Practical Religion: IV. Prayer (1) Prayer is absolutely needful to a man’s salvation!
There are many things about our lives that would probably be different if we took this particular grace more seriously. I’m speaking of me in particularly. I think we all like to be commended for our faithfulness towards God and His people. We would all like to think that in some way we have made significant progress in grace or that in some way we could show what a Christian should look like or be. There are days when we really think (whether we say it or not) that we have achieved some measure of success in our Christian walk and reached a pinnacle of joy or something else. At least for me, there are days when I believe I’m walking with God and being faithful to Him and His word. And then there are those days when I feel like the rug has been pulled out from under me and I can’t, for the life of me, figure out what happened.
Whether we are doing well, or whether we are struggling in this life just to make it through another day, we all need to elevate prayer to the top of our primary duties in life. Today’s blog speaks directly to this issue. I hope that this blog will encourage you to buy the book if you don’t already own it.
J.C. Ryle says, at the beginning of this section, that he is not speaking to infants or idiots, nor is he trying to settle the state of the heathen. Our first thought might be to think that prayer is needful for the unconverted for salvation. And while this is a true statement, J.C. Ryle is not referring to this at all. He is specifically speaking to those who “call themselves Christians“.
“I speak especially of those who call themselves Christian, in a land like our own. And of such I say no man or woman can expect to be saved who does not pray.” [pg. 63]
Ryle would be considered one of the staunches advocates of “Salvation by grace alone”. However, if a man is not willing to pray (ie. “ask for salvation”), how can he come into possesion of it. Ryle says “I would not hesitate to stand by his dying bed, and say, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, even now, and you shall be saved’. But that a man can have salvation without asking for it, I cannot see in the Bible. That a man will receive pardon of his sins, who will not so much as lift up his heart inwardly, and say ‘Lord Jesus, give it to me,’ this I cannot find“. [pg. 64]
It is not needful to salvation for man to read his Bible. A man may be unlearned or blind, and yet have Christ in his heart. It is not absolutely needful for a man to hear the public preaching of the Gospel. He may live where the Gospel is not preached or he may be bedridden or deaf. However, the same thing cannot be said about prayer. It is absolutely needful for us to pray!
No one can eat, drink or sleep by proxy. No one can learn the alphabet for us! We must learn them ourselves if we are to learn how to read. All these things we must do for ourselves or they won’t be done at all. Just as it is with our mind and body’s, so it is with our souls. There are certain things needful for the soul’s health and well-being; things that each of us must attend to ourselves. Each of us must apply to Christ for himself. And each of us must speak to God and pray!
Those who will be at the right hand our Lord, who will sing the song of victory when their redemption is at last complete, will be those who have:
- Believed
- Been washed in the blood of Christ
- Been born again
- Prayed
We must pray on earth if we expect to Praise in heaven. To be prayerless is to be without God — without Christ — without Grace — without Hope –and without Heaven. It is to be on the road to hell. How do you do in prayer? Is it an evident aspect of your walk with Christ? Remember, that prayer is absolutely needful for salvation. May we be found prostrate in the day of Lord… may our knees become callous and may our heart be found dependent on the One with whom we have to do.
Tomorrow, we will consider the “a habit of prayer is one of the surest marks of a true Christian”.
~Mark