A Cry for Help

The following blog entry is part 8 in a series of blog posts entitled “A Fight Worth Picking,” in which I’m writing about John’s Owen’s Biblical principles for fighting sin in ‘The Mortification of Sin.’  I’ll be referencing Banner of Truth’s 2004 edition, abridged by Richard Rushing.  (If you’d like a detailed outline of Owen’s work, click here.)

If you’ve been following this blog and dealing with your sin, you may be feeling quite desperate by now.  We’ve looked thoroughly and deeply at the dark corners of our lives.  We’ve considered the guilt of what we’ve done.  We’ve considered the danger we’re in.  And we’ve considered the sheer evil that causes our sin to flourish. 

If God’s grace is upon you, Owen’s next step will come quite natural.  If we are in the valley of our sin and we catch a true vision of God our deliverer – We will cry out.  Christian, you know you are sinful.  Christian, do you long for deliverance from your sin?  Christian, look to Christ for your deliverance. 

2 Corinthians 7:11

For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.

Only by grace do we even look to God for help.  A proud heart helps itself, while a humble heart recognizes the need for power without to help within.

“Longing, breathing, and panting after deliverance is a grace in itself, that has a mighty power to conform the soul into the likeness of the thing longed after… unless you long for deliverance you shall not have it.”  (page 81).

With Paul, let us cry out

“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”  (Romans 7:24-25).

Angry in the Right Way

Christians know to justify their anger by calling it “righteous.”  Righteous anger is a reality, but a rarity.  Usually, there is nothing righteous about our anger - It’s a sinful, Ephesians 4:26 kind of heat. 

When is anger good?

Anger can be good only if it’s anger over right things and angry in a right way.  For example, it’s good to be angry over things like child abuse and murder.  And it’s good to be angry in such a way that spurs us into action.  Does it move us to compassion and pity?  Does it cause us to rebuke a close friend who is hurting himself and others?  Does it lead us into dependency on Christ?  Or...

Does our anger lead to wrath, harshness, yelling, intimidation, or losing self-control?  Whether we’re angry with our employer, spouse, child, president, pastor, neighbor, or brother, we must be angry in the right way. 

In our anger, do we refrain from “corrupting talk” and remain committed to building others up?

Ephesians 4:29

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

In our anger, do we sustain a spirit of gentleness?

Galatians 6:1

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

In our anger, do we provoke our loved ones to anger or discouragement?

Ephesians 6:4

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Colossians 3:21

Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

Are we slow to anger and controlled in anger?

Proverbs 16:32

Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.

In our anger, are we quarrelsome or kind and patient?

2 Timothy 2:24-25

And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,

Godly anger happens because we are 'like' God (created in His image), while ungodly anger happens because we are like Adam (in a fallen, sinful state).  Is our anger from God or Adam?

There is anger from a fountain of love for God and his creation, and there is anger from a fountain of malice - “I want my way and not God’s way.  And when I don’t get my way… I rage.” 

Here are 6 six questions to help evaluate your anger:

Am I angry about the right things?  (should be things that anger God)

Am I angry in the right way?  (should be anger that spurs you to holiness)

How long does my anger last?  (should be short)

How controlled is my anger?  (should be very controlled)

What motivates my anger?  (should be God’s glory)

What is the effect of your anger?  (sinful anger creates more problems)