In this place I would say a plain word or two to those who understand the method of justification by faith which is in Christ Jesus, but whose trouble is that they cannot cease from sin. We can never be happy, restful, or spiritually healthy until we become holy. We must be rid of sin. Yet, how is this done? This is the life-or-death question for many. The old nature is very strong, and they have tried to curb and tame it; but it will not be restrained, and they find themselves, though anxious to be better, if anything they grow worse than before. The heart is so hard, the will is so obstinate, the passions are so furious, the thoughts are so volatile, the imagination is so ungovernable, the desires are so wild, that the man feels that he has a den of wild beasts within him, which will eat him up sooner than be ruled by him. We may say of our fallen nature what the Lord said to Job concerning Leviathan: “Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you leash him for your maidens?” (Job 41:5). A man might as well hope to hold the north wind in the hollow of his hand as expect to control those boisterous powers by his own strength which dwell within his fallen nature. This is a greater achievement than any of the fabled labors of Hercules: God is wanted here.
“I could believe that Jesus would forgive sin,” says one, “but then my trouble is that I sin again, and that I feel such awful tendencies to evil within me. As surely as a stone, if it is thrown up into the air, soon comes down again to the ground, so do I, though I am sent up to heaven by earnest preaching, I return again to my insensible state. Sadly, I am easily fascinated with the serpent’s eyes of sin, and am therefore held as under a spell, so that I cannot escape from my own foolishness.”
Dear friend, salvation would be a sadly incomplete matter if it did not deal with this part of our fallen condition. We want to be purified as well as pardoned. Justification without sanctification would not be salvation at all. It would call the leper clean, and leave him to die of his disease; it would forgive the rebellion and allow the rebel to remain an enemy to his king. It would remove the consequences but overlook the cause, and this would leave an endless and hopeless task before us. It would stop the stream for a time, but leave an open fountain of defilement, which would sooner or later break forth with increased power. Remember that the Lord Jesus came to take away sin in three ways; He came to remove the penalty of sin, the power of sin, and, at last, the presence of sin. At once you may reach to the second part-- the power of sin may immediately be broken; and so you will be on the road to the third, namely, the removal of the presence of sin. We “know that He was manifested to take away our sins” (1 John 3:5).
The angel said of our Lord, “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Our Lord Jesus came to destroy in us the works of the devil. That which was said at our Lord’s birth was also declared in His death; for when the soldier pierced His side immediately blood and water came forth, to set forth the double cure by which we are delivered from the guilt and the defilement of sin.
If, however, you are troubled about the power of sin, and about the tendencies of your nature, as you well may be, here is a promise for you. Have faith in it, for it stands in that covenant of grace that is ordered in all things, and certain. God, who cannot lie, has said in Ezekiel 36:26,
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
You see, it is all “I will,” and “I will.” “I will give,” and “I will take away.” This is the royal style of the King of kings, who is able to accomplish all His will. No Word of His shall ever fall to the ground.
The Lord knows quite well that you cannot change your own heart, and cannot cleanse your own nature; but He also knows that He can do both. He can cause the Ethiopian to change his skin, and the leopard his spots. Hear this, and be astonished: He can create you a second time; He can cause you to be born again. This is a miracle of grace, but the Holy Spirit will perform it. It would be a very wonderful thing if one could stand at the foot of Niagara Falls, and could speak a word which should make the river Niagara begin to run up stream, and leap up that great cliff over which it now rolls in astounding force. Nothing but the power of God could achieve that marvel; but that would be more than a fit parallel to what would take place if the course of your nature were altogether reversed. All things are possible with God. He can reverse the direction of your desires and the current of your life, and instead of going downward from God, He can make your whole being reach upward toward God. That is, in fact, what the Lord has promised to do for all who are in the covenant; and we know from Scripture that all believers are in the covenant. Let me read the words again:
“Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19).
What a wonderful promise! And it is yes and amen in Christ Jesus to the glory of God by us. Let’s hold on to it; receive it as true, and set it apart as our very own. Then it shall be fulfilled in us, and we shall have to sing, throughout the days and years, of that wondrous change which the sovereign grace of God has performed in us.
It is well worthy of consideration that when the Lord takes away the stony heart, that deed is done; and when that is once done, no known power can ever take that new heart away which He gives, and that right spirit which He puts within us. “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29); that is, without repentance on His part; He does not take away what He once has given. Let Him renew you and you will be renewed. Man’s reforms and clean-ups soon come to an end, just as the dog returns to his own vomit; but when God puts a new heart into us, the new heart is there forever, and will never harden into stone again. He who made it flesh will keep it so. Herein we may rejoice and be glad forever in that which God creates in the kingdom of His grace.
To put the matter very simply-- did you ever hear of Mr. Rowland Hill’s illustration of the cat and the sow? I will tell it in my own way, to illustrate our Savior’s expressive words-- “You must be born again” (John 3:7). Do you see that cat? What a clean creature she is! How clever she is to wash herself with her tongue and her paws! It is quite a pretty sight! Did you ever see a sow do that? No, you never did. It is contrary to its nature. It prefers to wallow in the mud and muck. Go and teach a sow to wash itself, and see how little success you would have. It would be a great sanitary improvement if swine would be clean. Teach them to wash and clean themselves as the cat has been doing! Useless task. You may wash that sow by force, but it runs back to the muck, and is soon as disgusting as ever. The only way that you can get a sow to wash itself is to transform it into a cat; then it will wash and be clean, but not until then! Suppose that transformation to be accomplished, and then what was difficult or impossible is easy enough; the swine will be suitable, from now on, to sit in your living room and your clean carpets. So it is with an ungodly man; you cannot force him to do what a renewed man does most willingly; you may teach him, and set before him a good example, but he cannot learn the art of holiness, for he has no mind to it; his nature leads him another way. When the Lord makes a new man of him, all things have a different perspective. This change is so huge, that I once heard a convert say, “Either all the world is changed, or else I am.” The new nature follows after right as naturally as the old nature wanders after wrong. What a blessing to receive such a nature! The Holy Spirit can only give this.
Has it ever occurred to you what a wonderful thing it is for the Lord to give a new heart and a right spirit to a man? You have seen a lobster, perhaps, which has fought with another lobster, and lost one of its claws, and a new claw has grown to replace the lost one. That is a remarkable thing; but it is a much more astounding fact that a man should have a new heart given to him. This, indeed, is a miracle beyond the powers of nature. There is a tree. If you cut off one of its limbs, another one may grow in its place; but can you change the tree; can you sweeten sour sap; can you make the thorn bear figs? You can graft something better into it and that is the analogy which nature gives us of the work of grace; but absolutely to change the vital sap of the tree would be a miracle indeed. Such a extraordinary wonder and mystery of power God works in all who believe in Jesus.
If you yield yourself up to His divine working, the Lord will alter your nature; He will restrain the old nature, and breathe new life into you. Put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will take the stony heart out of your flesh, and He will give you a heart of flesh. Where everything was hard, everything shall be tender; where everything was vicious, everything shall be virtuous: where everything tended downward, everything shall rise upward with spontaneous force. The lion of anger shall give place to the lamb of meekness; the raven of uncleanness shall fly before the dove of purity; the vile serpent of deceit shall be crushed under the heel of truth.
I have seen with my own eyes such marvelous changes of moral and spiritual character that I don’t despair at all. I could, if it were fitting, point out those who were once unchaste women who are now pure as the driven snow, and blaspheming men who now delight all around them by their intense devotion. Thieves are made honest, drunkards sober, liars truthful, and scoffers zealous. Wherever the grace of God has appeared to a man it has trained him to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil world: and, dear reader, it will do the same for you.
“I cannot make this change,” says one. Who said you could? The Scripture which we have quoted speaks not of what man will do, but of what God will do. It is God’s promise, and it is for Him to fulfill His own appointments. Trust in Him to fulfill His Word in you, and it will be done.
“But how is it to be done?” What business is that of yours? Must the Lord explain His methods before you will believe Him? The Lord’s working in this matter is a great mystery: the Holy Spirit performs it. He who made the promise has the responsibility of keeping the promise, and He is quite up to the task. God, who promises this marvelous change, will assuredly carry it out in all who receive Jesus, for He gives power to them to become the Sons of God. Oh that you would believe it! Oh that you would do the gracious Lord the justice to believe that He can and will do this for you, great miracle though it will be! Oh that you would believe that God cannot lie! Oh that you would trust Him for a new heart, and a right spirit, for He can give them to you! May the Lord give you faith in His promise, faith in His Son, faith in the Holy Spirit, and faith in Him, and to Him shall be praise and honor and glory forever and ever! Amen.
[Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s classic, All of Grace, has been edited in Modern English by Jon Cardwell. A chapter or two will be posted each Friday.]
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