn away from it. It has long been my sorrowful conviction that the standard of daily life among professing Christians in this country has been gradually falling.”
Ryle does not believe that we must do something inventive and new but do what God has called us to do in the Scriptures. He says, “we must simply repent and do our first works. We must return to first principles.” “We must sit down humbly in the presence of God, look at the whole subject in the face, examine clearly what the Lord Jesus calls sin, and what the Lord Jesus calls doing his will.”
“Once we see that sin is far viler and far nearer to us, and sticks more closely to us than was supposed, and we shall be led, I trust to believe, to get nearer to Christ. Once drawn nearer to Christ, we shall drink more deeply out of his fullness, and learn more thoroughly to live the life of faith in him as Paul did. Once taught to live the life of faith in Jesus, and abiding in Him, we shall bear more fruit, shall find ourselves more strong for duty, more patient in trial, more watchful over our poor weak hearts, and more like our Master in all our little daily ways. Just in proportion as we realize how much Christ has done for us, shall we labor to do much for Christ. Much forgiven, we shall love much. In short, as the apostle says, “and we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).”
That is a beautiful place to end this week’s article. Think deeply and I’ll see you next time.
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Last modified: December 19, 2022
