The Bible teaches that while you are saved by Christ’s work and assured by God’s Word, you are kept in comfort and joy by the Holy Spirit who indwells every saved person. Also, you must remember that every saved one still has within him the “flesh,” the evil nature he was born with as a natural man. The Holy Spirit in the believer resists the flesh and is grieved by every action of it in motive, word or deed. When the believer is walking “worthy of the Lord,” the Holy Spirit will be producing in his soul His blessed fruit, which includes love, joy and peace (Galatians 5:2222But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, (Galatians 5:22)). When he is living in a worldly way, the Spirit is grieved and this fruit is not evident.
Let us put it this way for you who do believe on God’s Son: Christ’s work and your salvation stand or fall together, and your walk and your enjoyment stand or fall together. When your walk (the way you live) breaks down, your joy will break down with it.
Now do you see your mistake? You have been mixing enjoyment with your safety — two very different things. When, through self-indulgence, losing your temper, worldliness or some other action of the flesh, you grieved the Holy Spirit and lost your joy, you thought your safety was undermined. But:
Your safety depends on Christ’s work FOR you;
Your assurance, on God’s Word TO you;
Your enjoyment, on not grieving the Holy Spirit IN you.
A young man, who enjoys his father’s company, used his father’s car without permission and bumped into a tree, putting a dent in the door. At mealtime he didn’t feel like eating and went off to bed early. He was ashamed in his father’s presence. Why was this? He had disobeyed and felt very miserable. The enjoyment of his father’s company was gone.
What had become of the relationship that existed before the incident? Is that gone too? Has that been interrupted? Certainly not! They are still father and son. That relationship depends on his birth, but his communion or enjoyment of his father depends on his behavior. Eventually the son confesses what has taken place and the father forgives him. He is no longer unhappy in his father’s company. His joy is restored because communion is restored.
Suppose, before the son confesses his sin, he is found out, and his father says he must go to his room and stay there until he confesses. If fire broke out, do you think that the father would leave the unrepentant boy in the house to die in the flames? Very probably he would be the first one the father would take out of the burning house. Yes, you know very well that the love of relationship is one thing, and the joy of communion is quite another.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:99That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. (John 1:9). Nothing can break the link of relationship, but an impure motive or foolish word will break the link of communion.
If you are troubled, consider your ways and get low before the Lord. When you realize what it is that has caused you to lose your joy, confess it to God your Father and judge yourself unsparingly. NEVER mix up safety with your joy.
Don’t imagine, however, that God looks on the believer’s sin more lightly than on the unbeliever’s. Sin is sin in God’s sight, but the believer’s sins were all laid on Jesus. “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” 1 Peter 2:24. We have a Substitute who took the punishment for our sins, but the unbeliever, the Christ-rejecter, will bear his own sins in his own person in the lake of fire forever.
When a saved one fails, the question of condemnation cannot be raised against him. The Judge Himself has settled that once for all on the cross. But the question of communion is raised by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Thus unhappiness remains, until the sin is confessed and forsaken.
Take another example. On a beautiful, moonlit night you observe the moon reflected in a still pond. Someone drops a pebble into the pond and the “moon” is all broken. But, no, it is not the moon but the water that reflects it that has changed.
Now apply this simple figure. Your heart is the pond. When you are not allowing evil in your life, the blessed Spirit of God takes the glories and preciousness of Christ and reveals them to you for your comfort and enjoyment. But the moment you allow a wrong thought to stay in your heart, or an idle word escapes your lips, your heart is disturbed, your happy experiences are gone, and you are restless until, in brokenness of spirit before God, you confess your sin. This restores you to the calm, sweet joy of communion.
When your heart is thus upset, has Christ’s work changed? No, no! Then your salvation has not changed. Has God’s Word changed? Surely not! Then the certainty of your salvation has not changed. Then what has changed? The action of the Holy Spirit within you has changed, and, instead of filling your heart with the glories and worthiness of Christ, He has had to turn aside and fill you with a sense of your sin and carelessness. He takes from you your comfort and joy until you judge the evil thing that He judges and resists. When this is done, communion with God is restored and you have joy in Him again.
Thus, the object of my trust, the Lord Jesus Christ — His death, His blood and His resurrection — makes me safe . . . the unchanging Word of God makes me sure . . . and my simple obedience to His Word makes me happy.