Chapter 3, part 1

Note: If you are new to this blog, I suggest you start at post #1 ("Introduction") and work your way from oldest post to newest.

"New inclinations are truly new"

In chapter 3, Marshall’s makes two points, the first of which we’ll look at in this post:

We can only get the essential qualifications mentioned before by receiving them directly from Jesus, from our fellowship with him.

The great majority of Christians think that our "new nature" isn't actually new but that it's a fixed or reformed version of our old nature. Hence, we need to work on our old natures to get them to behave and change. This agrees with common sense, and anything else strikes us as a mystery.

Marshall: "This mystery is so great that, notwithstanding all the light of the gospel, we commonly think that we must get an holy frame by producing it anew in ourselves, and by forming it and working it out of our own hearts. Therefore many that are seriously devout take a great deal of pains to mortify their corrupted nature, and beget an holy frame of heart in themselves by striving earnestly to master their sinful lusts, and by pressing vehemently upon their hearts many motives to godliness, labouring importunately to squeeze good qualifications out of them, as oil out of a flint" (p. 11).

"Squeezing oil out of a flint" is a good description of what results from "... pressing vehemently upon their hearts many motives to godliness" (p. 11). Sounds like many a well-intentioned sermon, Sunday-School class, Children's Church lesson, Christian-school teacher's admonition, Christian book.

Marshall: "On this account they acknowledge the entrance into a godly life to be harsh and unpleasing, because it costs so much struggling with their own hearts and affections to new-frame them" (pp. 11-12).

"New-framing" an old nature is not merely an unpleasant task—it’s impossible. Marshall: "If they knew that this way of entrance is not only harsh and unpleasant, but altogether impossible...." (p. 12).

Yet, what are the options? To not try to obey God? Unthinkable. Salvation, we know, comes entirely from God. But sanctification, our common sense tells us, must be our job. Marshall: "They account that though they be justified by a righteousness wrought out by Christ, yet they must be sanctified by a holiness wrought out by themselves" (p. 11).

Of course they realize that they have to ask for God’s help every step of the way. Marshall: "And though out of humility they are willing to call it infused grace, yet they think they must get the infusion of it by the same manner of working, as if it were wholly acquired by their endeavours" (p. 11).

It makes sense. How could it possibly be wrong to try hard to obey God? As Marshall continued to point out, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to please and obey God. But trying to do so by changing and reforming one's old nature isn’t the way and doesn’t accomplish anything. And the Bible teaches a different way.

The different way is that our “holy disposition”—that is, our inclination to do God’s law—must come from Jesus "as a thing already prepared and brought to an existence for us in Christ...." (p. 11). It’s not a reformed bit of old nature; it’s not something we’ve made by fixing or changing or correcting our old natures—even with God’s help. It’s an entirely new and other thing, entirely from Jesus.

Marshall: "So that we are not at all to work together with Christ in making or producing that holy frame in us, but only to take it to ourselves, and use it in our holy practice, as made ready to our hands" (p. 11).

This is a radical idea. Is it Biblical?

Marshall claimed that it was, that it was clearly taught in the Bible. Even so, it was something humans would still not understand unless God made it known by supernatural revelation.

Marshall: "Yea, though it be revealed clearly in the Holy Scriptures, yet the natural man has not eyes to see it there, for it is foolishness to him; and if God express it ever so plainly and properly, he will think that God is speaking riddles and parables. And I doubt not but it is still a riddle and parable even to many truly godly, who have received an holy nature in this way; for the apostles themselves had the saving benefit of it before the Comforter discovered it clearly to them (John xiv.20)" (p. 10).

In other words, even those of us who are true Christians and have received our new nature and who read our Bibles might be confused about what it means to be "united" with the Holy Spirit or how to access our new motivations and inclination through this union with him. We might only in a small or bumbling way take advantage of or enjoy it. Jesus's own disciples were a case in point. Jesus told them, "When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you" (John 14:20 NLT).

More to come in the next post: What the Bible teaches about having fellowship with Jesus, being in Jesus, and having Jesus in us by a mystical union with him.

Chapter 2

Note: If you are new to this blog, I suggest you start at post #1 ("Introduction") and work your way from oldest post to newest.

"What do we need to tackle the job?"

Marshall made no bones about what we need to practice God’s law: "We need have very choice endowments as Christ had; at least as good or something better than Adam had at first, as our work is harder than his" (pp. 6-7).

Marshall named four endowments, or qualifications, that a person needs to even begin practicing holiness. The Big Question of how we get these qualifications Marshall postponed until another chapter. But putting aside for the moment our lack of them or the problem of how to get them, what are the qualifications?

1. We must want God’s will.

Marshall: "The duties of the law are of such a nature that they cannot possibly be performed while there is wholly an aversion or mere indifference of the heart to the performance of them, and no good inclination and propensity towards the practice of them ..." (p. 7).

We must love God’s law, like it, be delighted by it, long for it, thirst for it, find it sweet and refreshing. All the time.

[From the Bible]

I take joy in doing your will,

for your instructions are written on my heart.

Psalm 40:8 New Living Translation

I ... have treasured his words more than daily food.

Job 23:12 New Living Translation

O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you.

My soul thirsts for you; my whole body long for you

in this parched and weary land where there is no water.

Psalm 63:1 New Living Translation

I am always overwhelmed with a desire for your regulations.

Psalm 119:20 New Living Translation

[The laws of the Lord] are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold,

they are sweeter than honey dripping from the comb.

Psalm 19:10 New Living Translation

As part of this, we must abhor evil:

[From the Bible]

The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants.

Galatians 5:17 New Living Translation

They lie awake at night, hatching sinful plots.

Psalm 36:4 New Living Translation

Love for God must come from a clean heart, a heart rid of evil preferences and inclinations:

[From the Bible]

The goal ... is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

1 Timothy 1:5 Today’s New International Version

Another qualification we need to even begin to obey God’s law:

2. We must be convinced that we are reconciled to God—that he loves us and has blotted out our sins.

In addition:

3. We must be confident that there is a heaven and we are going there.

Jesus himself was motivated by his absolute assurance of what was ahead:

[From the Bible]

Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross ...

Hebrews 12:2 New Living Translation

The same was true of the apostles:

[From the Bible]

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

1 Corinthians 4:16-17 Today’s New International Version

And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.

1 John 3:3 New Living Translation

.... and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.

Jude 1:21 New Living Translation

The last qualification—what we must have before we can even think about obeying God’s law— is this:

4. We must be confident that God can and will provide sufficient strength both to will and to perform this duty acceptably.

Marshall: "Those that think sincere conformity to the law in ordinary cases to be so very easy, show that they neither know it nor themselves. I acknowledge that the work of God is easy and pleasant to those whom God rightly furnisheth with endowments for it; but those that assert it to be easy to men in their common condition, show their imprudence in contradicting the general experience of heathens and Christians" (p. 8).

The endowments must come from God.

Marshall: "Our Lord Christ doubtless knew the infinite power of His deity to enable Him for all that He was to do and suffer in our natures. He knew 'the Lord God would help Him, and that therefore He should not be confounded' (Isa. 50:7)" (p. 9).

The Bible shows what "plentiful assurance of strength" (p. 9) God gave to a long list of others (Moses, Joshua, Gideon, the Israelites, etc.).

Marshall ended the chapter by saying this. When God calls a person to do miracles, he first acquaints the person with the power he will give to do the miracles. It’s the same with us and sanctification. When God calls people who are dead in sin to a holy life, he will acquaint them with the gift of his power to do this. In Marshall's words, God will "encourage them in a rational way to such a wonderful enterprise" (p. 9).

In the next post: Where do we get these essential qualifications?

Chapter 1, part 2

Note: If you are new to this blog, I suggest you start at post #1 ("Introduction") and work your way from oldest post to newest.

"How do we get there?"

Many people, Marshall went on, aren't interested in knowing anything other than where we're going. Once the goal is set, they "account nothing wanting but diligent performances; and they rush blindly upon immediate practice, making more haste than good speed" (p. 3). In other words, they do a lot of pedaling without much forward progress.

What they lack is the "powerful and effective means" for accomplishing this "great and excellent end" (p. 4).

It's not just the people in the pews who often misunderstand the enormity of the task. Pastors, too, Marshall noticed, "spend all their zeal in the earnest pressing the immediate practice of the law, without any discover of the effectual means of performance" as if the accomplishment needed "no skill and artifice at all, but only industry and activity" (p. 3).

What is this "powerful and effective means?" That's the question. Marshall pointed out several things:

• It's just as much the result of an act of God as justification is. That is, we can't sanctify ourselves any more than we can save ourselves.
• It's something we can’t see on our own by just figuring it out or by effort or work; God has to open our eyes to it.
• It requires the “double work” of first unlearning many deeply-rooted notions before finding the right way to go about it.

Marshall advised, "We must pray earnestly to the Lord to teach us, as well as search the Scripture that we may get this knowledge" (p. 4).

He hoped that God would bless his discovery of this "powerful means of holiness" so far as to "save some one or other from killing themselves" (p. 5). This was a man who knew first-hand the awful failure that results from trying to sanctify oneself!

His hope was that in the reading of this book that God would "enlarge the hearts of many by it, to run with great cheerfulness, joy, and thanksgiving in the ways of His commandments" (p. 5).

In the next post: the mindset we need before we can think about even beginning to practice holiness.

Chapter 1, part 1

Note: If you are new to this blog, I suggest you start at post #1 ("Introduction") and work your way from oldest post to newest.

"What are we aiming for?"

Chapter 1 is a quick overview of two things: "What goal are we Christians aiming for?" and "How do we get there?" Marshall assumed the reader was a Christian who agreed that God's law was right and who aimed to obey it—but who found his nature contrary to it and the goal impossible. Marshall's claim was that he had the Biblical solution—"the powerful and effective means" (p.1) for accomplishing this goal.

The goal is nothing less than this: the righteous, godly, obedient life that God requires—as explained throughout the Bible and summed up in the ten commandments and more briefly in the two great commandments:

[From the Bible]

Jesus replied, "'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

Matthew 22:37, 39 New Living Translation

This holiness is spiritual—it consists not just of external works but also of inner attitudes—thoughts, imaginations, and feelings, particularly love. It consists not only in refraining from doing sinful things, but also in longing and delighting to do what God wants, and in obeying God cheerfully without complaining, fretting, or reluctance.

[From the Bible]

So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin.

Romans 7:14 New Living translation

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

Same verse, Today’s New International Version

We know that the law is spiritual, but I am not spiritual since sin rules me as if I were its slave.

Same verse, New Century Version

Marshall noted that while the law we're aiming for is "exceedingly broad" (p. 2), that doesn’t make it easy to hit!

[From the Bible]

Everything I see has its limits,but your commands have none.

Psalm 119:96 New Century Version

In every action we must not only hit it, but hit it fully, or else we haven’t hit it at all.

[From the Bible]

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

James 2:10 Today’s New International Version

Worse yet, Marshall said, our love for the Lord must be absolute:

"The Lord is not at all loved with the love that is due to him as Lord of all, if we don't love him with all our heart, spirit, and might. We must love him so as to yield ourselves wholly up to his constant service in all things, and to be at his disposal of us as absolute Lord, whether for prosperity or adversity, life or death" (p. 2).

This is an uneasy place to stop. Examining the excellence of God's law and especially in the context of it being our goal is stressful because are natural inclinations are to resist it, even while we agree with it. Yet there is the goal staring us in the face.

Coming in the next post is part 2 of the chapter, where Marshall tackled the question, in his words "What are the means to this great end?" or more simply, "How do we get there?"

Introduction

I spent many years believing this: That although weʼre saved by grace and grace alone, that from then on the job of making ourselves holy is ours. We ask God to help us, of course, every step of the way. But the job is ours. Lots of evangelical preachers and writers teach this without batting an eye, and they never for one moment consider it contrary to a life of faith because they emphasize that we must trust God to help us.

It sounds so good—what could possibly be wrong with it? This teaching acknowledges that the law of God is right, it puts emphasis on obedience to Godʼs laws, and it strongly advocates calling on God for help. How could it be wrong?

Like many Christians, I accepted this teaching right away and got right to it. Here is what it was like for me. It was as if I picked up a huge book containing the righteous law of God, heaved it up on my shoulders, and tried to obey every word of it. NOT to save myself; I knew I was saved—but to Go On in the Christian life, for "sanctification." I knew that everything written in the book was true. There were thousands of things I should think/say/do to be like Jesus, and thousands more I SHOULDN'T think/say/do to be like Jesus. All were right and true. I agreed wholeheartedly with God that every law was right, and I wanted to obey it all. I planned to obey it—I worked at obeying it—I thought about it, read it, took notes on it, memorized it.

And Iʼm not talking about silly stuff like lists of goodie-goodie rules. I mean the real stuff, like acting with love towards people and having self control—the stuff in the Bible.

However, I made poor progress. With effort (and also with the benefit of good upbringing and other advantages not of my own doing), I could sometimes keep myself from some types of overt sins, but I was disappointed in my attitudes and inclinations, which seemed relentlessly wrong and resistant to any improvement. There may have been fewer sins, but my overall SINFULNESS didnʼt seem to change. I was clearly not headed toward becoming a trophy in Godʼs trophy case of righteousness. Letʼs just say I did a lot of pedaling for not much forward progress.

The problem with making oneself holy—as I discovered after many years—is itʼs impossible. Iʼm convinced that anyone who sincerely attempts this will be brought to despair. Itʼs no more possible to become holy through oneʼs own effort—even frequently asking God for help—than it would be to move the Sahara Desert using a teaspoon. A person can try to do it—turn blue with the effort—but in the end all heʼll have is a little pile of sand, and the Sahara Desert will be as good as untouched.

But what other option is there? To NOT try to do the right thing? To NOT desire holiness? To go ahead and follow my sinful inclinations and not worry about it?

On the face of it, there only appeared to be two options: Option One (what I'll call "self-sanctification"), to try hard to obey the righteous requirements of God in every way, praying for help. Option Two, to quit trying and no doubt sink immediately into even worse sinful mire. This is the dilemma I found myself in.

I now believe there is another way, taught through the whole of the Bible, for becoming holy. Itʼs called “walking in the Spirit,” (also called “putting on Jesus,” “having Christ in us” “being led by the Spirit,” “being rooted and built up in him,” etc.). I believe Option One is wrong, not at all because itʼs wrong to obey God or that the law of God is wrong in any way, but because itʼs not the method God tells us to use or has in mind for us—not to mention the fact that it doesnʼt work at all.

The single focus—the one “work”—of walking in the Spirit is to fix oneʼs eyes on Jesus. Itʼs quite a shift, from the LAW to the law -MAKER.

Instead of thinking, “What would Jesus do?” I go to Jesus and ask, “What should I do?” When Jesus gives an instruction (perhaps pointing to some point of the same moral law that has before been so oppressive), I obey—and I am able to obey—because what Jesus asks is ACHIEVABLE.

There is a very big difference between self-sanctification and walking in the Spirit. In the first, I grind out partial obedience to yet one more tiny law (with ten more volumes crushing me down, some not even opened yet). When walking in the Spirit, I donʼt in any way reject the law (I still wholeheartedly agree with it), but instead of embracing a legal system—a THING—Iʼm embracing a PERSON, and this person is the one who provides whatʼs needed. Itʼs quite a difference. The difference is as great as the difference between being in bondage and being

in love.

When walking in the Spirit, I make no attempt to change my old human nature—I consider it hopeless. If I find myself in an ugly fit of selfishness, I give no thought to changing my nature. I simply turn my eyes to the Holy Spirit and show it to him, acknowledging that indeed—as the Bible teaches—my old nature is beyond hope. If he instructs me to some action of love, he will need to import his love into me—and he will. He wonʼt change me into a paragon of loveliness—he will simply import into me the love he has in great supply, enough to do what he asks me to do. I wonʼt have anything to brag about when I do it, since I will have done it only in his power and with his resources.

But then again, the horrible weight of the law is off my back. This is what I call a good deal.

Notice that my GOAL—holiness—is the same. Ever since I was redeemed and God made my spirit alive, I have agreed with him that his way is good and right. When walking in the Spirit, I want to be holy and like Jesus more than before—not less. I end up obeying more—not less—because when I was trying to obey the whole law I was paralyzed with failure. I donʼt answer to the WHOLE OF THE LAW—I answer to my own private TUTOR, who unravels the law for me in his own way and in his own timing—a tutor who loves me and who is lover, companion, and friend as well as tutor. When Jesus asks me to do something, I am able to do it. Itʼs a wonderful thing to no longer be under a shitload of condemnation.

A couple further notes:

1. In my case, I could not free myself from self-sanctification even after I could see I was trapped by it. I mean it when I say COULD NOT. I had to ask God to free me. (Kind of funny—I had to fix my eyes on the Holy Spirit and ask for his direct help, so in a sense I had to walk in the Spirit to be freed to walk in the Spirit! Fortunately the "work" of walking in the Spirit is easy enough to be done even by someone trapped in self-sanctification.)

2. Iʼve noticed that some Christians are not temperamentally inclined to suffering from self-sanctification, and some even seem to be happy, successful self-sanctifiers. I donʼt get it, but I know God made many varieties of temperaments and deals with us in a variety of ways according to how heʼs made us.

For me, getting free of self-sanctification—though I do slip back into it from time to time, but getting free of it for the most part—has made more of a difference in my life than anything else I can think of.

Sanctification; or, the Highway to Holiness by Walter Marshall is the first book I've found that deals with this trap of self-sanctification and walking in the Spirit. I highly recommend it and look forward to posting blogs with notes on the major chapters.