What does faith exclude? Well, I am sure it excludes boasting. 'He that believeth is not condemned' (John 3:18). Oh, if it said, 'He that works is not condemned,' then you and I might boast in unlimited quantity. . . .--Charles Spurgeon, Faith (Whitaker House 1995), 88
No, Lord, if I am not condemned, it is Your free grace, for I have deserved to be condemned a thousand times since I sat down to write this. When I am on my knees and I am not condemned, I am sure it must be sovereign grace, for even when I am praying, I deserve to be condemned. Even when we are repenting, we are sinning, and adding to our sins while we are repenting of them. . . .
Our best performances are so stained with sin that it is hard to know whether they are good works or bad works. . . . Ah, then, we cannot boast! Be gone, pride! Be gone! Quit boasting, Christian. Live humbly before your God, and never let a word of self-congratulation escape your lips.
30 September 2010
Adding to Our Sins While Repenting of Them
Spurgeon, writing reflectively on Ephesians 2:8-9--
Reminds me of,
ReplyDelete"So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty."
Luke 17:10 (ESV)
p.s. Martha
ReplyDeleteListen to the heart of Paul...so very alive!
ReplyDelete"For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you."
2 Cor 1:12 (ESV)
"Our boast is this..." So, did he delight in the grace of God! The "divine influence on the heart, and the outworking of it in the life!" You can almost hear him laugh with the joy of it...
So he says,
"...that on the day of our Lord Jesus you willl boast of us as we will boast of you."
Have a God-filled day :-)
Martha