PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” (Proverbs 20:9 KJV).

In America, most religions are of the “Do-It-Yourself” variety. Over the years, a philosophy of “I’m not interested in charity” seems to be the prevailing view. When a man is approached with the Gospel and told that there is absolutely nothing he can do to earn his own way into heaven; but, that instead another has endured judgment in his place and offers a full and complete pardon, the response is too often, “Oh, that’s too easy! Surely it takes more than that!” No, it does not take more than that. In fact, anything more than that negates the sacrifice already accomplished on Calvary.

What it all boils down to is that they are convinced that only by keeping the Ten Commandments and the so-called “Golden Rule” can they ever hope to get to heaven, and no one can really know until after they get there whether they made it or not. The problem with this belief is, when has one done enough? It is an unknowable.

What is the Law? James calls it a mirror: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed” (James 1:22-25 KJV).

The mirror can show us our imperfections, but we do not rub our face against the glass in order to become clean. No! The mirror points to the soap and water and says, “Here, you need these!” The water speaks of the Word of God which describes to us the promises of God to wash us from our sins: “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:25-26 KJV).

It is the Word of God that shows that the water is a picture of the Blood of Jesus Christ which was shed on the Cross at Calvary. It is that Blood which purifies the lost sinner and gives him a new nature: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Corinthians 5:17 KJV).

The Law is a Schoolmaster. It was the duty of the servant to take the child to school, and once arrived to the class room, he hands over control from himself to the teacher. This is what the Law does. It points us to Cross, and once we accept what Jesus Christ did for us there, it releases all control: “But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster” (Galatians 3:22-25 KJV).

The hymnwriter has captured the very essence of this truth:

“Nothing in my hand I bring; simply to thy cross I cling; Naked, come to Thee for dress; helpless, look to Thee for grace; Foul, I to the fountain fly; Wash me, Saviour, or I die.”

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