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By Jonathan Edwards
"You believe that there is one God.
Good! Even the demons believe that-and shudder." James 2:19
How do you know if you belong to
God? We see in these words what some people depend on as an evidence
of their acceptance with God. Some people think that they are all
right before God if they are not as bad as some evil person. Other
people point to their family history or church membership to show
that God approves of them. There is an evangelism programme in
common use that asks people certain questions. One of the questions
is, "Suppose you were to die today. Why should God let you into his
heaven?" A very common response is, "I believe in God." Apparently
the apostle James knew people who said the same thing: I know I am
in God's favor, because I know these religious doctrines.
Of course James admits that this
knowledge is good. Not only is it good, but it is also necessary.
Nobody can be a Christian who doesn't believe in God; and more than
that, the One True God. This is particularly true for those who had
the great advantage of actually knowing the apostle, someone who
could tell them of his first-hand experience with Jesus, the Son of
God. Imagine the great sin of a person, who knew James, and then
refused to believe in God! Certainly this would make their damnation
greater. Of course, all Christians know that this belief in the One
God is only the start of good things because "anyone who comes to
him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who
earnestly seek him." (Heb. 11:6.)
However, James is clear that
although this belief a good thing, it is definitely not proof that a
person is saved. What he means is this: "You say you are a Christian
and you are in God's favor. You think God will let you into heaven,
and the proof of it is, you believe in God. But that is no evidence
at all, because the demons also believe, and they are sure to be
punished in hell." The demons believe in God, you can be sure of
that! They not only believe that He exists, but they believe that
God is a holy God, a sin-hating God, a God of truth, who has
promised judgments, and who will carry out his vengeance upon them.
This is the reason the demons "shudder" or tremble- they know God
more clearly than most human beings do, and they are afraid.
Nevertheless, nothing in the mind of man, that devils may experience
as well, is any sure sign of God's grace in our hearts.
This reasoning may be easily turned
around. Suppose demons could have, or find within themselves,
something of God's saving grace-proof they would go to heaven. This
would prove James wrong. But how absurd! The Bible makes it clear
that demons have no hope of salvation, and their believing in God
does not take away their future punishment. Therefore believing in
God is not proof of salvation for demons, and it is safe to say, not
for people, either.
Demons Have a Knowledge of God.
This is seen even more clearly when
we think about what demons are like. They are unholy: anything that
they experience, cannot be a holy experience. The devil is perfectly
wicked. "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry
out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not
holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he
speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of
lies." (John 8:44) "He who does what is sinful is of the devil,
because the devil has been sinning from the beginning." (1 John 3:8
) Therefore the demons are called evil spirits, unclean spirits,
powers of darkness, and so on. "For our struggle is not against
flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Eph 6:12)
So it is plain that anything in the
minds of demons cannot be holy, or lead to true holiness by itself.
The demons clearly know many things about God and religion, but they
do not have a holy knowledge. The things they know in their minds
may make impressions in their hearts- indeed we do see that the
demons have very strong feelings about God; so strong, in fact, that
they "shudder." But they are not holy feelings because they have
nothing to do with the work of the Holy Spirit. If this is true of
the experience of demons, it is also true of the experience of men.
Notice this, that it does not
matter how genuine, sincere, and powerful these thoughts and
feelings are. Demons, being spiritual creatures, know God in a way
that men on earth cannot. Their knowledge of God's existence is more
concrete than any man's knowledge could be. Because they are locked
in battle with the forces of good, they have a sincerity of
knowledge as well. On one occasion Jesus cast out some demons. "What
do you want with us, Son of God?" they shouted. "Have you come here
to torture us before the appointed time?" (Mat 8:29) What could
possibly be a more clear-cut experience than this? However, while
their thoughts and feelings are genuine and powerful, they are not
holy.
Also we can see that the holy
objects of their thoughts doesn't make their thoughts and
feelings holy. The demons know God exists! Matthew 8:29 shows they
know more about Jesus than many people do! They are thoroughly that
Jesus will judge them some day, because He is holy. But it is
clear that genuine, sincere, and powerful thoughts and feelings
about holy, spiritual things, is no proof of God's grace in the
heart. Demons have these things, and look forward to eternal
punishment in hell. If men have no more than what the demons have,
they will suffer in the same way.
Knowledge of God alone is no proof
of salvation.
We may make several conclusions
based on these truths. First, that no matter how much people may
know about God and the Bible, it is no sure sign of salvation. The
devil before his fall, was one of the bright and morning stars, a
flame of fire, one excelling in strength and wisdom. (Isa. 14:12,
Ezek. 28:12-19) Apparently, as one of the chief angels, Satan knew
much about God. Now that he is fallen, his sin has not destroyed his
memories from before. Sin does destroy the spiritual nature, but not
the natural abilities, such as memory. That the fallen angels do
have many natural abilities may be seen from many Bible verses, for
example Eph 6:12 "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood,
but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers
of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly realms." In the same way, the Bible says that Satan is
"more crafty" than other created beings. (Gen 3:1, also 2 Cor. 11:3,
Acts 13:10) Therefore we can see that the Devil has always had great
mental ability and is able to know much about God, the visible and
invisible world, and many other things. Since his job in the
beginning was to be a chief angel before God, it is only natural
that understanding these things has always been of first importance
to him, and that all his activities have to do with these areas of
thoughts, feelings, and knowledge.
Because it was his original
employment to be one of the angels before the very face of God, and
sin does not destroy the memory, it is clear that Satan knows more
about God than just about any other created being. After the fall,
we can see from his activities as a tempter, etc., (Matt 4:3) that
he has been spending his time increasing his knowledge and its
practical applications. That his knowledge is great can be seen in
how tricky he is when tempting people. The craftiness of his lies
shows how clever he is. Surely he could not manage his deceit so
well without an actual and true knowledge of the facts.
This knowledge of God and his works
is from the very beginning. Satan was there from the Creation, as
Job 38:47 shows: "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand. . .while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?" So he must know much about the
way God created the world, and how He governs all the events in the
universe. Furthermore, Satan has seen how God has worked his plan of
redemption in the world; and not as an innocent bystander, but as an
active enemy of God's grace. He saw God work in the lives of Adam
and Eve, in Noah, Abraham, and David. He must have taken a special
interest in the life of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of men, the Word
of God incarnate. How closely did he watch Christ? How carefully did
he observe his miracles and listen to His words? This is because
Satan has set himself against Christ's work, and it is to his
torment and anguish that Satan has watched Christ's work unfold
successfully.
Satan, then, knows much about God
and God's work. He knows heaven first-hand. He knows hell also, with
personal knowledge as its first resident, and has experienced its
torments for all these thousands of years. He must have a great
knowledge of the Bible: at the least, we can see he knew enough to
try tempting our Saviour. Furthermore, he has had years of studying
of the hearts of men, his battlefield where he fights against our
Redeemer. What labours, exertions, and cares the Devil has used over
the centuries as he has deceived men. Only a being with his
knowledge and experience of God's working, and the human heart,
could so imitate true religion and transform himself into an angel
of light. (2 Cor 11:14)
Therefore we can see that there is
no amount of knowledge of God and religion that could prove a person
has been saved from their sin. A man may talk about the Bible, God,
and the Trinity. He may be able to preach a sermon about Jesus
Christ and everything He has done. Imagine, somebody might be able
to speak about the way of salvation and the work of the Holy Spirit
in the hearts of sinners, perhaps even enough to show others how to
become Christians. All these things might build up the church and
enlighten the world, yet it is not a sure proof of the saving grace
of God in a person's heart.
It also may be seen that for people
to merely agree with the Bible is no sure sign of salvation. James
2:19 shows that the demons really, truly, believe the truth. Just as
they believe there is one God, they agree with all the truth of the
Bible. The devil is not a heretic: all the articles of his faith are
firmly established in the truth.
It must be understood, that when
the Bible talks about believing that Jesus is the Son of God,
as a proof of God's grace in the heart, the Bible means not a mere
agreement with the truth, but another kind of believing.
"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." (1
John 5:1) This other kind of believing is called "the faith
of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to
godliness." (Titus 1:1) There is a spiritual holding to the truth,
which will be explained later on.
Religious experiences are no proof
of salvation.
Some people have strong religious
experiences, and think of them as proof of God's working in their
hearts. Often these experiences give people a sense of the
importance of the spiritual world, and the reality of divine things.
However, these, too, are no sure proof of salvation. Demons and
damned human beings have many spiritual experiences which have a
great effect on their heart attitudes. They live in the spiritual
world and see first-hand what it is like. Their sufferings show them
the worth of salvation and the worth of a human soul in the most
powerful way imaginable. The parable in Luke chapter 16 teaches this
clearly, as the suffering man asks that Lazarus might be sent to
tell his brothers to avoid this place of torment. No doubt people in
hell now have a distinct idea of the vastness of eternity, and of
the shortness of life. They are completely convinced that all the
things of this life are unimportant when compared to the experiences
of the eternal world. People now in hell have a great sense of the
preciousness of time, and of the wonderful opportunities people
have, who have the privilege of hearing the Gospel. They are
completely aware of the foolishness of their sin, of neglecting
opportunities, and ignoring the warnings of God. When sinners find
out by personal experience the final result of their sin there is
"weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matt 13:42) So even the most
powerful religious experiences are not a sure sign of God's grace in
the heart.
Demons and damned people also have
a strong sense of God's majesty and power. God's power is most
clearly displayed in his execution of divine vengeance upon his
enemies. "What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power
known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath-prepared
for destruction?" (Rom 9:22) Shuddering, the devils await their
final punishment, under the strongest sense of God's majesty. They
feel it now, of course, but in the future it will show to the
greatest degree, when the Lord Jesus "is revealed from heaven in
blazing fire with his powerful angels." (2 Thess 2:7) On that day,
they will desire to be run away, to be hidden from the presence of
God. "Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see
him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth
will mourn because of him." (Rev 1:7) So everyone will see him in
the glory of His Father. But, obviously, not all who see him will be
saved.
Objection #1- People are different
from demons.
Now it is possible that some people
might object to all this, saying that ungodly men in this world are
quite different from demons. They are under different circumstances
and are different kind of beings. An objector might say, "Those
things that are visible and present to demons are invisible and
future to men. Besides, people have the disadvantage of having
bodies, which restrain the soul, and keep people from seeing these
spiritual things first-hand. Therefore, even if demons do have a
great knowledge and personal experience of the things of God, and
have no grace, the conclusion does not apply to me." Or, put another
way: if people have these things in this life, it may very well be a
sure sign of God's grace in their hearts.
In reply, it is agreed that no man
in this life has ever had the degree of these things as the
demons have them. No person has ever shuddered, with the same amount
of fear that the demons shudder with. No man, in this life, can ever
have the same kind of knowledge that the Devil has. It is clear that
demons and damned men understand the vastness of eternity, and the
importance of the other world, more than any living person, and so
they crave salvation all the more.
But we can see that men in this
world can have experiences of the same kind as those of
demons and damned people. They have the same mental outlook, the
same opinions and emotions, and the same kind of impressions on the
mind and heart. Notice, that for the apostle James it is a
convincing argument. He claims that if people think believing in one
God is proof of God's grace, it is not proof, because demons believe
the same. James is not referring to the act of believing only, but
also to the emotions and actions that go along with their belief.
Shuddering is an example of emotions from the heart. This shows that
if people have the same kind of mental outlook, and respond from the
heart in the same way, it is no sure sign of grace.
The Bible does not state how much
people in this world may see God's glory, and not have God's grace
in their hearts. We are not told exactly to what degree God reveals
himself to certain people, and how much they will respond in their
hearts. It is very tempting to say that if a person has a certain
amount of religious experience, or a certain amount of truth, they
must be saved. Perhaps it is even possible for some unsaved people
to have greater experiences than some of those who have grace in
their hearts! So it is wrong to look at experience or knowledge in
terms of amount. Men who have a genuine work of the Holy
Spirit in their hearts have experiences and knowledge of a different
kind.
Objection #2- People can have
religious feelings that demons cannot.
At this point, someone might answer
these thoughts by saying, "I agree with you. I see that believing in
God, seeing His majesty and holiness, and knowing that Jesus died
for sinners is not proof of grace in my heart. I agree that demons
can know these things as well. But I have some things they don't
have. I have joy, peace, and love. Demons can't have them, so that
must show that I am saved."
Yes, it is true that you have
something more than a demon can have, but it is nothing
better than a demon could have. A person's experience of love,
joy, etc., may not be because they have any cause in them different
from a demon, but just different circumstances. The causes, or
origins, of their feelings are the same. This is why these
experiences are no better than those of demons. To explain further:
All the things that were discussed
before about demons and damned people, arise from two main causes,
natural understanding and self-love. When they think about
themselves, these two things are what determine their feelings and
response. Natural understanding shows them that God is holy, while
they are wicked. God is infinite, but they are limited. God is
powerful, and they are weak. Self-love gives them a sense of the
importance of religion, the eternal world, and a longing after
salvation. When these two causes work together, demons and damned
men become aware of the awesome majesty of God, whom they know will
be their Judge. They know that God's judgment will be perfect and
their punishment will be forever. Therefore, these two causes
together with their senses will bring about their anguish on that
judgment day, when they see the outward glory of Christ and His
saints.
The reason many people feel joy,
peace, and love today, while demons do not, may be more due to their
circumstances, rather than any difference in their hearts. The
causes in their hearts are the same. For example, the Holy Spirit is
now at work in the world keeping all of mankind from being as wicked
as they could be (2 Thess 2:17). This is in contrast to demons, who
are just as wicked as they can be all the time. Furthermore, God in
his mercy gives gifts to all people, such as the rain for crops
(Matt 5:45), heat from the sun, etc. Not only that, but often people
receive many things in life to bring them happiness, such as
personal relationships, pleasures, music, good health, and so on.
Most important of all, many people have heard news of hope: God has
sent a Saviour, Jesus Christ, who died to save sinners. In these
circumstances, the natural understanding of people can cause them to
feel things that demons never can.
Self-love is a powerful force in
the hearts of men, strong enough without grace to cause people to
love those who love them, "But if you love those who love you, what
credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them."
(Luke 6:32) It is a natural thing for a person who sees God being
merciful, and who knows that they are not as bad as they
could be, to therefore be sure of God's love for them. If your love
for God comes only from your feelings that God loves you, or because
you have heard that Christ died for you, or something similar, the
source of your love to God is only self-love. This reigns in the
hearts of demons as well.
Imagine the situation of the
demons. They know they are unrestrained in their wickedness. They
know God is their enemy and always will be. Although they are
without any hope, still they are active and fighting. Just think,
what if they had some of the hope that people have? What if demons,
with their knowledge of God, had their wickedness restrained?
Imagine if a demon, after all his fears about God's judgment, was
suddenly led to imagine that God might be his Friend? That God might
forgive him and let him, sin and all, into heaven? Oh the joy, the
wonder, the gratitude we would see! Would not this demon be a great
lover of God, since, after all everybody loves people who help them?
What else could cause feelings so powerful and sincere? Is it any
wonder, that so many people are deceived this way? Especially since
people have the demons to promote this delusion. They have been
promoting it now for many centuries, and alas they are very good at
it.
True Spiritual experiences have a
different source.
Now we come to the question, if all
these various experiences and feelings come from nothing more than
demons are capable of, what are the kinds of experiences that are
truly spiritual and holy? What do I have to find in my own heart, as
a sure sign of God's grace there? What are the differences that show
them to be from the Holy Spirit?
This is the answer: those feelings
and experiences which are good signs of God's grace in the heart
differ from the experience of demons in their source and in
their results.
Their source is the sense of
the overwhelming holy beauty and loveliness of the things of
God. When a person grasps in his mind, or better yet, when he feels
his own heart held captive by the attractiveness of the Divine, this
is an unmistakable sign of God's working.
The demons and damned in hell do
not now, and never will experience even the tiniest bit of this.
Before their fall, the demons did have this sense of God. But in
their fall, they lost it, the only thing they could lose of their
knowledge of God. We have seen how the demons have very clear ideas
about how powerful God is, his justice, holiness, and so on. They
know a lot of facts about God. But now they haven't a clue
about what God is like. They cannot know what God is like any
more than a blind man can know about colors! Demons can have a
strong sense God's awesome majesty, but they don't see his
loveliness. They have observed His work among the human race for
these thousands of years, indeed with the closest attention; but
they never see a glimmer of His beauty. No matter how much they know
about God (and we have seen that they know very much indeed) the
knowledge they have will never bring them to this higher, spiritual
knowing what God is like. On the contrary, the more they know
about God, the more they hate Him. The beauty of God consists
primarily in this holiness, or moral excellence, and this is what
they hate the most. It is because God is holy that the demons hate
Him. One could suppose that if God were to be less holy, the demons
would hate Him less. No doubt demons would hate any holy Being, no
matter what He was like otherwise. But surely they hate this Being
all the more, for being infinitely holy, infinitely wise, and
infinitely powerful!
Wicked people, including those
alive today, will on the day of judgment see all there is to see of
Jesus Christ, except His beauty and loveliness. There is not one
thing about Christ that we can think of, that will not be set before
them in the strongest light on that brilliant day. The wicked will
see Jesus "coming in clouds with great power and glory." (Mark
13:26) They will see his outward glory, which is far, far greater
than we can possibly imagine now. You know the wicked will be
thoroughly convinced of all who Christ is. They will be convinced
about His omniscience, as they see all their sins replayed and
evaluated. They will know first-hand Christ's justice, as their
sentences are announced. His authority will be made utterly
convincing when every knee will bow, and every tongue confess Jesus
as Lord. (Phil 2:10,11) The divine majesty will be impressed upon
them in quite an effective way, as the wicked are poured into hell
itself, and enter into their final state of suffering and death (Rev
20:14,15) When that happens, all their knowledge of God, as true and
as powerful as it may be, will be worth nothing, and less than
nothing, because they will not see Christ's beauty.
Therefore, it is this seeing the
loveliness of Christ that makes the difference between the saving
grace of the Holy Spirit, and the experiences of demons. This sight
or sense is what makes true Christian experience different from
everything else. The faith of God's elect people is based on this.
When a person sees the excellence of the gospel, he senses the
beauty and loveliness of the divine scheme of salvation. His mind is
convinced that it is of God, and he believes it with all his heart.
As the apostle Paul says in 2 Cor 4:34, "even if our gospel is
veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age
has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the
light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of
God." That is to say, as was explained before, unbelievers can see
that there is a gospel, and understand the facts about it, but they
do not see its light. The light of the gospel is the glory of
Christ, his holiness and beauty. Right after this we read, 2 Cor 4:6
"For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his
light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Christ." Clearly, it is this divine
light, shining into our hearts, that enables us to see the beauty of
the gospel and have a saving belief in Christ. This supernatural
light shows us the superlative beauty and loveliness of Jesus, and
convinces us of His sufficiency as our Saviour. Only such a
glorious, majestic Saviour can be our Mediator, standing between
guilty, hell-deserving sinners such as ourselves, and an infinitely
holy God. This supernatural light gives us a sense of Christ that
convinces us in a way nothing else ever could.
A true spiritual experience
transforms the heart.
When a most wicked sinner is caused
to see Christ's divine loveliness, he no longer speculates why God
should be interested in him, to save him. Before, he could not
understand how the blood of Christ could pay the penalty for sins.
But now he can see the preciousness of Christ's blood, and how it is
worthy to be accepted as the ransom for the worst of sins. Now the
soul can recognize that he is accepted by God, not because of who he
is, but because of the value God puts on the blood, obedience, and
intercession of Christ. Seeing this value and worth gives the poor
guilty soul rest which cannot be found in any sermon or booklet.
When a person comes to see the
proper foundation of faith and trust with his own eyes, this is
saving faith. "For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to
the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life." (John 6:40) "I
have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They
were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now
they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I
gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew
with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent
me." (John 17:6-8)
It is this sight of the divine
beauty of Christ that captivates the wills and draws the hearts of
men. A sight of the outward greatness of God in His glory may
overwhelm men, and be more than they can endure. This will be seen
on the day of judgment, when the wicked will be brought before God.
They will be overwhelmed, yes, but the hostility of the heart will
remain in full strength and the opposition of the will continue. But
on the other hand, a single ray of the moral and spiritual glory of
God and of the supreme loveliness of Christ shone into the heart
overcomes all hostility. The soul is inclined to love God as if by
an omnipotent power, so that now not only the understanding, but the
whole being receives and embraces the loving Saviour.
This sense of the beauty of Christ
is the beginning of true saving faith in the life of a true convert.
This is quite different from any vague feeling that Christ loves him
or died for him. These sort of fuzzy feelings can cause a sort of
love and joy, because the person feels a gratitude for escaping the
punishment of their sin. In actual fact, these feelings are based on
self-love, and not on a love for Christ at all. It is a sad thing
that so many people are deluded by this false faith. On the other
hand, a glimpse of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ
causes in the heart a supreme genuine love for God. This is
because the divine light shows the excellent loveliness of God's
nature. A love based on this is far, far above anything coming from
self-love, which demons can have as well as men. The true love of
God which comes from this sight of His beauty causes a spiritual and
holy joy in the soul; a joy in God, and exulting in Him. There is no
rejoicing in ourselves, but rather in God alone.
Genuine spiritual experiences have
different results.
The sight of the beauty of divine
things will cause true desires after the things of God. These
desires are different from the longings of demons, which happen
because the demons know their doom awaits them, and they wish it
could somehow be otherwise. The desires that come from this sight of
Christ's beauty are natural free desires, like a baby desiring milk.
Because these desires are so different from their counterfeits, they
help to distinguish genuine experiences of God's grace from the
false.
False spiritual experiences have a
tendency to cause pride, which is the devil's special sin. "He must
not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under
the same judgment as the devil." (1 Tim 3:6) Pride is the inevitable
result of false spiritual experiences, even though they are often
covered with a disguise of great humility. False experience is
enamored with self and grows on self. It lives by showing itself in
one way or another. A person can have great love for God, and be
proud of the greatness of his love. He can be very humble, and very
proud indeed of his humility. But the emotions and experiences that
come from God's grace are exactly opposite. God's true working in
the heart causes humility. They do not cause any kind of showiness
or self-exaltation. That sense of the awesome, holy, glorious beauty
of Christ kills pride and humbles the soul. The light of God's
loveliness, and that alone, shows the soul its own ugliness. When a
person really grasps this, he inevitably begins a process of making
God bigger and bigger, and himself smaller and smaller.
Another result of God's grace
working in the heart is that the person will hate every evil and
respond to God with a holy heart and life. False experiences may
cause a certain amount of zeal, and even a great deal of what is
commonly called religion. However it is not a zeal for good works.
Their religion is not a service of God, but rather a service of
self. This is how the apostle James puts it himself in this very
context, "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons
believe that-and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that
faith without deeds is useless ?" (James 2:19-20) In other words,
deeds, or good works, are evidence of a genuine experience of God's
grace in the heart. "We know that we have come to know him if we
obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do
what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him." (1 John
2:34) When the heart has been ravished by the beauty of Christ, how
else can it respond?
The sight of Christ's beauty-
God's greatest gift!
How excellent is that inner
goodness and true religion that comes from this sight of the beauty
of Christ! Here you have the most wonderful experiences of saints
and angels in heaven. Here you have the best experience of Jesus
Christ Himself. Even though we are mere creatures, it is a sort of
participation in God's own beauty. "Through these he has given us
his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may
participate in the divine nature." (2 Pet 1:4) "God disciplines us
for our good, that we may share in his holiness." (Heb 12:10)
Because of the power of this divine working, there is a mutual
indwelling of God and His people. "God is love. Whoever lives in
love lives in God, and God in him." (1 John 4:16)
This special relationship has to
make the person involved as happy and as blessed as any creature in
existence. This is a special gift of God, which he gives only to his
special favorites. Gold, silver, diamonds, and earthly kingdoms are
given by God to people who the Bible calls dogs and pigs. But this
great gift of beholding Christ's beauty, is the special blessing of
God to His dearest children. Flesh and blood cannot give this gift:
only God can bestow it. This was the special gift which Christ died
to obtain for his elect. It is the highest token of his everlasting
love, the best fruit of his labours, and the most precious purchase
of his blood.
By this gift, more than anything
else, the saints shine as lights in the world. This gift, more than
anything else, is their comfort. It is impossible that the soul who
possesses this gift should ever perish. This is the gift of eternal
life. It is eternal life begun: those who have it can never die. It
is the dawning of the light of glory. It comes from heaven, it has a
heavenly quality, and it will take its bearer to heaven. Those who
have this gift may wander in the wilderness or be tossed by waves on
the ocean, but they will arrive in heaven at last. There the
heavenly spark will be made perfect and increased. In heaven the
souls of the saints will be transformed into a bright and pure
flame, and they will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their
Father. Amen.
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