Even if we fall alone, we can’t get up without their help. John Newton
I believe that most Christians rightly believe that all our strength to continue in the Christian life must come from Christ; However, we may want to say different things when we say that. Some believe that the Holy Ghost, who comes to live in us at the time of salvation, also allows us to be constantly obedient, that is, the grace received during conversion includes a permanent force to choose to obey God whenever we are willing to do so; therefore, the will and strength to remain in obedience comes from our own diligence. and I work hard as we walk through life.
- Did John Newton have a different view of Christian obedience?A vision that has placed all the guilt of sin in the sinner.
- But gives him all the credit for obedience only to God.
- Newton added to this idea the concept of autoflowering and correctly concluded that if there were no man who boasted before God for good works.
- Sanctification should be completely elegant and would depend entirely on God.
- Far from blaming God for our sins.
- Newton saw the permanent presence of our fallen and sinful nature and Satan’s constant activity as a sufficient explanation He also reflected that.
- If this is true.
- Only God can obtain credit when His Spirit.
- In a new act of grace.
- Strives to compromise the will of believers.
- So that they may obey.
- And when.
- Later.
- It gives true strength to continue in obedience.
In this, John Newton echoes the perception of reformed historical confessions of faith. For example, the Westminster Confession says:
The power to do good works is not in the faithful themselves, but comes entirely from the Spirit of Christ; in order for them to do so, in addition to the grace they have already received, it is necessary to have a positive influence from the Holy Spirit himself to work in them the will and perfection according to their blessing; However, they should therefore not be neglected, as if they were not obliged to do any duty, except when they are motivated especially by the Spirit, but should strive to stimulate God’s grace in them. CFW 16. 3
Similarly, the Belgian Confession says
So we do good deeds, but not to deserve anything, for what merit could we have?Rather, we are indebted to God for the good deeds we do, not with us. Because, “Is God acting? We both love him and do it, according to your goodwill” (Philippians 2:13). Let us therefore take seriously what is written: “Then you too, having done as you have been commanded, say, We are useless servants, for we have only done what we must do” (Luke 17:10).
Like Newton, the creators of these reformed denominations believed that each specific act of obedience requires a real influence of the Holy Ghost in our hearts. The grace we receive at the time of our salvation is not a kind of general enabling power that we need to figure out how to access and activate so that we can grow and be blessed. On the contrary, it is the personal and powerful presence of the Spirit of the living God, which reigns over our souls and decides, at every moment, whether he will give us the grace to make us want to obey and whether he will give us grace. extra grace for success in obedience.
This kind of care, specific and profound to us as individuals, should come as no surprise, when Jesus said that the hair on our head was numbered, referred to a kind of watchful love so understandable that not a single hair can fall. of our heads without your permission (Matthew 10. 30). So how can we come to imagine that God would abandon the great and powerful role of guiding our minds to the office of weak people and sinners like us?Certainly, the question of what sins we commit or do not commit ourselves to is far more important to God than the amount of hair we can call our every day.
Similarly, even the death of a fragile sparrow under the clutches of a nearby cat, which would hardly worry us, is the object of God’s sovereign will (Matthew 10:29), how much more, then, will the Lord exercise his sovereignty?And loving attention to the sanctification of your children?Those who God created in his image and redeemed by the blood of his precious and only Son earn him much more than the little birds (Matthew 10:31).
Other scriptures also speak of God’s personal care that manifests itself abundantly in each of us at every moment of our day. He knows the words that are in our tongue before we pronounce them (Psalm 139. 4); he decides whether or not they will come out of our lips. God knows our thoughts (Psalm 139:2), as well as the intrinsic characteristics of our sinful flesh. God is writing the story of the redemption of His people, keeping them away from sins he does not allow, and handing them over to the sins he had planned to overcome for their glory and good. What we plan for evil, God uses for good, despite our worst intentions.
In this book, Barbara Duguid teaches us, from John Newton’s writings, God’s plan for our faults and our guilt. His frank and empathetic approach, with illustrations of his own struggles, raises our attention, of our own efforts, to a God. who is greater than our failures and who uses them for their glory.
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