Required reading
Spiritual Depression by D. M. Lloyd-Jones (available from Amazon) - Read Chapter 2.
My notes and thoughts
Today Lloyd-Jones tackles the root cause of spiritual depression: a failure to understand the gospel. To understand justification we firstly need a conviction of sin and then, secondly, realise God's way of salvation in Christ.
Lloyd-Jones makes an interesting observation at the beginning of the chapter about the incidence of spiritual depression among certain people groups: 'The particular trouble with which we are dealing tends, I find, to be common among those who have been brought up in a religious manner rather than in those who have not been brought up in a religious manner. It is more likely to affect those who have been brought up in Christian homes and families and who have always been taken to a place of worship than those who have not.' Such people are still in our churches today - they have been soaked in teaching about sanctification yet never understood justification. The miracle cure of spiritual depression is the gospel. But unfortunately people do not hear the gospel in the churches and thus the churches are filled with 'Christians' who are gloomy. If only more ministers would follow Lloyd-Jones example: 'I try to say it [the gospel] from the pulpit every Sunday because I think it is the thing that is robbing most people of the joy of the Lord.'
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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