Batter My Heart; Knocking Simply Won't Do!

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20, ESV).

I stumbled across this poem in John Donne’s Holy Sonnets collection: “Batter My Heart, Three-Person'd God.” It tells the story of a desperate soul (strangely familiar) who wants to be saved but yet at the same time, finds an opposing desire rising within himself:

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
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd 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 love you, and would be lov'd fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

During the years that I’ve been a pastor, I have met many young people (and a few hoary-headed ones, to boot!) who are locked in precisely this dilemma. In their heart of hearts, they believe in God and know the gospel is “for real,” but yet they fear what coming to Christ might mean for them. Amongst other things, they fear the loss of independence (which is, I have to say, at best illusory), they fear the restrictions Christ might place upon their liberty to live as they please (and the Lord certainly does tend to clip our wings), and they fear the loss of, well, the ability to have fun. The Christian is no stranger to such inner conflict, I might add (Rom. 7:19ff).

What to do?

The first thing that we must do, Donne says, is to be honest with God. Tell Him to batter down the door of your heart, for knocking simply won’t do. Often, I need more than a gentle turnaround; I need to be overthrown with holy violence.

With telling insight, Donne metaphorically describes himself as a town conquered by an enemy. He wants to open the gates of the town to God, but the enemy prevents this. This individual’s mental reasoning, which ought to be God’s ally, is no help whatsoever. For reason itself is also sin’s captive, and his best thoughts lead him away from God and not towards Him.

In a grippingly honest final metaphor, Donne describes himself as a spouse trapped in an unhappy, unfruitful, and abusive marriage to the enemy. He looks to God to annul the union, even by force. For “unless you imprison me, I will never be free, and unless you ravish me, I will never be chaste.”

This remarkable last stanza captures the lovingly effective force of regeneration. To be sure, critics sometimes pillory such an action on God’s part as, “salvation by divine rape.” However, nothing could be further from the truth. When God unlocks the willingness of the human soul, He does it the only way possible; He unlocks it from the inside. The Westminster Shorter Catechism captures this beautifully in its question on effectual calling:

Q. 31. What is effectual calling?

A. Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.

In salvation, God doesn’t force us into the arms of Christ though we do need a fair bit of dragging (John 6:44). This involves sending His Spirit to convict us of our sin and misery. This process requires the enlightening of our minds with a true vision of Christ’s glory, and it requires a deep change of heart at the level of our will. This is something we cannot do for ourselves. God must do it for us, or it will never be done at all.

Whatever the case, in our conscious experience, it often begins with a soul that perhaps for the first time ever has become willing to be honest - honest with God and honest with himself. In the soul’s experience of saving faith, this is perhaps well over half the battle

Wherever you stand before God this morning, whether you find yourself reticent when it comes to drawing near to God or perhaps strongly drawn to temptation, be honest with God. He can cope with it, for He knows all already, and you need to be truthful with Him. Tell Him that you desperately need His help, else you can do nothing. Give Him no rest, for whatever you ask for your soul, it shall be done.

For the same God who often meets sinners running from Him surely won’t reject you when you run to Him. O Lord, batter my heart; knocking simply won’t do.