Spiritual Paradoxes

"As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." 2 Cor. 6:9, 10

We may well call our text a chain of paradoxes . Observe how each spiritual paradox is fastened together by a double link. In seeking therefore this morning to unwind this chain, I shall take up these double links in the order in which they present themselves to my hand. Let us look, first, at the double link that presents itself in the very opening of our text—

I. "As unknown and yet well known."

A. "As UNKNOWN." This is true in a LITERAL sense. God's people, as well as God's servants, are little known and less esteemed in this world. It is God's purpose and a part of his infinite wisdom that it should be so. The Lord is training up heirs of an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, and preparing them for those mansions of holiness and bliss which he has prepared for them before the foundation of the world. But while they are here below, they are in a state of obscurity . We may compare them to a large and valuable diamond, which is now undergoing the operations of cutting and polishing in some obscure court in the city, no one scarcely knowing of its existence or value, but its owner and the jeweler who is patiently cutting it into shape. But one day it may adorn a monarch's crown.

So while God is cutting and polishing his diamonds by trials and temptations, sufferings and afflictions, they are hidden from the eyes of men, many of them literally and actually in obscure alleys and courts, in garrets and alms-houses. But when the Lord makes up his jewels, they will shine forth forever in his crown! God has chosen the poor of this world, for the most part, to be rich in faith. Not many notable in the annals of learning, power, or rank; not many noble, not many rich, not many mighty, has he called by his grace to a knowledge of himself. The Lord's people rarely possess any wealth, station, property, or worldly distinction. They are for the most part poor and despised, as their Lord and Master was before them, and such the world cares neither to know, nor notice.

But not only in a literal sense are the saints and servants of God unknown to the men of this world, but they are SPIRITUALLY unknown. What does the world know of theirsorrows , their distress of conscience, the bitterness they feel under the application of a broken law, under the hidings of God's face, under the cruel temptations of Satan, under the misgivings and fears, the doubts and exercises, by which they are so cast down? And what does it know of their joys and consolations, deliverances and manifestations; the sweet discoveries of the love and grace of Christ to their heart; the love of God shed abroad in their soul, and the inward witness of the Spirit to their spirit that they are God's children? As they are unknown in their sorrows, they are unknown in their joys; for their joy is that which a stranger cannot understand. What does the world know of their doubts and fears; of their misgivings and apprehensions whether the work upon their hearts be genuine, whether they have a saving interest in the finished work of the Son of God, whether what they have experienced has been wrought in their soul by a divine power? What does the world know of their earnest and prayerful desires after God and their seeking after his presence and favor; of what they feel and enjoy in hearing their experience described by a servant of God, and the testimony thereby afforded to the reality of the work upon their heart? What does the world know of the breaking in of the light of the Lord's countenance, and the sweet springing up of a good hope through grace?

What does the world know of their temptations to disbelieve and question every sacred truth, or what they experience under the fiery darts of Satan, stirring up every base and bad feeling in their wretched hearts? Or what does the world know of their deliverance from these temptations, the support they receive under them, and the way in which the Lord makes them work for their spiritual good? Look at the dying believer—what does the world know of the sweet consolation which that dying believer is experiencing in the very agony of death? What does it see of the glorious vision of an eternal crown which the Holy Spirit anoints his dying eyes to behold as eternally his? What does it see of the choir of angels surrounding his bed, and how they are waiting to waft his soul to heaven?

B. "Yet WELL KNOWN." But if "unknown," yet—and here is the paradox—they are well known.

1. They are well known to God the Father , for he knew them with the foreknowledge of approbation when he chose them in Christ before the foundation of the world. We therefore read "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father" (1 Pet. 1:2); and "whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate." (Rom. 8:29.)

But God the Father knows them also in time as well as eternity; for he "knows the way of the righteous." He knows therefore every thought of their heart, every word of their lip, every action of their hands. He knows too all their needs, with every desire that springs up in their mind, every secret cry and inward groan, every feeling of contrition, brokenness, repentance, and humility; all their self-abasement and self-loathing on account of sin, with all their confessions and supplications before the throne of grace. He knows too the faith that he himself gives them to lay hold of the Son of his love; the hope he inspires in his mercy, the love he sheds abroad to his name. These things are not concealed from the eye of God, who searches all hearts, and before whom every secret lies naked and bare. How beautifully is all this expressed in Psalm 139. "O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my every thought when far away. You chart the path ahead of me and tell me where to stop and rest. Every moment you know where I am. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You both precede and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head." (Psalm 139:1-5.)

2. Nor are they unknown to the Lord Jesus Christ ; for "the Lord knows them that are his." And does he not say "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known by them?" And again, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." They often do not know themselves, for the work of grace is obscured by the darkness of their minds and the unbelief of their hearts. But he can distinguish his own work, not only from any base imitation of it, but in the depths of its obscurity. He can see sincerity, uprightness, and godly fear at work in the hearts of his people, though they may be tempted to think there is nothing in them but insincerity and hypocrisy. The Lord can discern his own work and his own grace, however weak, feeble, or disputed; and therefore however low his people may sink, he knows all their sinkings and all their risings, all their temptations and all their afflictions; and not only so, but he is able to stretch forth his hand to give support under them, and deliver out of them.

3. And they are well known to the Holy Spirit , who began the work of grace upon their heart, who is poured out upon them and abides in them as a Spirit of grace and of supplication, who helps their infirmities, teaches them how to pray and what to pray for, and intercedes in them and for them with groanings which cannot be uttered. He knows when and what promises to apply to their hearts, and how to comfort them in their afflictions, to reveal Christ to them, and form him in them, as the hope of glory.

4. And they are well known by each other ; for they are taught by the same Spirit, led into the same faith, have the same sorrows and the same joys, can speak the same language, are walking in the same path of tribulation, and are looking forward to the same heavenly crown.

5. Ministers of Christ also are in another sense, "though unknown, yet well known." There is spread through this country a people little known and observed by the world, but who are in close union with each other; and by this people the real servants of Christ are well known and highly esteemed. Being taught by the same Spirit, there is a fellow feeling in the saints of God, uniting them to each other and to the servants of God, and kindling in the bosom love and affection to those whom they only know by their writings, or their general acceptability to the living members of the mystical body of Christ.

II. But now we come to another double link, equally mysterious, equally paradoxical, yet equally disposed to a gracious interpretation—"As dying, and, behold, we live."

A. "As DYING." This is true LITERALLY. Many of the Lord's people are dying the greater part of their lives, and yet live until their work is done. It is just thirty years ago since I was first laid aside from the work of the ministry by a severe and protracted illness, mainly brought on I believe by hard labor; for I was then in the Church of England, and like most zealous young men worked hard in my parish, preaching, lecturing, and visiting the poor, beyond my bodily strength. But by that illness I was so prostrated, that I scarcely got over it for several years, and indeed have never fully recovered from it to this day. Thus in a sense I have been dying these last thirty years, and yet I live, and shall live until my work is done. And yet a great deal of work since then I have done both with tongue and pen, for I have an active mind in a weak body, and hate idleness whether in myself or others.

But look at the words in a SPIRITUAL sense. How true it is that the Lord's people are always dying. How they die for instance under the law . When Moses comes with the application of the fiery law, it burns up all the dross and tin of their self-righteousness. How they sink under the feeling sense of the wrath of God, so as sometimes to have scarcely any more hope of being saved than those at this moment in hell! How they die under this killing sentence of a fiery law to their own righteousness. How they die to their own strength and wisdom and every creature hope. How they die to any expectations of being saved by the works of the flesh or by any obedience the creature can pay! And not only once or twice do they thus die, but they are always dying . Continual discoveries of the majesty of God, of his holiness and purity, with a daily sense of their own sinfulness, weakness, helplessness, and inability to deliver their own souls—all these things working in them, make them in a spiritual sense, to be dying every day.

As the apostle speaks of himself, "I die daily." Thus they die to all hope of salvation by the works of the law, die to all idea of strength as wrought by an arm of flesh, die to any expectation of happiness in this world, any prospect of creature enjoyment, or any fancied paradise of earthly pleasure. They carry, too, about with them more or less a daily sense of their mortality, often meditate upon their latter end, and feel that the time must shortly come when the 'scythe of death' will cut them down, and lay their body in the grave.

B. "And, behold, we LIVE." But though they thus die, yet they live . When the law first arrested you with its tremendous curse, and brought the sentence of death into your conscience, it was not to kill you outright, but to make you alive unto God. It was a sentence of death in itself, but it was a living Spirit who applied it. So dying under the law, your quickening into divine life was made manifest. To cry and sigh for mercy, to groan for pardon, to be favored with a spirit of prayer and supplication, and with wrestlings and beseechings to God for mercy—are not these evidences that there was life even in death? When God strikes with fiery displeasure a reprobate, it is like Joab striking Amasa—he strikes not again—he needs not to "double his stroke," as the margin reads. (2 Sam. 20:10.) When God struck Saul and Judas, he did not strike them twice.

I was reading the other day an instance in the life of godly Mr. Welch, one of the old Scotch Covenanters. He was entertaining some company with godly conversation and among those present was a profane youth, who openly mocked, sneered, and ridiculed what he said upon the solemn matters of eternity. The godly man paused a moment, looked at him, and said aloud, "Behold the judgment of God!" In a moment the profane youth fell dead under the table. He died at once under the manifested wrath of God. No second stroke was needed; down came the sword of justice and cleft him asunder before the frightened guests. Have you not sometimes feared lest you might so die too, a dreadful monument of the just displeasure of the Almighty? But the Lord did not so deal with you. He smote you with his rod , not with his sword . He smote you not that you should die under his frown, but that you might repent and live. "By these things men live," said the afflicted king Hezekiah, "and in all these things is the life of my spirit." (Isaiah. 38:16.)

But not only in the first dealings of God with the soul, but all through the godly man's experience he is ever dying, yet behold a mystery—he is ever living . At this time of the year the trees for the most part drop their leaves; but do the trees die? They are rather preparing themselves for a spring suit; and when the warm days of April and May return, those dead branches will reclothe themselves with foliage. So it is with the soul. Your faith may seem almost gone, your hope to be removed, and your love to drop out of your soul as the leaves drop from a tree in autumn; but behold, you live! There is life in the root, life in the stem. Look at the vine at this time of the year, especially if it has undergone a sharp pruning– the grapes all gone, the leaves dropped off, the branches apparently dead; but when the spring returns there will be a revival.

So it is with you. Like the vine, you may have dropped the leaf; or the sharp pruning knife of affliction may have cut into the branch; but in due time you will again put forth leaves and flowers and fruit. Is not this Scripture language and a Scripture figure? My figures are sometimes objected to as natural, not Scriptural comparisons; but this time I will not so offend the critical ear. What says the prophet? "Even if only a tenth—a remnant—survive, it will be invaded again and burned. Israel will remain a stump, like a tree that is cut down, but the stump will be a holy seed that will grow again." (Isaiah. 6:13.) Thus, though the trees casts off their leaves, yet the holy stump is in them, and this gives them an enduring substance and a future revival.

Thus, though we die and die daily, yet behold, we live—and in a sense, the more we die, the more we live. The more we die to self, the more we die to sin; the more we die to pride and self-righteousness, the more we die to creature strength; and the more we thus die to nature—the more we live to grace. And this runs all the way through the life and experience of a Christian. Nature must die, that grace may live. The weeds must be plucked up that the crop may grow; the flesh be starved that the spirit may be fed; the old man put off that the new man may be put on; the deeds of the body be mortified that the soul may live unto God. As then we die, we live. The more we die to our own strength, the more we live to Christ's strength; the more we die to creature hope, the more we live to a good hope through grace; the more we die to our own righteousness, the more we live to Christ's righteousness; and the more we die to the world, the more we live to and for heaven.

This is the grand mystery, that the Christian is always dying, yet always living—and the more he dies, the more he lives. The death of the flesh is the life of the spirit; the death of sin is the life of righteousness; and the death of the creature is the very life of God in the soul.

III. But let us pass on to our next double link; for these paradoxes are most blessedly linked together, and each one strengthens and confirms the other—"As chastened, and not killed."

A. "As CHASTENED." Chastisement is part of the covenant—that is God's own declaration of it—"But if his sons forsake my law and fail to walk in my ways, if they do not obey my decrees and fail to keep my commands, then I will punish their sin with the rod, and their disobedience with beating. But I will never stop loving him, nor let my promise to him fail. No, I will not break my covenant; I will not take back a single word I said. I have sworn an oath to David, and in my holiness I cannot lie." (Psalm 89:30-35.) And is not this New Testament language too? How striking, how decisive are the words of the apostle. "And have you entirely forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you, his children? He said, 'My child, don't ignore it when the Lord disciplines you, and don't be discouraged when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes those he accepts as his children.' As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Whoever heard of a child who was never disciplined? If God doesn't discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children after all." (Heb. 12:5-8.)

There are men in our day who deny chastisement—who would take the rod out of God's hands, and boldly teach that the Lord never chastens his people. All I can say of them is, that they proclaim they are not really his children after all. They virtually say with a loud voice, "we are illegitimate children." Now a man must be dead to shame to make such a proclamation. A person told me some years ago that she heard a well-known London preacher thus open his sermon, "I am a illegitimate child!" Methinks he need not have thus openly revealed his mother's sin and shame, or made a sport for the profane. But what he was bold enough to proclaim of himself literally these men proclaim of themselves spiritually, when they say, "The rod of God never has been, and never will be upon me." Can they not see, that in denying the chastening hand of God, they deny that they are the children of God? But all the Lord's people know by their own experience that he is a chastening God, for they have often felt the rod upon their own back.

But what are these chastenings?

1. Some of them are BODILY . We find this spoken of by Elihu in the book of Job, where, describing the way in which God sometimes deals with his people, he says, "God disciplines people with sickness and pain, with ceaseless aching in their bones. They lose their appetite and do not care for even the most delicious food. They waste away to skin and bones." (Job 33:19-21.) This is a description of God's chastening the body. A large share have I had of that rod from God's hand, and in a measure am experiencing it now. But the Lord does not see fit to lay the same chastisements upon all his people. He has rods of different sizes and different descriptions; though all are felt to be rods when God brings them upon the back.

2. There are FAMILY AFFLICTIONS which the Lord sometimes makes use of as chastening rods. Such are bereavements of those near and dear in the prime of life, just when they seem most needed, as the husband to sustain the scantily provided wife, the father to bring up the children, the mother to nurse the new-born babe. Few are there who have families who have not tasted the bitter as well as the sweet. And children can be made rods as well as comforts—as Isaac, Jacob, Eli, and David found to their grief and sorrow.

3. PROVIDENTIAL TRIALS are sometimes twigs of this chastising rod. Heavy losses in business, unexpected and unavoidable calls on a small income, entanglements through the default or dishonesty of others—perhaps children or relations, a worn out farm, a sinking shop, long doctor's bills—these are some of the deep trials of the middle classes, as hard to bear as loss of work and wages to the day-laborer. Attending these, as increasing the calamity, there fly about painful misgivings as to the future, dark clouds lowering over the mind, with many dismal apprehensions what the result may be to one's self and those dearer than self—the wife and family. Who shall say that the Lord does not make use of these providential trials and afflictions sometimes as a chastening rod?

4. But for the most part these chastenings are of an INWARD and SPIRITUAL nature. Hidings of his face, frowns of his brow, reproofs administered in the conscience, denials of answer to prayer, secret rebukes, letting the soul hang in doubt which way the scale will turn, so that it trembles before his terrible Majesty—in these and other ways the Lord chastises many of his dear family, that they may be partakers of his holiness.

B. "And not killed." But though "chastened" by these afflictions, they are "not killed." The Lord chastises with one hand, and upholds with the other. You may have passed in your spiritual experience under many chastising strokes; and when they fell upon you, they seemed to come as a killing sentence from God's lips. Your illness, you feared, might end in death; under your bereavement, you felt as if you never could hold up your head again; your providential losses you apprehended might prove your earthly ruin; your family afflictions seemed to be so heavy as to be radically incurable; the hidings of God's face so great that he never would look upon you with love again; the rebukes and reproofs of his voice so cutting that you felt as if he would never apply a promise to your soul any more. These were in your feelings killing strokes; but though chastened you were not killed. You lost no divine life thereby; but you lost much that pleased the flesh, much that gratified the creature, much that looked well for days of prosperity, but would not abide a storm.

But you lost nothing that was for your real good. If you lost bodily health, you gained spiritual health. If you lost a dear husband or child, God filled up the void in your heart by making Christ more precious. If you had troubles in your family, the Lord made it up by giving more manifestations of his love and grace. Your very losses in providence were for your good, for he either made them up, or what you lost in providence he doubled in grace. So that though chastened, you are not killed!

Is not your hope still alive? Does not the holy flame that God kindled in your bosom still burn, though it may burn dimly? Has anything that has happened to you in providence or in grace quenched, extinguished forever the life of God in your soul? Has it not rather brought it out more clearly? As the dross and tin were more separated, has not the gold shone more brightly? Have you not held spiritual things with a tighter grasp? When God chastens his people, it is not to kill them—it is to make them partakers of his holiness; it is to revive their drooping graces, to make them more sincere and upright and tender in conscience, to become more separate from the world, to seek more his glory, to have a more single eye to his praise, and to live more a life of faith upon the Son of God. Here is the blessedness, that when God chastises his people, it is not for their injury, but for their profit; not for their destruction, but for their salvation; not to treat them with the unkindness of an enemy, but with the love of a friend.

Look at the afflictions, chastenings, grievous sorrows, and exercises that you have passed through. Have they been friends to you or enemies; instruments of helping you, or hindrances; ladders whereby you have climbed up to heaven, or steps whereby you have descended into hell; means of taking you near to Christ, or means of carrying you more into the spirit of the world? If you know anything of God's chastening, you will say, "Every stroke has brought me nearer to God; he has flogged me home." As a father will seize his truant boy out of a mob of other children and flog him home, so the Lord sometimes flogs his children home; every stroke laid upon their back bringing them a step nearer to their home in the mansions above. In your own experience, therefore, without my teaching or explanation, you can set to your seal that God's chastenings have not killed you, but rather they have been the means of reviving and keeping alive the work of grace upon your heart.

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