Chapter 3: Grace and Righteousness
The Triumph of Grace
It is one of the greatest of wonders that all people do not love Christ. Nothing reveals more clearly the utter corruption of our race than the fact that "He was despised and rejected by men" (Isaiah 53:3). Those, however, who have seen the depths of human depravity broken open are not at a loss to explain the treatment of the Messiah. It was not possible that darkness should have fellowship with light, or Christ with wickedness. Fallen humanity could not walk with Jesus, for the two were not in agreement. It was only the natural result of the contact of two such opposites that the guilty creature should hate the Perfect One. "Crucify Him, crucify Him" is the natural cry of fallen man.
Our first wonder is displaced, and another wonder fills the mind. Did we marvel that all people do not love? It is a greater marvel still that anyone does love Jesus. In the first case we saw the terrible blindness that failed to discover the brightness of the sun — with a shudder we saw it and were greatly amazed. But in this second case we see Jesus of Nazareth opening the tightly shut eye and scattering the thick darkness with the divine radiance of His marvelous light. Is this any less a wonder? If it was a strange thing to witness the terrifying ravings of the man possessed by demons among the tombs, it is surely far more amazing to see that same man sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. It is indeed a triumph of grace when a person's heart is brought to give its love to Jesus, for it proves that the work of Satan is completely undone and that the person is restored from the fallen state.
Religion a Personal Matter
Some people say they will test the holiness of Christ's religion by the holiness of Christ's people. You have no right, I reply, to put the question to any such test as that. The proper test is to try it yourself — to "taste and see that the LORD is good" (Psalm 34:8). By tasting and seeing you will prove His goodness, and by the same process you must prove the holiness of His Gospel. Your task is to seek Christ crucified for yourself, not to take someone else's account of the power of grace to subdue corruption and to sanctify the heart. Since God has given you a Bible, He intended you to read it, and not to be content with reading people. You are not to be satisfied with feelings that arise from others' conversations; your only way to know true religion is by having His Holy Spirit working in your own heart, so that you may experience for yourself what the power of religion is. You have no right to judge religion from anything outside itself.
And if you dismiss it before you have tried it yourself, you stand exposed in this world as a fool and in the next world as guilty. And yet this is the case with most people. If you hear someone speak against the Bible, you may usually conclude that he never reads it. And you may be quite certain that if you hear a person speak against religion, he never knew what religion was. True religion, once it takes hold of the heart, never allows a person to quarrel with it. The one who knows Christ at all will call Him his best friend. We have found many who have turned away from the pleasures of this world, but we have never found one who turned from religion with disgust or dissatisfaction after having once truly experienced it.
No! You choose your own delusions, and you choose them at your own risk. You hold onto them at your own peril. For if you take your religion from other people and are led by the example of those who claim faith to discard it, you are still responsible for your own soul. God has not left you to the uncertain guide of other people's characters. He has given you His own Word — "the more sure word of prophecy, to which you do well to pay attention" (2 Peter 1:19).
Strength Through Weakness
The way to grow strong in Christ is to become weak in yourself. God pours no power into a person's heart until that person's own power is all poured out. The Christian's life is one of daily dependence on the grace and strength of God.
Begin Well
I have known people run the race of religion with all their might, and yet they lost it because they did not start right. You say, "Well, how is that?" There are some people who suddenly leap into religion. They get it quickly, they keep it for a time, and at last they lose it because they did not come to their faith the right way. They have heard that before a person can be saved, it is necessary that — by the teaching of the Holy Spirit — he should feel the weight of sin, that he should confess it, that he should give up all hope in his own works and look to Jesus Christ alone. They look at all these things as unpleasant steps, and so before they have attended to repentance, before the Holy Spirit has done a real work in them, before they have been brought to give up everything and trust in Christ, they make a profession of faith. This is like starting a business without any money, and there must be a failure. If a person has no capital to begin with, he may put on a fine show for a little while, but it will be like the crackling of thorns under a pot — a great deal of noise and much light for a moment, but it will die out in darkness.
How many there are who never think it necessary that there should be deep heart-work within! Let us remember, however, that there never was a person who had a changed heart without first having a miserable heart. We must pass through that dark tunnel of conviction before we can come out onto the high ground of holy joy. We must first go through the Slough of Despond before we can walk along the Walls of Salvation.1 There must be plowing before there is sowing; there must be many a frost, and many a sharp shower, before there is any harvest. But we often act like little children who pluck flowers from the bushes and plant them in their gardens without roots. Then they say how fair and how pretty their little garden is — but wait a while, and all their flowers are withered, because they have no roots.
This is all the result of not having a right start, not having the "root of the matter." What is the good of outward religion — the flower and the leaf of it — unless we have the "root of the matter" in us? Unless we have been plowed with the plow of the Spirit and then sown with the sacred seed of the Gospel, in the hope of bringing forth an abundant harvest? There must be a good start in running the Christian race, for there is no hope of winning unless the start is right.
The Robe of Righteousness
Our royal dress in heaven and our garment of sanctification for daily wear are the generous gifts of Christ's love.
Cross-Bearers
What an honorable position it was for Simon of Cyrene to be cross-bearer for Jesus Christ! We could almost wish we had been there so we might have had the honor of carrying Christ's cross for Him. But we need not wish for it, for we will have His cross to carry if we are His people. There are no crown-wearers in heaven who were not cross-bearers here below. There will be none among the company of the glorified who did not have their cross on earth.
Do you have a cross, believer? Shoulder it boldly! Take it up! Go along your journey with steady steps and a rejoicing heart, knowing that since it is Christ's cross, it must be an honor to carry it — and that while you are bearing it, you are in blessed company, for you are following Him.
The Happiness of Religion
Let a person truly know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he will be a happy person. And the deeper he drinks of the Spirit of Christ, the happier he will become. Any religion that teaches misery to be a duty is false on its very face, for God, when He made the world, intended the happiness of His creatures. You cannot help thinking, as you see everything around you, that God has carefully, with the closest attention, sought ways to please us. He has not merely given us bare necessities — He has given us more. Not simply the useful, but even the beautiful. The flowers in the hedgerows, the stars in the sky, the beauties of nature, the hill and the valley — all these things were provided not merely because we needed them, but because God wanted to show how He loved us and how eager He was that we should be happy.
Now, it is not likely that the God who made a happy world would send a miserable salvation. He who is a happy Creator will be a happy Redeemer. And those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious can bear witness that the ways of religion "are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace" (Proverbs 3:17). And if this life were all — if death were the end of all our existence, and the grave the final resting place — still, to be a Christian would be a bright and happy thing, for it lights up this valley of tears and fills the wells in the Valley of Weeping to the brim with streams of love and joy.
Unchangeable
There is one place where change cannot touch; there is one name on which instability can never be written; there is one heart that can never waver. That place is the Most Holy. That heart is God's. That name is Love.
Increase of Faith
The way most people get their faith increased is through great trouble. We do not grow strong in faith on sunny days. It is in stormy weather that faith grows stronger. Faith is not something that falls gently like dew from heaven; it generally comes in the whirlwind and the storm.
Look at the old oaks. How is it that they have become so deeply rooted in the earth? Ask the March winds, and they will tell you. It was not the April shower that did it, or the sweet May sunshine, but the rough wind shaking the tree back and forth, causing its roots to dig deeper and take a firmer hold. And so it must be with us. We cannot make great soldiers in the barracks at home; they must be made amid flying bullets and thundering cannon. We cannot expect to train good sailors on a pond; they must be trained far out on the deep sea, where the wild winds howl and the thunders roll like drums in the march of the God of armies. Storms and tempests are the things that make people tough and hardy mariners. They see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep.
It is the same with Christians. Great faith must have great trials. Mr. Great-Heart would never have been Mr. Great-Heart if he had not once been Mr. Great-Trouble. Valiant-for-Truth would never have routed those enemies, and have been so valiant, if the enemies had not first attacked him.2 We must expect great troubles before we will reach great faith.
Communion with Christ
One hour with Christ is worth an eternity of all earth's joys. And communion with Him is the best, the surest, and the most glorious foretaste of the happiness of heaven.
The Soul Satisfied in Christ
The one who delights in the possession of the Lord Jesus has all that the heart can wish. As for created things, they are like shallow and deceptive streams; they fail to supply our needs, much less our desires. "The bed is too short to stretch out on, and the covering so narrow that one cannot wrap himself in it" (Isaiah 28:20). But in Jesus there is room for the imagination's widest stretch and fullest range. When Jesus is enjoyed, He puts a fullness into every other blessing. His house is full when He is there; His throne of grace is full when He sits on it; and His banquet hall is full when He is master of the feast. The creature without Christ is an empty thing — a lamp without oil, a bone without marrow. But when Christ is present, our cup overflows and we eat bread to the full. A simple meal, when we have fellowship with Him, is as rich a feast as the finest banquet; and our humble room is as noble a dwelling as the mansion of the wealthy.
Do not go wandering, you hungry desires of my soul — stay at home and feast on Jesus! For out in the world you must starve, since all other loves are empty and unsatisfying. Stay with Christ, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in richness.
Footnotes
1 The "Slough of Despond" and "Walls of Salvation" are locations in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678), one of the most influential Christian allegories ever written. The Slough of Despond is a deep bog that the pilgrim Christian must pass through, representing the despair and discouragement that often accompany the conviction of sin.
2 Mr. Great-Heart and Valiant-for-Truth are characters from John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. Great-Heart is a guide and protector of pilgrims; Valiant-for-Truth is a warrior who fights his way through enemies to join the pilgrim company. Spurgeon loved Bunyan and frequently drew on his characters to illustrate spiritual truths.