NO IMPOSSIBLE BURDEN
By
D. M. PANTON, M. A.
"Exceeding great and precious promises," the
Apostle Peter says (2 Pet. 1: 4), God has given us in order that, through them, “we may become partakers of the divine nature";
and one of the great and most precious is the impossibility of an unbearable
burden. It is a promise world-wide in its application. It has been
put to the test in every age, in every land, in every temperament, in every
experience. It extends to every moment
of life: it covers every act and deed: it counters and masters every possible
emergency. And it is peculiarly precious to us, and of tremendous
importance, because it is given specifically to those "on whom the ends of the ages are come" (1 Cor. 10: 11).
The
background of the promise is the clearest and fullest Old Testament type of the
New Testament Church ever given. "With most
of them" - that is,
Now
two effects are possible, springing out of this tremendous and dramatic
background; and against these two effects the Spirit first sets a sharp
warning, and then a golden encouragement. The warning He puts first:-
"Wherefore" - because the picture is
not imaginary, but actual - "let him that thinketh
he standeth" - either on the ground that the privileges of grace
make such a fall impossible, or that his own growth and achievements make him
immune from peril - "take heed lest he fall."
He who thinks he has nothing to fear is the man who is most exposed to a
peril. No height of progress we have reached; no natural or
spiritual abilities; no wealth of privileges peculiar to ourselves which we have enjoyed through years of blessed experience -
nothing can make us immune: the Tempter, routed in ninety-nine contests, may be
victorious in the hundredth. "Let us therefore
give diligence to enter into that rest, that none [of us] fall after the
same example of disobedience" (Heb.
4: 11).
But
the Spirit now counters the second peril - despair; despair of ever reaching
the tremendous standard of Caleb and Joshua. Our background is so
overwhelming in its disillusionment - namely, that the vast majority of
God’s people lost the Kingdom - that the Spirit devotes much greater
time and care to re-assuring us than to warning us; for the man who has
mastered the historic facts is in far greater danger of despair than of
presumption. So the Apostle first lays down a universal fact:- "There hath no temptation" - no trial, no test, no
pressure, no seduction - "taken you but such as
man can bear" - literally, but such as is human; that
is, accommodated to human strength; suited and fitted to man; such as every man
may reasonably expect, and has power, to conquer. That is, "we can avoid falling, inasmuch as we are not
exposed to insurperable temptations"
(Dean Stanley). Since the world was, no man has ever been compelled to
commit a single sin: all temptations have been such as men could
resist, and have resisted. For in the nature of the case it
must be so. A temptation is an experiment, to perfect us in doing good or
resisting evil, and it must be in our power to
succeed, or it is no experiment. For we must bear in
mind God’s purpose. "Temptation and
trial are God’s drill and dynamite to blow up the obstructions that choke the
channels of our affections and energies until the whole broad stream of God’s
life shall course through our own and have its own sweet will" (A.
J. F. Behrends, D. D.).
The
second reassurance which the Apostle introduces is the character of God.
"But God is faithful, who will not
suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able." The
critical fact is here revealed that all temptation, without exception, is
superintended by God; and that every test applied to a soul - either by God
Himself, or by the Evil One: "Satan obtained you
by asking, that he might sift you as wheat" (Luke 22: 31) - is completely controlled and adjusted by God. God is the
surgeon who is never absent from a dangerous operation. The fidelity of
God therefore dominates the situation: for to allow a soul to be crushed, with
no power of escape, would defeat the very purpose for which God allows the
temptation - namely, the perfecting of the character through tested
development. There is no such thing as a unique trial, peculiar
to the person on whom it falls, and never occurring before or after; but on the
holiest of all ages the same faithful God has perfected holiness through trial.
So
now we get our crowning re-assurance. "He
will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able."
That is, He measures each assault to the exact proportions of the person
assaulted: the test is weighed before it is applied: He so adjusts the discipline that it can quicken the heart’s action
without forcing heart-failure. Every temptation is so weighed that it is
never overweight: God will so adjust us to our surroundings, and our
surroundings to us, that we shall always be able to do what is right.
The Alpaca goat in
My Lord in me has found a dwelling-place
And I in Him. Oh, glorious boon to gain,
To be His temple! Gladly I would face,
In His great strength, all bitterness and pain.
So,
under persecution, here is a letter from a Russian prison: - "When I found myself in prison, condemned to hard labour,
strange to say, I found myself wrapped up in a feeling of liberty and of the
presence of God. Prison for us is not the same as it is for the
Bolsheviks: tragedy and suffering. We are just as happy and joyful as
somewhere else. We are happy in our prison; we are happy on the way to
it; I am still happy here on O… I
really see that all He sends is good, and only serves to bring us nearer to
each other and unite us more perfectly to Him. These terrible outward and unbelievable conditions are very useful for
our spiritual life; they serve to purify and enlighten the inner man."
So,
finally, the method God uses is disclosed. "But
WITH the temptation" - it
may not be a moment before it, but it is never after it - "will make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it."
Experience shows the probably double meaning of the text. Either we are removed bodily out of the region
of danger - as Paul let down the city wall, so escaping murder; or else there
is escape from its power - as Paul’s thorn was not withdrawn, but neutralized
by greater grace: the escape is either from the temptation altogether, or else
from its power. "God knoweth how to deliver
the godly out of temptation" (2 Pet. 2:
9): whatever the deliverance, God is pledged to make it possible for us
all, without exception, to be conquerors all along the line.
So
then we reach the astounding truth that there is not one of us who may not be a
Caleb or a Joshua. If we fail of this marvellous
goal, it will not be because God over-tried us,* but because we allowed
ourselves to be conquered by circumstances over which God has made us masters.
The highest thrones are waiting. "For
our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more
exceedingly an eternal weight of glory, while we look at the things which are
not seen" (2 Cor.
4; 17). To take our eyes off the unseen is to imperil the
glory. "Walk worthily of God, who calleth you [is calling
you] into his own kingdom and glory"
(1 Thess. 2: 12);
for "we must through much tribulation enter
into the
[* A pitiful breakdown of faith when faced by an apparently
impossible burden (martyrdom) occurred in 1857 in the massacre of
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WATCHFULNESS
The
abundant entrance is by Peter attached to the fruitful state: by our Lord to
the watchful state: Matt. 24. 25.
Both present the same thing from different points of view. Peter is an
example, both of the fall, and of the entrance.
1.
He was one of the three chosen to behold the scene on the Mount of
Transfiguration.
2.
He fell through unwatchfulness at the hall of Caiaphas.
His fall there, and subsequent
forgiveness, and future admission to the kingdom, is a powerful antidote against despair for those believers who are
conscious of having foully fallen. It is intended so to
be. Still, the entrance at last is for those "counted worthy" of that age of glory and
of the first resurrection: Luke 20: 35; 21: 36; 2 Thess. 1: 5; Rev. 3: 4, 11.
-
R. Govett.