Honestly, I am going to have to take a deep breath and gut this one out. This chapter in Remainders is a beast. Starting in the middle of 260, this chapter extends to page 278. It was a good hour and a half read...lol. With that being said, I hope this will encourage you to love Jesus Christ with all of your soul. I know it has me.
There is no way I could go about this chapter the same way I have with previous ones. What Owen does in this chapter is deal with the several ways the actual bringing forth of actual sin is obstructed. God uses various means and purposes to keep the law of sin from accomplishing its utmost desire, utter ruin (Proverbs 5:14). Owen comments,
That this is not so, is no thanks unto sin nor the law of it. What it conceives, it would bring forth; and that it doth not is for the most part but a small abatement of its guilt...There is nothing wanting on sin's part that every conceived sin is not actually accomplished.
Owen begins by noting that there are two things that must be present within the sinner to actual bring forth iniquity. God is the one obstructs these by His sovereign providence in the world so that sin will not come to its head. The first one is the power to do so (one must have the ability). Second, one must be also willing to commit the sin at hand. In this chapter, Owen considers five different ways the Lord uses to cut short the power to bring forth sin.
1. Owen observes that life is the foundation of all power. If there is no life in an entity, there will be no motion or movement. Something that is dead has no ability. Therefore, God sometimes in His obstructing the production of sin in the world cuts short the life of those who actually conceive sin. Now we know that God does this with believers and unbelievers. Owen here mainly has unbelievers in mind. The Bible is full of instances where this is true. The best example is Exodus 15:9-10 where the Lord deals with Pharaoh. Pharaoh had both the ability and the desire to pursue Israel and do away with her. However, God in his providence cut short the life of Pharaoh and his armies so that sin would not have its course.
However, we must understand that this is not the end purpose of God. God does shorten the life of sinners so that sin will not have its full course, but Owen would have us remember 2 Peter 3:9 which reminds us that God has declared that He is a patient God who desires that none perish. Owen comments,
This is the very end of the long-suffering of God towards believers, that before they depart hence they may come to the sense, acknowledgment, and repentance of every known sin.
The second point from this goes along; God also takes the lives of His own to prevent the guilt of sin overcoming them. God knows what each of His children can withstand. God does not tempt us beyond what we can bear as Owen illustrates,
Thus a captain in war will call off a soldier from his watch and guard, when he knows that he is not able, through some infirmity, to bear the stress and force of the enemy that is coming upon him.
As this is the case in war, in a similar way God also does not allow His children to undergo overwhelming temptations that may cause their denial of the Gospel or ultimate destruction that one finds in the unrepentant.
2. God also providentially "cuts short the power of them that had conceived sin." The Lord sometimes does not take the life away, but takes away the ability to perform the abomination. Think of the tower of Babel. They desired apostasy from God by building the great tower. What did God do? In verse 6, “They have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them that they have imagined to do." God took away their ability to perform this great act of sin; the Lord confounded their language. Owen continues,
This is the measure of their sinning, even their power. They do, many of them, no more evil, they commit not more sin, than they can. Their whole restraint lies in being cut short in power, in one kind or another.
Consider what a grace of God this is to us. That God at times takes away the ability of sinners to bring about what they desire to do in their hearts. What a terrible, frightening world this would be! Nevertheless, consider what a glorious God we serve who will not give the god of this age the power and ability to perform all that is in his heart!
3. Sometimes God raises up opposite forces to oppose the great power and desire of sinners. God leaves their desire and the ability alone; he brings an opposite power to oppose the great power of sin. God raised up armies in the Old Testament to do away with rebellious nations. He sends great storms and trials to bring a greater appreciation of His own character into the hearts of sinners. He sends the Holy Spirit to conquer the most rebellious of sinners.
4. Sometimes God "obviates" the accomplishment of sin by taking away the actual object that is lusted after or toward. The Lord may simply take away the person whom one plans to murder or ravage.
5. Sometimes God may even divert the thoughts of some men who have conceived sin in their heart. Owen illustrates,
Thus, also, when Saul was in the pursuit of David, and was even ready to prevail against him to his destruction, God stirs up the Philistines to invade the land, which both diverted his thoughts and drew the course of his actings another way (1 Samuel 23:27).
Think about God in the world and the advantages this brings people in the world. Look at the advantages the infinite wisdom of God brings to the advancement of faith in the world. First, this should cause us to praise the providence of God generally. Because God has done this, though at times we are unaware, we should be in even more awe of the greatness of our God. Please hear this line, Owen bursts out,
That all the earth is not in all places filled with violence, as it was of old, is merely from the mighty hand of God working effectually for the obstructing of sin. From hence alone it is that the highways, streets, and fields are not all filled with violence, blood, rapine, uncleanness, and every villainy that the heart of man can conceive. Oh, the infinite beauty of divine wisdom and providence in the government of the world! For the conservation of it asks daily no less power and wisdom than the first making of it did require.
Think about the peace you have in your home. If sin would have its full, God-opposing way, your home would be destroyed, your job would be stripped, your children would be abused; but, oh, the grace of God is so evident that most of the time these things are not true. Think about the times you where on the brink of sin. Your heart so desired to swim deep in the ocean of iniquity, you desired to forsake the Lord. But, God (how wonderful those two words are every time) in his mercy hindered you from transgressing His law and you kept your life. If God did not have full control of all events, how Satan would desire the death of all the people of God, the torture of their life, and the destruction of their soul.
Praise God that at times we find it difficult to bring about the lusts of our heart. Do not think this mere circumstance; these are the evidence of the mercy of God. Those times when our minds are diverted from disobedience, when the consequences of certain actions are too great we suppose, when the action would be too difficult to bring about though it would reward our flesh, all of these are evidences that God is a God who remembers mercy. Ponder how the Lord has caused you not to disobey His Law. Ponder how the Lord has been merciful to you! You know fully that if you were able to accomplish all that your heart desired toward sin, your life would be in utter ruin. You would have no hope, you would have no peace, and you would have no life! Taste, and see that the Lord is good!
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