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Chapter 13
Victroy Though Grace
The promise of final salvation and glory in the kingdom of heaven is for those who gain the victory in the battle of faith. Repeatedly we read in the letter of Christ to the seven churches of Asia, preserved for us in the second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation, that the Lord will realize His promise to him that overcometh. "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." (Revelation 2:7) To him that overcometh Christ will give a crown of life. (2:10) He will give him to eat of the hidden manna, and give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. (2: 17) He will give him power over the nations, even as Christ received of His Father, and the morning star. (2: 26-28) He shall be clothed with white raiment; and his name shall not be blotted out of the book of life, and Christ will confess his name before His Father and before the holy angels. (3: 5) He shall be made a pillar in the temple of God, so that he shall no more go out thence, and a new name, the name of God, and the name of the heavenly Jerusalem, and the new name of Christ, will be written upon him. (3: 12) And it shall be granted to him to sit with Christ in His throne, even as Christ also overcame, and is set down with His Father in His throne. (3 :21) Indeed, only he that overcometh shall inherit all things. (Revelation 21: 7) And he that endureth unto the end shall be saved. (Matthew 10:22) All this presupposes, of course, that the believer in this world has a battle to fight, and that only in the way of battle can he gain the victory and obtain the crown. And so, everywhere the Scriptures exhort God's people to fight that battle. They must put on the whole armor of God, that they may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For they wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickednesses in high places; and they need the whole armor of God, that they may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (Ephesians 6: 11-17) By Paul's word to Timothy we are exhorted to fight the good fight of faith and to lay hold on eternal life. (I Timothy 6:12) Paul himself testifies: "I have fought the good fight, 1 have finished my course, 1 have kept the faith." (II Timothy 4:7) The believer is exhorted to run with patience the race that is set before him, laying aside every encumbrance, and the sin that so easily besets him, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1, 2) And the church must hold fast that which she has, that no one take her crown. (Revelation 3: 11) In this spiritual battle the Christian occupies a very precarious position - in fact, an apparently impossible and hopeless one. Everything that is of this world is against him. He is against himself. For although it is true that he is a new creature, God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, he is renewed only in principle, and his whole nature stands in diametric opposition to the new principle of life which he received in regeneration and from which he lives by faith. He has but a small beginning of the new obedience; and the motions of sin that are in his members make it quite impossible for him, as long as he is in this life, to live without sin. I am well aware of the fact that there are those who deny this and who claim that the Christian in this world can live a perfect life. And sometimes you can hear them make the claim that for a certain period - for a week, for a month, for a whole year, perhaps - they lived sinlessly. And they appeal to such passages as I John 3: 9, which declare that one who is born of God cannot sin, because His seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. But, first of all, let me appeal to your own experience as a Christian: upon some candid introspection must we not all confess that this ideal of perfectionism was never and can never be attained by us in this life? O, as long as we stay on the surface and merely consider our external life and conversation, we may, perhaps, flatter ourselves that we are rather far advanced on the road to perfection. But as soon as we dig down below the surface and investigate our inner life, our thoughts and desires, our inclinations and secret longings, there is nothing left of this proud boast. Secondly, passages like that quoted from I John 3:9 do not teach us that it is merely possible for him that is born of God to live without sin, but that it is impossible for him to sin. He that is born of God cannot sin! He is not like Adam in the original state of righteousness, who was free to obey his God but could also fall away from Him. He has attained to the state of highest freedom: he can sin no more! And that is true of the Christian as far as the inner principle of the new life is concerned that was implanted in him. But it is not true of his nature. In regeneration he does not receive a new body nor another soul. He lives the life of Christ in his old nature. And that old nature is opposed to that new life. The new life is holy, the old nature is sinful. The new life is heavenly, the old nature is earthy. That is why, in the third place, the Word of God everywhere teaches us that the believer has a fight against himself. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (I John 1 :8) What Christian does not from experience heartily agree with the Word of God in Romans 7, where the apostle Paul describes his own battle in the following words: "For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me .... ∞ wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (vss. 15-20, 24, 25) Indeed, in the battle which the Christian must fight to gain the victory he is against himself: the foe is within the gates! Add to this that all that is in the world agrees and cooperates with that old nature, that foe within the gates, and conspires to overcome the new man in the believer. Add, too, that the devil and his mysterious and powerful hosts of spiritual wickednesses in high places concentrate all their power upon him to his defeat and destruction. Is it then not evident that his position is indeed a very precarious one? There is nothing in all the world to help him, to sustain him in the fight, to encourage him in battle. Literally everything is against him. For the world is full of the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life; and through it all it appeals strongly to his old nature. It would confuse and lead him astray from the path of the truth by its false philosophy. It would seduce him by the siren's song of its treasures and pleasures, its honor and glory, its "abundant life." It would frighten him into submission and apostasy and unfaithfulness to the cause of Christ by its hatred and fury, its threats and persecution. And the devil goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour! Compare with these mighty powers the small principle of the new life and obedience which the believer has in his heart, and you will agree that God places His child in the world in an extremely dangerous, an apparently impossible position. It would appear that he could never survive, let alone gain the victory and attain to the promised salvation. Will he, then, be able to stand and to persevere even unto the end? To this question all who profess to believe in salvation by divine grace reply with one accord: yes, he will be able, but only through preserving grace. The same marvelous grace that was revealed in the cross of God's only begotten Son, and that was bestowed upon us by the Spirit of Christ, that raised us from the dead and called us out of darkness into the marvelous light of God, is the power which must keep us, strengthen us, constantly sanctify us, enlighten us, and cause us to discern spiritual things, if we are to stand and gain the victory in this humanly impossible battle of faith. Fighting in our own strength, we must surely be defeated. Standing in our own power, we will surely fall. Depending on our own wisdom, we will surely be entangled in the snare of temptation. Boasting of our own faithfulness, we will, as Peter of old, surely deny Him. We are saved by grace. That means also that we are preserved by grace. Without Christ we can do nothing. And if any man thinketh he standeth, let him beware lest he fall! Not one step on the way of sanctification can we take without His grace. About this there is no dispute. Every Christian knows that he is strong only when he is weak, and that God's strength is made perfect in his weakness. We persevere and overcome only through the marvelous power of God's preserving grace. Yet, even so, we must say more than this if we would really confess that we are saved by grace only, and that this grace of God is absolutely sovereign. For it is indeed possible to confess all this, to ascribe our preservation entirely to God's grace, and yet, in the end, to turn about and present the whole matter of our preservation as ultimately dependent upon man, upon the believer himself. A striking illustration of this is offered by the last of the five articles which were composed by the Arminians in 1610. In the strongest language they there confess that after the believer is saved, regenerated, and called, he still can do absolutely nothing of himself, and that he cannot even so much as think anything good or will anything that is pleasing in the sight of God. Utterly dependent he is upon the grace of God to preserve him. But the end of that article overthrows this whole declaration concerning the indispensableness of God's grace to persevere, when they suggest that a man may make himself unworthy of this grace and that, therefore, it cannot be maintained as certain that the believer will never fall away finally and completely, so that he attains to the final salvation and glory in the heavenly kingdom. You see, the important and fundamental question, the answer to which decides whether or not a man really believes and confesses wholeheartedly that salvation is by sovereign grace, is always this: who determines the salvation of man? Who is first: God or man? Must man first open his heart, or, at least, be willing to receive Christ, before God can save him? If your answer to this question is in the affirmative, you may extol the grace of God that saves us as loudly and highly as you wish, but you deny the truth of sovereign grace nevertheless. You make God dependent on man, you present the grace of God as contingent upon the will of the creature. And if this is the relation between grace and the will of man in the beginning, when a man first comes to Christ, it must needs remain such even to the end. Then you will say, to be sure, that the believer is preserved by grace and that he can do nothing of himself; but you will always add that he must will to receive this grace and that it is always possible for him to reject the grace He wants accepted, and thus to fall away into perdition. God's almighty hand is strong to save and to preserve you unto the end; but if you musthold on to that hand, your preservation after all depends upon the puny strength of your hand, not upon the omnipotent power of His hand. But thanks be to God, Who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! His grace is free and absolutely sovereign. It is rooted in eternal election. It is forever based on the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord. It sovereignly and irresistibly takes hold of us, making us new creatures in Christ, and that, too, not because we will, but in spite of the fact that we do not will, and cannot possibly will to come to Him before His grace has touched us; not because we seek Him first, but because He seeks us; not because we love Him, but while we are yet enemies. Grace must needs be first if it is to save man who is dead through trespasses and sins. And first it is, always first, first from beginning to end. It is first in regenerating us, it is first in calling us, it is first in drawing us to Christ, it is first in bestowing upon us the gift of faith. And it is also first in preserving us unto the end. He preserves us; and because He preserves, we persevere. It is He that worketh within us to will and to do of His good pleasure - yes, indeed, also to will; and then we work out our own salvation. That is the meaning of salvation by grace. He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord! And that is the reason why the believer can never perish. "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." (Romans 11 :29) "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me: and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all that he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." (J ohn 6;37-39) And again, "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." (J ohn 10;28) And so we are "persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor tl)ings to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38, 39) Do not object that this gospel makes men "careless and profane," so that they become utterly passive, seeing that God must do it all anyway, and that we will surely have the victory, whether we fight the good fight of faith or not. For the sovereign grace of God does not enervate man, but strengthens him and steels him to fight. It does not make man passive, but active. It does not make us profane, but it sanctifies us. It fills us with the love of God, so that we gladly receive and heed and obey His Word, and put on the whole armor of God, that we may be able to withstand in the evil day. The assurance that the victory is ours does not make us sit down passively but causes us to be strong and courageous in the battle. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." (I Corinthains 15: 58) |
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