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‘But the God of all grace, Who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.’
1Pe_5:10
I. Conviction of sin.—It is one of the most difficult things in the world to get this deep conviction of sin. It is an intellectual difficulty, for we hardly know what sin is; and it is a moral difficulty, for when we know that certain things are contrary to the law of God, and sin, as we know, is the transgression of the law, we are so blind that we are not able to understand the exceeding sinfulness of sin. This difficulty is accounted for by a variety of circumstances. There is our great familiarity with sin which is around us, about us, within and without us, wherever we go. But, after all, this conviction of sin should not be so hard to attain if we really are anxious to know what sin is, and God has in nature and in revelation made it pretty clear to any one who has eyes to see and ears to hear what a terrible thing this transgression of the law of God really is. Look into the world around, and see the misery and the devastation which is caused by sin. The various plans for the amelioration of the human race need to be followed up and to be carefully watched and continued; but, after all, sin, with its terrible consequences, will never be altogether eradicated, and some trouble will never altogether cease. Or if you turn from the world to revelation, what do we see as to God’s judgment with regard to sin? Take but two examples: take the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, acknowledged by all as He is to be the best and holiest of men, absolutely sinless, and yet He Who knew no sin became sin for us. What does it all mean? It means nothing else than this: the horror of God at the smallest sin. Or, once again, look at another revelation which we have in Scripture—I mean the revelation of hell. There can be no question in our mind, whether we look at the world as we know it, or think of the Cross, or think of hell, as to the awfulness of sin in the sight of God; and this thought should lead us to a deeper conviction of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. And if it does, if there is this sense of need and this conviction of sin, then there must follow, cannot but follow, a determination to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, to leave no stone unturned in order that we may work out that repentance whereby we forsake sin.
II. Repentance of sin.—Repentance is another step towards perfection. It clears the way for the full working of that which alone can make us perfect, the indwelling presence of Christ. For this repentance, for this clearing of the way for the incoming and the indwelling of Christ, there must be first sorrow for sin. One of the chief works of the Holy Ghost is to convince the world of sin, and one of the chief duties of the Church, working by the Holy Spirit, is to help us in attaining this contrition of sorrow. Repentance, of course, is even more than this godly sorrow; repentance is a change of life towards God, a change of heart and mind towards God and towards sin; but this godly sorrow is a step towards repentance—repentance which leads us to Christ, and it is of this repentance that this godly sorrow is an integral part; it is this godly sorrow which is so hard to get; it is this godly sorrow for which you and I must for ever be beseeching the throne of grace, and we may be sure that if we do really ask for it God will not withhold it from us.
III. Acknowledgment of sin.—And if there is this godly sorrow—a sorrow which is by far the most important part of repentance because it includes everything else—there will then be, I will not say a desire, but a necessity to acknowledge our sins. The detailing to our doctor the sicknesses of our body is but a very shadowy type of the necessity of detailing our sins before God. Of course, we have often to make confession one to another for things we have done wrong to each other. If we have done any harm to any one we are bound—are we not?—to acknowledge that harm. We all acknowledge that if wrong has been done, until such confession has been made, no restoration to entire love and confidence between parent and child, husband and wife, is in any way possible. A guilty secret between those who are in close companionship is the most terrible thing that there can be. But it is not of this sort of confession that I am thinking, rather is it that of which St. John speaks. And this confession of sin, of course, can only be to God. We confess to each other when we have done each other harm; we must confess to God when we have done Him the greatest of harm by transgressing His law, by trampling on His precious Blood, by grieving His Holy Spirit. You and I, whether we like it or not, ought to realise—for we are constantly sinning—that we have to make our confession to God—night after night in our private prayers, day by day, or at any rate Sunday by Sunday, in the public offices of the Church.
IV. Amendment of life.—But with this sorrow for sin and confession of sin there must also go, of course, a full purpose of amendment of life, ‘repentance whereby we forsake sin.’ This, of course, involves two things. It involves turning away from sin, determining that, God being our Helper, we will try our very utmost not to sin again. It does not mean that we shall never sin again; but, of course, it would be the worst possible hypocrisy, and so the worst possible sin, to say one is sorry for one’s sins and then to go and commit them again. It must be repentance whereby we forsake sin. But it must be more than that—it must be restitution, it must be giving up that in which, maybe, we have profited by our sin—paying our debts, restoring things falsely gotten. There must be restitution if we are really anxious to arrive at this perfection. We must be prepared to make apologies for harm done, to make up any quarrels we may have. We must not stand upon our rights. Even after all this is done it is not perfection, but it is on the way to perfection, and I expect that you and I will not get much further than that on the way. If only we can get on the way and trudge along to the end of our lives, we shall in the next world attain our desire; we shall be like Christ, for we shall see Him as He is.
Rev. Canon C. E. Brooke.
SUFFERING AND ITS RESULTS
I. By the first, I understand that God will knit you together; one part with another.—So that, as we say of anything which is entire and unbroken, ‘It is perfect,’ so it will be with you. Your mind, your affections, and your soul, and your body one, living for the same end, living the same life, by the same Christ. Yourself—what can never be said of anybody but a Christian—yourself one man, a whole, ‘perfect.’ Some may not see the power of this promise. But those who have known the trouble of being—even within the little compass of their own little selves—not one man, but many—such oppositions in themselves, such strange contradictions, such clashings of one part with another, such rushings of counter-tides of feelings—they will treat it as a blessed thing. God will unite you. He will tune every string of life to one pitch. It shall be all harmony. He will make you ‘perfect’ and true—true to your higher nature, and true to yourself; He will ‘perfect’ you.
II. Then, made one with yourself, His one Spirit pervading and animating the whole being, He will ‘stablish’ you, give you firmness and stability. Like a house upon a rock. Now is not it exactly what you want? Not feelings, principles, ‘stability.’ You shall feel your foundation under you faster and deeper than the everlasting hills! Then you will exchange vacillation for unchangeableness, inconstancy for continuance; and you will stand. Oh, what a peace there is in that thought: ‘I shall stand!’ ‘And having done all things, I shall stand.’ No longer fluctuating, with every change of people and things about you, and doing just according to the atmosphere you happen to breathe; but fixed, ‘My heart is fixed.’ Pray for that upon the spot. Command it. God has said it at this moment. It is what you want more than anything else in the whole world. ‘Lord, root me on the rock.’ ‘Stablish you.’
III. And so He will fulfil His beautiful promise—‘Will He plead against me with His great power? No; but He will put strength into me.’ You will become—that which in such a world as this you need—that which is the secret of all peace, of all decision, of all usefulness in life, of all effectual service—a strong character. Never be content till you are a strong character, for it is a promised thing: strong for your duties; strong for your difficulties; strong for your trials; strong for your dangers; strong for your whole life; for He has said it—‘He will strengthen you.’
IV. And so we travel to the highest, the last, and the best—‘He will settle you.’ He will give you rest. Heaven has been beautifully defined ‘the rest of desire.’ But how is ‘settling,’ rest? To ‘settle’ is to repose upon your foundation; to ‘settle’ is to have an attraction, and to that attraction always to point. The ship ‘settles’ to her anchor; the mountains ‘settle’ to their base; the magnet ‘settles’ to its pole. So God will ‘settle’ you on Christ. And not only that. Every brick put into the wall, every storey added to a well-built house, ‘settles’ the whole structure. In like manner, God, enabling you to add work to work, and usefulness to usefulness, will so ‘settle’ you—by your increase, while He ‘builds you up in your own most holy faith’; and then, ‘settled’ on Christ, in Christ, to Christ, for Christ, with Christ, you will not be the restless creature you once were; you will not need to go about, here and there, for satisfaction, for you have a resting-place, and in that place of your rest you will understand the wisdom and the order of the arrangement, and the exquisite completeness of the Divine plan—‘after that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.’
Rev. James Vaughan.
Illustration‘God does not keep us in the furnace of trial longer than is needful for us. We may lengthen our own trials by being impatient and unsubmissive under them. The metal that does not melt has to stay in the crucible a longer time than that which does. If the heart is hard, then it takes more trials, and a longer time, and a severer discipline, till its stubbornness is gone, and itself is brought into conformity with the blessed will of God. That teaches us the lesson of submission. We ought to be ready to accept the teaching of God’s Holy Spirit. Whatever our trial may be, bear it, not because you must, but because it is God’s will concerning you. You may be sullen under a trial, and mutinous—many of us are, I am afraid. That will not make your trouble a bit the less. You will not get rid of it by being sullen under it. You will have to bear it all the same, and—you will lose the benefit of it.’
REMEDIAL PUNISHMENT
There are two classes of sufferings—those which God sends us, and those which are caused by our own fault.
I. Sin and its penalty.—If a man spends his money in profligacy, or wastes it by idleness, or throws it away foolishly, he becomes poor; but the poverty is his own doing. If a man commits sins in his youth, and then finds in his old age that those sins have found him out, then he has only himself to thank for it. If a man is drunken or dishonest, and finds after a time that he has lost his character and his health, then he must look upon that as his own work. He is reaping as he has sown. ‘Be sure your sin will find you out,’ says the Apostle. God’s world is so constructed that sin is sure to be followed by suffering, by pain of some kind or other, sooner or later. Just as you burn your hand when you touch fire, so you lay up for yourself punishment, pain, when you meddle with sin. God has laid down the law once for all. If you incur the penalty it is at your own peril. If you commit the sin and so have to suffer the penalty (as you certainly will), then you must not blame any one but yourself. We may get good indeed out of such punishments as these. They will make us wiser, if we take them in a proper spirit. They will teach us (like the burnt child dreading the fire) to avoid such sins for the future. But the text does not refer to pains and sufferings like these, because they are of our own causing. God intends them to do us good. His laws are evidently intended to be what is called remedial, i.e. just as you punish a naughty boy to make it better.
II. But the Apostle was not referring to the retributive punishment that follows upon sin.—He did not contemplate when writing that Christians would live in sin, and so he did not contemplate their being punished. But still he knew that they would have to suffer. Jesus suffered. He, even the Holy One, did not live His life without suffering. And shall His people expect to do so? Shall the Master be forced to cry out, ‘All thy waves and storms have gone over Me,’ and his people desire to sail idly on a summer sea? Not so. We must take up the cross, too. Sorrow is a part of the discipline and training of life, and God will give it to every one of us. This is the other class of trials, those which God sends. ‘Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.’ As the wrestler, or the runner, or the rower, is trained to his work with severe exercise and self-denial, so the Christian is trained by the experience of gladness and of sorrow, especially of the latter. And now we see why Christians are sure to have some sorrow—because it is good for them. It teaches them to bear the cross. ‘God is too wise to err; too good to be unkind.’ What is the lesson that He desires to teach us? Our first father’s sin, as you know, was disobedience. Therefore we require to learn obedience. ‘He learned obedience,’ said St. Paul, even of our Lord Jesus Himself (and a wonderful mystery it is), ‘by the things which He suffered.’ Patience and submissiveness, too; those are great graces; and there is no way of learning them except by suffering. When we are smarting under an affliction sent upon us, not by any fault of our own, but by the Providence of God, then if we strive to bear the blow patiently, and take it in faith—so as to believe that it was and is for our good, though we cannot see how—then suffering becomes a blessing, ‘the uses of adversity’ become indeed sweet. God reveals himself at length in grace to our souls. We may not see why the blow has fallen; let it be enough that God sees why. ‘After that ye have suffered a while (God) make you perfect.’