"We have no spiritual need except for a restoration of the divine nature in us. And if this be true, then nothing can be our salvation except that which brings us into a right relationship with God, making us partakers of the divine nature in such a manner and degree as we need. But to reason about life cannot communicate it to the soul, nor can a religion of rational notions and opinions logically deduced from Scripture words bring the reality of the gospel into our lives. Do we not see sinners of all sorts, and men under the power of every corrupt passion, equally zealous for such a religion? How is it then that Christian leaders spend so much time reasoning about Scripture doctrines, and yet remain so blind to the obvious fact that filling the head with right notions of Christ can never give to the heart the reality of His Spirit and life? For logical reasoning about Scripture words and doctrines will do no more to remove pride, hypocrisy, envy, or malice from the soul of man, than logical reasoning about geometry. The one leaves man as empty of the life of God in Christ as the other. Yet the church is filled with professing Christians whose faith has never gone beyond a conviction that the words of Scripture are true. They believe in the Christ of the Bible, but do not know Him personally. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is sound doctrine to their minds, but their lives are empty of His manifest power either to overcome the power of sin within, or to convert others to Christ. Though many are zealous to preach the gospel, yet instead of bringing men to Christ, they seek to reason them into a trust in their own learned opinions about Scripture doctrines. In contrast to Paul, their gospel is in word only, without the demonstration and power of the Spirit. Nor can they see their need of the Holy Spirit to fill them with Christ, and then to overflow through them in rivers of living water to others, because reason tells them that they are sound in the letter of doctrine."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
The Power of the Spirit (1898), edited by Andrew Murray, further edited by Dave Hunt (1971) Ch. 9 : Natural Reason Opposes the Spirit.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Law
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
William Law
William Law (1686 – 9 April 1761) was a Church of England priest who lost his position at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, when his conscience would not allow him to take the required oath of allegiance to the first Hanoverian monarch, King George I. Previously, William Law had given his allegiance to the House of Stuart and is sometimes considered a second-generation non-juror. Thereafter, Law continued as a simple priest (curate), and when that
23 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by William Law →
Related Quotes
"Now the Spirit of Love has this Original. God, as considered in himself in his Holy Being, before any thing is brough…"
"If Reason seems to have any Power against Religion, it is only where Religion is become a dead Form, has lost its tru…"
"Man needs to be Saved from his own Wisdom as much as from his own Righteousness, for they produce one and the same co…"
"Men are not in hell because God is angry with them. They are in wrath and darkness because they have done to the ligh…"
"If contempt of the world and heavenly affection is a necessary temper of christians, it is necessary that this temper…"
"So that Christianity is so far from leaving us to live in the common ways of life, conforming to the folly of customs…"
"Now if you will stop here and ask yourself why you are not as pious as the primitive Christians were, your own heart …"
"He that is endeavouring to subdue, and root out of his mind,all those passions of pride,envy and ambition,which relig…"
"You can have no greater sign of confirmed pride than when you think you are humble enough."
"The reason why we know so little of Jesus Christ, as our savior, atonement, and justification, why we are so destitut…"