"Your views on this point should be clear and distinct. If you wish only
to be saved from the penalty of your sins, you do not desire the salvation
which Jesus gives. He saves his people, not in their sins, but from their
sins. If, however, you really wish for his full and glorious salvation,
you will desire that your will may be wholly subdued to the will of God.
You will be found ready to unite in the memorable prayer of the Lord
Jesus, 'Not my will but thine be done.' Salvation implies the giving up of
self-will and a reverent submission to the will of God.
"Other sinful passions oppose the grace of God, but chiefly as helpers and
supporters of self-will. Pride and vanity strengthen self-will. Turbulent
fleshly lusts urge on and back up self-will. Fear of man, fear of danger,
and unbelief are but props of self-will. When 'my Lord Will-be-will'
submits, the town of Mansoul returns to her rightful allegiance.
"The question at issue between God and the sinner, the question of
self-will or submission, is often contested around the performance of some
single definite duty. The Holy Spirit often presents to the convicted
sinner's conscience some single duty and presses its performance. That
duty is a test of the feelings and desires of the sinner's heart. So the
Spirit understands it, so the sinner often understands it. As, in the
garden of Eden, God gave to Adam a test command, so does he now press upon
the conscience of convicted sinners test duties to show them what they
are. That which is required may be important, exceedingly important, in
and of itself, or it may be in itself of very little consequence, but in
every case the duty is all-important and its performance absolutely
essential, because the Spirit has laid it upon the sinner's conscience. It
will show whether he wishes for salvation from sin or not.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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