The Substance of True Religion

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

Job 19:28

But you should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

You will always understand a passage of Scripture better if you carefully attend to its connection. Job in the verse before us is answering Bildad the Shuhite. Now, this Bildad on two occasions had described Job as a hypocrite, and accounted for his dire distress by the fact that, though hypocrites may flourish for a time, they will ultimately be destroyed. In the two bitter speeches which he made he described the hypocrite under the figure of a tree which is torn up by the roots, or dies down even to the root. The inference he meant to draw was this: you, Job, are utterly dried up, for all your prosperity is gone, and therefore you must be a hypocrite. No, says Job, I am no hypocrite. I will prove it by your own words, for the root of the matter is still in me, and therefore I am no hypocrite. Though I admit that I have lost branch, and leaf, and fruit, and flower, yet I have not lost the root of the matter, for I hold the essential faith as firmly as ever; and therefore, by your own argument, I am no hypocrite, and "Ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?" There is a something in true religion which is its essential root.

I. Our first thought will be that THIS ROOT OF THE MATTER MAY BE CLEARLY DEFINED. We are not left in the dark as to what the essential point of true religion is: it can be laid down with absolute certainty. This is the root of the matter, to believe in the incarnate God, to accept His headship, to claim His kinship, and to rely upon His redemption. Still look at the text further, and you perceive that the root of the matter is to believe that this Kinsman, this Redeemer, lives. We could never find comfort or salvation in one who had ceased to be.

II. THIS FUNDAMENTAL MATTER IS MOST INSTRUCTIVELY DESCRIBED by the words which I have so constantly repeated "the root of the matter." What does this mean?

1. First, does it not mean that which is essential? "The root of the matter." To a tree a root is absolutely essential; it is a mere pole or piece of timber if there be no root. It can be a tree of a certain sort without branches, and at certain seasons without leaves, but not without a root. So, if a man hath faith in the Redeemer, though he may be destitute of a thousand other most needful things, yet the essential point is settled: he that believeth in Christ Jesus hath everlasting life.

2. The root, again, is not only that which is vital to the tree, it is from the root that the life force proceeds by which the trunk and the branches are nourished and sustained. There is hope of a tree if it be cut down that it shall sprout again, at the scent of water it shall bud; so long as there is a root there is more or less of vitality and power to grow, and so faith in Christ is the vital point of religion; he that believeth liveth.

3. Again, it is called the "root of the matter" because it comprehends all the rest; for everything is in the root. The holiness of heaven is packed away in the faith of a penitent sinner. Look at the crocus bulb; it is a poor, mean, unpromising sort of thing, and yet wrapped up within that brown package there lies a golden cup, which in the early spring will be filled with sunshine: you cannot see that wondrous chalice within the bulb; but He who put it there knows where He has concealed His treasure. The showers and the sun shall unwrap the enfoldings, and forth shall come that dainty cup to be set upon God's great table of nature, as an intimation that the feast of summer is soon to come. The highest saintship on earth is hidden within the simplicity of a sinner's faith.

III. THIS ROOT OF THE MATTER MAY BE PERSONALLY DISCERNED AS BEING IN A MAN'S OWN POSSESSION. Job says to his teasing friends, "Ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?" Notice the curious change of pronouns. "Ye should say, Why persecute we him seeing the root of the matter is found in him?" that is how the words would naturally run. But Job is so earnest to clear himself from Bildad's insinuation that he is a hypocrite, that he will not speak of himself in the third person, but plainly declares, "The root of the matter is found in me." Job seems to say, "The vital part of the matter may or may not be in you, but it is in me, I know. You may not believe me, but I know it is so, and I tell you to your faces that no argument of yours can rob me of this confidence; for as I know that my Redeemer liveth, I know that the root of the matter is found in me." Many Christian people are afraid to speak in that fashion. They say, "I humbly hope it is so, and trust it is so." That sounds prettily; but is it right? Is that the way in which men speak about their houses and lands? Do you possess a little freehold? Did I hear you answer, "I humbly hope that my house and garden are my own"? What, then, are your title deeds so questionable that you do not know?

1. Note well that sometimes this root needs to be searched for. Job says, "the root of the matter is found in me," as if he had looked for it, and made a discovery of what else had been hidden. Roots generally lie underground and out of sight, and so may our faith in the Redeemer. I can understand a Christian doubting whether he is saved or not, but I cannot understand his being happy while he continues to doubt about it, nor happy at all till he is sure of it.

2. And note again, the root of the matter in Job was an inward thing. "The root of the matter is found in me." He did not say, "I wear the outward garb of a religious man"; no, but "the root of the matter is found in me." If you, my hearers, are in the possession of the essence of true Christianity, it does not lie in your outward profession. True godliness is not separable from the godly man; it is woven into him just as a thread enters into the essence and substance of the fabric.

3. When grace is found in us, and we do really believe in our Redeemer, we ought to avow it; for Job says, "The root of the mutter is found in me. I know that my Redeemer liveth." Are there not some among you who have never said as much as that?

4. The fact of our having the root of the matter in us will be a great comfort to us. "Alas," saith Job, "my servant will not come when I call him, my wife is strange to me, my kinsfolk fail me, but I know that my Redeemer liveth. Bildad and Zophar, and others of them, all condemn me, but my conscience acquits me, for I know that the root of the matter is in me." Critics may find fault with our experience, and they may call our earnest utterances rant, but this will not affect the truth of our conversion, or the acceptableness of our testimony for Jesus. If the little bird within our bosom sings sweetly it is of small consequence if all the owls in the world hoot at us. There is more real comfort in the possession of simple faith than in the fond persuasion that you are in a high state of grace.

5. This fact also will be your defence against opposers. Thus may you answer them in Job's fashion, "You ought not to condemn me; for, though I am not what I ought to be, or what I want to be, or what I shall be, yet still the root of the matter is found in me. Be kind to me, therefore." If our friends are sincere in their attachment to the Redeemer, let us treat them as our brethren in Christ.

IV. THIS ROOT OF THE MATTER IS TO BE TENDERLY RESPECTED BY ALL WHO SEE IT. "Ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?"

1. What a rebuke this is to the persecutions which have been carried on by nominal Christians against each other, sect against sect! How can those who trust in the same Saviour rend and devour each other? If I believe, and rest my soul on the one salvation which God has provided in Christ Jesus, have charity towards me, for this rock will bear both thee and me. This should end all religious persecutions.

2. But next it ought to be the end of all ungenerous denunciations. If I know that a man is really believing in Jesus Christ, I may not treat him as an enemy.

3. Further than this, the question is, "Why persecute we him?" We can do that by a cold mistrust. Do not let us stand off in holy isolation from any who have the root of the matter in them. Wherefore should we persecute such?

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