Are you forgiven?

I’ve long enjoyed the Private Thoughts on Religion by Thomas Adam. It is arguably the most heart-piercing and soul-humbling book in print. His words reach the depths of the soul in a way that other writers do not. In fact, I don’t know of any other book that puts words in my soul’s mouth like his. Consisting of private reflections from his notes and diaries (published after his death), it’s a window into my soul’s wrestlings to confront my own sin, to live honestly before God, to live by faith in a sense-driven body and world, and to walk holily before God in all I do. I’d like to share with you what I read today. 

The chapter of his thoughts on Jesus Christ begins with this entry: “Christ comes with a blessing in each hand; forgiveness in one, and holiness in the other, and never gives either to any who will not take both.”

I was raised with the teaching that one could accept Christ as Saviour while not (not yet at least) as Lord. The idea was that Christ offers forgiveness and salvation to all who ask for it, but that the victorious Christian life, the holy life, was a bonus of sorts which He offered to those who were willing to give up everything and surrender to Him most fully. This resulted in two classes of Christians, the saved, at the entry-level, (who enjoyed forgiveness and a title to heaven), and the fully-yielded, Spirit-filled, on a higher plane (who enjoyed real holiness). This is what I believed in the early days of my Christian walk.

The problem with that teaching (which is still widespread in the church today) is that the Bible knows nothing of two classes of Christians. The Bible knows nothing of carnal Christians (as they are called) at the back of the class making Ds on their homework and spiritual Christians at the front of the class making As on their homework. The Bible does know something of two categories of people, but they’re not both Christians. Instead, the Bible juxtaposes the saved and the unsaved, the sheep and the goats (Mt 25), the wheat and the tares (Mt 13), those in Christ and those out of Christ (Mt 7), those still under the curse of God in the first Adam (who sinned) and those under the blessing of God in the Second Adam (who obeyed) (Rom 5), those who are alive in God by faith in Christ (Rom 6) and those who are dead before God while they live (Eph 2).

Come back to Adam’s entry: “Christ comes with a blessing in each hand; forgiveness in one, and holiness in the other, and never gives either to any who will not take both.” Adam captures the biblical picture correctly. Christ came to save, alright; but He came to sanctify those whom He saved. He didn’t come to merely save a people from the pit of hell and set them back on level ground. He came to deliver a people from the pit of hell and to raise them up to the heights of heaven. He came to forgive our sins, but He also came to make us partakers of His holiness. He came to wash away our unrighteousness, but He also came to make us righteous. He came to pay the penalty of our bad works, but He also came to enable us to walk in good works. Christ came to justify us before God, but He also came to sanctify us in God. ––Christ came with two hands and with a blessing in each. It is impossible for Christ to give forgiveness to any whom He will not proceed to make holy as He is holy.

Now let Adam’s entry challenge you: do you hope in the forgiveness of your sins at Christ’s hands? Then does your life reflect the holiness He brings to those whom He forgives? Do you look to Christ’s cross for the rule of your forgiveness but not to His Law for the rule of your holiness? If you believe your sins are forgiven and yet your life does not bear any of the marks of the holiness of forgiven people, then are you sure you’re forgiven?

Don’t be afraid of self-examination. It is the most loving thing you can do for your soul this side of Judgment Day. For it is better to know the state of your soul now, while you have time to do something about it, than to wait and find out then, when it’s too late. Just be sure that while you examine your soul with one eye, you keep the other eye on Christ and His free grace to all who will call upon Him in faith–even the chief of sinners, Mt 11.28; 20.28. Mk 2.17; Isa 55.1-3.