where is our power?

Posted : 8 Feb, 2013 02:18 AM

PSALM 119:5 Oh that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes!





The Lord has indeed "commanded us to keep His precepts."

But, alas! where is our power? Satan would make the sense

of our weakness an excuse for indolence. The Spirit of God

convinces us of it, as an incitement to prayer, and an exercise

of faith. If, Reader, your heart is perfect with God, you

"consent to the law that it is good;" you "delight in it after the

inner man;" you would not have one jot or tittle altered,

mitigated, or repealed, that it might be more conformed to your own will, or allow you more liberty or self-indulgence in

the ways of sin. But do you not sigh to think, that, when you

aim at the perfect standard of holiness, you should, at your

best moments, and in your highest attainments, fall so far

below it; seeing indeed the way before you, but feeling

yourself without ability to walk in it? Then let a sense of your

helplessness for the work of the Lord lead you to the throne of

grace, to pray, and watch, and wait, for the strengthening and

refreshing influences of the Spirit of grace. Here let your faith

realize at one and the same view your utter insufficiency, and

your complete All-sufficiency. Here behold Him, who is ever

presenting Himself before God as our glorious Head,

receiving in Himself, according to the good pleasure of the

Father, the full supply for this and every successive moment

of inexpressible need. Our work is not therefore left upon our

own hands, or wrought out at our "own charges." So long as

"he has the residue of the Spirit," "grace" will be found

"sufficient;"-Divine "strength will be made perfect in

weakness." "Without Him we can do nothing;" "through Him,

all things." Even the "worm Jacob shall thresh the mountains,"

when the Lord says, "Fear not, I will help you."

In connecting this verse with the preceding, how accurately is

the middle path preserved, equally distant from the idea of

self-sufficiency to "keep the Lord's statutes," and self

justification in neglecting them! The first attempt to render

spiritual obedience will quickly convince us of our utter

helplessness. We might as soon create a world, as create in

our hearts one pulse of spiritual life. And yet our inability does

not cancel our obligation. Shall God lose His right, because

sin has palsied our ability? Is not a drunken servant still under

his master's law? and is not the sin which prevents him from

performing his duty, not his excuse, but his aggravation? Thus

our weakness is that of a heart, which "cannot be subject to

the law of God," only because it is carnal, "enmity against God." The obligation therefore remains in full force. Our

inability is our sin, our guilt, and condemnation.

What then remains for us, but to return the mandate to

heaven, accompanied with an earnest prayer, that the Lord

would write upon our hearts those statutes, to which He

requires obedience in His word?-"You have commanded us to

keep Your statutes diligently." We acknowledge, Lord, our

obligation; but we feel our impotency. Lord, help us: we look

unto You. "Oh that our ways were directed to keep Your

statutes!" "Give what You command; and then command what

You will." (Augustine.) Now, as if to exhibit the fullness and

suitableness of the promises of the gospel, the commands

and prayers are returned back again from heaven with

promises of quickening and directing grace. Thus does the

Lord fully answer His end with us. He did not issue the

commands, expecting that we could turn our own hearts to

them; but that the conviction of our entire helplessness might

cast us upon Him, who loves to be sought, and never will be

thus sought in vain. And indeed this is a part of the "mystery

of godliness," that in proportion as we depend upon Him who

is alike, "the Lord our righteousness," and our strength, our

desire after holiness will increase, and our prayers become

more fervent. He who commands our duty, perfectly knows

our weakness, and he who feels his own weakness is fully

encouraged to depend upon the power of his Savior. Faith is

then the principle of evangelical obedience, and the promises

of His grace enable us for duty, at the very time that we are

commanded to it. In this view are brought together the

supreme authority of the Lawgiver, the total insufficiency of

the creature, the full provisions of the Savior, and the allsufficiency of "the God of grace." We pray for what we lack;

we are thankful for what we have; we trust for what is

promised. Thus "all is of God." Christ "is the Alpha and the

Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last."

Thus "grace reigns" triumphant. The foundation is laid in grace, and the headstone will be brought forth with shoutings,

crying, "Grace, grace unto it." The Savior's work is finished,

and Jesus is crowned Lord of all forever.



by

Charles Bridges

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