Romans 7:15:
15 "What I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that I do."
The distance from the Lord our God, at which even the noblest, the most gifted and the mightiest man on earth stands, is so immeasurably great, that it is readily understood how one can almost despairingly exclaim: "why should we try to know God!" The Lord is great and we understand Him not (Job 36:26). All we can do is to kneel in worship before the unknown God.
This is what the doubters meant, who at Athens reared an altar to the "Unknown God" (Acts 17:23). They did not mean thereby that, besides the many gods who already had their altar, there was still another God whose name they did not know, to whom therefore as an Unknown God they offered their sacrifices. No, this altar to the Unknown God stood for a system, a viewpoint.
They would say thereby: "Our fellow-citizens in Athens who kneel before Minerva or Jupiter, are mistaken when they accept all the narratives concerning the gods as valid currency. All that is said about knowing God, rests upon self-deception. Of the Infinite, nothing can be known. True, there is One who is Infinite, or at least there is something Infinite, but who and what this Infinite One is, remains for us men an impenetrable mystery. Worship this Infinite as the great Unknown; do it with the confession of your ignorance; openly recognize that all knowledge of God is withheld from you; and holy mysticism will refreshingly affect you. But do not pretend to have what you have not, and never make it appear that you have been introduced and initiated into knowledge of God. For what else is this but self-deception, which must lead to the deception of-others, and is the key to all priestcraft."
This was the thought of that small group of men in Athens. Among the ablest and noblest of our race many are of such mind now. "Agnostics" is the name by which they call themselves. And their aim and intention is to have you understand well that they are by no means godless, and not in the least irreligious; that among the pious they are the most pious; and that for this very reason, in deep humility and candor, they confess that the God Whom we worship is One Who by His Supreme Majesty withdraws His knowledge from us men.
However pious this may sound, at heart this viewpoint is untenable.
Christianity stands diametrically opposed to these people.
The declaration of Paul at Athens: "This God, whom ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you," remains unchangeably the standard of Christian doctrine, which has been raised in the face of these misguided ones.
Surely, had God not revealed Himself, no one of us would know Him.
But God has revealed Himself. That He has done so, is the glad tiding which every Christian brings to the world.
And therefore in the face of this seemingly pious ignorance of the Agnostics, we boldly, and without one moment's hesitation, emphasize the word of Christ: "This is eternal life, that they might know thee, the only true God."
But there is also exaggeration on the other side.
There are leaders and laymen who without scruple and without the slightest bashfulness, argue familiarly about the High and Holy One, the Everlasting God, and in their public prayer show such lack of reverence, that it arouses aversion.
These are men and women without the fear of God in their hearts, who think that they know everything about the Most High that can be known, and are not even faintly aware that all our reasoning about the Eternal, and all our talking to Him, is nothing but so much stammering.
It is indeed true that love casts out fear. But then fear must first be there, and against it love must have struggled, for only thus is the victory gained of the childlike, "Abba, Father!"
But when one hears God spoken of in a way which shows that there never was any fear of His Name, nor any love to repress that fear; that there never was any conflict and therefore no victory gained; then there is nothing of the childlike: "Abba, dear Father!" but only an indiscreet airing of knowledge and pedantry, which exhales no fragrance of piety, but rather chokes the germ of vital godliness.
To avert this, it is exceedingly needful that the knowledge of God be brought into relation with our whole inner existence, our creation after the Divine Image with the fact of our being the offspring of God, and especially also with our intentions and purposes.
Bare intellectual knowledge of God, which is not applied by the will to our life, is a frozen ice-crust under which the stream has run dry.
But with this willing a twofold distinction must be observed.
There is willing and willing.
There is a willing which remains what it is. And there is a willing which translates itself into doing. And especially in our days the tendency is to attribute inward worth only to this second willing, which knows how to put its will into execution.
There is something bold, something brutal, in this will-life of our times. All that is wanted is to will. He who wills must be daring, let come of it what may. But in any case the will must be the expression of a power that is able to do everything. Where there is a will, there is a way. And under the leadership of such men as Ibsen this effort of the will has been driven so onesidedly that many now make it a point of honor to pay no attention to anything or anybody, and in the face of every form of opposition irresistibly to endeavor to carry their will into effect.
Compared with these present-day heroes of the will a weakling like Paul truly cuts a poor figure!
He comes out squarely with the statement that ever and anon he knows moments in his life when he has to confess (Romans 7:15): "What I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that I do."
These are honest words, which age after age have been shamefully and dreadfully abused, in order that with pious confessions on the lips, men may quietly persist in sin, and yet silence their conscience.
An abuse which God shall judge.
But apart from this abuse, what Paul said is the honest language of everyday life; a stating the fact that our ideal always stands above us, and that we ever have to mourn our inability to reach it and to make it actual in life.
There is a willing in the heart, and there is an effort to realize this willing of our heart in our life.
This willing in our heart is for the most part free. He who restrains his evil inclinations, and conforms his inner will to God's will, fosters in his heart a holy intention.
This, too, involves conflict, but only with the stirrings of the old nature in us. And as long as we stand aloof from life, and counsel with our heart alone, a child of God triumphs inwardly, and at length comes to will only what God wills, and, in this unity of his will with God's will, he finds happiness.
But there follows a second struggle which is far greater.
Now it comes to the point of carrying out the inner intention of your heart against the world, the flesh and the devil. And here it constantly happens that, with the best of will at heart, you meet with stubborn resistance; that you find no power in yourself to cope with it; and that at length you leave undone what sacredly and honestly you purposed in your heart to do and still desire to do.
This tempts you all too frequently to deny all worth to this inner willing of your heart.
What good is it, it is asked, whether you foster the best of intentions and aim at holiest ends, if, when it comes to action, you fail?
This, however, must be resisted. This is debasement of self. It not only brings failure in life, but cuts the vital nerve which binds you to your Divine ideal.
Ten times better fail, and be punished in your conscience by God's judgment, than in every ordinary way to sin along with the world without knowledge of this conflict with your conscience.
Moreover, this inward willing in your heart of what God wills, is of supreme worth, even though strength fails you as yet to carry it into effect.
Already this willing is a quickening of your childship, a coming into closer fellowship with your God, an increase in your knowledge of God, an inward refining which keeps your conscience awake, causes your ideal to remain bright, and helps you to progress.
Of course you progress much farther, when, from being willing at heart, it becomes action in the accomplished deed and eventually becomes a part of life. Then the moral power of faith operates, then the hero-nature awakens in you, and the all-conquering power of the Almighty becomes manifest in you.
Only, it does not begin with this.
It begins with the transposing of the willing in your heart.
Then comes the sad, painful experience, that the willing is there, but that the doing still tarries.
But, even in that stage, the powerful, the penetrating working of the conscience performs wonders. And it is this working which at length leads you into the last stage, and brings you from the bare willing of what God wills to the doing of His holy pleasure.
* * * * * * *This devotional classic offers 110 meditations on a single thought from Psalm 73: "As for me, it is good to be near to God." The author states, "The fellowship of being near unto God must become reality ... it must permeate and give color to our feeling, our perceptions, our sensations, our thinking, our imagining, our willing, our acting, our speaking. It must not stand as a foreign factor in our life, but it must be the passion that breathes throughout our whole existence."
The meditations reflect the blending of spiritual vigor with doctrinal loyalty so consistently expressed in the life of Abraham Kuyper. These are devotions with true substance, avoiding the extremes about which Kuyper adds a word of caution: "Stress in creedal confession, without drinking from the Living Fountain, runs dry in barren orthodoxy, just as truly as spiritual emotion, without clearness in confessional standards, makes one sink in the bog of sickly mysticism."
Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) was a Dutch political leader and Calvinist theologian. Elected to parliament in 1874, he became Prime Minister in 1901 and served in that capacity until 1905. As a theologian, he revived a systematic, orthodox Calvinism. He founded the Free Reformed Church and the Free University of Amsterdam. His other works include Principles of Sacred Theology, Lectures on Calvinism, and The Work of the Holy Spirit
Further information about Abraham Kuyper's life can be seen in the translator's "Biographical Note"; further information about To Be Near Unto God can be Abraham Kuyper's "Preface" to that book.
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