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A photo of
T. J. Crawford (1812–1875). |
The Mysteries of Christianity is a book by Scottish Presbyterian minister, theologian, and professor Thomas Jackson Crawford (1812–1875). The book can be found online in open access or purchased in hard copy. The book is a collection of twelve lectures (plus nine short appendices) where the author's "aim has been, not to attempt a solution of the mysteries connected with some of the great doctrines of revelation, but to show that the mysteriousness of these doctrines, however inexplicable, is no sufficient reason either for excluding them from the place they occupy among the articles of the Christian faith, or for discrediting the Christian system as containing them" (vi; the page references here reported are from the Google online version).
In Lecture 9, Crawford discusses "the converting and sanctifying agency of the Holy Spirit" (252). In it, the author's goal is to clarify some misconceptions about and help to understand some difficulties regarding the relationship between the sovereign and irresistible saving agency of God and the agency of the rational, moral creature that is man. Crawford does not only opposes those who "attempt to solve the difficulty by limiting the divine agency" (273), but he also refutes those who "attempt to solve the difficulty by subverting man's activity" (279). It is to the latter group that the following quotations from Crawford's The Mysteries of Christianity are directed.
«In so far as the human activity consists in a diligent use of what are called “the means of grace”—as, for example, in giving earnest heed to the Word of God and the preaching of the Gospel—the union of such activity on the part of man with the efficacious agency of the Holy Spirit may to some extent admit of explanation. Thus much at least we may readily understand, that unless the Spirit of God were to inspire sinners with the knowledge of divine truth at the same time that He regenerates them, the instructions conveyed by the reading and preaching of the Word of God can in no way be superseded. For, grant that our faculties and dispositions were renewed by Him, what are we to do with them when once they are renewed, unless we have suitable objects presented to us, on which in their rectified state they may be exercised? And where are these suitable objects to be found, unless the Holy Spirit either makes a special revelation of them to every separate individual when regenerated, or else discloses them once for all in His revealed Word, and requires us to exercise our minds upon them as there unfolded? What though we have a believing, loving, and obedient disposition wrought in us? That disposition, so far as we are able to see, will continue dormant and inoperative, like the faculty of vision when light is wholly withheld, unless it have such things to bring it into exercise as those which are placed before us in the Word of truth. To a blind man, the restoration of his eyesight would be of no practical utility, if he were to be, all his life long, immured in thick darkness which no ray of light could penetrate. In much the same condition would the sinner be, if his faculties and dispositions were renewed, without having those materials of thought, and feeling, and choice, and affection presented to him, which the Scriptures have unfolded. It thus appears that the province of the Word and the province of the Spirit, in the renovation of the human soul, do not conflict or interfere with one another. The former presents, as it were, objects of vision to the mind’s eye; whereas the latter creates or restores in us the power of spiritual vision by which we may discern them.
The activity of man, however, is not confined, according to the Scriptural doctrine, to the use of the means of grace. It extends also to the putting forth of earnest personal efforts in the way of accomplishing those self-same things which are ascribed to the agency of the Holy Spirit. Nothing is more obvious from the whole tenor of the Scriptures than that God deals with us, not as with inert machines that are incapable of thought, or feeling, or voluntary action, but in such a way as is agreeable to our constitution as sentient, reasonable, active, and accountable agents. Not only does He address truths and arguments to our understanding, but He makes appeals to our consciences and affections, holds out inducements to influence our choice, and lays down commandments to which He requires a willing obedience. And in particular, He requires of us, as our duty, those very things which He teaches us to expect from Him as the fruit of His regenerating and transforming grace. Thus, if His promise be “a new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you,” it is no less clearly and expressly His injunction, “Cast away from you all your transgressions, and make you a new heart and a new spirit.” If He speaks of the spiritual resurrection as a divine work, saying, “God who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us and raised us up together with Christ,"—He no less explicitly speaks of it as the sinner’s duty, saying, “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light.” In like manner, if such prayers are offered by inspired men as “Turn Thou us unto Thee, and we shall be turned,” “Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved,”—it must not be forgotten that such commands are issued by them as “Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?” “Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin; ” “Repent, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.” Sometimes, again, the human and the divine agency in the work of sanctification are presented to us in one view, as in that notable exhortation of the apostle, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who worketh in you to will and to do of His good pleasure.”
Those persons, therefore, who think that their own endeavours are entirely superseded by the agency of the Holy Spirit, must have formed for themselves a theory of divine influence very different from that which the Scriptures have revealed. It certainly is not the doctrine of Holy Scripture that the power of God so works in us as wholly to subvert or set aside our own activity. We are wrought upon “to will and to do.” And for any man to be thus wrought upon, and yet to continue passive and inert, willing nothing and doing nothing; would involve a broad and palpable contradiction. The process of our conversion and sanctification is so far from superseding our own activity, that it really consists in a restoration of all our spiritual powers and energies to their proper exercise. And though it be “God who worketh in us” to repent, to believe, to obey, and to persevere, it is not God who repents, believes, obeys, and perseveres in our stead, so as to dispense with our agency in these things, but it is we who do them for ourselves. He, indeed, inclines and enables us to do them; and without Him we can do nothing towards their accomplishment. But we are, notwithstanding, the active agents in the performance of them.» ~ 268-271.
«Too often has the great truth been inadequately apprehended, that, in so far as redeemed sinners are themselves concerned, sanctification is the very end of their redemption—the grand and ultimate consummation of the scheme of grace. The Scriptures teach that Christ “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works that “He bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, might live unto righteousness; ”and that “Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it, ... and present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Many professed Christians, however, are inclined to look upon their deliverance from the merited wrath, and restoration to the forfeited favour of God, as constituting the sum and substance of the “great salvation;” and it is no uncommon thing among them to speak of the personal holiness of a believer, wrought in him by the grace of the Holy Spirit, as being solely or chiefly valuable from the evidence it affords of the sincerity of that faith by which he is justified and accepted in the sight of God. In doing so, they not only misconceive but positively invert the doctrine of the New Testament. Personal holiness is there represented as having an intrinsic importance, and that of the very highest order. True, it is not the foundation on which we are called to build; but it is a prominent part of the stately edifice for the erection of which that foundation has been laid. It is not our remedy; but it is the completion of the actual cure which that remedy is designed to accomplish. It is not in any respect, or in any degree, the means of salvation; but it is one of the most essential and most precious elements of salvation itself. Let it be but thus viewed, and then a flood of light before unnoticed, or at the best imperfectly discerned, will at once appear to be shed upon the Christian system. The Gospel will then present itself in a character every way worthy of its divine origin, as a wonderful scheme devised by heavenly grace for the furtherance of the wisest, noblest, holiest, and most beneficent end that could possibly be contemplated—the regeneration and recovery of a fallen race; their restoration, in the first instance, to the forfeited favour, but ultimately to the lost image and likeness of God, and the final “presentation of them faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.”» ~ 289-290.
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