New Dispositions

05.25.09

J.A. Matteson

“…for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds.” 2 Peter 2:8

Is the wickedness in the world a perpetual source of spiritual mourning, inciting you to call down fire from heaven that justice might be vindicated? Is your heart griped with compassion for the wicked and your intercession being that the Lion of the tribe of Judah might not appear today in order that the wicked may have one more opportunity to repent?

As aliens upon the earth anguish of heart to the wickedness in the world is the spiritual address of pilgrims. Saints experience words and activities that deeply grieve their redeemed soul, those which are base and foul, indicative of unregenerate hearts. Responding to the effectual call of God grace translates the sinner from the kingdom of darkness and death to the Kingdom of God and life, transforming him into a new creation in Christ Jesus, one which possesses a new nature infused by the Holy Spirit, the Law of God being inscribed on the heart, “’This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people’” (Jer. 31:33).

The sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit causes the sinner, turned pilgrim, to be aghast at his former manner of life, and grace destines him to live among and behold fallen humanity, lost souls that remain in bondage to sin and death, subjects of the prince of darkness, depraved individuals who by nature engage in detestable acts, speaking blasphemous words, driven on by abominable thoughts. And lest the saint become boastful toward the wicked the Holy Spirit impresses that it is only by grace that he stands justified. Grace imparts to the pilgrim new dispositions—positive and negative—which empower him to sojourn upon the earth as an ambassador of Jesus Christ, constrained by the love of God to preach the redemption of the cross: the pilgrim is sanctified to holiness as the Lord is holy and he is not to be defiled by the world; the pilgrim is sanctified to compassion as the Lord is compassionate and he is not to become indifferent to the plight of wicked men and eternal damnation. In the Saviors stead the saint is constrained by love, seeking the good of all men, irrespective of whether or not it is appreciated. The saint remains keenly aware that wickedness will be judged, and consumed with that knowledge the love of the Savior compels him to beg men to be reconciled to God, “For Christ's love compels us….” (2 Cor. 5:14).

The regenerate spirit within the pilgrim is daily provoked by ungodliness in the world, longingly seeking a better country and the city whose foundation and walls are not made by human hands. The pilgrim patiently waits for the appearing of his Lord while seeking to faithfully carrying out that to which he is called, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (Jn. 20:21). Engaged in the work of the cross the pilgrim is well served to soberly assess his vulnerability to the ways of the old man within, “Do not be deceived; bad company corrupts good morals." (1 Cor. 15:33). In this regard the pilgrim’s tendency is to turn away from the world as an act of self-preservation, but he cannot cloister himself from the world and remain salt and light to it. And a callous heart of indifference as with Jonah is equally unfitting for children of the Lamb of God, “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?” (Jonah 4:11).

As ambassadors of Jesus Christ it is the pilgrims destiny to live among the people from which he was redeemed—being tormented within by the sin of the world—and “to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” (Lk. 4:19), to be in the world but not of it, to direct the hearts of men to Christ Jesus who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the only mediator between God and men.

Copyright 2009 Immutable Word Ministries ("...the word of our God stands forever." Isaiah 40:8)