Christians are equally great with the Mother of God, and as much
8. All the justified are received into equal grace and glory; and all
Christians are equally great with the Mother of God, and as much
saints as she.
These were some of Luther's propositions which required to be confuted.
That they looked wonderfully like the doctrines of the Apostle Paul, only
made the confutation more necessary. That "faith justifies," the bishops
said, we must admit, because the apostle has said so; but as to what faith is,
and how it justifies, is hard to say. Faith has many meanings (some said
nine, others fifteen; some modern Protestants have said the same); and then,
even admitting that faith justifies, it cannot do so without good dispositions,
without penance, without religious performances, without sacraments. By
introducing all these ingredients into faith, they easily turned it into a work;
or by placing them on the same level with faith, they nullified (without
positively denying) justification by faith.
Ingenious men! Thus to overthrow the truth, while professing to admit
and explain it. In this ingenious perversity they have had many successors,
and that in churches which rejected Rome and its Council.
"Christ crucified" is the burden of the message which God has sent to
man. "Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures." The reception
of this gospel is eternal life; the non-reception or rejection of it is
everlasting death. "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life,
and this life is in His Son." The belief of the gospel saves; the belief of the
promise annexed to that gospel makes us sure of this salvation personally. It
is not the belief of our belief that assures us of pardon, and gives us a good
conscience towards God; but our belief of what God has promised to every
one who believes His Gospel, -that is eternal life. "Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and THOU SHALT BE SAVED."
What is God to me? This is the first question that rises up to an inquiring
soul. And the second is like unto it,-What am I to God? On these two
questions hang all religion, as well as all joy and life to the immortal spirit.
If God is for me, and I am for God, all is well. If God is not for me, and if
I am not for God, all is ill (Rom 8:31). If He takes my side, and if I take
His, there is nothing to fear, either in this world or in that which is to come.
If He is not on my side, and if I am not on His, then what can I do but fear?
Terror in such a case must be as natural and inevitable as in a burning house
or a sinking vessel.
Or, if I do not know whether God is for me or not, I can have no rest. In a
matter such as this, my soul seeks certainty, not uncertainty. I must know
that God is for me, else I must remain in the sadness of unrest and terror. In
so far as my actual safety is concerned, everything depends on God being
for me; and in so far as my present peace is concerned, everything depends
on my knowing that God is for me. Nothing can calm the tempest of my
soul, save the knowledge that I am His, and that He is mine.
Our relationship to God is then to us the first question; and till this is
settled, nothing else can be settled. It is the question of questions to us, in
comparison of which all other personal questions are as moonshine. when
the health of a beloved child is in danger; I seem for the time to lose sight of
everything around me, wholly absorbed in the thought, Will he live, or will
he die? I move about the house as one who sees nothing, hears nothing. I go
to and I come from the sick-room incessantly, watching every symptom for
the better or the worse. I eagerly inquire at the physician, Is there hope, or is
there none? I am paralyzed in everything, and indifferent to the things
which in other circumstances might interest me. What matters it to me
whether it rains or shines, whether my garden-flowers are fading or
flourishing, whether I am losing or making money, so long as I am
uncertain whether that beloved child is to live or die?
And if uncertainty as to my child's health be so important to me, and so
engrossing as to make me forget everything else; oh, what must be the
engrossment attending the unsettled question of the life or death of my own
immortal soul! I must know that my child is out of danger before I can rest;
and I must know that my soul is out of danger before I can be quieted in
spirit. Suspense in such a case is terrible; and, were our eyes fully open to
the eternal peril, absolutely unendurable. Not to know whether we are out
of danger, must be as fatal to peace of soul as the certainty of danger itself.
Suspense as to temporal calamities has often in a night withered the fresh
cheek of youth, and turned the golden hair to gray. And shall time's
uncertainties work such havoc with their transient terrors, and shall eternal
uncertainties pass over us as the idle wind?
In the great things of eternity nothing but certainty will do; nothing but
certainty can soothe our fears, or set us free to attend to the various
questions of lesser moment which every hour brings up. The man who can
continue to go about these lesser things, whilst uncertainty still hangs over
his everlasting prospects, and the great question between his soul and God
is still unsettled must be either sadly hardened or altogether wretched.
He who remains in this uncertainty remains a burdened and weary man.
He who is contented with this uncertainty is contented with misery and
danger. He who clings to this uncertainty as a right thing, can have no
pretensions to the name of son, or child, or saint of God: for in that
uncertainty is there any feature of resemblance to the son or the saint;
anything of the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father; any
likeness to the filial spirit of the beloved son of God?
He who resolves to remain in this uncertainty is a destroyer of his own
soul; and he who tries to persuade others to remain in this uncertainty is a
murderer of souls. He who does his best to make himself comfortable
without the knowledge of his reconciliation and relationship to God, is a
manifest unbeliever; and he who tries to induce others to be comfortable
without this knowledge is something worse; if worse can be. That there are
many among professing Christians who have not this knowledge, is a
painful fact; that there are some who, instead of lamenting this, make their
boast of it, is a fact more painful still; that there are even some who
proclaim their own uncertainty in order to countenance others in it, is a fact
the most painful of all.
Thus the questions about assurance resolve themselves into that of the
knowledge of our relationship to God. To an Arminian, who denies election
and the perseverance of the saints, the knowledge of our present
reconciliation to God might bring with it no assurance of final salvation;
for; according to him, we may be in reconciliation today, and out of it
tomorrow; but to a Calvinist there can be no such separation. He who is
once reconciled is reconciled forever; and the knowledge of filial
relationship just now is the assurance of eternal salvation. Indeed, apart
from God's electing love, there can be no such thing as assurance. It
becomes an impossibility.
By nature we have no peace; "there is no peace to the wicked." Man
craves peace; longs for it. God has made it for us; presents it to us.
Many are the causes of dispeace; sin is the root of all. Where unpardoned
sin is, there cannot be peace. Many are the subordinate causes. An empty