Better to be broken in pieces by the Spirit of God, than to be made whole by the flesh! What does the Lord say? “I kill.” But what next? “I make alive.” He never makes any alive but those He kills.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit when He kills me! When He drives the sword through the very heart of my own merits and my self-confidence, then He makes me alive. “I wound, and I heal.” He never heals those whom He has not wounded. Then blessed be the hand that wounds! Let it go on wounding! Let it cut and tear! Let it lay bare to me myself at my very worst, that I may be driven to self-despair and may fall back upon the free mercy of God—and receive it as a poor, guilty, lost, helpless, undone sinner!
May we, by His Grace, cast ourselves into the arms of Sovereign Grace, knowing that God must give all, and Christ must be all, and the Spirit must work all—and man must be as clay in the potter’s hands, that the Lord may do with him as seems to Him good. Rejoice, dear Brothers and Sisters, however low you are brought, for if the Spirit humbles you He means no evil, but He intends infinite good to your soul.
~Charles Spurgeon~
Spurgeon’s Sermons
1 Comment
I regret to say that, here, I have an issue with what Mr. Spurgeon says, rather than merely how he says it. Ignoring his antiquated (by today’s standards, admittedly) use of the term “but” to mean “except” in the first paragraph (which can affect the meaning of the phrase), I must take issue with his comment, “He never heals those whom He has not wounded.” That says that all those whom He has healed, from His time on Earth to today, were wounded solely by His hand. He will not heal those scars and open sores we inflict on ourselves, whether they be physical, psychological, or spiritual.
I will accept, though, the seemingly identical but opposite, in fact, phrasing, “He always heals those whom He has wounded.” That indicates that the breakage the Spirit induces in a man will, guaranteed, be unbroken and made new, without excluding other cracks due to the battle with our flesh or with the prince of this world.
Having said that, though, and rereading Spurgeon’ds I see another possible way to interpret what he’s saying. Rather than imply that God will heal only what He has wounded, perhaps he means that God will heal whom wounded. This would be like a doctor breaking an arm to reset the bone, and taking care of another issue at the same time (whatever it might be). In other words, in order for God to heal you, you must allow yourself to be broken by Him. That is a scary thought, but I can agree that’s a characteristic of the God of the Bible.