What the Old Saints Knew

Some truths are more rarely put to the fore in today's evangelical climate than in the past. The exceeding sinfulness of sin, the transcendence of God and the bondage of the will are three that come to mind. Though the gospel is often watered down today it is always good when those who have fought the good fight before us, and who have since gone on to glory, remind us that we can discover nothing new . The old maxim "If it's true it's not new and if it's new it's not true" is a good approximation of Ecclesiastes 1:9.

When I read this quotation from C.H. Spurgeon over at Ingrid Schlueter's blog it was a good reminder to me of my own lack of originality. The glories of the indwelling Christ outworking through His saints have been known by all the true saints since Pentecost. They have not all described His operations in the exactly same way, but they have known the same Christ.

Though we gain knowledge of our Lord through hearing and studying the Word of God, that Word is made alive in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who forms Christ more and more completely as we grow up into Him. There is nothing wrong with this sort of experientialism. It is standard Christian fare that has been known by all the saints throughout the ages. It's just that when we think like the world we will always be falling off Luther's horse on one side or the other. Either we will fall into the coldness of knowledge for its own sake or we will spiral into sensation and feeling in the place of knowledge. Both are distortions of the truth.

Jesus Christ is the Truth. And insofar as we have any truth within us it is not simply data that abides in us, but He Who is the Truth. The Bread of Life that we read and hear is transformed into the Person of the Bread of Life in our innermost being through the obedience of our faith. He is still "coming down from heaven" as our daily bread, even today. If we would know Him more we must study Him more and press into Him via the means He has provided.

Let's not neglect the fact that it is changed hearts that yield good deeds as fruit in due season. The emptiness of so much that is done in the professing church today is the result of trying to change behaviours without hearts being renewed. No amount of work on our own part, and no amount of encouraging others to work will be of any avail unless it is wrought in Christ. When we can say with Paul that "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20) we are abiding in the truth we have learned by yielding ourselves to the Living Christ to do His work in the world through us. Abiding leads to yielding and yeilding produces fruit.

For this reason, we saints are effectually called and given a new heart in order be transformed by the renewing of our minds. And while we are undergoing this we are to be displayers and communicators to the lost world of the same Truth in us that has the power to change other hearts and minds. The old saints understood that it is only God, through His Word and His Spirit in the saint, Who can achieve anything at all. They knew and lived by these simple axioms. And they surrendered themselves to Him producing His fruit in and through their obedience. In this way all the glory is known to be His and we will be kept from thinking that it is we who stand, instead of we who are made to stand by His grace.