Taking the Kingdom by Violence

Edward Griffin (1770—1837)
 

Matthew 11:12
"And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force."

This refers to a remarkable revival of religion which commenced under the preaching of John and continued during the ministry of Jesus. In that day of God's power people flocked to hear the Gospel and with mighty efforts pressed into the kingdom of God. There was all the earnestness common to modern revivals; and this the Savior, so far from rebuking under the character of irregular warmth, as modern formalists do, distinctly approved. He speaks of it as though it was an attack upon a fortified city which must be carried by storm: and that single figure shows what ideas he had of the exertions needful in this conflict.

"Agonize," said he, "to enter in at the straight gate." He would have men come up to the work with all that agony which is necessary in sacking a strong city: and that agony diffused through a community presents all the earnestness of a revival of religion—of that revival in particular to which the Savior referred with so much approbation.

Make a law that men shall never break over that formal round in which they are accustomed to move when their heart is cold and engrossed by business or science, and you never will rouse the multitude from sleep—you never will break the enchantment which binds them to the world—you never will lift them above their pride, which stands like an armed giant to guard the door of their prison.

The necessity for these strong exertions arises from the immense difficulties in the way. These difficulties may be classed under the following heads.

1. The world, as comprehending both objects of attention and objects of attachment. As the first, it diverts the attention from God and eternity and holds it spell-bound to earth. Business and amusement and vain society throw an enchantment over the mind and allure and enchain it as by magic. As the second, it plunges men into the grossest and most incurable idolatry. Honor, wealth, and pleasure become their trinity. And what an obstacle this is to salvation the Scriptures plainly teach. "How can you believe, who receive honor one of another?" "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." "That which fell among thorns are those who are choked with—pleasures of this life."

2. The devil and all his angels. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." These subtle spirits, knowing all our weaknesses and all the avenues to our hearts, do all they can to prevent sinners from being awakened, to prevent the awakened from submitting to Christ, and to embarrass and perplex believers. They seduce the awakened back, or delude them with false hopes. They lead them into errors and sins, by which they grieve the Spirit to their destruction.

3. The flesh with all its passions and lusts. Supreme selfishness turns the man into a confirmed enemy of God. His pride is afraid to go over to his Prince or to make a motion towards him, lest his companions in revolt should deride him. It clings to the worldly honors that are to be renounced. It cannot bear to lie down under the convictions of guilt or to come as a beggar to sue for pardon on account of another. Pride and selfishness engender unbelief, which stupefies the soul and excludes a sense of eternal things—a sense of sin and ruin. The lusts and passions fasten upon the world and turn a thousand objects into idols. They keep the doltish from being awakened, the awakened from accepting a Savior, and raise in the believer a war which nothing but death can terminate.

The whole soul gravitates towards the earth, and it is as unnatural for it to rise to God as it is for the body to ascend to Heaven. These corruptions render the heart invincibly obdurate, so that all the commands and entreaties of God, all his promises and threatenings, all the light of this world and all the sufferings of the next, cannot subdue it. Though the sinner, arrested by the Spirit and overwhelmed with guilt, stands trembling over the eternal pit; though a bleeding Savior shows him his hands and his side, and offers him pardon and a crown of glory, with entreaties that might move a rock; the invincible traitor still urges his way to Hell: and when he arrives there, not all the tortures of the damned, nor the certainty that continued sin will eternally increase his torments, will ever bring him to one right feeling towards his Maker.

4. The difficulty of dissolving long connected associations, and of breaking up long established habits, and of issuing forth into new courses of action; the difficulty of transferring the affections to God which have long been given to the world, of bringing one to tread the valley of humility who has long stalked in pride, of inuring lips to prayer which have long been profane. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good that are accustomed to do evil."

These immense difficulties are not to be overcome without great and continued efforts. It is by far the most difficult work that ever man attempted. Hence the life of Christians is compared to running, wrestling, fighting, and they are exhorted to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. All men are commanded to agonize to enter in at the strait gate, and are warned that the kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and that the violent take it by force. All are required to watch and to pray without ceasing. And yet even "the righteous scarcely" are "saved." It will be an everlasting wonder to see one of our race in Heaven.

But I seem to hear objections raised against all this.

Objection 1. You say the hardness of sinners is invincible, and now you call upon them to conquer it.

Answer. Their hardness arises from the wickedness of their own hearts, and ought not to remain a moment; and although means cannot subdue it, they ought to subdue it themselves. It is invincible to all others, but not invincible to themselves.

Objection2. This transferring of the affections to God is the work of the Spirit, and is not to be done by human strength and resolution. It is not like a worldly task in which men are to apply their natural strength in proportion to the difficulties they meet, because that natural strength is to accomplish the whole work.

Answer. The transferring of the affections to God is the work of the creature, although the moral strength or inclination comes from God, and the creature is solemnly commanded to perform it. And we may set before men the whole work which they ought to perform and urge them to exertions in proportion to the difficulties involved. Their dependence on God for moral strength is no reason why they should not proportion the exertions to the difficulties, for the work is still to be done by their own agency as much as though they were independent. If men are not to make great efforts in difficult matters because their moral strength comes from God, they must not make any efforts in easy matters because their moral strength comes from God. The truth is, that while they must cast themselves on the Spirit for moral strength to do anything great or small, the thing is done by acts of their own, and what is more difficult, by greater exertion, and what is less difficult, by less exertion. This is obviously the case in everything which depends on the established laws of nature. We make greater efforts to lift a large weight than a small one. And why should it not be so in everything which is accomplished by our own agency, whether the strength be obtained in a natural or supernatural way, and whether it be natural or moral? We have to take our affections from idols and give them to God, and crucify our lusts, as much as we have to ascend a hill or to walk a plain. We certainly call upon Christians to make greater efforts in more difficult duties, though their moral strength is supernaturally derived.

Objection 3. The work is difficult only because men are sinful. They ought not to allow it to be difficult. And instead of calling upon them for new exertions on account of the difficulty, you ought to require them instantly to make it easy.

Answer. We certainly ought to require them to be holy as God is holy. They are bound to be thus because they have natural ability or the faculties of a rational soul. But when we speak of their ability as a reason for their obligation, it is because that ability is capable of an effort in proportion to the difficulties to be overcome: otherwise it would not be an ability. Now to break up old associations and habits and to enter on new courses of action, involve an intrinsic difficulty which was never felt before the fall, and which therefore is superadded to the original work of serving God. Can we expect men to rise above this difficulty without an effort? The thing is impossible?

Objection 4. It is not right to call upon the unregenerate to bring to the work their own increased energies and resolution, and especially to put forth exertions in proportion to the difficulties to be overcome, as though all was to be done by their own strength, when the main point is to make them die to all hope from themselves and fall helpless at their Maker's feet.

Answer. We certainly have a right to call upon them to do their whole duty, and therefore to put forth exertions in proportion to the difficulties to be overcome. And if they would do this they would have no occasion to cast themselves dead and helpless upon God's sovereign will. They ought instantly to cast themselves on his Spirit for all their moral strength and to go forward to their whole duty. But instead of this they attempt to go in their own moral strength, in a feeling of independence, and with an impenitent, self-righteous, unbelieving heart; and they never will succeed. And when they see that they never shall succeed nor move God to subdue them, they will, if they act according to truth, cast themselves upon his sovereign will. They are prone to put their own moral power in the room of the Holy Spirit, and their own duties in the room of the atonement and righteousness of Christ, and their own prayers in the room of his intercession; and thus they sustain themselves. But the moment they are torn from this self-dependence, they must fall upon Christ, or upon the sovereign will of God, or into blank despair. It is their wickedness which keeps them from going forward to duty; and when they will not do this, it is their self-righteousness and self-dependence which keep them from falling upon Christ or upon the sovereign will of God.

Now the question is, does the urging of them to duty prevent them from falling helpless on God's sovereign will? So far from this, it is the very best means to bring them to the point. That urgency will put them upon exertion, and that exertion will show them their utter insufficiency to deliver themselves. They never will be convinced until they have thoroughly tried—until they have exhausted their own moral strength. The strongest efforts are necessary for awakened sinners in two respects:

first, as the natural effects of that view of sin and ruin which is needed to show them the greatness of their deliverance and what they owe to their deliverer;

secondly, to convince them, by the failure of all their efforts, that in a moral sense they are utterly helpless and hopeless in themselves, and to bring them to cast themselves dead at their Maker's feet and own him for their deliverer.

But the efforts of the impenitent and unbelieving are not the violence referred to in the text.

This leads me, in the second place, to consider the nature of the violence intended.

1. It must be accompanied with supreme desire and with corresponding earnestness and diligence. You must covet salvation more than the riches, honors, and pleasures of the world—and be willing to forego everything for this. You must come up to the struggle with all your heart and soul, or nothing will be done. Sluggish exertions will never avail. The mighty care must be fixed upon your heart from morning to night. It must swallow up everything else. If you will not come up to this, you may as well give up the struggle and conclude to lie down in everlasting sorrows!

Sit down therefore and count the cost. If ease or pleasure or the world is so valuable that you cannot break from them and come up undividedly to this effort, why then you must die. It must be one or the other. Take your choice. The highest promise to you in the Bible is in these words: "You shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart."

This earnestness must be attended with a sincere desire to be delivered from sin, to be holy as God is holy, to serve and glorify him, and to find your Heaven in communion with him. This implies sincere love to God.

2. It must be accompanied:
with true repentance;
with deep self-abhorrence;
with a broken heart;
with an actual turning from sin.

3. It must be marked with submission; not setting up your own will against the will of God, nor your own interest against the interest of God; not dictating to him, nor counseling him, nor urging him as loath: not thinking to take Heaven by storm and to wrest it out of his hands whether he will or not, but saying continually, "Not my will but yours be done."

4. You must offer "the prayer of the destitute." You must renounce your own moral strength and cast yourselves for moral strength on the Spirit of God, deeply feeling your utter weakness and dependence. Had Gideon and David met their enemies in their own strength, they would not have prevailed; but when they went forth in the name of the Lord, "one" could "chase a thousand and two" could "put ten thousand to flight." You must sensibly feel that you deserve eternal death, and that the law is just in condemning you; that you have no righteousness of your own, no claim on God, no power to make atonement for a single sin, no power to purchase eternal life, no power to procure any favor from God, no hope but in sovereign mercy, no hope but in Jesus Christ. And you must cast yourselves on him as the only ground of pardon, as having purchased eternal life for his people by his obedience, as the "Heir" who has received the inheritance for the "joint heirs," as the manager and distributor of the whole estate, as the intercessor on high.

I wish to apply this subject solemnly to three descriptions of people:

1. To those who are opposed to any great earnestness or any uncommon movement in religion. You and the Savior are fairly at issue here. He exhorts you to agonize and to take the kingdom of Heaven by violence. You advise: Let there be no violence, no agony, but leave religion to occupy a leisure hour. And why is it more irrational to be in earnest about religion than about other things? In commercial and political concerns, men will compass sea and land; and why may they not show a little zeal for the salvation of the soul? In times of war, the greatest exertions are deemed necessary; and is nothing needed but your sluggishness to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil? May everything else be sought with earnestness but the kingdom of Heaven? Why is it worse to expose your body to the evening air for the worship of God, than on worldly business, or at the theater, or at mirthful assemblies? For shame, give up this objection or avow yourself an infidel.

2. To awakened sinners. "If the righteous scarcely are saved, where" will you "appear?" If the faith of Christians is barely sufficient to overcome the world—if they must take firm hold of the strength of God to triumph over principalities and powers—if all their humility and grief for sin are hardly enough to cope with pride and a hard heart—then how are you to prevail without any faith or repentance, and wholly relying on your own strength? If with half of their heart won over, and with all the moral strength derived from Heaven, they find it hard to maintain the contest with the other half, what will you do against your whole heart and with no ally in Heaven? Be it known to you, my unhappy hearers, that your present violence will never prevail.

It has by some been compared to the ploughing and sowing of the gardener; but there is no established constitution, (neither any covenant nor any uniform mode of divine operation,) according to which your efforts tend to salvation; and they will forever be in vain without a special interposition in your favor. You have never broken up "your fallow ground," but have sown "among thorns" or on a rock; and you have sown "thistles—instead of wheat and cockle instead of barley." From Genesis to Revelation there is not a promise to anything you have ever done. If God ever gives you a new heart, it will not be for one exertion you ever made, or in answer to a single prayer you ever offered. Not because you are not able, but because you are so obstinately wicked. You are altogether in his hands. Your last hope hangs on his sovereign will. You lie wholly at the mercy of him whom you have made your enemy by wicked works. If he frowns, then you die. Fall down at his feet until he shall raise and heal and bid you live.

3. If obstacles lie in the way to Heaven which the awakened will never surmount, and which the righteous, with all their watchings and prayers, can scarcely transcend—there is a question which comes down with the weight of a thousand worlds: where will the insensitive, prayerless sinners appear? Here are men shut up in a burning house: some break through the flames and with the greatest difficulty escape: what chance remains for those who are asleep in the upper stories? A number are confined to a burning city, environed with besieging armies: all the passages from the town are broken by dangerous moats and trenches: a few valiant hearts burst through the flames, break through the hostile ranks, leap the ditches and banks, and escape with their lives: others are asleep amidst the flames. What but inevitable destruction awaits these, unless they instantly awake, and with the strength of a giant and the activity of an angel, break their way through a thousand deaths!

Wretched men, you see the difficulties so great that many will seek to enter in and will not be able: when, where, and by whom then are you to be delivered? Do you think to surmount all these obstacles while you sleep? Go to the Christian's closet, and see his daily wrestlings: go with him into the world, and observe his habitual watchfulness, kept up for thirty or forty years; and all to conquer those very difficulties which lie in the way of your salvation; while you have never made a motion. So many years have you lived in God's world, and now death is hastening on, and you have never yet begun your work, and still remain unconcerned as though you had nothing to do. Were you not blind, you would see your heart full of idolatry and enmity against God; you would see earth and Hell leagued against your salvation.

And how are all these difficulties to be overcome? No man ever yet conquered them without strong and persevering exertions. When, where, and by whom then are you to conquer? You have never yet roused to an anxious effort; how and when is victory to be achieved?

But the great deceiver tells you, it is easy to become religious at any time, and it will be enough to have a few hours' warning of death. But ask those who have tried, and they will all give you a different account. Ask your companions. As soon as one of their number made the attempt, unexpected difficulties started up before him. He was alarmed at their magnitude and number, and was driven to despair of success from himself, and confessed that if a long abused God did not pluck him from destruction, he must perish. And here you are dreaming of an easy work, sure to be accomplished before you die; but how or when you take little thought.

What derangement to defer this work until a dying hour, in the confidence of being aided by him whom, under that hope, you are now abusing. And should he desert you then, do you think that your poor, weak, wicked, dying nature would perform the mighty task alone?

"But it is an easy thing to prepare for death." Well then try and see. If it is so easy it will cost you but little trouble; and surely Heaven is worth a little trouble. And if it is so small a matter to make everything sure for eternity, what madness to run the risk of losing all by a sudden death or by the loss of reason. What folly to put it to a moment's hazard. On the contrary, if it is so difficult, it ought to be entered upon without delay.

Others say, I cannot change my own heart, and God does not see fit to change it; what can I do but wait his time? This you say to justify yourselves and to cast the blame on God. It is the plea of the slothful servant, "I knew you that you are a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not strewed." But out of your own mouth shall you be judged. If God requires more than you can do, is that a reason why you should do nothing? why you should sin against him with all your might? Is this the way to conciliate a hard master who has you altogether in his power? But you do not believe this plea yourselves. If you did you would not be so easy.

Were you locked up in a burning house, and the key in the hands of a cruel master, we would not see you laughing and singing about the apartments, but agonized with terror. You need help from God—but is this a reason why you should neglect to ask help of him? Can you hope that he will save you while you are buried in the world and refuse to pray? And when is your case to be better? Every day you are growing more hardened; every hour the chances against you are increasing; and here you are waiting for future conviction, as thousands did who are now in Hell.

What is still more affecting in the case of all the careless, you are losing this inestimable season of grace. The Holy Spirit, in infinite kindness, has come down from Heaven to invite you, and yet you trample the mercy under foot.

You see others around you pressing into the kingdom of God, and you will not move a finger, but wait, like a stock, for God to move upon you. You see them taken from you and you are left as men abandoned of God. And yet you will not move. You are about to let the Savior go, though in all probability it is the last time that he will pass this way in season to open your eyes. There is very little chance for you in insensitive times; and after you have rejected the Holy Spirit through this revival, there is solemn reason to fear that you may not live to see another, or if you should, that you will be left like the heath in the desert. As this season leaves you so it is likely you will remain to eternity. O if you have any reason left, awake without delay and take the kingdom of Heaven by violence. Have you resolved to perish, let God and his people do what they will? If you throw this season away, I ask again, when do you expect to prepare for death? When? Must we take an eternal leave of you and see you forever lifting up your eyes in torments? This we have distressing reason to fear. You have resisted the tears of parents and the solemn expostulations of ministers. You have resisted all that Heaven could do in a way of means. What hope then remains? O go not from this house until you have awoke to sleep no more, like those who are awoke by the last trumpet.

I have done my errand. And now, when the last trumpet shall sound, if we shall see you emerging from the grave stamped with the horrid emblems of the damned, and convulsed with horror at the prodigies of the opening judgment—do not blame me—do not blame God. I call Heaven and earth to witness that your blood will be upon your own head!