Sometimes old books by godly men and women can take me a while to get through. Yes, sometimes it can be because of the old style of language, but, more often than not, language isn’t the issue. Instead I find such profound and convicting thoughts that I can only reflect on a few pages at a time.
Such is the case with a book called God’s Way of Holiness, written by Horatius Bonar. His life spans much of the 1800s (1808-1889) and he was a Scottish pastor, as well as being both author and hymn writer.
I thought today I would share just a few portions of this book, as I think you will be much edified by them.
And might I share a brief word about the books we choose to read before we go on? I used to really be drawn to shallow, popular books. The ones that everyone is reading or are listed as bestsellers. I also wanted to read easy books—the ones that are both easy to read and pleasant to hear or provide an escape from life. Not that these are always wrong, in and of themselves. But there’s so much more out there.
Somewhere along the way, God used a variety of different circumstances and a few people to challenge my thinking on what I read. I am particularly grateful for one woman, who, many years ago now, encouraged me to go beyond bestsellers and fiction and find real meat to put into my mind.
And so I did. Not that I only read authors like Horatius Bonar, Jeremiah Burroughs, JC Ryle, Thomas Brooks, or Richard Baxter. But I started to read them. Slowly but surely, I just read a page or two at a time and eventually get through the books.
I’ve learned a lot from these men (and so many others). I encourage you to seek out some of these old authors, as well. They give much needed perspective in these self-centered religious days and take us back to God-centered Christianity.
That’s my encouragement to you. Now for the quotes from Bonar’s book on Holiness.
This first section regards what the Bible teaches us about the believer and sin—
Love does not supersede Law, nor release us from obedience to it; it enables us to obey. Love does not make stealing or coveting, or any such breach of Law, no sin in a Christian, which would seem to be the meaning which some attach to this passage [Romans 7]; but it so penetrates and so constrains us, that, not reluctantly or through fear, but right joyfully, we act toward our neighbor in all things, great and small, as the Law bids us do. Yes, Christ “hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,” but certainly not from the Law itself; for that would be to redeem us from a divine rule and guide; it would be to redeem us from that which is “holy and just and good.”
And this—
Yet there are men who speak of Law as abrogated [done away with] to a believer, who look with no favor on those who listen to it but pity them as ill-taught, ill-informed men, who, if in Christ at all, are only Christians of the lowest grade, the least in the kingdom of heaven.
And this is said to be the proper result of a believed Gospel! This is called an essential part of higher Christianity; and is reckoned indispensable to the right appreciation of a saint’s standing before God. The realizing of it is a proof of true spirituality, and the denial of it an evidence of imperfect knowledge and a cramped theology!
We can find no such spirituality, no such Christianity in the Bible. This is license, not liberty; it is freedom to sin, not freedom from sin. It may be spiritual sentimentalism, but it is not spirituality. It is sickly religionism, which, while professing a higher standard than mere law, is departing from that healthy and authentic conformity to the will of God which results from the love and study of His statutes. It is framing a new and human standard, in supplement, if not in contradiction, of the old and the divine.
And, finally, I just want to share these profound thoughts about the Christian and how they present themselves to a dark and dying world—
Greater knowledge, lesser love! Higher doctrines, lower morals! Professing to be seated with Christ in heavenly places, yet walking in the flesh, as if proud of their elevation to the right hand of God! Speaking of the perfection of the new man in them, yet exhibiting some of the worst features of the old! Certainly, one who is “risen with Christ” ought to be like the Risen One. He will be expected to be meek and lowly, gentle and loving, simple and frank, kind and obliging, liberal and generous, not easily provoked or affronted, transparent and honest—not selfish, narrow, covetous, conceited, worldly, unwilling to be taught.
Scripture is wonderfully balanced in all its parts; let our study of it be the same, that we may be well-balanced men. [Emphasis mine] The study of the prophetic word must not supersede that of the Proverbs, nor must we search the latter merely to discover the traces of the “higher doctrines” which may be found in that book. We must not overlook the homely, and the little, and the common; we must stoop to the petty moralities, courtesies and honesties of tamer life, not neglecting those parts of Scripture— treating of these as vapid or obsolete—but bringing them to bear upon each step of our daily walk, and delighting in them as the wisdom of the God only wise.
There is a vitiated (impaired) literary taste, arising not so much from reading what is bad, as from exclusive study of one class of books, and these perhaps the more exciting. There is also a vitiated spiritual taste, not necessarily growing out of error or the study of unsound books, but arising from favouritism in the reading of Scripture, which shows itself both in the preference of certain parts to others, and in the propensity to search these others only for their references to certain favourite truths.
Let the whole soul be fed by the study of the whole Bible, that so there may be no irregularity nor inequality in the growth of its parts and powers. Let us beware of “itching” ears and eyes. True, we must not be “babes,” unable to relish strong meat, and “unskilful in the word of righteousness” (Heb 5:13). But we need to beware of the soarings of an ill-balanced theology and an ill-knit creed. True Christianity is healthy and robust, not soft, nor sickly, nor sentimental; yet, on the other hand, not hard, nor lean, nor ill-favoured, nor ungenial.
“Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit, in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men” (1Co 14:20).
We want not merely a high and full theology, but we want that theology acted out in life, embodied nobly in daily doings, without anything of what the world calls “cant” [hypocrisy] or “simper.”[coy; pretense] The higher the theology, the higher and the manlier should be the life resulting from it. It should give to the Christian character and bearing a divine erectness and simplicity; true dignity of demeanour, without pride, or stiffness, or coldness; true strength of will, without obstinacy, or caprice, or waywardness. The higher the doctrine is, the more ought it to bring us into contact with the mind of God, which is “the truth,” and with the will of God, which is “the law.” He who concludes that because he has reached the region of the “higher doctrines,” he may soar above the Law, or above creeds, or above churches, or above the petty details of common duty, would need to be on his guard against a blunted conscience, a self-made religion, and a wayward life.
I hope this was an encouragement to you today. This is generally not what you will hear on the radio or in podcasts. Many of you will never hear it from your pastor. But this is the historical understanding of Christianity. This is not new or unique to the authors and preachers that pre-date 1970.
I thank the Lord for godly men and women who expounded the scriptures throughout the years. May we broaden our perspectives by looking back into history, rather than limiting ourselves to this little bubble of self-centered Christianity we find ourselves living in and that is the basis for much of the fodder we are fed today.
