Preface: The following post is from June 1 of this year. The renowned reformed theologian offered this astonishing food for thought....you may believe in Christ....but do you love Him....your salvation depends upon it. So how might one discover if they really had love for Christ....or if they merely believed? An alternate question might be....are we ashamed of Christ? The concept of the Lord's Day makes us cringe....would that not be being ashamed of Christ? If sports and entertainment and money and family might have become an idol in our life....might refusing to give them up not be being ashamed of Christ? We purposely avoid being too syrupy in our Christian conversation....for example....would we ever tell others how we love Jesus....or how He is precious? Would not this be being ashamed of Christ? We become in our conversation and our habits like others around us. We will if pressed tell that we are Christian but we do not want to be an oddball....would this not qualify as being ashamed of Christ and His gospel? An even more pressing question as our country collapses would be....do these pastors in our pulpits....love Christ....or do they love more their ministry....and if they do love Christ....why won;t they even lay down their reputations for the sheep?
John Murray was an eminent Calvinist....and seminary professor.....of reformed theology. I use the word eminent because he is one of those men from the past where we....at least I do....almost hold my breath as I read their writings....for I respect their lives so much. When we had our Christian bookstore....twenty-some years ago....my best customer was a college professor....(I'm sure he could have purchased the same books from some distributor....but he bought them from our store just to give us business)....this wonderful man.....faithful and true Christian....liked to tell stories.....and one was of how when he was a child....John Murray would come over to their house on Lord's Day afternoons. One particular anecdote he related was on a time when John Murray visited a seminary student of his at the student's apartment.....and in the apartment the seminary student had decorated a Christmas tree. Murray looked at it and just uttered two words....."Pagan bush." I occasionally used that phrase in our own home as I reluctantly every year decorated a Christmas tree. My wife and son probably just rolled their eyes....as at times I would look at it and say...."Pagan bush."
I was reading yesterday from John Murray's Collected Writings.....and in particular a passage that precipitated this post. The short chapter in question was titled....Love To Christ Indispensable. Murray began the chapter with 1 Corinthians 16:22....KJV
"If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha."
Murray went on to define the word anathema....as...."devoted to destruction." The point that he was making was when Paul used the word in Galatians...."But even if we or an angel from heaven preach to you a gospel other than that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema"....did Paul's choice of words show a lack of love? Murray's point....was that Paul's point....was that 'love to Christ' was at the center of the gospel. Therefore any other gospel that replaced love for Christ....was to be 'anathema'....it was that important!
Murray writes this very stark statement...."The criterion...(to this salvation)....is love, love to Christ, and the thought is that the only alternative to this love of Christ is damnation, everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power."
Murray is challenging the reader here on salvation.....as if he is saying....'you have the words.....but do you have the love of Christ?' Murray continued...."We too readily become the victims of a charity....(love)....that denies the exclusiveness of the gospel, the charity....(love again)....which assumes that decent respectable, friendly people are not the heirs of damnation." Murray explained that if that was our definition of love' then we "have not been captivated by the love of Christ."
Murray uses these words...."Would God the Father have sent his only-begotten Son into this world, would he have given him to the agony of Gethsemane and the abandonment of Calvary, if common decency were the passport to glory?" John Murray is utilizing common sense here....as much as asking the reader to question whether it even makes sense that God would have his son go to the cross....and then just give us a gospel of salvation where we did not even recognize what had happened....for if we did truly recognize what happened on Calvary....would not love to Christ certainly be the response?
I've been brought back to this general question often lately on how there can be a genuine salvation in people who do not have this obvious and overwhelming love to Christ. I was somewhat surprised to come across John Murray thoughts on this as I just picked up his book and came to this chapter.
