Alexander Whyte, who died in 1921, was appointed Principal of New College, Edinburgh. In Whyte’s spirituality, he insisted that the reality of sin is an inescapable reality in Christian experience. The presence of sin brings struggle and conflict. His interest in the problems of the spiritual life, in particular to the area of the soul’s conflict in Christian experience, was much greater than in the pursuit of pure scholarship. As James M. Gordon notes,
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Whyte did not pursue a career in pure scholarship, though in intellectual power and breadth of knowledge he was their equal. Whyte’s best energies were poured into his lifelong research project, the problems of the spiritual life, and especially the soul’s conflict.[1]
In pursuit of the God of holiness, Whyte saw a great obstacle in Christian experience and labored at this task: “the soul’s conflict with indwelling sin.”[2] Whyte’s theological inquiry and pastoral endeavor reminds me of Paul’s dictum in Colossians 1:28-29—“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” (ESV) In order to present every Christian mature or perfect in Christ, Paul labored at it and struggled with it. “The soul’s conflict with indwelling sin” is one of the issues in Christian spirituality. It deals with the reality of stagnation in Christian experience. It deals with the fact that the majority of Christians merely exists and grows old. We don’t fully live and grow up unless we seriously deal with “the soul’s conflict with indwelling sin.” No labor; no struggle; no growth.
The Spiritual conflict waged at the centre of redeemed personality is ultimately a conflict between love and hatred and between holiness and sin. The Christian heart enters that conflict with a bias towards the loveliness and purity of Christ but with no guaranteed outcome.[3]
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