Spirituality comes out of a real and significant relationship with the Redeemer. Our very personhood now adopted, our soul now interceded for by the sovereign Shepherd. Our exercise of obedience comes from out of this glorious, assured, established work. Such work is not based on our merits but in the gracious deliverance unto expressions of joyful salvation in the prophet who has better words for us, the priest who supplies pardon for all thoughtlessness and inadequacy, and the king who protects and provides us with wondrous stewardship of His righteous works. Herein, Gill refocuses the discussion of works and spirituality in his preaching to his people.
Union with God
Good works, piety, and reception of love all spring from a union with the Lord. Any absence of spiritual hunger should be greatly concerning to the Christian, as it is directly connected to our spiritual union. We have a serious problem if we lack in our genuine pursuit of spiritual growth; Gill writes, “Though the union between [believers] and God cannot be dissolved, the bond of which is his everlasting unchangeable love, yet sin separates with respect to communion.”[1] And it is this sinful state wherein Satan will have sway to bring doubt and fear upon the believer, distrust in God’s loyalty and love, distrust in Christ’s promise of security, distrust in Holy Spirit’s effective strength to mortify such sin. Yet we may bring all this “dejection and disquietude,” to the Lord for comfort. How will we find resolve? By returning again to our assurance that our effective, saving faith is a gift of God; its operation is not our own—“it is a precious faith, it can never be lost…those that have the least degree of it, obtain the same precious faith as the greatest and strongest believer.”[2] As God’s attributes are not contradictory to his nature, therefore, his love toward his people is neither exhaustible nor extinguishable. On this basis, Gill challenged his people to seek out a spiritual life that was already theirs in Christ, and would remain theirs in the face of trials or struggles.
Pursuing our union
Those who believe on, and lay hold of, Jesus Christ, “claim all the blessings of [His covenant]. And such will claim all the blessings of it as theirs, even all spiritual blessings, which are in Christ, as being theirs…so [they] have a right unto them…even the meanest believer.”[3] We should seek to stir, earnestly and regularly, our affections for this Christ to whom we believed on, laid hold of, professed, and trusted,. Such a stirring should be as diligent in effort as expressive in virtue. We “should be diligent to add one virtue to another, as to exercise of spiritual graces, making our ‘calling and election sure and manifest to others.’”[4] The pursuit unfolds from the very gift itself.
The Lord calls us to pursue our union with Him as evidence and assurance of His character. He therein provides strength for the duty, Gill notes: “The graces of the spirit,” even if they may seem like they are “expiring when not in exercise yet in reality they cannot die—being the immortal incorruptible seed of the Spirit of God. It is the Lord’s work to strengthen these.”[5] And the Lord will strengthen the saint in these graces through the truths of the Word and through the saint’s own perseverance in it. Just as he did during the reformation, so he will do now “with great vigor and liveliness,” even with what to our estimation is lost or impossible. For His love is that by “which [He] constrains souls to live to the glory of God.” He enlarges our hearts with zeal, fervency, and cheerfulness in obedience to His will.[6] The Lord has truly made “ample provision” by His covenant of grace “for the sanctification of [His] people.”[7] In keeping with the Reformed understanding of God’s gracious bond of love and adoption, Gill may be summed up alongside Augustine for the beautiful quip, God blesses His own gifts.
Conclusion
Spiritual hunger is described as an appetite for virtues; fortitude, zeal, mercy, joy, wisdom, humility, etc. are both goals to perfect, as well as, evidences of spiritual growth and formation. Gill believes we should seek to discern these if we desire to see to our own sanctification and to experience the love and provision of Christ here now. Again, the caricature of Gill as the cold, hyper-Calvinist is not only wrong, but hinders the wealth of his spiritual wisdom. In his rich assessment of the Christian experience, we never look to fellow pilgrims as mere automatons, but thriving, purposed creatures rooted in communion with the Triune God. Gill understood the practicality of divinity. His offer of the spiritual life is well worth observing in light of the hunger Christians should have for identifying these biblical traits and growing them throughout congregational life.
About the Author
Christopher Ellis Osterbrock (DEdMin. in Biblical Spirituality, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; PhD Student in Historical Theology, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary) is senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Wellsboro, PA. He is the author of What is Saving Faith? (March, 2022), as well as editor of several reprints
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[1] Gill, “The Dejected Believer’s Soliloquy,” in Sermons and Tracts, 4:140–41.
[2] Gill, “A Knowledge of Christ, and of Interest in Him, the Support of a Believer in Life and Death,” in 4:125. Likewise, see Gill’s “Faith in God and His Word, the Establishment and Prosperity of His People,” (vol. 6, pages 115–140) where he further examines faith and its evidences as invigorated and empowered through the working of the Spirit in eternal salvation.
[3] Gill, “Neglect of Fervent Prayer Complained of,” in Sermons and Tracts, 2:103.
[4] Gill, “Neglect of Fervent Prayer Complained of,” in Sermons and Tracts, 2:106.
[5] Gill, “The Watchman’s Answer to the Question, What of the Night?,” in Sermons and Tracts, 1:80.
[6] Gill, “The Love of God Considered,” in Sermons and Tracts, 4:32.
[7] Gill, “The Stability of the Covenant of Grace, the Support of a Believer under outward and inward Troubles,” in Sermons and Tracts, 3:101.
This blog post is authored by a student of Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary.
