Some Christians, says C.H. Spurgeon, live in the valleys and some fly with the eagles. The Christian experience is not static or cookie-cutter-like. Some lack assurance while others ‘have climbed the mountain of full assurance and near communion.’ Even our own experience of communion with God varies from day to day and from season to season. But the quote, following this line of thought, that I want to record here is this:
There is a point in grace as much above the ordinary Christian as the ordinary Christian is above the worldling. (from Spurgeon’s sermon on Jeremiah 5:24, The Former and the Latter Rain).
This quote struck me years ago when I first read it as very profound and important, and certainly worth remembering. Let me offer a paraphrase: There can be as much difference between one Christian and another in their communion with God as there is between a Christian and a non-believer.
I record this quote because it will come up in the the near future as I begin to discuss Octavius Winslow’s book, Personal Declension and the Revival of Religion in the Soul. Until then, here are a couple of Bible passages that demonstrate the availability of progression of intimacy and experience in communion with Christ:
- Revelation 3:15 ¶ “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
- Ephesians 3:16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith- that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
