Vile! # 1

Vile! # 1

We are rather afraid that its title will deter some from reading this article: we hope it will not be so. True, it does not treat of a popular theme, nay, one which is now very rarely heard in the pulpit; nevertheless, it is a scriptural one.

Fallen man is "vile," so vile that it has been rightly said "he is half brute, half devil." Nor does such a description exceed the truth. Man is "born like a wild donkey's colt" (Job 11:12), and he is "taken captive by the devil at his will" (2 Tim. 2:26). Perhaps the reader is ready to reply, "Ah, that is man in his unregenerate state, but it is far otherwise with the regenerate. From one viewpoint that is true; from another, it is not so. Did not the Psalmist acknowledge, "So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before You!" (73:22) unteachable, intractable, kicking against God's providential dealings; not behaving like a man, much less like a saint! Again, did not Agur confess, "Surely I am more brutish than any man!" (Proverbs 30:2). True, we never hear such lamentations as these from those who claim to have received their "Pentecost" or "second blessing," nor from those who boast they are living "the victorious life". But to those who are painfully conscious of the "plague" of their own heart, such words may often describe their case.

Only recently we received a letter from a dear brother in Christ, saying, "the vanity and corruption that I find within, which refuses to be kept in subjection, is so strong at times that it makes me cry out - My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly." Does the reader object against our appropriation of the Psalms and Proverbs, and say, "We in this New Testament dispensation occupy much high ground than those did." Probably  you have often been told so by men, but are you sure of it from the Word of God? Listen, then, to the groan of an eminent Christian: "I am carnal, sold under sin!" (Romans 7:14). Do you never feel thus, my reader? Then we are sincerely sorry for you!

As to the other part of the description of fallen man, "half devil": did not Christ say to the regenerate Peter, "Get behind Me, satan: you are an offence unto Me" (Matt. 16:23)? And are there not times when writer and reader fully merit the same reproof? Speaking for myself, I bow my head with shame, and say, "Alas there is." "Behold, I am vile" (Job 40:4). This was not said by Cain in a remorseful moment after his murder of Abel, nor by Judas after he had betrayed the Saviour into the hands of His enemies; instead, it was the utterance of one of whom God said, "There is none like him in the earth, a perfect (sincere) and an upright man, one who fears God, and eschews evil" (Job 1:8). Was Job's language of self-depreciation? If he was, are Christians today warranted in echoing the same?

In order to arrive at the correct answer to the above questions, let us ask another: when was it that Job said, "Behold, I am vile"? Was it when he first received tidings of his heavy losses? No, for then he exclaimed, "the Lord gave, and the Lord taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (1:21). Was it when his friends reasoned with and reproved him? No, for then he vindicated himself and boasted of his goodness. Then when was it that Job declared "Behold, I am vile"? It was when the Lord appeared to him and gave him a startling revelation of His own wondrous perfections! It was when he stood in the all-penetrating light of God's immaculate holiness and was made to realize something of His mighty power. Ah, when a soul is truly brought into the presence of the living God, boasting ceases, our loveliness is turned into corruption (Dan. 10:8), and we cry, "Woe is me! for I am undone!" (Isaiah 6:5). 

When God makes to the soul a personal revelation of His wondrous perfections, that individual is effectually convinced of his own wretchedness. The more we are given to discern the ineffable glory of the Lord, the more will our self-complacency wither. It is in God's light, and in that only "we see light". When he shines into our understanding and hearts, and brings to light 'the hidden things of darkness" (1 Cor. 4:5), we perceive the utter corruption of our nature, and are abominable in our own eyes. While we measure ourselves by our fellows, we shall, most likely, think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think (Romans 12:3); but when we measure ourselves by the holy requirements of God's nature, we cry "I am dust and ashes" (Genesis 18:27).

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 2)