Growth in Grace (Rewritten)

We are urged to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Some people say the real logic of Christian growth works better if we reverse that order, putting the knowledge of Christ first as the way to grow in grace. But the apostle’s order—grace first, knowledge second—is actually the deeper and more natural one. 

We come to know Christ through the heart, not merely through the mind. We do not truly know Jesus until we love him; and the more we love him, the more closely we know him. 

The more we study the perfect character of Jesus, the more we admire him, just as studying Michelangelo’s works can make us admire him more. But admiration is not love. Admiration does not set the affections burning like a furnace; it does not drive the soul forward through loss and labor, self-denial and persecution, all the way to the martyr’s stake. As Christ’s character unfolds its splendor under the long, earnest gaze of the student, that student may grow aesthetically through contact with so much moral beauty. He may also become more firmly settled in his theological beliefs about the divinity of the man of Nazareth. And yet, in his own heart, he may still be refusing to receive and enthrone Christ as his rightful king.

We can go a step further and say that growth in grace, while it is accompanied by increasing power to avoid outward acts of sin, does not have the power to destroy the spirit of sin itself, commonly called original sin. 

Saved Through Christ, Though They Know Him Not

[The Atonement] affords a basis for the salvation of such pious pagans as live up to their best light. 'They are saved through Christ though they know Him not.' (J. Wesley.)

How about the condition of faith in Him? They have the spirit of faith and the purpose of righteousness; that is, the disposition to trust in the object of faith, the historical Christ, were He revealed to them in the Gospel, and a willingness to walk by the revealed law of God were it made known to them.

What is your Scriptural authority? Jesus Christ intimates that the judgment day will proceed by the use of a sliding scale. Where much is given much will be required; where little is given little will be required. St. Paul declares: 'There is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without the written law will be judged by the law written on their hearts.' Peter looking upon a group of God-fearing heathen at the headquarters of Brigadier General Cornelius, declared: 'Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him.'

'Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.'

Mr. Joseph Cook, who defends the rectoral theory, advocates the doctrine of salvation by possessing the essential Christ where the historical Christ is unknown. The essential Christ is an obedient attitude of the will toward 'the eternal Ideal required by self-evident truths, which has in Christ, and in Him only, become the historically Real.'

In the last day the Judge will say, 'Come, ye blessed,' not only to those who have enthroned the historical Christ in their hearts, but also to those who have exhibited towards His brethren, any forlorn man, the spirit of love, the essential element in the character of Christ — 'Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these, My brethren, ye did it unto Me.' The standard is so low as to be applicable to all who know the distinction between right and wrong. The rectoral theory of the atonement needs no probation after death.

What effect does this have on the missionary motive? None. That word stands in full force — 'Go ye and teach all nations.' While the pagan can be saved without a knowledge of Christ, the Christian cannot be saved while selfishly withholding that knowledge. I believe it is easier for God to save a pagan without the Bible in Bombay than it is to save a professed Christian in Boston without a disposition to send him a Bible; in other words, without a missionary spirit. I repudiate the doctrine of geographical election and reprobation expressed in the saying, 'To exchange cradles would be to exchange destinies.'"

— From "The Atonement" Half-Hours with St. John's Epistles (1901). 

Why is Madame Guyon Called a Mystic?

QUESTION: For what reason is Madam Guyon styled "a mystic?"

ANSWER: The word signifies mysterious, hidden, incomprehensible. To a worldly person a spiritual experience of the witness of the Holy Spirit and of Communion with God is mystical. Most ardent piety breathes in the hymns and other writings of this good lady persecuted and imprisoned by a church so fallen that it could not appreciate the seraphic ardor of this woman. All true Christians are mystics. Only nominal Christians and worldlings dislike the term and try to cast reproach upon it.

— Steele's Answers pp. 196.

Is Self-Loathing Piety Necessary?

Growth in grace, while accompanied by increasing power to abstain from actual sin, has no power to annihilate the spirit of sin, commonly called original sin. The revelation of its indwelling is more and more perfect and appalling as we advance from conversion.

Hence, in Calvinistic writings especially, we find that the measure of true piety is self-abhorrence. The more entire the consecration, the more vile in their own eyes do eminent saints appear. This standard of piety is a peculiarity of all the truly devout souls who were taught to believe that there is no power to deliver from inborn depravity this side of the grave. To these persons a piety which is not self-loathing and self-condemning is as contradictory as a piety which is not penitent.

But the sinless Jesus exhibited the marvelous proof of an impenitent piety. May not they who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb stand forth, even on earth, as specimens of a piety which glorifies God without self-vilification? Does God get the highest revenue of glory from us while we perpetually proclaim that the blood of Christ fails to reach the root of evil in our natures? If not, then the self-loathing style of piety, like that of David Brainerd in his early ministry, who saw so much corruption in his heart that he wondered the people did not stone him out of the pulpit, is a mere initial and rudimentary form, reflecting not the highest honor upon its Author.

— Love Enthroned, Chapter 18.

No Confidence in the Preacher?

QUESTION: I have no confidence in the piety of my preacher. What do you advise me to do?

ANSWER: Pray for him. Do not pray at him in public by asking the Lord to convert him. Pray for him in your closet. do not abandon the house of God because the preacher is not as pious as you wish he was. Attentively listen to his sermons and appropriate all the truth he utters. Do not imitate his example if you think his conduct is not right. This is the sum of Christ's advice in Matt. 23:2, 3, "All things whatsoever they bid you, these do and observe; but do not after their works; for they say and do not." John Wesley always attended the Church of England and attentively listened to men who excited mobs against him and his people.

— From Steele's Answers pp. 32, 33.