Spiritual blessings. God gives the means of grace to a people — His Word and ordinances and the offers of salvation — especially for the sake of those who belong to Him. It is no small mercy to have an external gospel call, an offer of Christ. If people neglect their opportunities, forsake their own mercies, lose the benefit of the good they have had, it is their own fault — the privilege is no less in itself.

Voices on the political right-wing have become louder recently in calling for more respect to be given to Christian values. This is positive as far as it goes, although God is not there to be co-opted into any political cause whether left or right wing, and using Christian words and imagery must be more than virtue-signalling. “Christian values” are not some nebulous form of niceness which coincides with nostalgia for a less complicated Britain of some decades back. The real value of “Christian values” appears when distinctively Christian truths are lived out in a distinctively Christian lifestyle, i.e., when devotion to the one living and true God expresses itself in the pursuit of godly living. It is when Christians are flourishing in godliness that the nation will be able to see real benefits in both the temporal (political, financial, social) and spiritual domains. This point was made by John Collins (1632?–1687), a fellow of Harvard who was appointed to preach in Scotland in the 1650s before pastoring in London (when he was ejected in 1662, he preached a powerful farewell sermon which was later published). In the following updated abridgement of a sermon on Isaiah 6:13, Collins draws on the metaphor in Isaiah’s prophecy which pictures a nation as a tree, and the Lord’s people in it as its solid trunk.

What kind of people count as Christians?

The really righteous of a nation are, under God, the strength of it — I mean those who have these features.

As far as doctrine goes, they keep to the only foundation which God has laid, the Lord Jesus Christ. They hold as much truth as is ncessary to the life of faith and power of godliness, and maintain no false doctrine which is inconsistent with these.

As far as practice goes, they fear God and work righteousness. They not only believe in Christ, but live in obedience to Him.

All true religion consists in faith and holiness — it glorifies God by believing and obeying.

Clearly, this excludes atheists (who have no religion), idolaters, heretics, and those who follow a false religion.

It also excludes:

• those who don’t know the first thing about Christian teachings, and don’t understand what they say they believe,
• those who lead profane lives, despise those who are good, and persecute powerful godliness,
• those who claim to be Christians, but only for worldly reasons.

In a word, it excludes all who lack true faith and real holiness, and indulge themselves in any known sins, whether more often and obvious, or more private and hidden.

What features do Christians have?

Isaiah decribes them as “the substance” or “stock” of a tree (Isa. 6:13). What does this mean?

Firm and durable

The stock of a tree is its most firm and durable part. The leaves may be shaken off, the branches dry and withered, and even lopped off, yet the stump still continues, and lives. It keeps its place and retains its sap.

When hypocrites and part-time believers fall away and stop taking an interest in Christianity, yet the godly shall continue, and hold their own, and keep their standing. They are all united to Christ, who is like the root of the tree, as well as to each other, as all part of the same stock, and so preserved in life by sap they derive from the root.

Growing

The stock propagates itself. Cut off all the branches, but the stem will shoot out again, and send out new leaves and fruit and seed, from which other trees will come.

The godly propagate their righteousness. They pass it on to others, beget children to God, are spiritual parents, and have spiritual offspring. Many are affected by their instruction, won over by their example, awakened by their warnings, overcome by their persuasion.

How are Christians beneficial to a nation?

It is common in horticulture for the tree to be spared for the sake of the stock. If the gardener finds a cluster or two of grapes on a vine, by those few he perceives that there is life in the tree, and some hope of more fruitfulness to come, and therefore he does not cut it down. “So will I do,” says the Lord, “for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all” (Isa. 65:8). He spares the rest — he does “not destroy them all, for his servants’ sakes,” — i.e., for the sake of the righteous among them.

In fact, the gardener looks after the tree for the sake of the stock. As long as there is life in the stock, he not only doesn’t dig it up, but he prunes it, and bestows on it whatever cost and labour it needs.

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