Beloved friends, let us never look upon our own unbelief as an excusable infirmity, but let us always regard it as a sin, and as a great sin, too. Whatever excuse you may at any time make for others—and I pray you to make excuses for them whenever you can rightly do so—never make any for yourself. In that case, be swift to condemn.
It is a very easy thing for us to get into a desponding state of heart, and to mistrust the promises and faithfulness of God, and yet, all the while, to look upon ourselves as the subjects of a disease which we cannot help, and even to claim pity at the hands of our fellow-men, and to think that they should condole with us, and try to cheer us.
It will be far wiser for each one of us to feel, ‘This unbelief of mine is a great wrong in the sight of God. He has never given me any occasion for it, and I am doing him a cruel injustice by thus doubting him. I must not idly sit down, and say, This has come upon me like a fever, or a paralysis, which I cannot help; but I must rather say, This is a great sin, in which I must no longer indulge; but I must confess my unbelief, with shame and self-abasement, to think that there should be in me this evil heart of unbelief.’
—Charles Spurgeon, “Unbelievers Upbraided” (a sermon on Mark 16:14)
(HT: Pyromaniacs HT: Of First Importance)
8 comments:
This is a brilliant quote, isn't it?! When it came in from "O First Importance" I marked it with a star in my google reader. A very wise and challenging way to view sin indeed.
Bec
Great quote, Jean. I love Spurgeon. Unbelief has been a sin that I have had to fight for many years. It took me awhile to begin to see the ugliness of it. As I began to ask God for conviction, I started to experience a growing awareness of God's goodness, faithfulness, and love as manifested through the gospel. How can I doubt a God so good? Who am I to judge Him? What pride! As part of my repentance, I have had to regularly deny any authority to feelings that contradict the truth, and I've had to choose rest on the authority and promises of His Word despite my feelings. The Lord has helped me so much! I have a couple of great quotes on the topic that I will send your way via email, okay? And I will add this one to my collection, so thanks!
Thanks for this quite Jean.
Have been thinking about doubt as unbelief and sin. And trying to work out: showing mercy to those who doubt and how fearful it will be for those who disbelieve (in Hebrews)...
And there's different kinds of doubt, too, aren't there - the kind that turns its back on what we all know about God and worships and serves created things rather than the Creator (Romans 1), and the kind that asks honest questions but seeks the answers from God himself (any number of Psalms). The second is a kind of unbelieving belief - "I believe, help me in my unbelief!" - which honours God even as it questions and waits.
That's a helpful distinction. The second kind of doubt that leads to growth in faith. And, as you say, "honour God even as it questions and waits". Maybe then we could say that we can have good or bad attitudes and goals when we doubt.
But is doubt itself a challenge / antithetical to belief? It will be abolished at Christ's second coming. Trying to work out how to think of doubt in and of itself...
=)
Just (!) read the Bible verse that Spurgeon was preaching on. Don't think I've ever read it properly before:
Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.
Yes, we are to always struggle against doubt, aren't we? - to bring our minds back to God's truth and trust him, through all our despondancy and anxiety and faithlessness. I think that's what Spurgeon's getting at? "Functional unbelief" - where you "believe" intellectually, but think and feel and act as an unbeliever.
So maybe you could say that doubt itself is sin, but the attitude you come to it with can be godly.
You're making me think.
Good quote. There are two things that hinder us from God presence; one is sin the other is our self. We are born sinners and thus we can't enter His eternal presence without being born again and made new. We hinder our selves in being born again because we love our sin and doubt that God is right about it and we are wrong. Our unbelief about God and sin is the cause of many sorrows to our selves and others but it also grieves God. So if we are to be set free then it must begin with the freedom to believe God in all things instead of being bound by what we see and think we know.
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