holier than us
I'm still pondering a discussion which I listened to the other week, where people were talking about believers in the past, and how they were overall more holy than believers are today, as evidenced for example in their greater diligence in praying, fasting, self-examination, etc.
The comment which stuck with me was when someone said that if we were as holy as them, then we would pray more and fast etc as well. In the past, people would fast much more often, and pray for hours on end, and hang on a preacher's every word throughout hours-long sermons. So the reason why we don't fast so much (etc) today is because we aren't so holy.
But I've been wondering whether that might actually be putting things back to front. Prayer, fasting, church-attendance, etc, are all means of grace, and maybe, if believers today were more diligent in making use of these means, that itself would lead to increased holiness in the lives of contemporary Christians.
I know that two essential things are gifts, namely diligence and sincerity. But doesn't it come back to what Thomas Boston said to dissuade people from making inability an excuse: we have to make use of the means which are available, and maybe God will have regard to the means which he himself has appointed. Merely using the means won't lead to an automatic increase of holiness, but surely on the other hand, neglecting the means will lead to an automatic decline in holiness.
The comment which stuck with me was when someone said that if we were as holy as them, then we would pray more and fast etc as well. In the past, people would fast much more often, and pray for hours on end, and hang on a preacher's every word throughout hours-long sermons. So the reason why we don't fast so much (etc) today is because we aren't so holy.
But I've been wondering whether that might actually be putting things back to front. Prayer, fasting, church-attendance, etc, are all means of grace, and maybe, if believers today were more diligent in making use of these means, that itself would lead to increased holiness in the lives of contemporary Christians.
I know that two essential things are gifts, namely diligence and sincerity. But doesn't it come back to what Thomas Boston said to dissuade people from making inability an excuse: we have to make use of the means which are available, and maybe God will have regard to the means which he himself has appointed. Merely using the means won't lead to an automatic increase of holiness, but surely on the other hand, neglecting the means will lead to an automatic decline in holiness.
"[People] do not act rationally unless they exert the powers they have, and do what they can. ... Therefore pray, meditate, desire help of God, be much at the throne of grace supplicating for grace, and do not faint. Though God regard you not, who in your present state are but one mass of sin, universally depraved, and vitiated in all the powers of your soul, yet he may regard prayer, meditation, and the like means of his own appointment, and he may bless them to you. Wherefore, if you will not do what you can, you are not only dead, but you declare yourselves unworthy of eternal life." Thomas Boston, Human Nature in its Fourfold State, from the end of chapter 2, 'Man's Utter Inability to Recover Himself.'
posted by cath at
10:14 pm
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