The absolute and strikingly plain perpetuity of the divine Scripture speaks to the clear wisdom that man is not merely "sinful" but "completely sinful." That is, he has absolutely nothing good to offer God and he is totally guilty.
Rome says that we tend to the truth of God by nature. Rather the Bible says that by nature, even men of God, lie to other men of God (see 1 Kin 13:18). Man does not tend to the truth by nature (opposed to RCC 2467), because by man's fallen and diabolical nature he is a "complete liar" (see Rom. 3:4).
God is the only One who is Faithful and True in the self-existent sense (Rev. 3:14; Rev. 1:8), but fallen mankind (Deut. 32:5) can only be placed into Christ by God's complete, radical and divinely supernatural intervention according to what He sovereignly pleases (Ps. 135:6; Rom. 9:15).
Man by nature according to the historic fall of Adam (Mt 19:4) is filled with abominable (Ps. 14:1) and violate hatred (Ps. 25:19). All men by nature loathe, hate and despise God (Ex. 20:5; Deut 5:9) because man completely hates a holy God (Rom. 1:30) for mankind by nature "did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them" (Rom. 1:28-21 NASB).
Now shall we address the Puritan prayer attributed to the spiritual rationality of Jonathan Edwards. It is indeed a "shocking" prayer because most common prayers do not have the divine and straightforward honesty. The only way scriptural honest is preserved is not by the naked assertion of the Papists. Rather it is preserved by the scriptural-centeredness of a God-honoring understanding of man for "He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man" (Jn 2:25 NASB). Hence here is the novel Scripture-grounded prayer,
Dear God, whom I hate with all my being precisely because you hate and threaten me with hell, I hate this punishment perhaps even more than I hate you. Or, maybe I should say that I love my comfort even more than I hate you. For that reason I am asking a favor of you. I want you to make me love you, whom I hate even when I ask this and even more because I have to ask this. I am being frank with you because I know it is no use to be otherwise. You know even better than I how much I hate you and that I love only myself. It is no use for me to pretend to be sincere. I most certainly do not love you and do not want to love you. I hate the thought of loving you but that is what I'm asking because I love myself. If you can answer this 'prayer' I guess the gift of gratitude will come with it and then I will be able to do what I would not think of doing now—thank you for making me love you whom I hate. Amen. (John H. Gerstner. The Rational Biblical Theology of Jonathan Edwards, Volume III, (Virginia: Berea Publications, 1993), p. 81)."Dear God, whom I hate with all my being precisely because you hate and threaten me with hell, I hate this punishment perhaps even more than I hate you." The Bible says we are completely hostile to a holy God (Jude 15), scheme complete wickedness (Ps. 26:9-10), overthrown by complete evil (Prov. 13:6) and completely and radically wicked (Amos 9:8-10). We obsess over worldly things, man-made goodness and we think we are good by nature. A person who says this kind of prayer is supernaturally awakened to their radical hatred of God (Jn 15:25) and His eternal fire-blazing and consuming punishment (Mt 25:41; 25:46) in outer darkness (Mt 8:12) through everlasting destruction (2 Thess. 1:9) in the lake of eternal and supernatural fire (Rev. 19:20).
There is no escape for the "completely guilty" (Ex. 23:7) because mankind is "completely devoid" of "complete goodness" (Ps. 14:1, 3; 53:1; Rom. 3ff) in abandonment to "complete ruin" of their sin-bound, sin-constrained and Satan-captivated wills (Is. 6:5) through the "complete blindness" of fallen man (Mt. 23:16; 23:24). The supernatural covering of the Christ-saturating, Christ-exalting, Christ-dominating and Christ-penetrating garments of the Lamb of God (Zech. 3:4; Gal. 2:20) is the only way to be right with a God who demands absolute perfection, sinlessness and holiness!
Man-made religion says you can atone for your own sin through personal effort. The written Word says man is completely unable through natural means, human means, fleshly means and free will to possess life everlasting (Jn 1:13). We could never escape hell through the free will of man or through what mere men can do (Rom. 9:16). A person who says this prayer knows they deserve hell and they hate hell because they will have their "complete abominations" punished by a holy God. It refers to perfect justice. There is no perfect justice in this life except at the Cross of the Lamb of God (Is. 53ff).
Tell me, why do sinners make much of a "material presence" of the Eucharist when it cannot even last to "atone" for later mortal sin? That is, someone can die "completely impure" and outside of Christ after attending man-made Mass! How does this honor the integrity of the divine Word and the Master who delivered it? The "material presence" of Christ cannot be true because it denies the hypostatic union of Jesus Christ. That is, the human nature is limited by time and space. It cannot be in more than one place at a time. The human nature is localized at the right hand of God. He intercedes for God's chosen to the uttermost. If sinners confuse the human nature with the omnipresent divine nature of our Savior and Creator, it is a violation of the Definition of Chalcedon and the written Word. We must distinguish between the two natures of Christ but not mix them! The divine nature is present in the Eucharist that reminds us of the supernatural atonement of Jesus Christ. For God bought His own people at Calvary through His own shedding of His own all-precious blood (Acts 20:28). How dare religions of men add anything to His all-propitiatory, all-expiatory and all-substitutary work of atonement in cosmic redemption for His elect alone! It is the totally blindedness and cosmic defiance unto the wickedness of man that seeks to "get right with God" through ultimately his own nature unto outer darkness in a state of absolute perishingness (1 Cor. 1:18)!
"Or, maybe I should say that I love my comfort even more than I hate you. For that reason I am asking a favor of you." We love comfort. In fact, we love comfort more than God's truth. Sinners are comfortable in their own "complete sinfulness." We enjoy the "in-crowd" of sinnership. The old saying is true among sinners, "misery loves its own company." A sinner loves to appreciate his own self-piety and illusory independence from God. We cannot come to God on our own. The only glory God can receive from us according to our natures is unto justice.
We are comfortable in our absolute sinfulness of sin, remaining corruptions of corruptions and a blindness of spiritual madness that only complete hell-inviting sinners bring upon themselves! The "comfortableness" is because of our radical fallen nature. It is content in the lusts of the flesh and the boastful pride of life. It is content with no fear of God, complete omissions of duty and total commissions of great iniquity. It wants to find its own way to God against what God has written. It will even inflict punishment upon themselves to get right with God when divine justice is only satisfied on Christ alone (1 Kin 18:28; Jn 19:30).
To emphasis "comfort over truth" is a rebellion of rebellions before a holy God. The real truth is that divine truth renews the mind by God's Spirit through His Word preached. God is completely concerned with truth and holiness by God's Spirit and Word. Man has twisted the absolute clearness of the written Word. He says, "There must be some other way to be saved than Christ alone." He says, "I must add to Him because He makes it possible." There is no salvation for an "almost Christian." I suggest to you that if you deny that Christ alone is the sole grounds for how you are right with God you do not know Him.
Fallen sinners basically prefer by nature a complete reliance upon that which is not God-speaking (see 2 Tim. 3:16-17). For man is of those who "blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion" (Jude 10-11 ESV). By nature man is completely ignorant of God's salvation when He looks at creation through His only Son (Jn 3:36). But God has made it plainly and completely clear about Himself, "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them" (Rom. 1:19 ESV). That is, before I was converted God revealed to me that Reformed Theology was God's divine truth. He not only reveals Himself through the awesome handiwork of His beauty of creation, but also through the providential illumination of His Spirit accompany the known Word.
What is grace? Grace is the life and death of Christ alone. If God grants a people grace, He grants it through His dear Son alone. Its not that Jesus makes salvation possible and somehow we "merit" our own salvation. Rather it is that Jesus is the only way. There is no way for co-saviors because there is only one Redeemer. Will you ask God for spiritual help today to forsake your darkened and mind-bound corruption? Heed the call, "...Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” (Acts 2:40 ESV). Amen.
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