Take Up the Cross

Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. — Luke 13:24  

Object of Faith

And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.
— Psalm 9:10

As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
— Song of Solomon 2:3

For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.
— Zechariah 9:17

And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
— Hebrews 6:5-6

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
— Exodus 20:4-6

Christ as the Object of Faith and Love, by John Owen. The following contains Section One of his work, “The Chamber of Imagery in the Church of Rome Laid Open; Or, An Antidote Against Popery.

If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. —1 Pet. ii. 3

I. Section I. It is a general notion of truth, that the Lord Christ, in his person and grace, is to be proposed and represented unto men as the principal object of their faith and love.

He himself, in his Divine Person, is absolutely invisible unto us; and, as unto his human nature, absent from us; for the heaven must receive him “until the times of restitution of all things.” There must, therefore, an image or representation of him be made unto our minds, or he cannot be the proper object of our faith, trust, love, and delight. This is done in the gospel, and the preaching of it; for therein he is “evidently set forth” before our eyes, as “crucified amongst us,” Gal. 3:1. So, also, are all the other concerns of his person and offices therein clearly proposed unto us; yea, this is the principal end of the gospel,—namely, to make a due representation of the person, offices, grace, and glory of Christ unto the souls of men, that they may believe in him, and “believing, have eternal life,” John 20:31. Upon this representation made of Christ and his glory in the gospel, and the preaching of it, believers have an experience of the power and efficacy of the divine truth contained therein, in the way before mentioned, as the apostle declares, 2 Cor. 3:18, for “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Having a spiritual fight to discern and behold the glory of Christ, as represented in the glass of the gospel, they have experience of its transforming power and efficacy, changing them into the likeness of the image represented unto them,—that is, of Christ himself; which is the saving effect of gospel power. But this spiritual light was lost among men, through the efficacy of their darkness and unbelief; they were not able to discover the glory of Christ, as revealed and proposed in the gospel, so as to make him the present object of their faith and love. And this light being lost, they could have no experience of the power of divine truth concerning him changing them into his image. They could make no affecting discovery of him in the Scripture. All things therein were dark and confused, or at least seemed an inaccessible mystery, which they could not reduce to practice. Hence, those who had got the public conduct of religion drove the people from reading the Scripture, as that which was of no use, but rather dangerous unto them. What shall these men, then, betake themselves unto? Shall they reject the notion in general, that there ought to be such a representation made of Christ unto the minds of men, as to inflame their devotion, to excite their faith, and stir up their affection to him? This cannot be done without an open renunciation of him, and of the gospel as a fable. Wherefore they will find out another way for it,—another means unto the same end;—and this is, by making images of him of wood and stone, or gold and silver, or painting on them. Hereby they supposed he would be made present unto his worshippers;—that he would be so represented unto them, as that they should be immediately stirred up unto the embraces of faith and love. And herein they found sensible effects, unto their great satisfaction; for their minds being dark, carnal, and prone to superstition,—as are the minds of all men by nature,—they could see nothing in the spiritual representation of him in the gospel that had any power on them, or did in any measure affect them. In these images, by the means of sight and imagination, they found that which did really work upon their affections, and, as they thought, did excite them unto the love of Christ.

And this was the true original of all the imagery in the Church of Rome, as something of the same nature, in general, was of all the image-worship in the world. So the Israelites in the wilderness, when they made the golden calf, did it to have a representation of a deity near unto them, in such a visible manner as that their souls might be affected with it: so they expressed themselves, Exod. 32:1 Wherefore in this state, under a loss of spiritual light and experience, men of superstitious minds found themselves entangled. They knew it necessary that there should be such a representation made of Christ as might render him a present object of faith and love, wherewith they might be immediately affected. How this was done in the gospel they could not understand, nor obtain any experience of the power and efficacy of it unto this end. Yet the principle itself must be retained, as that without which there could be no religion; wherefore, to extricate themselves out of this difficulty, they brake through all God’s commands to the contrary, and betook themselves to the making images of Christ, and their adoration. And from small beginnings, according as darkness and superstition increased in the minds of men, there was a progress in this practice, until these images took the whole work of representing Christ and his glory out of the hands, as it were, of the gospel, and appropriated it unto themselves. For I do not speak of them, now, so much as they are images of Christ, or objects of adoration, as of their being dead images of the gospel; that is, somewhat set up in the room of the gospel, and for the ends of it, as means of teaching and instruction.

They shall do the work which the gospel was designed of God to do; for as unto this end, of the representation of Christ as the present object of the faith and love of man, with an efficacy to work upon their affections, there is in the Church of Rome a thousand times more ascribed unto them than unto the gospel itself. The whole matter is stated by the apostle, Rom. 10:6–8,”The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach.” The inquiry is, how we may be made partakers of Christ, and righteousness by him: or, how we may have an interest in him, or have him present with us. This, saith the apostle, is done by the word of the gospel which is preached, which is nigh unto us,—in our mouths, and in our hearts. “No,” say these men,”we cannot understand how it should be so; we do not find that it is so,—that Christ is made nigh unto us, present with us, by this word. Wherefore we will ascend into heaven to bring down Christ from above; for we will make images of him in his glorious state in heaven, and thereby he will be present with us, or nigh unto us. And we will descend into the deep, to bring up Christ again from the dead; and we will do it, by making first crucifixes, and then images of his glorious resurrection, bringing him again unto us from the dead. This shall be in the place and room of that word of the gospel, which you pretend to be alone useful and effectual unto these ends.”

This, therefore, is evident, that the introduction of this abomination, in principle and practice destructive unto the souls of men, took its rise from the loss of an experience of the representation of Christ in the gospel, and the transforming power in the minds of men which it is accompanied with, in them that believe. “Make us gods,” say the Israelites,”to go before us; for as for this man Moses,” who represented God unto us,”we know not what is become of him.” What would you have men do? Would you have them live without all sense of the presence of Christ with them, or being nigh unto them? Shall they have no representation of him? No, no; make us gods that may go before us,—let us have images unto this end; for how else may it be done we cannot understand. And this is the reason of their obstinacy in this practice against all means of conviction; yea, they live hereon in a perpetual contradiction unto themselves. Their temples are full of graven images, like the house of Micah,—”houses of gods;” and yet in them are the Scriptures (though in a tongue unknown to the people), wherein that practice is utterly condemned; [so] that a man would think them distracted, to hear what their book says, and to see what they do in the same place. But nothing will reach unto their conviction, until the vail of blindness and ignorance be taken from their minds. Until they have spiritual light enabling them to discern the glory of Christ as represented in the gospel, and to let in an experience of the transforming power and efficacy of that revelation in their own souls, they will never part with that means for the same end, which they are sensible of to be useful unto it, and which is suited unto their inclination. Whatever be the issue, though it cost them their souls, they will not part with what they find, as they suppose, so useful unto their great end of making Christ nigh unto them, for that wherein they can see nothing of it, and of whose power they can have no experience.

But the principal design of this discourse is, to warn others of these abominations, and to direct unto their avoidance; for if they should be outwardly pressed unto the practice of this idolatry, whatever is of carnal affection, of blind devotion, or superstition in them, will quickly be won over unto a conspiracy against their convictions. Nothing will then secure them, but an experience of the efficacy of that representation which is made of Christ in the gospel. It is, therefore, the wisdom and duty of all those who desire a stability in the profession of the truth, continually to endeavour after this experience, and an increase in it. He who lives in the exercise of faith and love in the Lord Jesus Christ, as revealed in the gospel, as evidently crucified, and evidently exalted therein, and finds the fruit of his so doing in his own soul, will be preserved in the time of trial. Without this, men will, at last, begin to think that it is better to have a false Christ than none at all; they will suppose that something is to be found in images, when they can find nothing in the gospel.

https://takeupcross.com
takeupcross