Identification of the Godly and The Threefold Marvel - 1946

Extract

Identification of the Godly and The Threefold Marvel
A. W. Pink

Identification of the Godly

“I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit” Isa. 57:15.
Here we have a distinct, though brief, description of those whom the high and lofty One inhabits. Contrition and humility are the identifying marks of the particular characters in whom the Holy One tabernacles. That description applies to and is common to all the regenerate. “Him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit” is not a delineation of a few exceptionally eminent saints who constitute a special class all to themselves, but depicts all who are truly saved. So far from those marks belonging only to certain highly favoured souls that have far out-stripped their fellows in spiritual attainments, they are found in every one who has been born again. That is clear from Romans 8:9-11: God indwells all the regenerate, for “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his;” and compare Galatians 2:20, Ephesians 2:22.

Now if the reader will carefully and honestly examine himself in the mirror of the Word, he should have no difficulty in discovering whether or not those two features be stamped upon him. The Hebrew word for “contrite” means “bruised” or “beaten,” as an object that comes under the pestle or hammer. That at once reminds us of Jeremiah 23:29: “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” ― fire in the conscience (Deut. 32:22), and a hammer on the heart. When God’s Word is applied in power, it convicts the sinner of his awful sinfulness; and when a crucified Christ is revealed to him, he mourns for his sins as one mourneth for his only son (Zech. 12:10). Contrition then is a feeling sense of the heinousness and loathsomeness of sin. It causes us to grieve over it with godly sorrow. If sin be hateful to you, if the …