Renewed Affection for Christ

Yesterday on Things Unseen, I mentioned a famous sermon by the great Scottish preacher, Thomas Chalmers. I think this is podcast number 252 this year, and you’ll forgive me if I honestly can’t remember whether I’ve mentioned Chalmers’ sermon before or not. It was on 1 John 2, titled “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.” And it went to the heart of how our lives can’t be transformed by all the efforts we make to screw up the strength or the courage to stop doing something, or to overcome it and to start doing something else. Yes, things need to be expelled, we know that. But the gospel doesn’t transform us by creating a vacuum of us getting rid of things in our lives. If we try to do that, we’ll be like the man in Jesus’ parable who swept the house clean of an evil spirit. But then, when the spirit discovered the house had been swept clean, it fetches another seven spirits more evil than itself and occupies the house, “and,” says Jesus, “the last state of that person is worse than the first” (Matt. 12:45). So, how do we get out of this vicious circle?

Well, let me try this another way. I know it’s always dangerous to use an illustration from a world outside your own expertise, but let me try this: perhaps like me, you’ve often sat on a large airplane and the thought has crossed your mind, “How on earth is this thing going to fly with all these people on board and their luggage, never mind the weight of the plane?” Apparently, a fully-fueled, ready-to-go Boeing 737-800 weighs about sixty thousand kilos, or about 130,000 pounds—and that’s before you stepped onto it. Can air traffic control suspend the law of gravity and enable that plane to fly? Well, of course not. The plane flies because it’s designed to employ the laws of aerodynamics. And it’s when these new principles are thrown into operation, in a sense the power of gravity—I say “in a sense”—is nullified. And spiritually speaking, what we need is something just like that.

Our tendency towards sin doesn’t totally disappear when we’re regenerated. So, what we need is for Christ indwelling us—His presence in our hearts and lives, our love for Him—to affect this new powerful affection that will overcome the down drag of sin, the sense of gravity of our disordered affections.

Now, how does all this apply at Christmas? Well, if we’re going to enjoy Christmas in the midst of all the busyness, it’s only the expulsive power of a new affection for Christ that’s going to help us, and then we’ll see other things in their proper place. I know I’ve labored this point both yesterday and today, but I mention it partly out of personal experience, and I know my experience has been a kind of unique experience of being a minister. But what I found is this: in all the pressures of Christmastime, and the many services and many responsibilities of a pastor at Christmastime, I have found that the more I had to preach the Christmas message, the more I actually enjoyed Christmas.

And I suppose if you’d been a sympathetic member of the same church family as me, you might occasionally have had this thought: “I should think about my minister. He’s preaching four or five Sundays on the Christmas message. Many times, he’s preaching in the middle of the week on the Christmas message. He’s got Christmas Eve sermons to prepare on the Christmas message. The poor man must be exhausted.” But no, even if he is a bit exhausted, he actually feels he’s the richest man in the church family because he can’t think about anything else except Jesus. His calling has actually given him the blessing of the expulsive power of a new affection, love for the Savior who came at Christmastime. He doesn’t have time to think about anything else, and so everything else gets put into its place.

Well, I’m not suggesting we all become preachers, but the same principle applies, doesn’t it, that when our hearts and minds are fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have the expulsive power of a new affection for Him, then things begin to fit into place. When the center holds, everything else will find its own location.

So, let’s pray for God’s grace to have our hearts and minds fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ this Christmas, and then we’ll be able to enjoy it in a fresh way. I want to talk more about this tomorrow on Things Unseen. So, I know you’re busy, but I hope you’ll join me then.