John Flavel
Taken with editing from The Method of Grace, in Flavel’s Works, vol 2.
The main point Flavel has been making is: Everyone is bound to imitate Christ.
I would leave a few words of support and comfort with those who sincerely study and endeavour, according to the tendency of their new nature, to follow Christ’s example. They may be weak in grace and meet with strong temptations; they may be frequently carried aside from the holy purposes of their honest, well-meaning hearts, to the great grief and discouragement of their souls. They heartily aim at holiness and say with David: “O that my ways were directed to keep Thy statutes” (Ps 119:5). They follow after exactness in holiness as Paul did: “If by any means I might attain” it (Phil 3:12). But finding how far short they come in all the things of Christ, their rule and pattern, they mourn as Paul did: “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom 7:24). Well, if this be your case, do not be discouraged, but listen to a few words of support, with which I shall close this point.
Support 1.
Such defects in obedience make no flaw in your justification, for your justification is not built upon your obedience, but upon Christ’s (Rom 3:24). However defective you may be in yourselves, you are at the same instant “complete in Him which is the head of all principality and power” (Col 2:10). Woe to Abraham, Moses, David, Paul and the most eminent saints that ever lived if their justification and acceptance with God had depended upon the perfection and completeness of their own obedience.
Support 2.
When you are deeply troubled over the defectiveness of your obedience, this does not suggest that you are less sanctified than those who make no such complaints, but more so. These complaints prove that you are better acquainted with your own hearts than others, that you have a deeper hatred of sin than others, and that you love God with a more fervent love than others. The most eminent saints have made the bitterest complaints about this (Ps 65:3; Rom 7:23,24).
Support 3.
The Lord makes excellent use even of your infirmities and failings to do you good and He makes them turn unexpectedly to your advantage: for by these defects He hides pride from your eyes; He beats you off from self-dependence; He makes you admire the riches of free grace; He makes you long more ardently for heaven and entertain more pleasant thoughts of death. Does the Lord then not make blessed fruits to spring up to you from such a bitter root? O the blessed chemistry of heaven, to extract such mercies out of such miseries!
Support 4.
Your bewailed infirmities do not break the bond of the everlasting covenant. The bond of the covenant holds firm, notwithstanding your defects and weaknesses (Jer 32:40). “Iniquities prevail against me”, says David; yet in the same breath he adds, “As for our transgressions Thou shalt purge them away” (Ps 65:3). He is still your God, your Father, for all this.
Support 5.
Though the defects of your obedience are grievous to God, yet your deep sorrow for them is well-pleasing in His eyes. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise” (Ps 51:17). Ephraim was never a more pleasant child to his father, than when he bemoaned himself and smote upon his thigh, as you are doing (Jer 31:20). Your sins grieve God, but your sorrow pleases Him.
Support 6.
Though God has left many defects to humble you, He has given many things to comfort you. This is a comfort: that the desire of your soul is to God, and to the remembrance of His name. This is a comfort: that your sins are not your delight as once they were, but your shame and sorrow. This is a comfort: that your case is not singular, but the same complaints and sorrows are found, more or less, in all gracious souls through the world. And, to say all in one word, this is the comfort above all comforts: that the time is at hand in which all these defects, infirmities and failings shall be done away. “When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away” (1 Cor 13:10).