Come, Let Us Reason Together — Our Sufficiency Is From God

✦ Let Us Reason Together

God does not shout this from a throne. He does not command it from a cloud. He invites. Come now, and let us reason together. As though the Creator of the universe sits down across the table from the sinner and says: let us talk about this. Let us look at the evidence. Let us examine what I am offering — and what it costs you.

And what He offers in that conversation is staggering. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Not improved. Not lightened. Not reduced from scarlet to a softer shade of pink. White as snow. The complete removal. The total cleansing. Scarlet — the deepest, most permanent dye the ancient world knew, the stain that nothing could remove — made white. Crimson — the color of blood, of guilt, of irreversible damage — made as wool. Clean. Unstained. As though the scarlet had never been.

Bunyan said: the mercy can swallow up not only all your sins but all your thoughts and imaginings. Isaiah says the same in the language of color: the stain that defines you — the scarlet that everyone can see — God removes it entirely. Not by pretending it was never there. By making it white. The 500 denari forgiven — completely, permanently, scarlet to snow. 🙏

✦ If You Are Willing

If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. The condition is not perfection. It is not strength. It is not a lifetime of achievement. Willingness. Aquinas said devotion is the will given readily. Isaiah says: if you are willing. Much-Afraid said "Yes, I am." That was the willingness — and the scarlet became white.

But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword. The alternative is not a softer punishment. It is the sword. Isaiah does not soften the contrast. The willing eat the good of the land. The refusing are devoured. There is no middle ground. Lewis said it: we must be hatched or go bad. Isaiah said it twenty-six centuries earlier: willing and obedient — or refuse and rebel. The choice is always there. And the choice is always now.

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Not a suggestion. Not a recommendation. The mouth of the Lord. The same mouth that spoke creation into existence. The same mouth that said "Let there be light." The same mouth that said to the woman with the issue of blood: "Daughter." That mouth has spoken. And what it speaks is both the invitation and the warning — scarlet to snow for the willing, the sword for the refusing. 🙏

✦ Not Sufficient of Ourselves

Smith takes the anxious soul by the hand — as he always does — and redirects the gaze. The soul looks at her own weakness and despairs. The soul measures her own resources and comes up empty. And Smith says: that is exactly right. You are not sufficient. Not sufficient to think a right thought. Not sufficient to generate a single good thing from your own resources. Paul himself confessed it — the apostle, the theologian, the man who wrote half the New Testament — not that we are sufficient of ourselves.

But the sentence does not end there. Our sufficiency is from God. The emptiness is not the conclusion. It is the doorway. À Kempis said yesterday: I know my debt. I know its size. And I know I cannot pay it. And the doorway opened — into humility, into God. Smith says: the insufficiency is not the problem. It is the place where God's sufficiency begins.

His strength is made perfect in weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:9. Not despite weakness. Not around weakness. In weakness. The very place where human ability runs out is the place where divine power is perfected. Lewis said: He knows what a wretched machine you are trying to drive. Smith says: the wretched machine is where His strength shows up most clearly. 🙏

✦ Look at What God Is

Smith gathers David and Paul — the king and the apostle — and both say the same thing. Through God we will do valiantly. Not through ourselves. Through God. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Not through my own determination. Through Christ. The sufficiency is always from the same source. And the source is not inside the one who acts.

And then Smith's prescription — the simplest remedy for the cast-down soul: look not at your own emptiness or weakness. Stop looking there. The emptiness is real — but staring at it will not fill it. The weakness is true — but measuring it will not strengthen it. Look at what God is. Look at what He has promised. Look at His redundant stores. Look at His faithful Word. Look at the Prince who stooped. Look at the river that cannot be crossed. And then — sing. Not groan. Not sigh. Sing. Our sufficiency is from God.

Isaiah said: come, let us reason together. Smith says: look at what God is. Both are invitations to redirect the gaze — away from the scarlet, away from the emptiness, away from the wretched machine — toward the One whose sufficiency never runs out. 🙏

✦ Grace Pardons — Power Subdues

Smith states the truth that George Bowen has been teaching throughout this journal: pardon and power are inseparable. The grace of God pardons — the 500 denari cancelled, the scarlet made white, the debt thrown into the depths of the sea. And the power of God subdues — the corruption that remains after the pardon, the old nature that reasserts after the forgiveness, the sin that lives in the members even after the soul has been set free.

Both are freely promised. Not pardon alone — that would leave the forgiven soul still enslaved. Not power alone — that would leave the struggling soul still condemned. Both. Together. Inseparable. The grace that forgives is the same grace that transforms. The God who said "your sins shall be white as snow" is the same God who says "I will subdue your iniquities." The removal and the transformation are one work — not two. 🙏

✦ Again and Again

Smith's honesty here is pastoral gold. He does not pretend that sanctification is a single event. He does not promise that the subduing happens once and the corruption disappears forever. Like fire apparently quenched, it will break out again and again. The old nature reasserts. The scarlet tries to return. The sin that was cast into the sea washes back up on the shore.

And Smith does not panic. He describes the cycle with the calm of a doctor describing a chronic condition — not to discourage, but to prepare. Light discovers corruption. Holiness produces hatred of it. Prayer ascends. Power descends. The fire is subdued. And then it breaks out again. And the cycle repeats. Not because God's power is insufficient — but because the battle is ongoing, the sanctification is progressive, and the final victory belongs to eternity, not to Tuesday morning.

Augustine said it: minha alma sente que ainda é abismo — my soul still feels that it is an abyss. The abyss does not disappear because the pardon was given. The corruption does not vanish because the power descended. But the power is greater than the corruption. And the cycle — light, holiness, prayer, power — is the means of grace by which the fire is subdued again and again, until the day when the subduing is complete. 🙏

✦ Grace Reigns

Hear what the Lord says to you this morning. Smith brings it to the present tense — not a theological abstraction, not a historical doctrine, but what the Lord says to you today. This morning. In Caldas da Rainha. Before dawn. "I will subdue your iniquities." Not you will subdue them. I will.

And the instruction: carry your complaint to His throne. Not to your own strength. Not to the formula. Not to the self-help program. To His throne. Plead His faithful Word — not your performance, not your track record, but His Word. And expect His promised power — not hope for it vaguely, not wish for it timidly, but expect it. Because He promised. And the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:14. The verse that seals everything Isaiah began and Smith completed. Not under law — the system that condemns without empowering. Under grace — the love that pardons and subdues. And under grace, sin does not have dominion. Not because the struggle is over — Smith was honest about the fire breaking out again. But because the outcome is settled. Grace reigns. Grace will conquer every rival. The fire will break out — and grace will subdue it. Again. And again. And again. Until the day when the subduing is final and the white is permanent and the scarlet is forgotten forever. 🙏