INWARD TRIALS

The other day, Uni (my wife) found this poem taped in the back flyleaf of an old Bible of mine. I don’t remember where it came from, and the name of John Newton was added to it in my hand-writing. John Newton, of course is the converted slave trader of the late 18th century, the author of the hymn, “Amazing Grace.”

These Inward Trials

I asked the Lord, that I might grow

In faith, and love, and every grace,

Might more of His salvation know,

And seek more earnestly His face.

I hoped that in some favoured hour

At once He’d answer my request,

And by His love’s constraining power

Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel

The hidden evils of my heart;

And let the angry powers of hell

Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with His own hand He seemed

Intent to aggravate my woe;

Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,

Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

‘Lord, why is this?’ I trembling cried,

‘Wilt thou pursue Thy worm to death?’

‘’Tis in this way,’ the Lord replied,

‘I answer prayer for grace and faith.

These inward trials I employ

From self and pride to set thee free;

And break thy schemes of earthly joy,

That thou may’st seek thy all in me.’

-- John Newton

I know nothing of the poem’s context, the circumstances behind its writing. (Nor do I have any idea what “gourds” are.) And I don’t remember the circumstances that prompted me to put it in my Bible. Perhaps I was experiencing something similar to what was written.

We can see many “outward trials” all around us. If we don’t have any of our own, all we need to do is turn on the TV news: war, terrorism, crime, domestic abuse, physical illness, “acts of God” – earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, etc., etc. Newton himself had experienced many outward trials in his career and had inflicted them himself on the “passengers” in his ships.

But “inward trials.” I wonder what his were, but it’s really not important. Perhaps Newton was experiencing what John of the Cross, a 16th century monastic, termed “the dark night of the soul.” Many of us have experienced something like this. We’ve grown in our love for God, we’ve longed for a closer walk. But God seems to separate Himself from us. We seek Him but He is nowhere to be found.

Job seemed to be experiencing this dark night. ”Even today my complaint is rebellion; His hand is heavy despite my groaning. Oh that I knew where I might find Him, That I might come to His seat!” (Job 23:2, 3). But he was also seeking an explanation from God. If we read on in Job’s story, we know he did find God, but God never saw fit to explain Himself or His actions to Job, as is often our experience.

Perhaps, as in Job’s case, our inward trials are triggered by outward trials. Perhaps not. Sometimes they are inexplicable. I suppose modern thinkers would see them as caused by a chemical imbalance or short circuit in the brain, or as being triggered by some childhood trauma. They may be right. But the trials are still real.

Some Christian counselors would play the part of Job’s friends and blame these feelings on sin or unresolved conflict. They may be right. They would recommend to us that we simply confess our sin or sins to God and/or others we’ve offended. They may be right. But I wonder what they’d have told Jesus as He struggled in the garden. “And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground” (Luke 22:44).

Newton’s “inward trials,” as he described them, were not caused by sin. They were brought on as he tried to “seek more earnestly His (God’s) face.” They were brought on by his desire for “rest.” God was setting him free “from self and pride.” It apparently took a while to understand what was going on.

Sometimes we go through these feelings of inward trial and conflict. It’s a simple solution to get a prescription to cure it. And there are times when this may be the solution. But there are times, I believe, when God simply wants us to “seek His face,” to spend time meditating on His Word and speaking to Him in prayers, even if He seems to refuse to answer.

I’m not saying we should seek these experiences. There is nowhere in the Bible where we are told to seek trials, whether inward or outward. We’re just told that they will come. “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). But we often hear the biblical writers’ cries of desperation, especially, but not limited to the Psalms. See Psalm 4:1; 5:1, 2; 6:1-3; 10:1; 13:1, 2.

And when we counsel others who are going through experiences like these, we should not be too quick with a solution. It may not be a problem to be solved, but a necessary experience in their growth. They may simply need a listening ear and a supporting arm, a friend to help them through their “dark night.” “ … let every one be quick to hear, slow to speak … ” (James 1:19).

Bill Ball
7/18/2006

FREE TO LOVE

The New Testament frequently tells believers in Christ that we are free – free from sin, from Satan’s dominion and from the Law of Moses (see ENJOYING OUR FREEDOM). And it warns us of the danger of returning to our old bondage – whether it’s a bondage under sin or under law-works.

After warning the Galatian Christians, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1), and explaining what that means, Paul gives another warning, “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13). The word “flesh” in Paul’s usage, here refers to our old self – the person I was before I came to Christ – the person who still asserts himself. I am a man with two minds – the new man that I am in Christ, and the old man.

What Paul is telling us here, I believe, is that I am free, but I shouldn’t be using that freedom to behave as I did before I came to Christ. I am free to serve others. And the motivating force for that service is love. The word “love” here is not some mushy, sentimental niceness. It’s an active word, a translation of the Greek word agape, which has been defined as “that which seeks the greatest good (God’s will) in its object.”

In verse 14, Paul quotes a text which was, already in his day, 1,500 years old, Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the verse that Jesus frequently quoted as the second great commandment and James, Jesus’ brother quoted as “the royal law” (James 2:8) and “the law of liberty” (James 2:12). Paul says that in this one statement “the whole law is fulfilled.”

But who are we to love? Everybody?

Many years ago when I was pastoring, there was an elderly lady in my flock who somehow managed to always keep the pot stirred up. You probably have met people like her. She always seemed to know the wrong thing to say. She was usually angry at someone or had someone angry at her. When I finally approached her and tried to explain the problem, her reply was, “But I just looove everybody.” No matter what I said, she always gave the same remark. I finally gave in but I couldn’t help but think, “Yeah, right! You love everybody, but you don’t like anybody!”

How often has this been true of me? Someone said it’s easier to love mankind than to love my neighbor.

In the same chapter in the book of Leviticus where the Israelites are commanded to love their neighbor (which would probably refer to their fellow Israelite), they are also commanded to love “the stranger (alien) who resides with you” (Leviticus 19:34).

Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’” (Matthew 5:43, 44; see also verses 45-48). There’s no room for hatred at all! This would include a lot of people: Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, my boss, ____________ (fill in the blank or blanks).

Jesus tells us, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Paul tells us, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,” (Ephesians 5:25).

My neighbor, the alien, my wife, my fellow believer, even my enemy. And the standard keeps getting raised. First I am told to love as I love myself. Then I am told to love as Christ loved.

Bill Ball
7/5/2006

SIGN GIFTS

A friend of mine sent me the following e-mail and I thought I’d include it and my reply on my blog:

“Hi there. I have been having theological discussions with my husband and I am wondering about spiritual gifts. What is the Scriptural evidence that certain gifts have ceased? This is really something that I don't know with any certainty, but now that my kids are older and we have some friends who are Charismatic and others who are staunchly Reformed cessationists and we even have some who are Reformed Charismatics....I am realizng I don't have good answers for my children! Can you direct me in Scripture to something that may clear it up a little. :)

I appreciate, in advance, any help you can offer.

Muddled, _______________”


Dear Muddled --

I had never heard the word “cessationist” until 10 or 15 years ago. One of my students asked me if I was a cessationist and I told her, “No, I think Texas should stay in the Union.” ;^)

I can’t really call myself a cessationist because I can’t find any evidence that the “sign gifts” have totally ceased. I have many students of just about every theological persuasion, so like you, I count both charismatics and cessationists among my friends.

However, I believe that the charismatics are incorrect in seeking the sign gifts for the following reasons (not all of these apply to all charismatics):

1. They read the Book of Acts (and sometimes the Gospels) as prescriptive rather than descriptive. Acts is a history book and describes the development of the early church. It does not instruct us to do as the early Christians did. Just because Peter and Paul healed and laid hands on people to receive the Holy Spirit does not mean that we must.

As a matter of fact, Acts presents the miracles as rare and limited to only a few persons.

2. When Paul tells the church at Corinth to “earnestly desire the greater gifts” (l Corinthians 12:31), he is speaking to the church, telling them to seek for these gifts to be exercised in the assembly. He was not telling them as individuals to seek to acquire or even develop these gifts. The giving of these gifts is in the sovereign will of the Triune God (12:4-7).

3. At least one gift, the gift of apostle, has clearly passed. An apostle was one who had seen Christ risen and been sent out (Greek apostello) by Him (Acts 1:15-26); 1 Corinthians 9:1, 2). Paul in Ephesians 2:20, refers to the apostles and prophets as foundational to the church. This could imply that the gift of prophet, too, has passed.

4. There is evidence that the sign gifts were especially meant for the first generation Christians and were not common among those of the second generation. In 2 Corinthians 12:12, Paul speaks of having performed “signs and wonders and miracles.” These he refers to as (literally) “the signs of the apostle.” If anyone could perform them how could they validate his apostleship?

The author of Hebrews, apparently a second-generation Christian, speaks of “signs and wonders and … various miracles and … gifts of the Holy Spirit” as confirming the message of “those who heard” the Lord (that is, the first generation) “to us” (2:3, 4).

Can God use the sign gifts today? God is God and can do what He pleases. But should we expect them to be the norm for the church today? No – I don’t believe it was the norm for any generation.

Trust this helps,
Bill Ball
6/29/2006

ENJOYING OUR FREEDOM

On this coming 4th of July, we Americans will recognize our 230th anniversary of independence, our freedom from Great Britain. Most of us will do something to celebrate, though probably few will stop to consider what it’s really all about. There will be picnics, programs, parades, concerts, fireworks, sales at the Wal*Mart and other patriotic activities. Then we will go back to our normal ways with little more thought given to our freedoms or their cost.

Now I’m not complaining or hand-wringing. That’s what freedom is all about: “1. The quality or state of being free as: (a) the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action; (b) liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another: INDEPENDENCE” (Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary). Perhaps the best thing we can do with our freedom is to enjoy it in whatever fashion we please.

We who are believers in Christ have a greater freedom than the freedom we enjoy as Americans. Jesus said, “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). He was speaking to a group of Jews who were at that time under bondage to the Roman Empire and yet who claimed “ … We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?” (John 8:33). Jesus’ reply to this thinking was “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin” (John 8:34).

We were as Jesus says, “slaves of sin.” No matter who we were, whatever our national allegiance or economic status. Paul reiterates this in his writings, “ … you were slaves of sin, … (Romans 6:17), but we have been freed from sin in Christ. He also tells us we have been released from the (Old Testament) Law (Romans 7:6) and that before we knew God we were slaves to “no gods” (demons) (Galatians 4:8). He tells us that Christ “ … delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13).

Yet it seems that many Christians do not really enjoy their freedom in Christ. They seem to be still in a sort of bondage. Perhaps even more so than they were as unbelievers. I know, because I spent many years in this condition. Saved by grace – free grace – and then given a list of rules by which I must live. I gave up much of the fun I had had before I came to Christ and began to live my life by man-made rules.

Paul, after arguing with the Galatian Christians that they were free in Christ, warns them “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). Though elsewhere he warns about slavery to sin, in this passage, he is warning them against placing themselves under some wrong-headed legalistic method of dealing with sin. He does this elsewhere. “You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men” (1 Corinthians 7:23). ”Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day – things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ” (Colossians 2:16, 17).

And there are plenty of legalists around today, spiritual killjoys who seem to feel that their ministry is to make sure we don’t enjoy our freedom in Christ. You’ve heard them. They warn you that if you don’t conform to a certain standard (sometimes it’s a biblical standard, but usually it’s their own), that you can’t be sure if you’re saved, or that you will lose your salvation, or that you can’t have “victory,” or be an “overcomer” or whatever. They have lists of rules, telling us what we should or shouldn’t eat or drink or do for entertainment, or whom we should and shouldn’t associate with.

These people succeed I believe, because they appeal to our pride. We want to see our salvation, our Christian life, as in some way depending on ourselves. We don’t want to believe that Jesus is the answer to our need. And we often disguise our pride as humility. Paul tells us in Colossians 2:18, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind.” When we flagellate ourselves and complain that we just don’t measure up, I suspect what we’re saying is that we want to measure up. But we can’t. It’s all Christ. He wants us to be what we are, and to allow His Spirit to change us, and to enjoy the freedom that He obtained for us on the cross.

Bill Ball
6/12/2006