Once let him see his sin and he must see his Saviour...

First day back home, after a few days out in the sticks with my fellow two muskateers, and then church's annual Mid-Year Conference for students in the Lakes. Much to 'mull over' from the time away, and no doubt much to blog too.

A seminar on unity was really thought-provoking... how clear are we on the essentials of the gospel that has saved us, the gospel that unites God's church... what truths would we fight for? What would we want to hold fast to when everyone else has deserted?

The doctrine of sin has to be one of those things. Was watching The Simpsons last night with my sister and it was the episode where Bart and the family travel to the Itchy & Scratch World amusement park. The theme was all about whether or not violence on kids' TV actually caused children to be more violent - it made me think about our society: we're so quick to point to this or that as the cause for society's 'downfall'. Our communities aren't like they used to be surely? Things have changed, right?

J. C. Ryle didn't think so. Writing about the church in the nineteenth century, he stated that one its chief wants 'has been, and is, clearer, fuller teaching about sin.' That is, sin, 'doing, saying, thinking, or imagining anything that is not in perfect conformity with the mind and law of God.'

And from where does this vile offence against God come?

'Let us, then, have it fixed down in our minds that the sinfulness of man does not begin from without, but from within. It is not the result of bad training in early years. It is not picked up from bad companions and bad examples, as some weak Christians are too fond of saying. No! It is a family disease, which we all inherit from our first parents, Adam and Eve, and with which we are born.

...

'Search the globe from east to west and from pole to pole; search every nation of every climate in the four quarters of the earth; search every rank and class in our own country from the highest to the lowest—and under every circumstance and condition, the report will be always the same. The remotest islands in the Pacific Ocean, completely separate from Europe, Asia, Africa and America, beyond the reach alike of Oriental luxury and Western arts and literature, islands inhabited by people ignorant of books, money, steam and gunpowder, uncontaminated by the vices of modern civilization, these very islands have always been found, when first discovered, the abode of the vilest forms of lust, cruelty, deceit and superstition. If the inhabitants have known nothing else, they have always known how to sin! Everywhere the human heart is naturally "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17:9). For my part, I know no stronger proof of the inspiration of Genesis and the Mosaic account of the origin of man, than the power, extent and universality of sin.

John 3.6; Ephesians 2.3; Romans 8.7; Mark 7.21.

The practical applications of such a doctrine:
a) one of the best antidotes to the 'that vague, dim, misty, hazy theology which is so painfully current in the present age.'
b) one of the best antidotes to the 'extravagantly broad and liberal theology which is much in vogue at the present time'.
c) one of the best antidotes to that 'sensuous, ceremonial, formal kind of Christianity...'
d) one of the best antidotes to 'the overstrained threories of Perfection, of which we hear much in these times...'
e) an admirable antidote to the low views of personal holiness which are so painfully prevalent in these last days of the Church.

'Once let him see his sin and he must see his Saviour... We must sit down humbly in the presence of God, look the whole subject in the face, examine clearly what the Lord Jesus calls sin, and what the Lord Jesus calls doing His will. We must then try to realize that it is terribly possible to live a careless, easy–going, half–worldly life, and yet at the same time to maintain evangelical principles and call ourselves evangelical people! Once we see that sin is far viler and far nearer to us and sticks more closely to us than we supposed, we will be led, I trust and believe, to get nearer to Christ. Once drawn nearer to Christ, we will drink more deeply out of His fullness and learn more thoroughly to "live the life of faith" in Him, as St. Paul did. Once taught to live the life of faith in Jesus, and abiding in Him, we will bear more fruit, will 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.

All quotes from Holiness by J. C. Ryle.

Ryle on Assurance...

I believe we have here one chief reason why so many in this day are inconsistent, trimming, unsatisfactory, and half-hearted in their conduct about the world. Their faith fails. They feel no assurance that they are Christ's, and so feel a hesitancy about breaking with the world. They shrink from laying aside all the ways of the old man, because they are not quite confident they have put on the new. In short, I have little doubt that one secret cause of "halting between two opinions" is want of assurance. When people can decidedly say, 'The Lord, He is the God,' (1 Kings 18.39) their course becomes very clear.

J. C. Ryle, Holiness

Ryle on Counting the Cost

"For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? ... So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." Jesus Christ, Luke 14.28-33.

i) it will cost him his self-righteousness ... He must be willing to give up all trust in his own morality, respectability, praying, Bible-reading, church-going, and sacrament-recieving, and to trust in nothing but Jesus Christ.

ii) it will cost him sins ... There must be no separate truce with any special sins which he loves. He must count all sin as his deadly enemies and hate every false way. Whether little or great, whether open or secret, all his sins must be thoroughly renounced ... He must keep up a perpetual war with his sins ... Our sins are often as dear to us as our children: we love them, hug them, cleave them, and delight in them. To part with them is as hard as cutting off a right hand... but it must be done.

iii) it will cost a man his love of ease ... He must daily watch and stand on his guard like a soldier on enemy's ground. He must be careful over his time, his tongue, his temper, his thoughts, his imagination, his motives, his conduct in every relation in life ... This also sounds hard... Anything that requires exertion and labour is entirely against the grain of our hearts. But the soul can have 'no gains without pains'.

iv) it will cost a man the favour of the world ... "Remember the word that I said to you: The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also." (John 15.20)

I grant it costs much to be a true Christian. But who in his sound senses can doubt that it is worth any cost to have the soul saved? When the ship is in danger of sinking, the crew think nothing of casting overboard the precious cargo... Surely a Christian should be willing to give up anything which stands between him and heaven. A religion that costs nothing is worth nothing! A cheap Christianity, without a cross, will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown...

Do not present only one side of Christianity. Do not keep back 'the cross' of self-denial that must be carried, when you speak of the cross on which Christ died for our redemption. Explain fully what Christianity entails. Entreat men and women to repent and come to Christ; but bid them at the same time to 'count the cost'...

The time is very short. A few more years of watching and praying, a few more tossings on the sea of this world, a few more deaths and changes, a few more winters and summers, and all will be over. We shall have fought our last battle, and shall need to fight no more. The presence and company of Christ will make amends for all we suffer here below... We shall marvel that we could ever doubt on which side the balance of profit lay.
Let us take courage. We are not far from home.
It may cost much to be a true Christian and a consistent believer; but it pays.

J. C. Ryle, Holiness (chapter 5.)

Cross now; Crown later...

Ryle on 'The Fight'...

A general faith in the truth of God's written Word is the primary foundation of the Christian soldier's character. He is what he is, does what he does, thinks as he thinks, acts as he acts, hopes as he hopes, behaves as he behaves, for one simple reason - he believes certain propositions revealed and laid down in Holy Scripturee. "He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." (Heb 11.5)

[...]

Let us settle it in our minds that the Christian fight is a good fight - really good, truly good, emphatically good. We see only part of it yet. We see the struggles, but not the end; we see the campaign, but not the reward; we see the cross, but not the crown. We see a few humble, broken-spirited, penitent, praying people, enduring hardships and despised by the world; but we see not the hand of God over them, the face of God smiling on them, the kingdom of glory prepared for them. These things are yet to be revealed. Let us not judge by appearances. There are more good things about the Christian warfare than we see.

[...]

Let us remember that if we would fight successfully we must put on the whole armour of God, and never lay it aside till we die. Not a single piece of the armour can be dispensed with. The girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, the helmet of hope - each and all are needful. Not a single day can we dispense with any part of this armour. "In heaven we shall appear, not in armour, but in robes of glory. But here our arms are to be worn night and day. We must walk, work, sleep in them, or else we are not true soldiers of Christ." (Gurnall's Christian Armour.)

No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.
(2 Tim 2.4)

Ryle on Holiness

Our purest works are no better than filthy rags, when tried by the light of God's holy law. The white robe which Jesus offers, and faith puts on, must be our only righteousness - the name of Christ our only confidence - the Lamb's book of life our only title in heaven.

[Yet...]

Jesus is a complete Saviour. He does not merely take away the guilt of a believer's sin, He does more - He breaks its power. (1 Peter 1.2; Rom 8.29; Eph 1.4; Heb 7.10).

"Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, flee to Thee for dress;
Helpless, look to Thee for grace."

If we say with Paul "O wretched man that I am," let us also be able to say with him, "I press toward the mark." Let us not quote his example in one thing, while we do not follow him in another. (Rom 7.24; Phil 3.14).

J.C. Ryle, Holiness (chapter 3).

'A tone, and taste, and character, and habit of life unlike that of other men...'

" "Every tree is known by his own fruit." (Luke 6. 44) A truly sanctified person may be so clothed with humility, that he can see in himself nothing but infirmity and defects. Like Moses, when he came down from the Mount, he may not be conscious that his face shines. Like the righteoues, in the mighty parable of the sheep and the goats, he may not see that he has done anything worthy of his Master's notice and commendation: "When he saw we Thee an hungered, and fed Thee?" (Matt 25.37) But whether he sees it himself or not, others will always see in him a tone, and taste, and character, and habit of life unlike that of other men. The very idea of a man being "sanctified," while no holiness can be seen in his life, is flat nonsense and a misuse of words. Light may be very dim; but if there is only a spark in a dark room it will be seen. Life may be very feeble; but if the pulse only beats a little, it will be felt. It is just the same with a sanctified person: their sanctification will be something felt and seen, though he himself may not understand it. A 'saint' in whom nothing can be seen but worldliness and sin, is a kind of monster not recognised in the Bible!"

J. C. Ryle, Holiness (Evangelical Press, 1976), p. 19.