How Helpless

I was listening to Matthew Smith's rendition of the hymn "How Helpless Guilty Nature Lies" the other day.  This rendition, simply called "How Helpless", is from the album "All I Owe", one of several collections of hymns set to modern acoustic music done (as far as I know) by those of a Reformed/Calvinist persuasion.  I discovered these albums during my brief foray into Calvinism, but still find them on the whole edifying to listen to.

In any case, while listening to this song come on my iPod the other day – twisted person that I am – I could not help but think of the differences between how Calvinists and Lutherans would hear this hymn.  Here are the lyrics:

How helpless guilty nature lies
Unconscious of it's load!
The heart, unchanged, can never rise
To happiness and God.

Can nothing less than power divine
The stubborn will subdue.
'Tis Thine, eternal Spirit! Thine,
To form the heart anew.

'Tis Thine the passions to recall,
And upwards bid them rise;
And make the scales of error fall
From reason's darkened eyes.

To chase the shades of death away
And bid the sinner live;
Heaven's beam, a vital ray,
'Tis Thine alone to give.

O change these wretched hearts of ours
And give them life divine;
Then shall our passions and our powers,
Almighty Lord, be Thine.

The song is all about divine monergism, which both Lutherans and Calvinists hold to.  The difference in how Lutherans and Calvinists would hear the song is this: a Lutheran would automatically think of the Sacraments in connection with the things God is doing in this song.  A Calvinist would not necessarily make that connection.  They might connect these things with the hearing of the Word but not necessarily with the Sacraments.

What is the consequence of this?  If I heard this song with no understanding of how the Holy Spirit operates using the Sacraments, I might wonder if salvation is really for me.  After all, I am completely helpless to do anything regarding my salvation, and who knows when and where (or if) God is going to work in my heart?  I might hear the Word, but how do I know God has really given me the faith necessary to believe?

But with the Sacraments there is a clear and unequivocal "for you".  In Baptism I was given a new heart.  I was buried with Christ and raised with Him.   In the Lord's Supper and Absolution God continues to forgive my sins.  These are sure and certain promises attached to concrete, objective, external means.  I don't have to wonder, "Did God really change my heart?  Did He really give me faith?"