September 18 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Psalm 130:4:

⁴But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

Devotional:

There is still another way that leads to knowledge of God, but it is one that should not be dealt with save with utmost delicacy and tenderness; we mean the awful way to the knowledge of God that leads through the depths of sin.

A single word of Jesus can explain at once what way we have here in mind. It is what Jesus said to Simon the Pharisee: "To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little" (Luke 7:47).

With this word, Jesus places two persons over against each other; on one side, a most honorable citizen of Nain, his host Simon; and on the other side, a woman who was known in the little town as a woman of ill repute, a public sinner, as was indeed the case. As she had sinned more, she had been forgiven more, and, as a result of this, she loved more. The virtuous Simon, on the other hand, who had sinned less, had been forgiven less, and consequently he loved less.

If, now, love for Christ is one of the richest sources from which the living knowledge of God flows out towards us, the way through the depths of sin became to this woman who was a public sinner, thanks to the larger forgiveness, the means by which to attain a deeper and a richer knowledge of God.

He who only strives after book-knowledge of God, can not enter into this, and will never be able to brook this vigorous word of Jesus. He, on the other hand, who knows from his own experience, that the warm, fostering knowledge of God is fed and carried most effectually by love for Him, gratefully accepts this word of Jesus, and yet—in the face of it, trembles.

The dark nature of sin stands in so sharp a contrast over against Holiness, that for a moment the soul must do violence to itself in order to understand how a deep way of sin can be one that leads to a richer knowledge of God.

And it behooves us to speak the more humbly of this way to a richer knowledge of God, which at first hearing repels, because even among us there are those who, abusing this word of Jesus in a satanic way, at times have shamelessly declared in private: "I had gloriously sinned again, and then had a blessed time of finding."

All such devilish sayings are nothing else than slanders on the mercies of our God. But even if this horrible abuse of Jesus' word compels us to use utmost carefulness, yet the heavenly gold that glitters in this word must not be darkened. It ever remains true, that more sin with more forgiveness can lead to more love and, thereby, to a richer knowledge of God.

It is this word alone that offers us the key to the beatitude of the murderer on the cross and the promise of Jesus that, presently with Jesus Himself he would be in Paradise.

It is fundamentally the same as what David wrote in Psalm 130:4: "With thee there is forgiveness," not if, but "in order that thou mayest be feared."

It is from the forgiveness of sin, that the tender faithfulness in the service of the Lord is born.

Sin, forgiveness, love, and, from this love, knowledge of God, are the four beads on the one holy string.

In reality the whole Gospel rests upon this acknowledgment, and the exclamation of a former hero of the faith, Felix culpa, that "There was something glorious in the fall"—can never be altogether ciphered away.

The angels of God have no knowledge of sin, hence also they have no knowledge of forgiveness, hence again they have no knowledge of that tender love that is born from forgiveness. Nor have they that richer knowledge of God, which springs from this tenderer affection. They stand as strangers in the face of it, and therefore says the Apostle that, with respect to this mystery, the angels are, as it were, jealously desirous "to look into it."

Undoubtedly, the revelation of the Being and Attributes of God, as it comes to us in the mighty work of the atonement, is far richer, more tender and more striking than the first revelation in Paradise.

The grace, the mercy, the compassion of our God for the sinner gives us a look into the Father-heart, such as never would have been possible apart from sin.

The knowledge of God, which we receive in and through Christ, far exceeds all other knowledge of Him; and yet in Scripture the sending of the Son to this world is caused by sin alone.

Every deeply moved utterance of love for God, on the part of any of the saints in both Old and New Testaments springs from the thrilling experience of the heart, that the servant and handmaiden of the Lord have been purged from sin and that they have been brought out of their misery. And neither this reconciliation and sanctification, nor this deliverance from misery would have been conceivable, had not sin engulfed the world.

Even now it is frequently observed that the indifferent sympathy for God, which you find with the unconverted, differs from the affectionate devotion to God on the part of the redeemed, in that the unconverted always leave sin out of their reckonings, and that the redeemed, on the other hand, always start out from the knowledge of their lost estate, in order from this knowledge of sin to ascend to the knowledge of God.

The love for God operates most purely, apart from sin, with the angels of God; and yet, however glorious their love for God may be, it is a different, it is a lesser love than that of the redeemed sinner for his God and Savior.

It will not do for us to say, how revelation would have unfolded itself, if Adam had not fallen and Christ had not come; but this much is certain, that the rich knowledge of God's boundless mercies is the highest for us, and that this highest knowledge of God is immediately connected with the undoing of Paradise in sin and misery.

And this applies to every individual case.

Especially in these times, the knowledge of sin is scarcely reckoned with on the part of many people who call themselves Christians. They have been religiously brought up, and they have not broken out in open sin. Therefore, sin is no burden to them. As a result of this, the sense of the need of reconciliation is largely lost from among them. The Cross affects them altogether differently. Their Christianity is rather one of high ideals and good works. The sad result of this is that they have less and less of that mystical, tender and cherishing love for God, and that "Blessed is the man whose sin is covered" (Psalm 32:1), refers to a state of happiness to which they are utter strangers.

But there are those who have been led deeply into the knowledge of sin, either by a keen sense of the demands of God's law, or because God gave them a free rein to sin. But finally they came to a halt, and felt the rise within them of a burning thirst after reconciliation. And now that they have found this reconciliation in the Savior, their soul is aglow with praise and adoration of the compassions of the Lord. They feel their love for the God of unfathomable mercies burn ever more strongly within them. And according to the greater measure of their sin, they follow on to a far richer measure of fellowship with the Father Who is in heaven, and to the knowledge of His holy Name.

This needs by no means always the background of a more brutal outbreak in sin. A deeper insight into ordinary sin can create an equally burning desire after reconciliation. But still it remains a fact that of all the Apostles, Paul glories most enthusiastically in this love of the saved, just because, having persecuted the Church of God he felt himself to be the chief of sinners.

And likewise it still remains true that when, from a deep fall into sin, one has come to a full and genuine conversion, the thirst after reconciliation and the deep gratitude of love for this, reaches such a measure of intensity in him, as to affect others most wholesomely with its surprising warmth, even to the extent that at times you could envy him the warmth of his inner life.

Shall we then sin in order that grace, and with it the love and knowledge of God, may increase?

Far from it.

The very question itself is diabolical. He who propounds it, does not love God. He openly insults God's love.

But it does imply that it behooves each child of God to enter more deeply into the knowledge of the sinfulness of his own heart; not to let his secret sins escape notice; ever and anon to apply again the rich atonement to all the breadth and length of the sins of his own heart; and thus to become ever more deeply sensible how endlessly much there was for which he needed forgiveness, and is forgiven.

There is here a twofold way.

The one minimizes his sin; is offended when told of his guilt and does not want to hear it said that he is guilty of many offenses. He holds himself erect, and deems himself a saint.

This, now, is the way to cover up one's sins; not to thirst after reconciliation; not to give thanks for reconciliation and love; and consequently to remain far removed from the knowledge of God.

But there is also another way, even that of humbling oneself. In this way, God's child distrusts himself; gives thanks when some one points out his sin to him; examines ever more closely his own heart, his past, and the present state of his soul; and so there is, time and again new need of reconciliation, new joy in forgiveness received, more love for the Compassionate One, and thus an ever deeper entering into the knowledge of God his Savior.

And then, still this much more.

He who as Christian imitates Simon the Pharisee and deems himself just, can not bear that Jesus takes the part of one that is a sinner. For then there is an exalted sense of one's own righteousness, which has no place for the compassion that is shown the prodigal son on his return.

When, on the other hand, by a deeper knowledge of your own sin, you feel that you are small, but refresh yourself each day with new draughts from the cup of reconciliation, then there awakens in your heart something of that joy among God's angels over one sinner that repenteth, which is greater than the joy over the ninety and nine who have no need of repentance.

And, after all, this is the Gospel!

* * * * * * *

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.