God's Refusal to Leave Us Alone: Deliverance

This follow-up post from the previous one stems from some observations I've recently made about myself and others, along with some insightful help from a brilliant godly Puritan that died 327 years ago:

The hardening [by the deceitfulness of sin, see Hebrews 3:12-13] is to the utmost, — utter obduration; sin tends to it, and every distemper and lust will make at least some progress towards it. Thou that wast tender, and didst use to melt under the word, under afflictions, wilt grow as some have profanely spoken, “sermon-proof and sickness-proof.” Thou that didst tremble at the presence of God, thoughts of death, and appearance before him, when thou hadst more assurance of his love than now thou hast, shalt have a stoutness upon thy spirit not to be moved by these things. Thy soul and thy sin shall be spoken of and spoken to, and thou shalt not be at all concerned, but shalt be able to pass over duties, praying, hearing, reading, and thy heart not in the least affected. Sin will grow a light thing to thee; thou wilt pass it by as a thing of nought; this it will grow to. And what will be the end of such a condition? Can a sadder thing befall thee? Is it not enough to make any heart to tremble, to think of being brought into that estate wherein he should have slight thoughts of sin? Slight thoughts of grace, of mercy, of the blood of Christ, of the law, heaven, and hell, come all in at the same season. Take heed, this is that thy lust is working towards, — the hardening of the heart, searing of the conscience, blinding of the mind, stupefying of the affections, and deceiving of the whole soul.

-John Owen, excerpted from Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers

Recently, I was curious to look back through my journals from the past several years in order to assess some evidence of my spiritual journey during that time. During the two years I spent living in Morocco, I wrote 111 pages of grace-filled, soul-changing, mind-enriching journal entries. For these past 2.5+ years since returning to the U.S., I have written only 40 pages, most of which are my wrestlings with myself and my sin. It seems like I have been behaving as a rebellious young boy, perhaps upset with my heavenly Father for one reason or another. As I think on this small statistic, I am greatly saddened by my neglect. What's worse, is that if I really think about these things, I might actually find that my sin has become exceedingly sinful, plundering my heart in its utmost affection for God. There has been this haunting suspicion in my heart that I have tried too hard to ignore, for the sake of rationalizing my idle behavior, that my heart has grown hard and cold, foremost toward God and consequentially toward virtually everyone around me. Thus, that deceitfulness of sin that Owen so eloquently described has subtly crept in, through my idle neglect, so that my heart has gradually become hardened to the things of God that He gives to us in this life to enjoy. Is it such a wonder to me why my life has seemed inconsequential for the sake of eternity! It's because it has for the most part, except for some supernatural work of the grace of God.

There is no new sin that is not common to man. I have seen firsthand instances of people close to me to whom this has happened. More recently, though, there have been students of mine, three in particular at present, going through this very thing. If we, as Christians, don't mortify our sin daily as Owen puts it, then it will overtake us, proving our faith to be a fraud. He says, "Be killing sin or sin will be killing you." In the same way that John Piper put it, we must wage war -- we are either fighting against our sin with the help of God, or are at peace with it thereby becoming an enemy of God.

So today, in remembrance of the day when Jesus was crucified, let us meditate on this:

...but the Lord delivers him out of them all."
Psalm 34:19b

The Lord delivers the righteous man from his promised affliction. Many evils assail the righteous and many wicked deeds accompany his carnal existence, yet his righteousness is not found there. Absent from all worldly deeds, his righteousness is stored up for him in heave as Christ Himself embodies it, preserved by the all-sufficient power of the Holy Spirit. It is from this man that deliverance comes. The embodiment of righteousness, namely Jesus Himself, is also the one true deliverer for those whose righteousness is held to the cross with the nails that pierced his hands and feet. If it were not for this sinless man who died on the cross, this Jesus whose divine authority would conquer the destruction reserved for all sinful men in death, there would be an eternity of despair for the soul of every man.

Every animal killed in the name of God, every sacrifice consecrated to the Lord, every offering burnt as a pleasing fragrance, and every prayer mentioned to the Almighty are but echoes of the true shout of Christ spanning the chasm of affliction that endangers every man's soul. Jesus is to us a friend, a help, a teacher, and a guide, but let us remind ourselves that he is our DELIVERANCE! Oh, to grace how great a debtor are we constrained to be!

So then those of us whose hearts have grown cold and hard, have hope, bound up with our Savior who, through faith, delivers us from all our affliction past, present, and yet to come. Were it not for the promise of redemption found in Him, my station as husband, father, son, brother, worker, worshiper, and saint would be vanquished by the otherwise overwhelming power of sin in my life. But as it is, God sees fit to look on Him and pardon me -- for the sake of His glory and my joy. May that be a greater reality day by day, as the coldness and hardness of my heart turns to warm, satisfying affection as it is inclined to our God!