REFORMED WITNESS
Volume XII, February 2004, Number 2
A Mortal's Sorrow
By Rev. G. Vos
From the April 15, 1938 issue of The Standard BearerAlso in this issue: Coming To Jesus - by Rev. H. Veldman
A Mortal's Sorrow! Life with its sorrows! Life with its tears! Unless my memory fails me, then the above two lines are found in a song of the world.
I find an answering echo in my own heart, when I hear the songsters of the world warbling such melancholy songs, and how they are able to emphasize the sentiment found in the above line. The sound and inflection of their voices, the wailing of the violin, the hush that follows and the hush that precedes -- it all brings home to you the untold suffering, the heartbreaking sorrow of the world. There is indeed a veritable school of melancholy in music and songs, even in some of the most beautiful classics. Yes, sometimes I think the entire repertoire of classical music has an undercurrent of deep despondency.
And this is as it should be. The music of the world ought to express the life of the world, especially the life of the heart of the world. That heart of the world is sad and sorrowful.
No, it is not always evident. I will admit that you hear and see a great deal of laughter and enjoyment. You hear time and again of thrills and good times. But rightly considered this so-called enjoyment and laughter, this thrill and good time really emphasize the world's sadness. Only the fool laughs in the depth of the night.
But oh, the heart of the world - it is so sad, so inexpressibly sorrowful that men cannot find fitting words to express it. Therefore, they sing such sad songs. They have an uncontrollable urge to give vent to their sorrow. They experience some kind of relief when they either sing of it or hear it sung by other sufferers. The songs that have a very sad theme are liked best of all, and they live longest.
Long before The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down there was the melancholy strain of a Home on the Range. Long after the silly strains of the Banana song die away never to be revived, the world shall go on singing of the Goldmine in the Sky with its heartbreaking cadences.
This is entirely natural. It is as it should be. All the silly songs that speak and warble of light and love and merriment are not the life of the heart of the world. When you would interpret the heart-life of the world, you must sing of The Long, Long Trail Awinding and of Poe's soul-rending Nevermore. Instinctively the world knows and feels that it is born for abject misery, not only for this life but also for the life to come. Have you never noted that the Goldmine is "far, far away" and that the trail to untold happiness is always so "long awinding"? Oh beloved, these are caricatures of the prophecy that God speaks in their hearts that are slowly, maddeningly slowly breaking! It is the prelude, the sad prelude of the long, long trail in hell!
Sing on your sad songs, oh world of sorrows! It is fitting, entirely fitting! I would much rather hear them than your jazz and swing. When I hear the former I can cry with you, for I am of the same frame; but when I hear the latter, when I hear the hearty laugh and the joyous (?) strains of peppy music then I taste of the abomination. Is it not true? There is only merriment possible when the Father kills the fatted calf in heaven. Therefore, there is only one place where enjoyment is proper and that is in the church.
Life with its sorrows! Life with its tears! True! True, indeed! That is the proper definition of the world-life of sin-soaked humanity - sorrows and tears because of untold suffering of the body and the soul. The Bible has a word for it. It is called there the sorrow of the world. Which worketh death. Oh, how terrible! When the world expresses its sorrows, then she falls deeper and deeper into the yawning abysses death. Because we are of the same frame by nature, we know that this is true. Do you not remember that you sang of your suffering and wrongs and that when you poured out your heart in self pity and melancholy groanings it left your heart still aching, while racking sobs caused your frame to shudder? Ah, it did not help. 'It worketh death.'
The deepest cause is theological. It never was a sorrow in harmony with God. It was not a sorrow after the manner of God. When God beholds the breaking hearts of worldlings in their melancholy singing and groaning, then He is filled with wrath over them. They do not behave in their sorrow as they ought. Their sorrow is not of a kind with the Divine sorrow over the sins of humanity.
You see beloved, there is a Divine reaction against sin which we might call God's sorrow over sin. Its root is holy Self-love. He loves Himself so much, that when He beholds the monster of sin upon the earth 'It grieves Him at His heart'. When that Divine grief finds expression we hear the roaring flood upon the earth and the yelling of millions of godless people who die in the flood. That is Godly sorrow over sin. Properly, it is hatred of sin.
So the church grieves and groans, sings and warbles of sadness and sorrows. There is sadness in the church. From this point of view you may say that the history of the church is a tragedy that is written and lived in bitter tears. You may define the life of the church from this viewpoint to be Godly sorrow. Its most beautiful expression you find in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, but we hasten to add that in all the books of the Bible we may find its theme. All the saints speak of it and sing of it and pray it.
Ah! Listen to this: Dan zou geen schaamt mijn aangezicht bedekken! [Then shall no shame cover my face!] Its root, dear reader, is the love of God. It, is founded in righteousness, holiness and purity.
You see the Christian is the child of God. Therefore, he loves his Father, and loving his Father, he loves all His attributes, all His praises and wonders. He loves them all because he is recreated according to the image of God. All these praises find a shadow, a replica in him. In the inner heart he beholds the righteousness, the holiness and the purity of God, and he loves them. There is no goodness and loveliness that he does not love. Therefore, he sings as the day is long: How love I Thy law! It is my meditation all the day!
But there is another law in him and that law is the law of sin. The Christian is also of the earthy and secondly, the movements of sin remain in him to his dying day. These movements of sin take him in captivity so that he does not do the things he loves, but contrarily, they cause him to do the thing he abhors. There you have the sins of the people of God. As long as they are on this earth, they are sinners and sin every day in connection with all their thinking, speaking and acting. When the Christian beholds all that corruption and abomination, he grieves, he bows his head in sorrow. He grieves because he hates sin and he sorrows because he realizes that all his sin is an offence to God. He loves God and in his deepest heart he wants to be well-pleasing to Him, while he realizes that all his sin is grieving to God. That is the deepest cause of his sorrow.
Listen to Jeremiah: The Lord is righteous; for I have rebelled against His commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow! Jerusalem's filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter!
Listen to Daniel: Oh Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments; We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments!
First Daniel says, "I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me," (Daniel 7:15), and later, "And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel..." (Daniel 9:20), showing that Daniel also saw his sins and grieved over them in Godly sorrow.
Listen to David, the beloved, "Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight...", or Job, "Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes."
What shall I say more, for time should fail me. Shall I tell you of John who fell down as dead at the feet of the glorified Saviour, or Peter who begged Jesus to depart out of his dwelling because he was so very sinful -- Shall I tell of Habakkuk and Nehemiah whose face was sad before the king of the heathen? Shall I tell of the publican who would not so much as lift up his head to heaven, and of the prodigal son who exclaimed: No more worthy, no more worthy to be called Thy son: make me as one of Thy hirelings?
No beloved, we shall not tell of all of them; it is not necessary. Remember, ah, remember, the night of weeping, when you could not sleep because of grief before God. When you did not dare raise your eyes, when you did not dare pray. When you indeed knelt down by your bedside, but when you could find no words to express the sorrow for sin. When in the darkness only a sigh or two escaped your anguished breast and your pillow was witness to a sorrow that really rent your heart. Do we not all sing in God's wonderful church: I dare not raise mine eyes!? My sins are more than I can count! (Genade! O God, hoor mijn gebed!) [Be merciful! O God, hear my prayer!], as the blind men at Jericho's gate cried: Jesus, Thou Son of David! have mercy on us!
That sorrow is wonderful! When those tears and sighs are interpreted in heavenly language the angels begin to sing and the Son of God bows down to the anguished saint in unspeakable mercy. When you dare not raise your eyes to heaven, heaven bows down to you and the halls of the heavenly Jerusalem resound with music and dancing. There is joy in heaven with God's angels over one sinner that repenteth.
Godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation. Sorrow that bears the stamp of Gcd's approval makes glad in the last instance. It is the theme of heavenly glee.
G. V.
Coming To Jesus
By Rev. H. Veldman
From the August 1, 1938, issue of The Standard Bearer
See more articles by this author
"Coming to Jesus" is a thought which is expressed repeatedly in Scripture. In Matthew 11:28 the Lord Himself calls unto the weary and heavy laden to, come unto Him and obtain rest. In John 7 this same thought is also expressed by our Saviour, when upon the last day of the great feast, He stood and cried: "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink". The words in Isaiah 55 are well known, where we read of the calling by Jehovah to those that thirst to buy without money and drink of the water of life. In the striking sixth chapter of John it is this very coming to JESUS which causes that earthy, bread-seeking Galilean multitude to reject the Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture, emphasizing throughout the sovereign will and purpose of God, also stresses this work of salvation, surely as realized by God, but working in His people the willing and the working. By the grace of God they must and do take an active part in the service of God. Hence, coming to Jesus, believing on Him, embracing Christ and all His benefits, and other similar expressions, such as seeking our salvation in God alone, are activities enjoined upon the people of God. This emphasis upon the responsibility particularly of the people of God must not be lost sight of. To this "coming to Jesus" we would briefly direct your attention in this essay.
As already stated, this 'coming to JESUS' was the bone of contention between the Lord and the Galilee enthusiasts of John 6. In this chapter Jesus Himself ascribes this coming to Him to His Father, the living God. We must remember that the previous day He had revealed Himself in all the glory of His power. Five thousand men, not counting the women and children, had been fed by Him with but five loaves an two fishes. This tremendous miracle had aroused the admiration of the multitude. But they had at first failed to see the sign. When Jesus then made it clear to them that the feeding of the five thousand had merely been a sign (that He therefore did not come down from heaven to give earthy bread and honor and glory, but that He was that heavenly bread which had come down from and would return to heaven, and that they, to live, must eat His flesh and drink His blood), the people began to contend with Him. They perceived that they had witnessed a sign! The Galileans hungered after earthy bread. They were carnal, and they knew that the Lord had the power to give it to them. But when it became clear that the bread which Jesus gave, they did not desire, and that He wouldn't give what they craved, they all deserted Him with the exception of the twelve. This desertion now of those carnal Galilean enthusiasts is finally attributed by the Saviour to His Father. The fact is, no man can come to Jesus except the Father draw him. That men do not come to the Saviour and acknowledge Him is because the Father does not draw them.
How different this issue is presented today! To come to Jesus, believe in Him, "accept" Him, is proclaimed today as a very simple matter. In reality, it is humanly impossible. Our Lord is the "cheapest article on the market" today. The fact is; however, that nothing is as costly as the salvation of Gad's people, for it was purchased with that most precious and infinite price, the blood of the eternal Son of God. Yet, a gospel is being proclaimed in which this priceless salvation is ultimately made dependent upon man, is left to his choice, and all men are of themselves able to make this choice. Of course, this corrupt conception of salvation is rooted in a wrong conception of the Christ, as well as in the evil heart of man. The most important element has been lifted out of the name, Jesus. For Jesus means: Jehovah saves. Notice: Jehovah saves. Wicked man has placed the weight of salvation in his own hands. That only God could possibly save us, even in the way of the cross, that it was necessary for the Almighty to assume our flesh and blood, that Calvary is the blotting out of guilt and the perfect satisfaction of all Divine righteousness, which could be brought about only by the living God Himself, is not understood by many. Calvary otherwise would not be our salvation, but would merely be a manifestation of God's universal love: the Lord so loved the world, was so intensely interested in and eager to save all, that He did not even hesitate to send His only begotten Son. The cross is but a means of God to seek entrance into the hearts of men, and salvation itself is dependent upon our choice. To be sure, the arminian would resent it if he were accused of ignoring the Scripture that says man is saved by grace. Rather, he would maintain this cardinal principle: however shall that irresistible grace operate in the hearts of men and continue to operate there, man himself must will to receive it. This presentation of salvation lifts the very heart out of the name Jesus. Then Jesus is not Jehovah saves. Jesus is not "Jehovah saves" upon the cross, but His death is merely the realization of a chance for all. Calvary then is not viewed as the blotting out of sin and the condemnation of the world, and the work of salvation in the hearts of men is the product of the combined efforts of God and man.
This arminian presentation of salvation constitutes the heart of the now-famous Three Points (of common grace). The issue involved must not be confused with a general preaching of the gospel or, if you will, with the command to repentance which must be proclaimed without distinction.. We also believe that the gospel must be held up before others than the elect. This is the question: Why does God cause the gospel to be proclaimed? According to our confession the very proclamation of the glad tidings of salvation is to be ascribed to the good pleasure of the Lord. He causes His Word to be preached to whomsoever He wills. Now the Christian Reformed churches have adopted the arminian tenet that the gospel is a manifestation of God's grace to all, and what else can this possibly imply but that the Lord, graciously inclined to all, seeks their welfare and salvation when He causes Christ to be proclaimed unto them? Yet it is this very thought which is condemned in that well-known sixth chapter of John. To be sure, the Jews did not believe in the Lord. They murmured against Him because they could not induce Him to give them what they craved and demanded. They contended with Him because it became increasingly evident to them that a mighty gulf separated this Jesus from them. How they craved the earthy, which they knew He could give! However, let it be understood that the Saviour attributes their rejection of Him to the living God. In fact this is His comfort. No man can come unto Jesus except the Father draw him. The question of salvation is; therefore, never one of the free will of man. To the contrary God decides and He alone. When a man does not come to Christ it is ultimately because the Father does not draw Him. Jehovah simply does not desire the salvation of all. This is the very opposite of Point One. Our coming to the Saviour is exclusively the work of God. Notice our coming (for we must come), but the Father draws whomsoever He wills.
Who then is this Jesus? Surely, we must come to Jesus. But, let it be emphasized, we must come to JESUS. Jesus is He Who has been sent of the Father. This implies that God has appointed Him to perform a very definite task, and this task is to lead His people out of the hopelessness of their sin and death into the heavenly glory of God's eternal covenant (Not to mention the salvation of God's people as it stands in connection with the restoration of all things.) It was the Father's good pleasure to save His people in the way of sin and grace. They must be hopelessly lost in sin in order that it may become fully apparent that only God can save, in order that no man should boast. As the Head of a condemnable people, it was the calling of this Servant of Jehovah to suffer the eternal wrath of God, because God's saving mercy is always in perfect harmony with His righteousness. Because God's wrath is eternal and we are all conceived and born in sin, it was imperative (were we to be saved) that the living God Himself should undertake this task. Let us remember Jesus, Jehovah saves, Immanuel, God with us, does save His people upon the cross of Golgotha. Upon that accursed tree Zion's salvation becomes a fact. Calvary is not merely the realization of a chance for all, but it is the salvation of all God's people. For upon that tree our guilt was blotted out and the wrath of God has been borne unto the very end. There God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. There our heavenly life with God was merited, and now this suffering Servant of Jehovah continues to be "Jehovah saves". For He is risen from the dead and is even now seated at the right hand of God. Unto Him has been given all power in heaven and upon earth. Through Him as the exalted Christ the Lord accomplishes all things. He has received the promise of the Spirit, to pour Him out into the church, and through Him to lead His people spiritually out of the bondage of sin into the blessed liberty of the covenant of God. This He accomplishes alone. He calls His people irresistibly out of darkness into light. He draws them powerfully out of sin. He causes them to know themselves, see their sin and iniquity, and long for blessed fellowship with God. He causes them to love God in Christ Jesus and to say upon the question asked by the Saviour, "Will ye not also go away?" those beautiful and well-known words, "Lord, to whom shall we go?"
Bearing this in mind, we can understand the implication of the expression: coming to Jesus. Do not say that the explanation of coming to Jesus as given by us is too profound, that our coming to Him does not imply all these "dogmatical" distinctions. If you do say this, you are certainly deceiving yourselves. No man ever came to Jesus except in the way of these "dogmatical implications", and he who has not learned these things and confessed them may well examine himself whether he may possibly have embraced a Jesus of his own imagination. To come to Jesus means in the first place, that we are conscious of our profound need of just such a Saviour, that is that Saviour of the cross. This implies knowledge of ourselves. We must know ourselves condemnable before God. We have sinned against Jehovah, and Jehovah is merciful only in the way of the maintenance of His righteousness. We must know and believe that fellowship with God, for us as sinners, is possible only when the righteousness of God with respect to our sin has been fully satisfied. This satisfaction is impossible of ourselves. We cannot bear away an eternal wrath. Neither can we bear it in obedience, which is required if our suffering is to have any value before God, because we are children of disobedience. Therefore, the operation of the grace of God in the heart of such a sinner is always such that it renders him condemnable before God and also utterly helpless in his condemnation. We must become hopelessly lost before the tribunal of the Lord. Besides this knowledge of ourselves, our coming to Jesus also implies that we then realize our need of the Jesus of Calvary. 'I need atonement.' A mere example of Divine love, having (this example) no, atoning value, not blotting out my guilt, is worthless. God's wrath must be borne away. The sinning soul must die. Our guilt must be paid. I need a Saviour Who takes my guilt away, my guilt - Who has fully satisfied the justice of Jehovah. I must be saved through blood. This is not all. Only Jesus can possibly be that Saviour. Salvation is impossible of men. God alone must save. For God alone can bear the infinite wrath of God in perfect obedience and merit for me eternal life. How important it is that we fully realize: 'to the cross of Christ I cling'. He to whom sin has become a burden and the righteousness of God a terrible reality will only be satisfied when he may know that Christ upon the cross merited for him not merely a chance but actual salvation.
Moreover, besides this consciousness of our need for such a Saviour of the cross, to come to Jesus also means that we know and believe that He alone must and can and will lead us out of sin and darkness into the light. My coming to Jesus implies the confession that He first did come to me. For I am by nature a child of sin, lover of darkness rather than the light, bound with chains of darkness and death which I cannot break. Hence I must and do confess, not only that I am utterly condemnable before God and must be reconciled in the way of the blood of the cross, but also that He must lead me and continue to lead me irresistibly into the life of God's covenant. I must confess my helplessness and Jesus as the only power to save, that I bid farewell to all human aid and see my all in Him, the only Captain of my salvation. Jesus alone can and does apply unto my heart the salvation once merited upon the cross. Therefore, whoever comes to Jesus must embrace Him as his only heavenly Saviour, must not regard Him as a distributor of earthy prosperity and glory, but as that Redeemer Who saves us from all death, also from this earthy, to give us a place in the eternal house of our God. Anyone who would come to Jesus must forsake the world and fix his eye upon the city above.
This will explain why no man can come to Jesus except the Father draw him. To be sure, man does not will to come to the Saviour. To such a Jesus the Galileans refused to come, and it is ever thus throughout the ages. Man refuses to acknowledge his sin before God, loves this world and feels no need of a Saviour Who delivers from sin. Neither is he interested in a heavenly Deliverer. Man will embrace an earthly deliverer, saving him from the results of sin, but he will ever reject Jesus, Who saves from sin and leads His people into God's blessed fellowship. Because of this rejection of the Christ, which is rooted in his sin, he must give an account. But he cannot come. In his hatred of Jesus he cannot bring about a change. He must be born again. The Father must draw him. How many there are today who "accepted" a Jesus but have never learned to know Him Who saves man unto the uttermost!
No man can come to Jesus except the Father draw him. What a blessed, comforting thought! To be sure, this truth maintains man's helplessness to save himself. Therefore it is the object of man's hatred throughout the ages. But, this truth also maintain the irresistible grace of God. It leaves man hopelessly lost. But it also ascribes our salvation wholly to God. Then only is our salvation safe. Now we can know and be persuaded that the work which by God in us has been begun shall by His grace be fully done. Now we know that the Almighty God, Who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, will continue to draw us until one day we shall stand before Him, in the assembly of the elect in life eternal, without spot or wrinkle.
H. V.
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