Considering the On-Going Struggle with Sin

A Treasure Chest of Grace

As I continue to read Letters of John Newton, I am just amazed that so few people have sought these out and fewer cherish them.  His pastoral care is a balm to my soul as he tenderly applies layer after layer of the gospel.  His letters to Rev. Barlass, in particular, focus on our on-going struggle with sin.  Rev. Barless was a minister of the Secession Church of Scotland.  Sounds to me like he was one of the Seceders or Associate Presbyterians from whom the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church has come.  As such, he had defended the free offer of the gospel and tried to free the church from patronage among other things.  But this man also knew his own sin, and sought out Rev. Newton to guide him.  Young pastors, have YOU found an older man experienced in all the ways of the gospel?

First, Newton sets his heart at ease in that he is not different from us.  We are “like coins from the same mint.”  But, due to his calling, Rev. Barless had greater experiental knowledge of his own sinfulness.

“They that go down to the sea in ships, and do their business in great waters, experience hardships, and likewise see wonders, which people who live on the shore have no idea of.  Many of the Lord’s people are comparatively landsmen; others are mariners, and are called to conflict a great part of their lives with storms and raging billows.”

Pastors are not people who stay on shore.  They go to the deeps.  They battle beside others as they struggle with grieveous sin.  They are wise to know that they too are capable of such things.  Newton notes, not just the flesh (aka sinful nature in some translations), but also the unseen enemy.  He ponders that those subject to depression (like his friend William Cowper) are “more accessible to this invisible agency.”  It is like they have lower defenses, and are more quickly overrun by the enemy.

“Satan’s power, I apprehend, is chiefly upon the imagination.  His temptations may be considered under two heads- the terrible and the plausible.  By the former he fights against our peace; by the latter he endeavors to ensnare us in our judgment or conduct.”

Why is this book not more popular?

As Sinclair Ferguson notes in his latest book By Grace Alone, Satan seeks to prevent us from enjoying our salvation.  He cannot take our salvation from us.  The next best thing is to prevent us from enjoying it.  He robs us of our peace in Christ by imagining our sin separates us from Him.  The plausible seems to be referring more to temptation- imagining what we can do, or get away with, so that we fall into sin.  He illustrates this with Ananias’ attempt to deceive Peter.  He was not aware that Satan had filled his heart and was the source of his temptation.

But it is not all bad.  Those who have been in the deepest valleys have also been on some of the highest peaks.  Or, back to the sea have enjoyed sights not available to those who remain on shore.  They discover “the wisdom, power, and glory of the Lord” in ways the undistressed soul never could.  They learn far more about the incredible sufficiency of the Lord.

In a later letter, after his call to London, Newton balances that increased influence as a pastor with the effects of indwelling sin.  He was constantly being humbled by the temptations (and sins) of his heart.  He recognized he is not the “holy, got it together” guy that many saw in the pulpit.  He wasn’t lying to them, pretending to be someone he was not.  But he knew how occupied his thoughts could be of sin and temptation while in his study.

“… it is of grace that my poor story is not much worse.  The Lord is my keeper, therefore I am still preserved.  I have not made a shipwreck of my profession.”

The former sailor returns to such pictures.  He surely would have shipwrecked his faith apart from the preserving grace of Jesus.  And all of us are in the same boat.  Left to ourselves, we’d destroy our selves.  We would sin, whether in legalism or licentiousness, ourselves into death.

One particular sin of many pastors (and thoughtful laymen) is arguing about forms and names (a party spirit), focusing on non-essentials.  We fall under “the spirit of self and prejudice” and mandate that all others believe as we do.  We are, as he notes, like Popes.  Instead of every believe a priest, we act like every believer a Pope that must be obeyed.  But God opposes us when we are proud.

“Cisterns must be broken, but the fountain of living waters is always full and always flowing.”

Christ is never found wanting, or lacking.  He is always, in every way, sufficient.  So, while we struggle with sin all is not lost.  By no means.  So let us stop complaining to one another.  Rather, “we should encourage each other and say, Let us love, and sing, and wonder.”  I think he wrote a song about that.  And that would be living in light of the gospel, filled with the Spirit.