What Is Needed?

Different but the same.  Those four words apply to all of us.

We are either male or female.  We come from different parts of the country or world.  Some have blue eyes, others green or brown.  Some are tall, others are short.  We could add to the list of differences.  Instead, we want to focus on the two facts that unite us.

First, we do not do what we are meant to do.  We are created to love God.  To love him with all our heart all of the time.  Yet not one of us does.

Secondly, we cannot make ourselves do what we are created to do.  We can try, but we do not succeed.  We never will.

These facts humble us.  They are meant to.  When we see and feel the truth of them you cannot but be humbled by them.

All Christians admit that is so.  For example, in 1837, at the age of 21, J C Ryle came to see  that he did not truly love God.  He also realised that he did not have the ability to do what he ought to do.

A Choice

Imagine a person who has fallen into a deep pit.  How will he get out?  In one of two ways: either he will manage to do so all by himself, or he will do so with the help of others.  He could try to climb out all by himself, or he could accept help offered by someone else.

Now think about the spiritual state of mankind.  What is it?  By nature we rebel against God.  We cannot help it?  Can you change from being a rebel to being a friend of God?

You could try to change your ways.  You could say to yourself that you will start to love God.  You might even say that you will try to love him with all your mind, soul and strength.  You might even try to show love for him by trying to keep his commands.  The ten commands, that is, that he gave at Sinai.

Or you could try to make use of the help Jesus Christ offers.  You read of it in the Bible.  And you realise that you cannot change by yourself.  You discover that Jesus invites us to turn to him for rest (see Matthew 11.28f).  That offer is too good to miss.  And so you try to work out how you can get the rest he promises.

But does either approach work?  No, neither does.  Why not?

A Crucial Fact

The Apostle Paul puts it this way.  He says we are “weak” (Romans 5.6).  He means that we lack strength.  We are helpless.  There is nothing that we can do to make things better.  We can try very hard, but our best efforts are never enough.  We can have the best of intentions, but they are never good enough.  Let me show you why.

Do you recall what Jesus said to the rich young man who asked, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” (Matthew 19.17).  In reply Jesus said, “If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”

But how?  How am I to keep the commandments, do I hear you ask?  The answer is perfectly.  Let us see what that means.  There are four facts to note.

A Concerted Effort

First, you are to keep all of the law perfectly.  Not one part of it is to be overlooked or ignored.  In other words, you are not free to choose which commands you will keep.  Nor are you at liberty to choose whether you will keep part rather than all of a command.  Why not?  Because God’s curse is on all who fail to do all that he requires of us (see Galatians 3.10).

Secondly, you are to keep all of the law perfectly from a perfect heart.  What you are matters.  It is easy to focus on what you do and to forget who is doing it.  It is possible to do a right thing but to do it for a wrong reason.  You might choose to listen to God’s Word.  That is good.  But you might do that, not because you love God, but because you want other people to think highly of you.  That is a wrong motive.

Motives matter.  Jesus teaches that when he says that it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks (Matthew 12. 34).  He also taught the spiritual meaning of the commandments.  It is not only a person who commits murder who is liable to judgment.  So too is a person who is angry with his brother (Matthew 5.21f).  It is not only a person who goes off with another person’s spouse who commits adultery.  So too does a person who looks “with lustful intent” (Matthew 5.27f).

Thirdly, you are to obey the commands perfectly with perfect love.  There was a lawyer who asked Jesus which of the commandments is the greatest?  In response Jesus said that to love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, and with all your mind is to come first (Matthew 22.35ff).  In other words your obedience has to be complete.  It is to be 100%, not a mere 75% or 80%!

Fourthly, you are to obey God perfectly all of the time.  It is not to be for a while.  Nor is it to be when you are in the mood.  It is to be your natural practice and habit.  Adam perfectly obeyed God at first.  But then he failed in one point.  He ate the forbidden fruit.  He did not obey God all of the time.  He committed treason.

The Apostle Paul is honest.  He does not gloss over uncomfortable truths.  He knew that you and I (and he) are incapable of being the people God made us to be.  We are wrong at heart.  The evidence is seen in the wrongs that we think and do.

Let us think again about the illustration used above.  By nature we are all in a deep pit.  That pit is  the pit of rebellion.  You cannot get out of it.  Try as you may, you cannot get out by your own efforts.

And try as you may to seek to use the help Christ offers, you will never succeed to do so in your own strength.  Everything you do lacks perfection.

Does this mean there is no hope?  No, it does not.  God can do for you what you cannot do.  He can draw you to himself.  He can give you a new heart.

Good News for All

The good news of what God has done is to be made known to all.  God has provided a Saviour.  The Saviour is Jesus Christ.

Who Christ Jesus is and what he is done are to be made known to all people.

But how can you believe? (John 5.44).  How can those in darkness see the light? (Ephesians 5.8).  How can those with stony hearts (Ezekiel 36.26) that resist God become those whose hearts delight in God?

Two things are essential.  One, God must draw them to himself (John 6.44).  And two, they must be born again from above.  They must be regenerated by the Holy Spirit (John 3.1ff).  Only God can make the spiritually dead spiritually alive.

There is, as J C Ryle came to see, the absolute necessity of the new birth or conversion by the Holy Spirit if you are to be saved.

EPC  8 May 2016