Lost Enough?

I’ve been reading a puritan classic by Richard Sibbes titled “The Bruised Reed”.  In the first chapter, Sibbes speaks to the bruising God uses to create an awareness of the depth of our sin nature and desperate need for intervention.  Such conviction should cause us to turn our eyes toward one who can rescue us from our pit of despair.  But Sibbes makes this observation:

“Let all know that none are fitter for comfort than those that think themselves furthest off.  Men, for the most part, are not lost enough in their own feeling for a savior.  A holy despair in ourselves is the ground for true hope.”

Until I am willing to not only acknowledge but sense deep conviction over my great offense toward a holy God and recognize my desperate state or condition, I will not truly see a need for a savior.  I think it is important to realize the great deception in this observation.  Of great danger is that state of acknowledging I am a sinner, that Jesus did die on the cross for my sin, and yet remain indifferent to the impact such a conclusion should have on the heart.  In the words of Sibbes, I don’t think we are “lost enough.”  The deception is that in my fallen state, I still believe there is enough good in my character that I will find a way out, a salvation of my own doing.  I don’t truly sense the need for another as my condition isn’t really that serious.  The elements of pride continue to promote the fallacious conclusion there is hope in my own way, my own means.  

Does not the words of the Psalmist cry out:

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God’ ”

Objections may abound that such a conclusion has gone too far.  But I would reply, examine your heart for the evidence of pride supporting such an assessment.  In every way our corrupt heart is in revolt against submission to a holy God.  We demand to be in charge, to determine our next steps.  Such attitude would suggest that clearly we are not fit for comfort because we have been so deceived as to believe that comfort can be found in ourselves.  As long as such thinking lingers, we have no need for a savior.   I fear that many are deceived into this state of sinful complacency such that our hearts are not stirred with grief over our sinful condition.  

The bruising of God seeks to expose these false conclusions, to reveal the depth of our depravity, and to make apparent our desperate need for the Shepherd to attend to such weakness.  God longs for our hearts to be convicted of sin where we embrace the furnace of affliction and become partners in the refining process.  We turn our eyes upon Jesus the source of mercy and grace, longing to commune with Him, coming to him as the weak and weary ones in need of the Shepherd.   The gospel message stands in stark contrast to the times in which we live.  The truth is found in Christ – He who came to testify to the truth.   There is only one hope necessary and that is found in the great Shepherd.  Don’t let the enemy deceive you any longer.  Examine your heart today and ask the question:  Am I “Lost Enough?”