Let us take heed that our faith be a faith of the heart as well as of the head. Let us see that our knowledge has a sanctifying influence on our affections and our lives. Let us not only know Christ but love Him, from a sense of actual benefit received from Him. Let us not only believe that He is the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, but rejoice in Him, and cleave to Him with purpose of heart. Let us not only be acquainted with Him by the hearing of the ear, but by daily personal application to Him for mercy and grace. "The life of Christianity," says Luther, "consists in possessive pronouns."* It is one thing to say "Christ is a Saviour." It is quite another to say "He is my Saviour and my Lord." The devil can say the first. The true Christian alone can say the second.**
* Martin Luther wrote: 'These words, OUR, US, FOR US, must be written in letters of gold. He who does not believe this is not a Christian' (LW 17:221. Lectures on Isaiah (1527-30); WA 31(II):432. 'Therefore read these words "me" and "for me" with great emphasis, and accustom yourself to accepting this "me" with a sure faith and applying it to yourself....Christ did not love only Peter and Paul and give himself for them, but the same grace belongs and comes to us as to them; therefore we are included in this "me"' (LW 26:179. Lectures on Galatians (1535); WA 40(I):299).
** Ryle then quotes George Petter, author of the largest-ever commentary on the Gospel of Mark, A Learned, Pious and Practical Commentary upon the Gospel according to St. Mark (1.24), p. 68, the full quote of which is given here:
Use 2. Rest not in an Historicall Knowledge or Faith; if thou do, it will not save thee: for if it would, then it would save the Devils: for they have this literal Knowledge and general belief of the Word. Dost thou think it enough to know and believe that Christ dyed for Sinners? The Devil and his Angels know and believe as much. Labour then to out-strip them, and to get a better Faith then is in them: Labour to apply to thy own Soul the promise of Salvation, and not onely to know the Word, but to frame thy Heart and life to it, &c.
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