Your lot is to have precious faith — Jeremiah Burroughs

“to them that have obtained like precious faith with us” 2 Peter 1:1

“If we write to any who are persons of honor, we usually give them title of honor, as the honorable ones. Yet the apostle, though he wrote to many who were rich and great too, put no other title upon them than this: “To them that have obtained like precious faith with us” (2 Peter 1:1). He accounted this (as indeed it is) to be the most noble Christian title and badge of honor that he could crown them with: “That have obtained like precious faith with us” (2 Peter 1:1). It is precious faith, a faith of price, and it has been obtained.

Faith is here compared to a precious stone, to a goodly pearl, and to a diamond. And so it is to them who have obtained it, to them who have had precious faith given unto them by lot (that is the meaning of the word). The word in the Greek that you have translated in your books as “obtained” signifies to have a thing by lot. So in Luke 1:9, it is said of Zacharias that he went to burn incense by lot. It was his lot to do the work. It is the same word that you have in Luke, with that of Peter, which is translated “obtained”. And so I might show you in many other places in Scripture where this word is used of having a thing by lot. “To you who have obtained like precious faith”, or, “to you who by lot have obtained like precious faith”, that’s the propriety of the word.

Question. But you will say, what is the meaning of that, to have it by lot?

Answer. There is much in this for setting out the blessed condition of believers. There is this in it: The faith that they have, they have merely by the free grace of God, by His providence and by His work, and by no other cause whatsoever that has made any difference between them and unbelievers. As that which a man has by lot, there is little or nothing to be attributed to second causes; as in a lottery, if one has a better lot than another it is not to be attributed at all to his skill who draws it out, but merely to be attributed to the providence of God.

God in His free grace did so order things that this man should have a good lot, and others should not. When the Lord gave the land in Canaan to the people of Israel, He gave it, but it was by lot, to the end that they might know that if one man had a better portion than another it was only by the free grace of God. This was so that no man could boast himself of it and say, “I am better than you,” or, “I am richer than you,” or, “I am worthier than you.” No, it was merely by God’s free grace and love, and not from anything in themselves. It’s as if the apostle should say, “Whereas all the world was in His presence, only God through His free grace made it your lot to have precious faith, that you should be enriched with this unspeakable gift.” That this lot should be your portion and others should have their lot fall to have some part of the earth, He gives the earth to the children of men.

Take a whole congregation or town, and all of them come into the presence of God to receive their lot. God says, “I will give such a man such an estate in the world; he shall be master of a ship and shave have so much money or lands, and that shall be his lot. Another comes to have his lot and he shall have excellent parts. I will give him the tongue of the learned and so get credit that way. Another shall be born of such and such parentage; he shall spring from the loins of nobles and their blood shall run in his veins.” Thus God crafts from all eternity the lots of men. Still another comes who shall not have much in this world, but he shall have faith in Jesus and he shall have heaven and eternal life; that shall be his lot, and thus God from all eternity gives every one their various lot and portion.

Your lot is to have precious faith? Oh! Your lot has fallen into good ground; you have a blessed inheritance; you were in the presence of God when there were all men before the Lord. As for unbelievers, heathens, and infidels they were before God; it might have been their lot to have faith and you might have had what they have. But it is your lot to have precious faith and it is their lot to possess the world. This is the meaning of the word “obtained,” and the elegance of the phrase is greatly darkened and eclipsed by the English word.”

— Jeremiah Burroughs, Faith

The preaching of law and judgment — Adolphe Monod

“The preaching of law and judgment may be even more necessary than usual at a time when all strong ideas are fading away, when feeling and character are getting ever more lax, and when God’s mercy is assured of a warm welcome, provided that it is well divorced from his holiness. This is a fatal error that compromises mercy no less than holiness, for mercy assumes and is a measure of divine holiness, just as deliverance assumes and is a measure of man’s peril. Whatever the case, God, like Jesus Christ, cannot be “divided” (1 Corinthians 1:13). We must either take him as he is or leave him alone.” 



 “Great God, God of justice, God of mercy, spare us! But whether you spare or whether you strike, cause us to be instructed so that we might be converted and in no wise perish! (see Luke  13:1-5)"

— Adolphe Monod, an undivided love: loving and living for Christ

in sensing oneself to be loved one learns to love — Adolphe Monod

“As you look upon God’s love, it will communicate itself to you and will renew your entire being. It is in sensing oneself to be loved that one learns to love. Self-centeredness reigns only because we are ignorant of God’s love: “Anyone who does not love does not know God” (1 John 4:8). You will love as you have been loved. You will love God, because God has first loved you. You will love your neighbor, because God has loved you both. Do you glimpse the new life that this change opens up for you?

I see you as “imitators of God, as beloved children” (Ephesians 5:1), no longer living for anything except to pour out around you the love with which God has filled your hearts. I see you, following the example of Christ who loved you, “going about doing good” (see Acts 10:38) and finding your joy in privation, in fatigue, and in the sacrifices of charity. I see you “controlled by the love of Christ” (see 2 Corinthians 5:14); weaned from your self-will, from the love of money, and from the empty pleasures of the world; consoling the afflicted, relieving the poor, visiting the sick, and carrying Jesus Christ and all his blessings with you wherever you go.

Then the image and resemblance of God will have been formed anew in your heart! Then you will dwell in God and God in you! If being loved is the life of our soul, to love is its joy. If being loved is all the doctrine of the gospel, then to love is all of its ethic. To love as we have been loved is heaven on earth until such time as it becomes heaven in heaven.”

— Adolphe Monod, an undivided love: loving and living for Christ

so dear to God — Adolphe Monod

“If God’s Son is so great, so precious, so dear to His eyes, then what are we to Him — we for whom He has given this so great, so precious, so dear Son?



If a captain ransoms his prisoners who are held by the enemy at the price of gold, isn’t it because the freedom of his companions is just as dear to him and even more dear than the gold with which he redeems them?


If Abraham offers his son Isaac as a burnt offering, isn’t it because God’s holy will is just as dear to him and even more dear than the life of this son whom he loves so much?


If God “gives men in return for Israel, peoples in exchange for his life” (see Isaiah 43:4), isn’t it because Israel is just as dear to Him and even more dear than the men, the peoples whom He gives for their deliverance?



And if, given the alternative of either striking us while sparing His only Son or delivering up His only Son in order to spare us, the Father delivers up His Son and spares us, what can we say about the love with which he loves us?



What can we say that would not appear to be the epitome of waywardness and presumption if we did not have the truth, the evidence, the very revelation of God on our side? Whatever the case, He delivers Him up, He gives Him, He sends Him into the world — into this world that is lost through sin but, for that very reason, needs Him in order to be saved.”

— Adolphe Monod, an undivided love: loving and living for Christ

Him for the joy of your heart or him for its torment! — Adolphe Monod

“The heart of man is made in such a way—thanks be to the one who formed it!—that it cannot leave its attachment anywhere, if it conceives of the possibility of carrying it higher. Though you may well have climbed the ladder of creatures, moving always to those more worthy, something will always urge you to climb higher. As long as there is a God in the universe, nothing less will be able to satisfy your heart. Him or no one! Him or a frightful void and a bitter disgust!

I will go further. Him for the joy of your heart or him for its torment! His love can allow you no rest apart from him. Your drunkenness? He will dissipate it. Your attractions? He will chill them. Your cup of delights? He will poison it. Your idolatrous attachments? He will bring separation, sickness and death against them until the day when, deprived of the creature, you will at last throw yourself onto his fatherly bosom, even if it be through weariness, thirst, and despair. His desire is that you might learn to cry out with the psalmist, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25-26 marginal reading). He is my portion because he is the rock of my heart; a rock on which this heart can lean all of its weight without fear of ever seeing it give way!”

— Adolphe Monod, An undivided Love: Loving and living for Christ, sermon entitled “give me your heart”

www.tunl.duke.edu/~cwalker/AULchap1.pdf

http://www.solid-ground-books.com/detail_1179.asp

our hearts need the Eternal, the Infinite, the Holy God — Adolphe Monod

“My son, give your heart to me” (Proverbs 23:26); to me in whom alone your heart can rest and for whom it yearns without knowing it.

Your heart has been kept from giving itself fully to any created being, because none of them has all that it requires. Yet, your heart will find all it needs in the God of Jesus Christ, and without him those needs will never be met. More than that, without him your heart will never really understand its needs, for this living God both satisfies them and reveals them to us at the same time.

Among all created beings, take the one you know to be most loveable and most loved. Isn’t it true that you cannot try to yield yourself to his love without soon finding a barrier that unmercifully stops the impulse of your heart; a barrier that seems to say to you with bitter defiance, “You will come this far and no farther”?

Why is that? It is because the creature is mortal. There is not a day when you have no reason to say to yourself in the morning, “He could be taken away from me before evening.”

But suppose you could give your heart to an object from whom nothing in the world could separate you and to whom you were permitted to yield yourself with the joy of life, the freshness of life, the certainty of life, and the immortal power of life! Very well, this God whom I proclaim to you is what your heart requires. He “is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Hold fast to him; he will in no wise escape from you. Call to him; he will always answer. Count on him; he will never fail you. And when you yourself “depart and are no more” (see Psalm 39:13), it will be to go elsewhere in order to behold him without a veil and to unite yourself to him without hindrance.

Why else would you find this barrier to a full giving of your heart to a created being? It is because that creature, even if he were immortal, is finite. How could he respond to the infinite needs of your heart? Enclosed within the narrow confines of the flesh, constrained by his will, limited by his illumination, equally incapable of testifying to all that he feels and of sensing all that your heart expects from his, how could he be enough for you? Perhaps in an impulsive moment, touched by so much devotion, so many attractions, such varied worthy traits, you think that there is nothing more to desire in your happiness except to see it continue. But the very next moment, you return to yourself and step out of your tender illusions. In spite of your best efforts to contain it, this cry escapes from you: “And yet, that really isn’t it. My heart is begging for something else!”

Very well, that something else, that infinite thing that will fill, that will overflow the full capacity of your heart, you will find in the God whom I proclaim to you. You will find it in this God who possesses light and power and truth and life, all without measure. No, he himself is all of that, and it is from his bosom that everything on earth that has some share in those sacred names flows forth like an inexhaustible treasure.

Finally, why do we find this barrier to giving our hearts fully to another creature? It is because that creature is sinful and, if he knows himself at all, reduced to joining you in saying, “I know that nothing good dwells in me” (Romans 7:18). And you could abandon yourself to him without reservation? What! That fallen creature for whom you need to beg for God’s forgiveness as you do for yourself; that creature in whom you find the same battle of the Spirit against the flesh that takes place in you; that creature whose infirmities and weaknesses you must bear with each day, just as he must bear with them in you—is that the one in whom you should seek and in whom you could find what your heart demands? Oh, unworthy thought!

Give fresh air to that unhappy soul who struggles in an atmosphere unable to sustain life. Give daylight to that prisoner who groans in a deep dungeon far from the sweet gleam of the sun. Give bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty—and give to man’s heart, as the object of his supreme attachment, a being who is “holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners” (Hebrews 7:26). Love for such a being can, at last, be the holiness of our hearts, and serving him the holiness of our lives! Very well, in these traits, how can you fail to recognize the God I proclaim to you?”

— Adolphe Monod, An undivided Love: Loving and living for Christ, sermon entitled “give me your heart”

www.tunl.duke.edu/~cwalker/AULchap1.pdf