Holy Fear: Faith and Good Works (Spurgeon and Luther)

"And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear" (1 Pet 1:17)

In holy fear, not in servile, slavish fear, but in a blessed state of sacred timidity and awe lest you should offend your God and Savior.  

- Charles Spurgeon

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Hence faith and good works are yoked together, so that the sum total of the whole Christian life consists in these two parts; not that good works contribute anything to our justification before God, but that faith without good works does not exist, or it is not true faith.

... not because of pain and punishment, as un-Christians and the devil fear, but that He forsakes you not and withdraws His hand; as a pious child fears lest he provokes his father and does something that may not be pleasing to him.  It is just such a fear that God wishes us to have, in order to keep ourselves from sin and serve our neighbor while we live here upon the earth.

- Martin Luther (Commentary on 1 Peter)

The Sin Bearer (Spurgeon)

"Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree." (1 Pet 2:24)

These words in plainest terms assert that our Lord Jesus did really bear the sins of His people. How literal is the language! Words mean nothing if substitution is not stated here. I do not know the meaning of the fifty-third of Isaiah if this is not its meaning. Hear the prophet's words: "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all;" "for the transgression of my people was He stricken;" "He shall bear their iniquities:" "He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bare the sin of many."

I cannot imagine that the Holy Spirit would have used language so expressive if He had not intended to teach us that our Savior did really bear our sins, and suffer in our stead. What else can be intended by texts like these -- "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many" (Heb. ix. 28); "He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. v. 21); "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" (Gal. iii. 13); "Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering & a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour" (Eph. v. 2); "Once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Heb. ix. 26)? I say modestly, but firmly, that these Scriptures either teach the bearing of our sins by our Lord Jesus, or they teach nothing. In these days, among many errors and denials of truth, there has sprung up a teaching of "modern thought" which explains away the doctrine of substitution and vicarious sacrifice. One wise man has gone so far as to say that the transference of sin or righteousness is impossible, and another creature of the same school has stigmatized the idea as immoral.

It does not much matter what these modern haters of the cross may dare to say; but, assuredly, that which they deny, denounce, and deride, is the cardinal doctrine of our most holy faith, and is as clearly in Scripture as the sun is in the heavens. Beloved, as we suffer through the sin of Adam, so are we saved through the righteousness of Christ. Our fall was by another, and so is our rising again: we are under a system of representation and imputation, gainsay it who may. To us, the transference of our sin to Christ is a blessed fact clearly revealed in the Word of God, and graciously confirmed in the realizations of our faith. In that same chapter of Isaiah we read, "Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows," and we perceive that this was a matter of fact, for He was really, truly, and emphatically sorrowful; and, therefore, when we read that "He bare our sins in His own body on the tree," we dare not flitter it away, but assuredly believe that in very deed He was our Sin-Bearer. Possible or impossible, we sing with full assurance --

"He bore on the tree
The sentence for me."

Had the sorrow been figurative, the sin-bearing might have been mythical; but the one fact is paralleled by the other. There is no figure in our text; it is a bare, literal fact: "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree." Oh, that men would give up cavilling! To question and debate at the cross, is an act near akin to the crime of the soldiers when they parted His garments among them, and cast lots for His vesture.

Glorifying God and God’s Elect Can’t Help It - J. Irons; G. Shepard

(1) “That God in All Things May Be Glorified Through Jesus Christ” - Joseph Irons

1 Pet 4:11, “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God gives: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

The first thing I shall mention, that to me appears of the highest moment, is the gathering in of God's elect; and that must be in such wise as that God shall be glorified. "But," say you, "what have we to do with that? If you were preaching a sermon to ministers only, or giving a solemn charge to one at an ordination, as Paul commanded Timothy and Titus to ordain elders in every city, this might be a suitable address." "Sent forth," I believe the Church of England folks say in their ordination service. Of course there is much in that which I cannot approve of, but this I do, "Go and gather," I think the phrase is, "Christ's sheep that are scattered abroad." Now, you know, the ministers themselves have no power to gather any one. It is true, that God puts forth His ministers prominently, and makes use of their declaration of Divine truth for that purpose; it is true the Psalmist's declaration is carried out to the very letter, and to the full extent, "Then will I teach transgressors thy way, and sinners shall be converted unto thee;" (Ps. 51:13) it is true that the apostolical and pastoral labours from that day till now have been prominently owned of God, for the conversion of sinners and the edifying of the body of Christ; but we must include all the saints in the regenerated family of God, male and female, young and old, among the gatherers; and if this be not uppermost in your souls, I tell you, beloved, you fall short in the very first instance in the glorifying of God in all things. This is the glorifying His name. Why, there is joy in heaven among the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth; and do you think that does not glorify His dear name there? If you are not gifted for the ministry, if you are not called to public labours, have you not around you carnal relatives, children, servants, acquaintances, those with whom you are accustomed to associate in wilderness cares and toils, who know not God? And do you care nothing about them? I know what the flippant, loose professor will say, "Oh! If they belong to God, He will find them out; if they belong to God, He will bring them to Himself in His own time." Well, you have no ambition to be an instrument; you have no idea of the honour of being employed for God. How many have been the instances in which a short sentence, dropped by a parent, a guardian, a friend, an intimate acquaintance, in the hearing of another, has been owned of God to the saving conversion of those in whose ears it has been dropped! This is glorifying God. I think that every believer in Jesus should come to this point: "Is there any door open? Is there any way in which I could be employed? Is there an any sick bed to visit? Are the rising generation coming under my immediate notice and care? That I seek not applause for the wonderful feats that I may have done, but that I may seek that God may be glorified in gathering here one and there one of His elect to the fold of Jesus Christ." Oh, my hearer, make this the business of life, and you will have little else to do; make this the business of life, and you will have plenty of employment. Mind you, I steer quite clear of reproach on this ground from the charge of Arminianism, because I do insist, that neither hearers, nor preachers, nor any human beings, neither priests, nor popes, nor bishops, nor cardinals, have any more power to break a sinner's heart than they have to create a world; but as God condescends to employ the weak things of the world to bring to nought the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence, (1 Cor. 1:28,29) you and I should be busily employed, as far as time and strength are given. You see that God is glorified in this one object.

(2)  GOD’S ELECT CAN’T HELP IT - Gary Shepard

     Charles Spurgeon, when writing of his own experience of salvation, tells why he first began to trust the Lord Jesus Christ.  He says, "I took Jesus as my Saviour, and I was saved; and I can tell the reason why I took Him for my Saviour.  To my own humiliation, I must confess that I did it because I could not help it; I was shut up to it."  Someone else described FAITH as "Forsaking All I Take Him!"  When a person comes to believe on Christ they do so because they cannot help it.  They fail of all resistance and desire to resist Him and they increase beyond describable measure in desire and determination to have Him.  Such is the working of God's Spirit when He gives life to a dead sinner and reveals to his heart the Christ of the gospel.  We are brought to see our helpless and desperate condition as sinners condemned before God's law and Christ as the only Justifier and satisfier of that law and we must have Him.  We see God in His immaculate holiness being unapproachable by any one who is not perfectly righteous and we see Christ as the righteousness of God given as a gift and we must have Him.  We see after many futile attempts to get to God that Christ alone is the Way to God and we must have Him.  We see the folly and the falseness of religion all around us and we see that Christ is the Truth and we must have Him.  We see the deadness of our soul, of this world and of all around us and we see Christ the Life and we must have Him.  We see the beauty and glory of Christ and everything else pales away into utter insignificance and we must have Him.  It is much like my experience of falling in love with the one who is now my wife.  When I really saw her and came to know her, I had to have her for my own.  I was not handsome, nor smart, nor rich.  I had no claim and no right to her.  I was young and immature and all human reasoning said it was impossible but I had to have her for my wife.  I could not help it.  So it is with all who fall in love with Christ.  All of God's elect are made willing in the day of His power and by faith they see Christ and must come to Christ.  The bride says "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine:"  "I need Him, I love Him, I must have Him, I must go to Him, I must trust Him and Him alone.  I cannot help myself but He can!"                     

SCARCELY SAVED (John Newton)

The righteous are said to be scarcely saved (1 Pet 4:18); not with respect to certainty of the event, for the purpose of God in their favor cannot be disappointed, but with respect to their own apprehensions, and the great difficulties they are brought through. But when, after a long experience of their own deceitful hearts, after repeated proofs of their weakness, willfulness, ingratitude, and insensibility, they find that none of these things can separate them from the love of God in Christ, Jesus becomes more and more precious to their souls. They dare not, they will not ascribe anything to themselves, but are glad to acknowledge, that they must have perished (if possible) a thousand times over, if Jesus had not been their Saviour, their Shepherd, and their Shield. When they were wandering He brought them back, when fallen He raised them, when wounded He healed them, when fainting He revived them. By Him, out of weakness they have been made strong: He has taught their hands to war, and covered their heads in the day of battle. In a word, some of the clearest proofs they have had of His excellence, have been occasioned by the mortifying proofs they have had of their own vileness. They would not have known so much of Him, if they had not known so much of themselves.