Last Sunday morning church painted a stark difference between a Keswick mindset and what Scripture intends. Compare parts of these hymn texts:
“Jesus Paid it All”
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.And now complete in Him
My robe His righteousness,
Close sheltered ’neath His side,
I am divinely blest.
Lord, now indeed I find
Thy power and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone.
And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
I’ll lay my trophies down
All down at Jesus’ feet.
“Fill Me Now” by Oswald J. Smith and Mac Lynch
Have I grieved Thy Holy Spirit? Have I quenched His power within?
If I have, O Lord, forgive me, cleanse my heart from every sin.
O my Savior, come I pray Thee, as I at Thine altar bow,
Hear, O hear my heart’s confession; Savior, pardon, cleanse in Mercy,
Savior, fill me now.Do I yield to sin’s allurement, having lost the power to win,
Since Thy Spirit, grieved, forsook me, when I let the tempter in?
Lord, I come in deep contrition, yielding all I have to Thee,
Making now a full surrender Thine forever would I be.
O my Savior, come I pray Thee, as I at Thine altar bow,
Hear, O hear my heart’s confession; Savior, pardon, cleanse in Mercy,
Savior, fill me now.
“And Can It Be”
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
“Take My Life, And Let It Be”
Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. . . .
Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
It’s no wonder we get neck spasms back and forth between two poles of absolute surrender and total redemption. I like how the pastor capped it off with this quotation from David Prior:
“”””It’s no wonder we get neck spasms back and forth between two poles of absolute surrender and total redemption. I like how the pastor capped it off with this quotation from David Prior:“‘When we live in victory over the forces that destroy others, then people begin to see that there is meaning and purpose and reason for the salvation we profess to have.'”
You may also like
2 thoughts on “Keswick v. Bible”
Comments are closed.
Thanks for the post (I read your link as well). Some of these intellectual connections as new to me since I am “shamefully” (wink at word choice) undereducated in my Christian history.
A recent event, the details of which would take too long to tell, here in law school has set of some serious thinking on my part, and in many ways opened my eyes to the truth of what you are pointing to. Let me just concur on how freeing it is to understand that God’s working in my life, and God using me in the lives of others, is entirely God’s doing, and not something for me to stress over.
Ezekiel 36:24-26 We have a heart of flesh now. Thanks for the reminder.