The Mirage

Proverbs 2:23 ESV

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

Would God command you to do the impossible? This is a fairly simply question that has significant repercussions on what you believe about your salvation. Erasmus answered this question with no. God would not be so cruel as to command people to do that which they were unable to complete. He knows their infirmities and would not ask to much of them. Luther would fire back in his response (The Bondage of the Will) that, Yes, God would ask us to do that which we are not able to do. This came down to a Roman understanding of justification and a Protestant understanding. Luther maintained that the work in its entirety was one of “Grace Alone”. As such no work on my part could contribute to it at all.

Luther would point out that sometimes earthly fathers, will command their sons to do things that are beyond them. I often am working while my sons are playing around. They will think they are bit enough to do a task so I tell them to go do it, it isn’t long before I hear them begging for help. I knew the entire time they would not be able to accomplish the task and yet I commanded them to do it anyway. Was this cruel on my part? No, they needed to learn what the extent of their strength was, and how to call for help. Both are very powerful lessons when learned and rightly undertaken, both physically and spiritually. So, Yes, God will command that which is completely impossible for me to accomplish. He will also command you to do that which is impossible for you to accomplish. Yet, we are not only responsible for achieving the impossible but also for persisting in it. To work hard and fail often. To die daily at our father’s feet that he might sustain us.

Jesus explains to us that nothing that enters a person can defile him but what proceeds out of the mouth defiles (Mark 7:15). I have said all this because here in Proverbs we are told to guard our hearts. Experience has shown the Christian that of ourselves this is an impossible command. How often have our guards failed and evil crept in? How often have I shown the blackness of my heart in what has proceeded out of my lips? The Christian must always be given the law, not that he may achieve it but that he might see how helpless he is and cling to him who is able to guard the Christians heart and change it, doing what we are not capable of doing, making holy and righteous that which is stained and wicked.

When before no matter how hard the Christian would try to guard his heart eventually the smear of sin would completely cover him. Yet, once surrender has occurred and revelation that the task is impossible for me but it is not for God, it is as if I am John Gotti and the white robs I have been given are made of Teflon! All that my enemy throughs at me simply falls away, because I wear another man’s righteousness one alien to me. As if my life is a mirage, and the enemy is attacking it, but God is not judging my righteousness it is Christ’s that is in view. I still love the Law and long to obey it. I am still not able to achieve the impossible but Christ has and that is the sweet savor of victory! Guard your heart and know that you have a watchman that never sleeps and he will make the impossibility of you pleasing God possible! (Mark 10:27)

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO