December 28, 2008
Seeing in the New Year, John Wesley Style. Step One: Get a bit of Perspective
This post continues a series on John Wesley’s Directions for Renewing our Covenant with God.
It sometimes seems as though every girl I know could quote the opening line of Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice. Calvin’s institutes has an opening line which is quoted and requoted in reformed books “Nearly all the wisdom that we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves”. I remember being particularly struck the first time I read John Piper’s Don’t Waste your Life by its opening two paragraphs.
John Wesley delivers a killer line to open this booklet, summing up in a few short phrases the whole of point 1 in his book:
“Get these three principles fixed in your hearts:
- That things eternal are much more considerable than things temporal;
- That things not seen are as certain as the things which are seen;
- That upon your present choice depends your eternal lot [that is, fate].
Chose Christ and his ways and you are blessed forever;
Refuse and you are undone forever.”
The first thing that struck me about this advice is how contrary it runs to what you could call “10 minute fix” spirituality. Quite simply put, there’s no way you could just pray a prayer, or even spend a single night in meditation on these three things and then have them “fixed” in your heart. This is the work of hours of prayer and meditation over a long period. Though I’m going to blog through this entire booklet in only 5 days – between now and New Year’s day – I’m already struck by the fact that if this exhortation isn’t still with me in six weeks time, I won’t have even got past step one in Wesley’s book.
It contrasts uncomfortably with so much of modern Evangelicalism, obsessed as it is with one off “decisions” for Christ which produce hoardes of nominal converts. What Wesley’s looking for can’t be done in ten minutes (except in very special cases – I’m not denying that there are any cases of dramatic conversions). But then, Wesley’s lookng for something which lasts more than 10 minutes – genuine repentance, a very real change of the heart, a new person.
A second thing that struck me was the way Wesley said “Get these three principles fixed in your hearts… and then make your choice.” Wesley clearly intends to stack the deck a little here in favour of Christ. With all that lot in mind, what choice are you going to make? Only a nutter would refuse Christ. It demonstrates the absolute necessity that we keep a robust doctrine of Heaven and Hell before us, especially in evangelism. But it also makes me wonder – when was the last time I heard a sermon on Heaven? I can remember a couple on Hell, but I struggle to think of the last time the New Creation formed the basis of a sermon I heard.
It also struck me that we should always keep in mind that the Gospel is for believers as well as unbelievers. It’s not just the thing you use to become a Christian, it has to form the basis, the warp and woof of the whole Christian life. Just think, if these three thoughts were part of the wallpaper of your mind, the context where all your other thoughts move about, how would that affect your response to temptation?
Grammatically speaking, we’re only one sentence into the booklet so far, and I’m already feeling majorly convicted. I’d never have disputed the truth of the three things Wesley mentions, but I couldn’t honestly say they were “fixed” in my mind. Where do we go from here? Any suggestions?
For now, I’m going to make a start by meditating on Psalm 90, but I’d love to hear your suggestions.
