Politics, Poetry, and Powerful Grace

I've been reading William Wilberforce's A Practical View of Christianity--a book I already highly recommend, despite the fact that I'm only in the fourth chapter. Wilberforce was a politician in the British Parliament in the late-eighteenth/early-nineteenth century and is known for his indefatigueable campaign against the slave trade. (If you've seen the movie "Amazing Grace" that came out recently, you know his story.) He's also known for being a strong believer. His book is a wake-up call to nominal Christians, a sort of revival call and explanation of significant biblical doctrines. Anyway, like I said, I'm only on the fourth chapter, but it's been phenomenal thus far.

Something that stood out to me was Wilberforce's treatment and explanation of the doctrine of man's depravity. Here's an excerpt from the book:

Left to the consequences of our own folly, the understanding has grown darker, and the heart more obdurate: reason has at length altogether betrayed her trust, and even conscience herself has aided the delusion, till, instead of deploring our miserable slavery, we have too often hugged, and even gloried in our chains....None are altogether free; all without exception, in a greater or less degree, bear about them, more visible or more concealed, the ignominious marks of their captivity.

When I read this, I immediately thought of a poem by John Donne, also an Englishman, though he lived in the late-sixteenth/early-seventeenth century and was a poet, not a politician. (Note the bold section; it's rich with the flavor of Wilberforce's statement: "Reason has at length altogether betrayed her trust, and even consience herself has aided the delusion.")

Here's the text of Donne's poem (typed from memory; forgive any errors!):

Batter my heart, three-Person'd God, for You
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend.
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Thy force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like a usurped town to another due,
Labor to admit You, but--oh--to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend
But is captiv'd and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I'll love you and would be lov'd fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy.
Divorce me--untie, or break that knot again;
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Unless you enslave me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

This poem is one of my favorites. It shows, in beautifully graphic language, the doctrines of divine sovereignty and human inability--the fact that man is desparately enslaved by sin, with no hope for salvation unless God acts to save.

Donne uses imperative language throughout the poem, showing his desperation; he's not demanding God, but he is pleading God to take over his heart, since he knows that he isn't capable of giving it. Gentle wooing ("knock, breathe, shine...seek to mend") is not enough to overcome the dark bondage of sin; God will have to completely and forcefully overtake/overthrow the heart. Donne uses violent language to describe this--"batter...o'erthrow...bend thy force...break, blow, burn...imprison...enslave...ravish."

He metaphorically speaks of the soul as a town that is under unrightful foreign rule and is unable to let God in. He also notes that reason (the intellect), God's viceroy (agent) in man should be able to defend him but is unable, being captive itself. The mind is enslaved by sin.

Donne gives various paradoxes. That he "may rise and stand," he begs God to "o'erthrow" (overthrow) him. Also, he says that unless God "ravishes" his heart, it can never be "chaste." "Ravish" means to seize or carry away violently, and it's often used particularly of a woman who is taken and violated against her will. Yet Donne notes that unless the heart is "ravished" by God, it can never be "chaste" (pure). Also paradoxical is the fact that unless it is imprisoned by God, the heart can never be free.

Both the politician and the poet had it right, though they were very different men using very different means of communication. Man is a slave to sin, unable to save himself.

Ephesians 2:1: "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins."
Ephesians 4:18: "...being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart."
Romans 8:7: "The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so."

Praise God for His great grace--His powerful, sovereign, overthrowing, irresistible, saving grace. I was thankful for this reminder.