The Christian in Complete Armour - Gurnall - XLVIII - Direction Eight concluded

Required readingThe Christian in Complete Armour by William Gurnall (Available from Amazon or free here) - Conclude Direction Eight.

My summary

Today we conclude Direction Eight: 'Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.' (Eph. 6:16)

Last week we saw that Satan's has three fiery darts of affrighting temptations:

(i) thoughts of atheism;

(ii) thoughts of blasphemy;

(iii) thoughts of despair;

At that time, we examined thoughts of atheism and blasphemy.  

Now we look at the remaining affrighting temptation: despair.

Gurnall teaches us that faith quenches despair by:

(i) giving the soul a view of the great God;

(ii) opposing the greatness of the promises to sin's greatness;

(iii) teaching the Christian to oppose the greatness of this one sin of despair to the greatness of all his other sin.

What grabbed me

I enjoyed Gurnall's emphasis on the importance of faith in Christ's sacrifice: 'Observe what hand Christ hath his commission from: 'whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.' Christ, we see, is the great ordinance of heaven; him the Father hath sealed; he is singled out from all others, angels and men, and set forth as the person chosen of God to make atonement for sinners, as the lamb was taken out of the flock and set apart for the passover. When, therefore, Satan's sets forth the believer's sins in battle-array against him, and confronts him with their greatness, then faith runs under the shelter of this castle into the holes of this rock. Surely, saith faith, my Saviour is infinitely greater than my greatest sins. I should impeach the wisdom of God's choice to think otherwise. God, who knew what a heavy burden he had to lay upon his shoulders, was fully satisfied of his strength to bear it. He that refused sacrifice and burnt-offering for their insufficiency, would not have called him had he not been all-sufficient for the work. Indeed, here lies the weight of the whole building; a weak faith may save, but a weak saviour cannot. Faith hath Christ to plead for it, but Christ hath none to plead for him. Faith leans on Christ's arm, but Christ stood upon his own legs, and if he had sunk under the burden of our sins, he had been past the reach of any creature in heaven or earth to help him up.'

The greatness of my sin is no cause for despair when I consider the greatness of Christ!

Next week's readingRead the First General Part of Direction Ninth.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.