Word of Salvation – Vol. 26 No. 24 – March 1981

 

The Hidden Springs

 

Sermon by Rev. T. Jansma, Emeritus, Christian Reformed Church, U.S.A.

Scripture Reading: Luke 12:13–34

Text: Exodus 20:17 (The Tenth Commandment)

Psalter Hymnal 110, 240, 463, 376

“You shall not covet your neighbour’s house, You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his manservant, or his maid-servant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbour’s.” Exodus 20:17.

 

The Tenth Commandment seems to deal with the same subject as the Eighth Commandment. “You shall not steal” forbids the taking of another’s goods; “You shall not covet” forbids desiring another’s goods. The last commandment seems to do no more than bring us under the surface of the Eighth Commandment and condemn only that which might lead to theft. However, such a conception of the last commandment is not only superficial but even misleading. We must remember that each of the Ten Commandments deals not merely with the one sin which it mentions, but with a whole category or group of sins of which the one is only a prominent example. Our Lord reckons anger as murder and lust as adultery. Each commandment illustrates a moral principle which has many applications not only to overt acts but also to mental attitudes which lead to those acts. The Tenth Commandment, like all the others, involves a fundamental moral principle which is violated by a whole family of sins of which Covetousness is a prominent member.

This commandment turns the searchlight of God’s Law on the hidden springs of personality. Its probing rays seek out the sources and roots of human desire. It condemns the seeds and the first germinations of sin in the inner man. It examines the first droplets that bubble up out of the hidden springs of the human heart. It demands purity in the depths of man’s being so that every motion of his soul shall be right and good in the sight of God and shall be directed to the good of his neighbour.

There are moral struggles within us which are settled without coming to the surface in words and deeds, moral victories over evils which were pointed at our neighbour but which never cause our neighbour any actual suffering and of which he will never be aware. The very fact that a moral struggle is necessary proves the presence of an evil force, and that presence is the sin which this Commandment forbids. This Law summons us to the bar – to stand trial for producing that which made a struggle necessary, for inciting an insurrection even though it has been repelled. It is that conflict in the inner man, “another law in my members warring against the law of my mind” (Rom.7:23) which convicts Paul of his deep sinfulness, and pressed from him the cry, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death!” (Rom.7:24).

Modern Psychology has done a good service in directing our attention to the vast world of forces and influences which lie beneath the surface of the conscious personality. We have come to recognize what the Bible has always taught, that is, that our behaviour flows from sources hidden deep in the ego. What we must also recognize is that these hidden springs are thoroughly contaminated in all of us. The stream of life is not gradually polluted after it leaves its source, but the source is dirty and therefore the stream is dirty. The pollution is in the hidden spring itself. The Bible insists that man is “conceived and born in sin”, that he carries within him the corruption of his race since the fall of our first parents in Paradise, that the personality is twisted at its centre and not merely on the periphery. Therefore the first drop that bubbles up from his hidden springs is under the judgment of God and it is there that the Tenth Commandment indicts us.

The Eighth Commandment condemns the unlawful desire for my neighbour’s house, because that desire would issue in overt theft if I got the chance. The Tenth Commandment condemns the unlawful desire for my neighbour’s house even though that desire is overcome. The Seventh Commandment condemns the unlawful desire for my neighbour’s wife even though that desire is smothered in a moral revulsion.

Christianity does not condemn desire in itself; it is not ascetic. Some oriental religions and some Christian sects have a marked strain of asceticism.

But Christianity, while it teaches the inseparable bond between desire and struggle, insists that this is so only because of our fallen sinful nature and not because desire in itself is evil. In fact, God created man with desires. It is not wrong to want a wife, children, lands, money, power, ability, beauty, etc. These are all good gifts of God, to be prized, admired, wanted. But when in the Providence of God they are withheld, when you are plain instead of beautiful, poor instead of rich, when you have one talent instead of five, then you are not to fret and pout for what lies beyond your reach, nor harbour even the germ of envy toward your neighbour who has what you lack. Sin has no being in itself. It is a parasite that lives on a good creation of God. It corrupts and pollutes what God has made or given. It speculates with God’s capital. God has created us with desires and longings. Sin corrupts those desires so that we want what we do not need or may not have. Eve was created with a desire for food, but when her desire turned to forbidden fruit it became evil. The antidote to covetousness is not the end of all desire, not death, but contentment. The counterpoise of greed is not a vow of poverty, but faithful stewardship over your possessions. The restraint of adultery is not abstinence, but marriage.

We must face the fact that we were not created equal. To insist on equal rights is one thing but to claim equal endowments is nonsense. There are great differences among men in body, mind, opportunity, etc. There is as much variety among men as among the leaves of the forest; differences of race, nationality, family, and individual, so that not two of us are exactly alike. This vast variety shows the myriad facets of the glory of our Maker. Every product of God’s workshop is an “original” and never copied. Each of us must therefore go to work with what we have as faithful stewards. Five talents must be put to work so they gain five more, and one talent is not to lie useless and hidden in the earth. Our Lord held up that one-talent servant to condemnation not because of his poverty, but for his sloth. Achievement must match endowment whether with one or five talents. Each of us must invest his own talents, and to desire what cannot be gained by such investment is evil. Contentment is a blessing that comes to those who are diligent in their own business. Discontent is the curse of the slothful. The poor man as well as the rich man can be the object of God’s love and benediction, but the covetous man is always the object of God’s wrath. This last commandment forbids the merest hint of envy, sloth, discontent in the inner man. It requires that every beat of the heart shall be a declaration of love to God and our neighbour. Its positive side is “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

But how can the hidden springs of our personality be so purified that even the first motion shall turn toward good and not evil? How can we become the kind of persons God wants us to be? Well, we shall have to begin with an acknowledgment of our defilement. And that is a rather big step. We readily admit the need for cleansing the stream of its flotsam and debris, but we are not so ready to admit the need for cleansing at its source. We are quite willing to sign a contract for repairs to the old house, even for some extensive remodelling perhaps, but a new house, a palace fit for the dwelling of the King of kings is far from our thought. We like the old one too well, we have lived in it too long, we have had so much fun in it, and are so at home in it. But that is where the Tenth Commandment leads us, to a complete self-renunciation, to the death of the old man so that a new man may be born. All self-righteousness must go because it is an illusion anyway. Here we must begin or not begin at all. We must die before we can really live.

If we have taken this big first step the next comes a bit easier. In fact, we can hardly miss it. We now turn to our Maker, who made us in the first place, to restore what has been ruined, to recast us in the mould of the original. God’s message to us is Gospel, Good News, precisely because it tells us that God is not only willing to restore us but that He has already done the one thing which guarantees our restoration if we really want it. He has opened a new fountain that sends forth only pure sweet waters in ceaseless abundance, and He invites us to tap that spring so that our little stream shall also flow pure and sweet. God has started a new race of men of which Christ is the first born and pro-genitor. God has planted a new stock, a choice tree, and the branches of the wild tree may be grafted into it to draw its life and bear its fruit. “Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2Cor.5:17). The old things are nailed with Him to the cross, the new things rise with Him from the tomb. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2Cor.5:21). What the Law condemns is taken from us, and what the Law requires is put in its place. Righteousness is substituted for sin, “beauty for ashes, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness”.

Now we are on the way; a fresh start has been made. Next we must clean out the filth that has accumulated in the stream before fresh waters began to flow into it, filth which swirls about also near the new source. This is no easy task; indeed, it is a fierce struggle. And here we meet the paradox of the Christian life. We know we are clean, pure, new in Christ Jesus our Saviour, but at the same time our consciousness of sin awakens as never before. We know we are shielded against the thunders of Sinai, but at the same time we are more keenly aware of breaking the Law. The more we relish the sweetness that flows from Christ, the more we are pained by the bitter remnants of the old man. We become increasingly conscious of the sinfulness of sin, and this consciousness produces the struggle of which Paul writes in Romans 7.

But that struggle is not futile and neither are we left without weapons to wage it. The cleaning process may be long and hard but it shall be done. It will not be finished in this life but in the next. Here we must fight, there we shall feast. To wage that fight we must use every weapon in God’s armoury, Whatever feeds the old man must be left, whatever feeds the new man must be taken. Books, companions, amusements, influences of every sort must be chosen with a purpose to destroy the old and strengthen the new. And if we are in dead earnest we shall take a firm grip on the Sword of the Spirit, the Bible. The Word of God will be more necessary to us than our daily food. The Church of Jesus Christ will be exceedingly precious to us. We shall seek its worship, instructions, and fellowship. We shall unite with it and support it not because the Church needs us but because we need the Church Prayer will be a mighty instrument for laying hold on the resources of heaven to meet the challenges of earth. In short, the victory and peace we have in Jesus Christ commits us to a fight against his enemies which are within us as well as around us.

The pure waters that flow from him cannot abide the filth that remains in us. All of it must go.

But be sure you understand well that your cleaning does not begin with the stream, but with the hidden springs; not with your life but with your soul. God commands us to do good, but first of all to be good. First we need a new heart, then a new life. First we need the forgiveness and purging away of our sin through the blood of Christ, then a life of gratitude and service. First we need a clean fountain, then a clean stream.

Amen.