Guidance for getting rid of sin

Posted at Reformation Scotland:

It can happen that problems and difficulties coincide with very troubling sights of our sins. Things can then seem overwhelming, and we can’t stop thinking that God is not only angry with us but rightly so. Where can we then turn in this desperate situation? Zachary Boyd (1585–1653) imagines a dialogue between a man with a terminal illness and his pastor. The discussion takes place over several days and covers an extensive range of topics. On the second day, the sick man reaches out desperately for advice about his sins, which he feels are crushing him. In the following updated and abbreviated excerpt, the pastor offers him various considerations to encourage him, and the man finally realises that through it all, the pastor is chiefly trying to point him to the Lord Jesus Christ. Zachary Boyd was minister of the Barony Parish, Glasgow. Well-known as a poet, he contributed around a tenth of the content of the Scottish Psalter (1650). He was Rector and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Glasgow. He faced Cromwell’s army with bravery when they invaded Scotland and proceeded to Glasgow.

Sick man: My soul is so blinded with my sins that I cannot get a sight of mercy. I’m afraid I will die in despair. Don’t you pity me at all?

Pastor: May the Lord pity you, and give me a heart to pray for you. May the Lord put the words in my mouth which will comfort your comfortless soul in this ongoing trial. Have patience in your pain. Sin is like a rotten tooth. The deeper root it has in your jaw, the more painful it is to draw it. But many people are more ashamed to confess a fault than to commit a sin. What is it in particular that grieves you, my friend?

Sick man: The wrath of God makes me afraid. His anger is like a lion, which cannot be tamed. My sin is past, but punishment is to come. Terrors shout from the fire, “Because you have fallen down before the god of this world, go down, down to him who you worshipped on earth!” I am beholden to God for such a long opportunity to repent. But I neglected it, and now God does not think I am worthy of comfort, for while I was in prosperity, I was so covered over with the spirit of slumber that I would not be warned or wakened by the voice of God’s trumpeter. Because I ignored Boanerges, the sons of thunder, now God will not deign to give me a Barnabas, the son of consolation.

Pastor: I rejoice from my heart, not in your grief, but in that you are so grieved for your sins. God in mercy by these sorrows whets your desires for Him. It is good to be of a humble and contrite spirit. “To whom will I look?” said the Lord. “Even to him that is of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” The more humble you are, the further you are from the danger of God’s judgments.

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