THE REFORMATION

Soon we shall again remember the works of the Lord in the Reformation. Never may we forget what God has done in the church of Europe. The year 1517 is written in the annals of church history as the year in which we consider the Reformation to have begun. However, it did not exactly begin on that evening of October 31, when Luther nailed His 95 theses on the door of the castle in Wittenberg. That was his first public act, a very minor act in the eyes of Luther, but the result of what had long been taking place in his life.

In 1512 the light of the Gospel arose for him while meditating on Romans 1:17. That was the end of the severe wrestling of a man who was seeking a gracious God. Luther had sought peace with God in the way that the church of his day showed him. He had walked the legalistic path prescribed for him to the end. He went into a monastery because he thought he would find rest for his soul there, and steeped himself in the traditions of the church. But not the confession, nor the prescribed prayers and penances, nor self-chastisements could give him peace, because in all those things he found his own wicked heart.

The word righteousness in Scripture persecuted him. When he found the word again in Rom. 1:17, he cried out, “Will you never cease cursing me?” In his thoughts not only the law, but also the Gospel cursed him. For according to him righteousness seemed to be the vindictive righteousness of God. Then the light arose for him over this matter. It is not the vindictive righteousness that is revealed in the Gospel, but the granted righteousness of Christ, a strange righteousness that was granted to him out of grace.

Later he said, “This was for me as a gate to Paradise. Luther had deeply understood what he called “the blessed exchange”. “Thou, Lord Jesus, art my righteousness, and I am thy sin.”

The Reformation began with the conversion of one man, one sinner who understood that he had no righteousness before God but was justified freely through the redemption that is in Christ.

In this matter the Reformation is unique. For ages the church was in the bonds of tradition and legalism. Even when they spoke of the Lord Jesus, they spoke of Him in a legalistic manner, presenting Him as as example. The access to Christ was obstructed by placing the saints before Him as mediators, especially the virgin Mary. No one understood anything of the liberty that Christ grants. The word grace was emaciated to mean only a reward for good works. Faith was a darkened faith, because men had to believe what the church said, and not what the Lord says in His Word. By no one in the history of the church was the doctrine of the justification of the ungodly brought forward so prominently as by the simple monk of Wittenberg. He made these words, “Sola scriptura, sola fide, sola gratia, solus Christus (that is: only Scripture, only faith, only grace, and only Christ). Luther made them shine brightly.

The Reformation is unique. We can never go back before the Reformation, for before the Reformation it was but darkness as experienced by Luther. Even the church fathers spoke only of this as a heavily veiled deep secret. It was an act of God. The mighty eternal King of Zion drew the church out of the darkness of unbelief and legalism. He built the walls of Zion. He took pity on her ruins. He caused the Word of His grace to shine forth again. “For He hath looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth; to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death; to declare the Name of the LORD in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem; when the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD” (Ps. 102:19–22).

This is written for the generations to come, for us, but also for our children. We must remember these works of the Lord. We may not forget them. We have no reason to be proud. I thought telling these things that were written for the generations to come must not lead us to pride, but to deep humiliation before the Lord. For what is left of that mighty stream of the Spirit that sprang forth in Europe in Wittenberg and proceeded via Calvin in Geneva and Bucer in Straatsburg? We must acknowledge that we are standing at the ruins of the Reformation, that the stones of the ruin lie roundabout us. We cannot lay the blame of it upon the Lord. It is our fault. We have not preserved the glory of that work.

Luther has said, “After me others shall come that shall darken this doctrine again.” And that has happened. We have no cause to glory, but rather to pray as the poet of Psalm 102 prayed. He prayed for Zion. He believed that the Lord would still arise upon Zion, and rebuild her as of old, that He shall appear in His glory, and that He will regard the prayer of the destitute.

We must take heed, also for ourselves, when we consider these things. I wrote that the Reformation began with a conversion. That is true for every generation, also for this generation. The church must be ecclesia reformata semper reformanda, that means: a reformed church always reforming. If we forget that, the church always sinks away in the legalism that arises out of man. We must always ask ourselves whether we still confess and experience what Luther confessed and experienced. We must not in self-sufficiency think that we still have it, but ask ourselves whether we have kept this treasure of the Gospel. In careful obedience to the Scripture we must examine ourselves whether we exercise this faith that was delivered to us by the saints. For the church of those days and of our days there remains one way of salvation, and that is the way of grace in Christ Jesus. All that is outside of Him, is insufficient, for only in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. His righteousness delivers from death. And that righteousness we must have for our own. Orthodox contemplation shall not save us, but only the communion of faith and spirit with the Vine shall give us the life that remains forever. And that faith lives on the promises that in Christ Jesus are yea and Amen, unto the glory of God.

The Just shall live by faith.

(Translated from the Saambinder)

Rev. D. Rietdijk

GOD’S PEOPLE BENT TO BACKSLIDING

Part II

Last time we have considered together backsliding in the church of God in general, seeing how it spreads from step-to-step: (1) worldliness, (2) unbelief, (3) indifference, (4) ignorance, (5) spiritual deadness, (6) man-centeredness, and (7) both an unholy and no holy expectation in God. In closing it was stated that the backsliding of the church is inseparably connected with the backsliding of God’s people, and the promise was made to attempt to go further with our meditations on backsliding by seeking to uncover how the awful plague of backsliding also spreads from step-to-step in the lives of God’s own and dearly-beloved children: “And my people are bent to backsliding from Me,” (Hosea 11:7).

“MY people,” the Lord says. In its widest sense “My people” refers to Israel or the church in general, but in the strict sense of the word “My people” refers only to God’s chosen, elect people within Israel and within the church. In the strict sense of the word an unconverted person cannot backslide because the very meaning of the word backslide means to depart from the ways of the Lord with the heart. In others words, something must have been placed in our heart in order to backslide from it, and by nature our heart is never with the Lord so it cannot backslide from the Lord. Strictly speaking, the world and church can and apostasize from the Lord, but it is God’ child alone who can and does backslide from that God to whom the soul is bound inseparably.

“My people.” It is as if the triune God is saying, “My people who are so close to and bound up with My Divine heart, will, purposes, and eternal good pleasure, whom I have called the apple of My eye, My Jewels, My holy ones, My anointed ones, My lambs and doves, My little children, lilies in My garden, plants of paradise, stars of heaven, temples of the living God, citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, kings and priests unto Me, heirs and joint-heirs with My Son—yes, that people are bent to backsliding from Me.”

If backsliding occurred even once in the entire life of God’s children after the Lord had bedewed them with saving grace, it would be unspeakably abominable. Oh, the grievousness of sinning the sin of backsliding even once for God’s people—to backslide against Him who has been nothing but a Well-doing, All-doing, and Right-doing God. Even to backslide once in their thoughts only, would already be sufficient reason for God to cancel out forever His ever-faithful, ever-constant, and never-to-be-canceled love.

But the condition is worse—much worse. Hosea says they are bent, i.e. inclined and prone to backsliding. In other words, in spite of the unspeakable depth, height, and breadth of Divine love over them, towards them, and revealed within them, they will still always and continually backslide from the Lord if left to themselves.

“Bent to backsliding”: is it not true, people of God? Is it not also true that there was a time in your life when you would not have believed these words of Hosea 11:7—a time when, in the flush of first love, prayer was your daily breath, the Word of God your daily food, the means of grace your daily life, the people of God your daily bosom friends, the providence of God your daily study, and the house of God your one desire daily because there you tasted communion with the Lord from week to week?

At that time of first love the word “backsliding” was foreign to your very vocabulary. At that time sin was sin, grace was grace, God was God, Christ was Christ, and you could say with Huntington (by means of the three Divine jewels of faith, hope, and love): “I hope against hope that I am a S.S. (saved sinner)”. At that time you could testify with Rutherford, “Oh, my Lord, if there was a broad hell betwixt me and Thee, and if I could not get at Thee except by wading through it, I would not think twice, but I would plunge through it all, if only I might embrace Thee and call Thee mine.” At that time the Lord could also say of you, “Thus saith the Lord, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown,” (Jer. 2:2). At that time, had you been accused of being “bent to backsliding”, would you not have answered the same as Hazael, “But what, is thy servant a dog that he should do this great thing,” (II Kings 8:13) or with Joseph, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9).

But how is it now, people of God? Shall we not hear a different answer? Must you not say, “It is all true. I am bent, prone, inclined towards backsliding. I am prone to going the wrong way, straying from the right lane, wandering from the narrow path, yes, handing the Lord certificates of divorcement continually by means of the mighty stream of foul transgressions that prevail from day to day. In myself, that is all I am: a large, horrible pit filled with the miry clay of backsliding (Ps. 40:2). It seems that my whole life is contained in the word backsliding. From the moment that I might hope the Lord has begun with me and in me, even until this day, I can claim nothing more of myself than that I am a ‘perpetual backslider’ (Jer. 8:5). Shall I ever come free even for a few moments from the cancer of backsliding, I am convinced it shall only be out of sovereign grace, and it must all be the Lord’s dealings and doings. My only hope is recorded plainly in Psalm 40, “He brought me also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet upon a rock. He established my goings.”

But how do God’s people come into that ever-deepening rut and horrible pit of backsliding? Who brings them there? How does the sin of backsliding spread throughout their entire spiritual and natural life? What marks may I examine myself by to know if I am in a backsliding condition? These are all crucial questions with respect to our subject at hand.

In the first place, God’s people bring themselves into backsliding. In themselves they remain children of Adam their whole life. They shall never be able to shake off that old Adam-nature that clings to them with all its sin-bent tendencies and its sin-prone nature.

The life of God’s people is illustrated so simply but fully in a frequent scene that meets our eyes during those weeks after having heavy snowstorms in this area. The roads have become muddy and nearly impassable. Looking down the many sideroads, only one set of tracks appear visible. Each vehicle inevitably follows the same tracks, making the ruts increasingly deeper, until some finally become stuck and can go no further.

Similarly, God’s children are prone to fall and ride in the tracks of that muddy, polluted, filthy Adamnature that rides with them no matter where they are or what kind of vehicle they are traveling in. The further they go the deeper they come in the rut, inch by inch and step by step. One thing leads to another.

Although it goes against everything within them, still it is a blessing spiritually when they may finally run stuck with themselves, for then the Lord shall open the door, bring them out, show them what they have done, where they are, and where they are going.

(1) Leading them back to the beginning of the spiritual rut they have brought themselves into, the Lord shows them that the first step of backsliding takes place in THE INNER CLOSET OF SECRET PRAYER. Formerly, prayer-time was anticipated with delight. There was a longing to be alone with the Lord, to speak with Him, and to pour out the heart before Him with all its needs, confessions, and vows. Then everything was spread out before the Lord as if He knew nothing about them, and yet with a deep consciousness that He knows them better than they know themselves.

But gradually their open prayer-life began to seep away. Often even before they are aware of it their prayers become more a matter of words and tongue than communion and heart. Form and coldness increasingly replace love and necessity. Before long the morning prayer is all but dropped. It is no longer critical to see God before man in order to begin their day rightly. The prayer at bedtime is shortened. Wandering thoughts are multiplied. Prayer throughout the day mysteriously vanishes. Before they could not pick up a straw without prayer, and now they can read and hear God’s Word prayerlessly. Before their prayer-life consisted of more “eye-open” praying than “knee” praying for prayer was their life day and night—on the road, at work, in the home, in public and in private.

Now formality and deadness conquers power and access, causing prayer-omission to often seem more reverent than prayer-performance. The knees are still bowed, the words are still uttered—but where is love, urgency, necessity, and dependency? Where are the intercessory petitions for husband, wife, children, church and nation? If the Lord grants honesty and spiritual sight they must complain, “It is nothing but prayerless praying; oh, for the former liberty to pray in prayer!”

(2) Soon the leprosy of backsliding spreads to include all the MEANS OF GRACE. Church attendance is not neglected but the heart is not in it as before. The public means of grace are substituted for a close and secret walk with God. Physically the sanctuary is entered, but spiritually the soul takes up its abode in the outer courts of the temple. The child of God can no longer bring his soul beyond the vestibule. No wonder the minister does not seem to be so experimental nor soul-searching as he was before. No wonder the reading services sometimes become more of a burden than a delight.

The Bible is still read regularly, but where is the spiritual relish with which it was read in former times? Where is the former application, the former cutting-off, the former burning desire to be alone with the Word of God even if it did nothing but condemn and curse? Where are all the holy precepts, precious promises, sweet consolations, faithful warnings, affectionate admonitions, tender rebukes, and conquering lessons which abounded on its sacred pages in former times? Oh, it remains a dry Bible when the heart is dry. Sweet tears no longer bedew its pages. Forced tears are too few and far between, and too hypocritical to effectually water the spiritual seed in their soul. In desperation, former received texts are resorted to in an effort to revive long-spoiled manna, but to no avail. Dryness remains dryness.

The center and heart of all the means of grace, Jesus Christ, becomes a missing Person again. He, who was the substance of their life, the source of their sanctification, the spring-head of their joys, the theme of their song, the one glorious object upon whom their eyes were resting, the mark towards which they were ever pressing—silently withdraws Himself. No longer is their guilt carried to His blood, nor their corruptions carried to His grace, nor their trials carried to His heart. Like the bride they arise to seek their Beloved, but He is nowhere to be found, and the sad truth is that most of the time instead of blaming themselves they begin rather with the Lord, or ministers, office-bearers, and churches. Talking about religion becomes a substitute for having Christ in the heart.

(3) Manifold INNER CORRUPTIONS begin to multiply. Their earnest prayer is no longer, “Search me O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting,” (Ps. 139:23–24). Instead it becomes within by renewal: fig leaves, hiding, and “the woman Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree”. Before it was only “I did eat”, but now it becomes anyone’s fault but their own—even the Lord’s fault. No, they would not dare to say this with their mouth, but it is revealed in the practice of their life. There was a time when their whole life could be summed up in this truism: “everything the Lord does is right and everything I do is wrong” —but now the tables begin to turn back (again) to self and away from the Lord.

Excuses encourage hypocrisy. Gradually they become more interested in learning the language of God’s people than experiencing it for themselves. When they do talk of the Lord’s ways, self begins to creep in more and more, at first half-ashamed, and later without blushing. With their mouth it is all God’s free grace, but deep down in their heart it is self-exaltation. More and more they walk on the water by self-strength, floating on the raft of their own experiences, without any drownings with Peter, “Lord, save me.” Experiences are embraced as saviors instead of Christ. They begin to burn incense to their own experience, and miss inside what is recorded in II Kings 18:4, “Hezekiah brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense unto it.” When “breaking grace” is missing, lowliness of mind yields to spiritual pride.

A double life then begins to emerge—a double life of which they are only half-conscious. It is a life in which the zeal for God’s cause and honor burns at low ebb, while what man thinks of “me” takes the upperhand. There becomes more need to convince others that I am living for God than there is need felt within to live with God.

Double lives, in turn, multiply secret sins. Sins that were thought to be laying long in the grave, resurrect with even more power than before grace was received. And, what is worse, often they are hardly afraid of sin’s power. Not that they run after sin as they did before the moment of regeneration, but now sin runs after them, and their fear and resistance against it becomes increasingly weaker. The offending of God does not remain the overriding burden of sin, but now the punishment of sin again becomes their primary motive for saying “no” to temptation. It is true they still confess sin as sin and they still make vows, but both are artificial as their confessing is without repentance and their vowing not followed by reformation. The bosom sin continues without an urgent necessity that its deepest roots be permanently pulled out. Sin is spoken against with the mouth, but defended in practice. On occasion, even fuel can be provided for it in spite of conscience (Rom. 13:14).

Self-examination becomes less frequent, less thorough, less prayerful. Consequently, hand-in-hand with their lessening spiritual life, the Pharisee within is more and more coming to the front of the temple. Gradually, piously, they become a bigger saint with a smaller Savior.

Presumption follows hard on the heels of decreasing self-examination. In spite of God’s silence and their own failures to withstand trials, temptations, and weaknesses in their own strength, they continue to increasingly presume that all is well both in their state and condition. Even the chastising and warning hand of God’s providence passes by unheeded (Micah 6:9).

Deeper and deeper the child of God drives into the rut of backsliding. Next time, the Lord willing, we shall see that the rut can even become deeper.

People of God, is backsliding the present condition of your soul? Is not your life found in the abovementioned steps of departing from the Lord? Do not disguise the symptoms of a sickly condition. Do not flinch from upright self-examination. The mark of true wisdom is the ascertaining of the worst of the disease and the probing to the depth of the wound. Though painful, it is both beneficial and crucial to thorough recovery that we come to know the exact condition of our soul before God.

Let us not place ourselves above backsliding. William Jenkyn once wrote, “The best way never to fall is ever to fear.”

May God give us light to see ourselves in the light of His Word. That we may take to heart the warning of William Gurnall, “None will have such a sad parting from Christ, as those who went half-way with Him and then left Him.”

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