The Greatest Temptation for Those Zealous to Advance Christianity

A convicting quote from Jonathan Edwards, lightly modernized here by Ray Ortlund [1]:

Spiritual pride is the main door by which the devil comes into the hearts of those who are zealous for the advancement of Christianity.

It is the chief inlet of smoke from the bottomless pit, to darken the mind and mislead the judgment.

It is the main source of all the mischief the devil introduces, to clog and hinder a work of God.

Spiritual pride tends to speak of other persons’ sins with bitterness or with laughter and levity and an air of contempt. But pure Christian humility rather tends either to be silent about these problems or to speak of them with grief and pity.

Spiritual pride is very apt to suspect others, but a humble Christian is most guarded about himself.

He is as suspicious of nothing in the world as he is of his own heart.

The proud person is apt to find fault with other believers, that they are low in grace, and to be much in observing how cold and dead they are and to be quick to note their deficiencies.

But the humble Christian has so much to do at home and sees so much evil in his own heart and is so concerned about it that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts.

He is apt to esteem others better than himself.

—Jonathan Edwards, “Thoughts on the Revival,” Works (Edinburgh, 1979), I:398-400.


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Article printed from Justin Taylor: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor

The Attributes of God and the Glory of the Gospel

(from Justin Taylor's blog at:
http://theologica.blogspot.com/2009/02/attributes-of-god-and-glory-of-gospel.html)

I (JT) can't resist reproducing one more quote from Packer's Praying the Lord's Prayer. It's vintage Packer -- Pauline in both its length and theology:

By wisdom God found a way to justify the unjust justly;
in love he gave his Son to bear death's agony for us;
in justice he made the Son, as our substitute, suffer the sentence that our disobedience deserved;
with power he unites us to the risen Christ, renews our hearts, frees us from sin's bondage, and moves us to repent and believe;
and in faithfulness he keeps us from falling, as he promised to do, till he brings us triumphantly to our final glory. (page 43)