Summer Missions Pt. 9
As we interact with unbelievers and our hearts overflow out of our mouths we will present a picture of God. The way we talk about God- the picture we present of him- will in some sense determine whether people even care about the work of Christ. If God is our greatest love we won’t just talk about Him we will talk about Him in a way that communicates that He is worth everything. On the other hand, if we present God as dull, distant, or normal people will see no great need for forgiveness and reconciliation. Who wants to go to heaven if God isn’t worth spending time with?
Ultimately it is the Spirit who must open eyes to the beauty of Christ and the supreme satisfaction of knowing God. However the Spirit chooses to work through faithful presentations of the gospel of the glory of Christ. We are called to be faithful in presenting the glory of God accurately for the unbeliever to see when the Spirit opens their eyes.
I have been thinking about this idea after reading a sermon by Thomas Chalmers entitled- “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.” The title gives you a good idea of what the sermon is about but here are some key quotes. The application of this has tremendous relevance not only for the unbeliever but also for the believer and his ongoing transformation into Christ-likeness. You may need to read the quotes a couple of times but they are worth it.
It is when He [God] stands dismantled of the terrors which belong to Him as an offended lawgiver, and when we are enabled by faith, which is His own gift, to see His glory in the face of Jesus Christ…it is then that a love paramount to the love of the world, and at length expulsive of it, first arises in the regenerating bosom. It is when released from the spirit of bondage…the spirit of adoption is poured upon upon us—it is then that the heart, brought under the mastery of one great and predominant affection, is delivered from the tyranny of its former desires, and in the only way in which deliverance is possible.
The object of the gospel is both to pacify the sinner’s conscience and to purify his heart; and it is of importance to observe, that what mars the one of these objects mars the other also. The best way of casting out an impure affection is to admit a pure one; and by the love of what is good to expel the love of what is evil. Thus it is, that the freer gospel, the more sanctifying is the gospel; and the more it is received as a doctrine of grace, the more will it be felt as a doctrine according to godliness.
It is thus that the boy ceases, at length, to be the slave of his appetite; but it is because a manlier taste has now brought it into subordination, and that the youth ceases to idolize pleasure; but it is because the idol of wealth has become the stronger and gotten the ascendency, and that even the love of money ceases to have the mastery over the heart of many a thriving citizen; but it is because, drawn into the whirl of city politics, another affection has been wrought into his moral system, and he is now lorded over by the love of power. There is not one of these transformations in which the heart is left without an object.