Richard Baxter on ‘A Heart of Melted Wax’

Richer Baxter was a Puritan pastor who dealt with what he called ‘Spiritual Melancholy’, which us another way to describe what those heavy souls feel who think they have sinned and exhausted God’s grace and forgiveness. He states:

‘The trouble and disquiet of the mind doth then become a settled habit; they can see nothing but matter of fear and trouble. All that they hear or do doth feed it; danger is still before their eyes; all that they read and hear makes against them; they can delight in nothing; fearful dreams trouble them when they sleep, and distracted thoughts do keep them long waking; it offends them to see another laugh, or be merry; they think that every beggars case is happier than theirs; they will hardly believe that any one else is in their case, when some two or three in a week, or a day, come to me in the same case, so like, that you would think it were the same person’s case which they all express; they have no pleasure in relations, friends, estate, or any thing; they think that God hath forsaken them, and that the day of grace is past, and there is no more hope; they say they cannot pray, but howl, and groan, and God will not hear them; they will not believe that they have any sincerity and grace; they say they cannot repent, they cannot believe, but that their hearts are utterly hardened; usually they are afraid lest they have committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost: in a word, fears, and troubles, and almost despair, are the constant temper of their minds.’

In Baxter’s work on this subject he not only describes what causes this disposition in some, but also it’s cure, which I will deal with in a later post.

Piper on the Unpardonable Sin

John Piper routinely gets directly to the heart of what particular passages mean, all the while keeping it’s meaning in it’s proper context. His interpretation of what exactly Christ says it is that will and will not be forgiven in Matthew ch. 12 is no exception. Most people who misunderstand this passage and think they may have committed this sin usually look over the door Christ himself throws wide open for forgiveness. He writes:

“Why do I hesitate to equate what the scribes said with unforgivable blasphemy? I hesitate because Jesus invites me to with verse 28. “Truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter.” Literally: “All things will be forgiven to the sons of men, the sins and the blasphemies whatever they blaspheme.” No exceptions are mentioned. The key to understanding the unforgivable sin is how verse 28 can be stated so absolutely (“all sins and blasphemies will be forgiven”) and yet verse 29 can say that there is a blasphemy and a sin beyond forgiveness. ” -Piper

A Heart of Blasphemy

In studying what makes the unpardonable sin ‘unpardonable’, I ran across this quote that gets directly at the heart of the matter. The Bible is very clear that sin comes from the heart, and in the case of Blaspheming the Holy Spirit, this truth holds especially firm:

” The phrase “being (ontes) wicked” reflects a present tense participle, and the subsequent verb “speaks” (lalei) also is a present form. The resolute, evil charges against the Son of God were an index to the concrete-like, malevolent quality that encrusted their hearts. These men were not simply making an ignorant mistake. They were deliberate, dug-in enemies of truth. They would hang on to their sinful disposition till the end, and that rebellion would follow them into eternity, hence, an “eternal sin.” -WJ

Apostasy and Divorce, same difference!

For a number of years, I’ve been using the analogy of marriage to explain apostasy. Turns out I wasn’t the first. Jeremiah does too.
Jeremiah uses some variation of the root shub (“turn, return, turn away”) nearly 50 times in his prophecy. One of the specific words is meshubah, translated at times as “faithless,” but more literally “turning back,” “backsliding” or even (as in some English translations) as “apostasy.”
The word is used a number of times in Jeremiah 3, where it almost becomes an epithetic for Israel: Israel is “Apostasy Israel,” the personification and embodiment of apostasy (3:6, 8, 11, 12).
This description of Israel’s backsliding is set in a marital context. Israel is the bride that has turned harlot, “turning away” from the husband that she should face, offering herself as a prostitute to every man on every high hill and under every trysting tree. Judah sees and does not change, but instead becomes more faithless even than Apostasy Israel. As a result, Yahweh threatens to serve Judah with a “writ of divorce” as He has already done for Israel (v. 8; cf. Deuteronomy 24:1ff). Apostasy thus is marital infidelity, followed by a final end to the marriage with a divorce certificate.
It is interesting, and no accident that the Greek word for “apostasy” (apostasia) and for “writ of divorce” (apostasion) are from the same root.
This helps us a lot to grasp the meaning of apostasy. First, it’s clear that apostasy, turning away, is real, though in Jeremiah 3 it’s not final (cf. vv. 11-14). Second, it’s also clear that apostasy is turning away from real love, from a genuine and even intimate relationship, the relationship of marriage. Apostasy is defection from the legal arrangement of matrimony, but it is also betrayal of an interpersonal relationship. Apostasy Israel turns away after having once loved her Lord, and turns away from His relentless love for her (cf. Jeremiah 2:1-3).

Apostasy and Conversion

From leithart.com:
Though resting a theological case on a linguistic “accident” would be a mistake, it is intriguing that the Hebrew word for “convert” is the same as the Hebrew word for “go apostate.” The word in both cases is SHUB, “turn,” which means “turn away” or “turn toward” or “turn back” in various contexts (used for apostasy in 1 Ki 9:6, for example).
A few hypotheses suggest themselves, which would have to be proven and filled out on other grounds:
1) Apostasy is as real as conversion.
2) Both apostasy and conversion are fundamentally matters of “orientation,” the direction we turn our face, walk, bow (1 Ki 9:6 again) Ethis in contrast to a view of conversion grounded in the notion of “decision.”
3) There may be some fruitful material for a study of apostasy in an examination of the use of “turn” with both God and man as subject. Yahweh “turns away” from the apostate who “turns” from him.

Vile Affections

“When Paul says that God gave them up to “vile affections,” he does not just mean that they are vile from “our perspective, though others might differ.” Remember that this is at the very center of God’s judgment. When men desired to think as though God were not there, God granted their wish in judgment, and gave them over to a reprobate mind (v. 28). This is how we know that wrath is occurring—God gives them up, God gives them over (vv. 26, 28). Remember that Paul is echoing the judgment themes found in Ps. 106, and here is another one. God granted their request, but He sent leanness to their souls (Ps. 106:15). God judges in wrath by saying yes” (Doug Wilson)

Sometimes bad endings have small beginnings

“Let every one beware of resisting the Holy Ghost. When a sin has been revealed to him and his own heart affirms that it is a sin, let not his mouth deny the fact. That may not yet be the sin against the Holy Ghost, but it may be a step in that direction. There are many people who admit that we all sin in many ways every day, but when they are reproved, they claim that they never harmed a child.”

Jonathan Edwards on the fear of committing the Unpardonable Sin

“But, says one, I fear I have committed sins that are peculiar to reprobates. I have sinned against light, and strong convictions of conscience; I have sinned presumptuously; and have so resisted the strivings of the Spirit of God, that I am afraid I have committed such sins as none of God’s elect ever commit. I cannot think that God will ever leave one whom he intends to save, to go on and commit sins against so much light and conviction, and with such horrid presumption.—Others may say, I have had risings of heart against God; blasphemous thoughts, a spiteful and malicious spirit; and have abused mercy and the strivings of the Spirit, trampled upon the Saviour, and my sins are such as are peculiar to those who are reprobated to eternal damnation. To all this I would answer,

There is no sin peculiar to reprobates but the sin against the Holy Ghost. Do you read of any other in the word of God? And if you do not read of any there, what ground have you to think any such thing? What other rule have we, by which to judge of such matters, but the divine word? If we venture to go beyond that, we shall be miserably in the dark. When we pretend to go further in our determinations than the word of God, Satan takes us up, and leads us. It seems to you that such sins are peculiar to the reprobate, and such as God never forgives. But what reason can you give for it, if you have no word of God to reveal it? Is it because you cannot see how the mercy of God is sufficient to pardon, or the blood of Christ to cleanse from such presumptuous sins? If so, it is because you never yet saw how great the mercy of God is; you never saw the sufficiency of the blood of Christ, and you know not how far the virtue of it extends. Some elect persons have been guilty of all manner of sins, except the sin against the Holy Ghost; and unless you have been guilty of this, you have not been guilty of any that are peculiar to reprobates.

Men may be less likely to believe, for sins which they have committed, and not the less readily pardoned when they do believe. It must be acknowledged that some sinners are in more danger of hell than others. Though all are in great danger, some are less likely to be saved. Some are less likely ever to be converted and to come to Christ: but all who do come to him are alike readily accepted; and there is as much encouragement for one man to come to Christ as another.—Such sins as you mention are indeed exceeding heinous and provoking to God, and do in an especial manner bring the soul into danger of damnation, and into danger of being given to final hardness of heart; and God more commonly gives men up to the judgment of final hardness for such sins, than for others. Yet they are not peculiar to reprobates; there is but one sin that is so, viz. that against the Holy Ghost. And notwithstanding the sins which you have committed, if you can find it in your hearts to come to Christ, and close with him, you will be accepted not at all the less readily because you have committed such sins.—Though God cloth more rarely cause some sorts of sinners to come to Christ than others, it is not because his mercy or the redemption of Christ is not as sufficient for them as others, but because in wisdom he sees fit so to dispense his grace, for a restraint upon the wickedness of men; and because it is his will to give converting grace in the use of means, among which this is one, viz. to lead a moral and religious life, and agreeable to our light, and the convictions of our consciences. But when once any sinner is willing to come to Christ, mercy is as ready for him as for any. There is no consideration at all had of his sins; let him have been ever so sinful, his sins are not remembered; God doth not upbraid him with them.” -Edwards

A State, Not a Sin

If we look closely at the Hebrews 6 and 10 warning passages and take the immediate context they’re in we notice that the “falling away” and the “sinning wilfully” doesn’t have so much to do with sinning really bad on purpose, as much as it has to do with being in a dangerous state as a person who has been exposed to the Gospel.

The people who the author addressed had heard the good news, partook in all of the things that were necessary for them to have faith and move on to maturity, but they seemed to be picking the wrong path.  They were becoming sluggish instead of mature, and instead of persevering in the church, they were leaving it and all of the new things they had learned about the New Covenant and Christ.

The author sees this and warns them of the END of their journey, if not repented of.  If they continue to be sluggish and not repent of it, then they won’t be able to repent.  God will give them over to the desires of their unbelieving heart.  If they leave Christ and the Church and don’t repent, then God will leave them without Christ and no sacrifice for sins.

The author is not simply describing bad sinners here, but showing the dreadful end of those who persist in unbelief in and stick their fingers in their ears so as not to hear the promises and threats of the Gospel they know are true.  God will give them what they want…and give them over.

Getting started…

So Ive finished nuclear power school and my brain is fried, but I cant wait to get started back on blogging, so back to my studies in Hebrews

TH