"...testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:2
Posted : 9 Sep, 2011 02:36 AM
Devotional
There is an order�as well as a harmony�in the operations of the Spirit. It is highly important to observe this. Ignorance or oversight here has led to great and fatal perversions of the gospel. All legalism�whether the self-righteousness of the Pharisee, or the self-delusion of any who believes that God's acceptance of and pleasure in him depends upon his own doing�starts here.
Now, the order of the Spirit is this�first the regeneration of the heart, then its sanctification. Reverse this, and you confuse every part of his work, and, as far as your individual benefit extends, render it entirely useless.
Sanctification is not the first and immediate duty of an unrenewed person. Indeed, it is utterly impossible that it should be so. Sanctification begins and grows daily out of a principle of life that the Eternal Spirit implants in the soul. To look for holiness in an individual still dead in sins is to look for fruit where no seed was sown. It is to look for the actions of life where no life exists. It is to expect, in the language of our Lord, to gather grapes from thorns, and figs from thistles (Matt. 7:16).
The first and most urgent duty of an unrenewed man is to prostrate himself in deep abasement and true repentance before God. The lofty look must be brought low. The rebellious will must be humbled and in the posture of one overwhelmed with a sense of guilt. He is to look by faith to a crucified Savior and draw life, pardon, and acceptance from him alone. True, most solemnly true it is, that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14). Yet all attempts to holiness before "repentance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21) will but disappoint the soul that looks for it.
This work of renewal done, sanctification is now comparatively an easy and a delightful pursuit. Motives and exhortations to a life of holiness now find a ready response in the heart, already the temple of the Holy Spirit. The "imperishable seed" (1 Pet. 1:23) there sown germinates into the plant, blossoms and ripens into the fruits of holiness, and the "living water" (John 4:10, 14) there welled springs up, and pours forth its stream of life and purity, adorning and fertilizing the garden of the Lord.
Therefore, be careful how you disturb the arrangement and reverse the order of the blessed Spirit in his work. Great errors have in consequence arisen. Souls have gone into eternity fearfully and fatally deceived. Especially cautious should they be in this matter who are appointed to the office of spiritual instruction�to whose care immortal souls are entrusted�lest, in a matter involving interests so precious and so lasting, any should pass from beneath their teaching into eternity ignorant of the one true method of salvation.
by Octavius Winslow, 1856
By grace I'm saved, grace free and boundless;
my soul, believe and doubt it not.
Why stagger at this word of promise?
Hath Scripture ever falsehood taught?
Nay; then this word must true remain:
by grace thou, too, shalt heav'n obtain.
By grace! None dare lay claim to merit;
our works and conduct have no worth.
God in his love sent our Redeemer,
Christ Jesus, to this sinful earth;
his death did for our sins atone,
and we are saved by grace alone.
By grace! O, mark this word of promise
when thou art by thy sins oppressed,
when Satan plagues thy troubled conscience,
and when thy heart is seeking rest.
What reason cannot comprehend
God by his grace to thee doth send.
By grace! This ground of faith is certain;
so long as God is true, it stands.
What saints have penned by inspiration,
what in his Word our God commands,
what our whole faith must rest upon,
is grace alone, grace in his Son.
(Christian L. Scheidt, 1742, cento; tr. composite)
