You that glory in being a Christian, you shall be winnowed. Every vein of your profession will be tried to purpose. It is terrible to have it all come tumbling down, and to find nothing but itself to stand upon…You who pride yourself on being a Christian, see to your waxen wings, which now will melt with the heart of temptation. What a misery is it to trade much, and be bankrupt at length, and have not stock, nor foundation laid for eternity in your soul! Thomas Wilcox
There was a different view of Christianity in the 1600’s (of which Thomas Wilcox was a pastor and writer) than there is now. In that time, which was basically 100 years after the time of the Reformation, Christianity was taken very seriously and was the most important thing in life, death, and for eternity. It was thought that there was a real devil and that he was very interested in deceiving men concerning their souls. It was also thought that the hearts of men were deceptive and that they could easily be deceived concerning their salvation. Wilcox wrote in a way in which to awaken people to their false professions, but also in such a way to warn true believers that they would be tried. In the modern day the least hardship will send professing believers into a tailspin because it is thought that if God loves you then He will give you an easy life.
Wilcox, on the other hand, recognized that God tried His people and these trials were sent to purify His people and that these hardships were from true love. While it is not comfortable for people to examine their own hearts, it is a necessary task in order to see if one is a believer or not and also helps people during times of trial. If a person is not careful to examine self, however, that person will have nothing to stand on during the times of trials and perhaps on judgment day. A true profession of faith will be tried by God and false professions of faith may not be tried by God but instead established in its strength by the devil. It is necessary to pursue a form of self-examination as Paul said in II Corinthians 13:5.
It is one thing to glory in being a Christian in name and yet quite another to be one in truth. One can make a profession of faith very easily in the modern day and it never be questioned in our easy day of false religion. But a true faith will have trials from the outside and the inside. A true faith must grow and God will send trials and hard things to force it to grow, yet when He does the young or weak believer may have a hard time realizing what is going on. It is very hard for sinners to come to an end of self and to learn to look to grace alone. It is so hard for people who have always worked for what they get to learn to look to free grace alone. It is hard for those who have been moral all their lives to look to free grace to save them as horrid sinners. It is hard for those who have had easy lives without trouble or have had doting parents who removed all the hard things from them to understand that a good, loving, and gracious God will send fiery trials in order for them to grow.
It is so very hard for sinners (Christian sinners too) to be broken from their pride so that they may look to grace and grace alone rather than self. It is so very hard for sinners to come to the point of seeing how deep their depravity really is and that their hearts are far worse than the very worst of their outward sins. Yet the Lord in His great kindness and mercy will show people the depths of their sin (to some degree) and increasingly so as they mature. It takes a great faith which comes by a great grace to look to Christ alone while fighting the onslaught of our own wicked and sinful hearts. Yet without those trials and without the battles that faith has to have in order to grow in Christ and in grace, the soul would not grow and remain an infant.
There is such a great danger in people taking up a profession of Christianity and leaving a good and moral life, yet on judgment day they will have no hope at all. They will have sown seed on hard soil and they will have lived an outwardly moral life in the strength of self, though they may have professed Christ and prayed to Him in a way. They may have been the best of neighbors and the best of people in the town and church, but they did not have Christ. They did not live by grace and they never died to self. These people had a profession and they may have spoken much of Christ, but they were never united to Him by faith and so they never received Christ and His grace. They will have to stand upon their own filthy works and they will never have the wrath of God for their sins satisfied. They will face eternity entirely bankrupt rather than having the imputed righteousness of Christ and along with that all of His spiritual blessings. How much better it is to examine now rather than wait for the day when all things are opened by the Light and it is too late.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment