“DO YOU FEEL that your sins are all forgiven?”
"Indeed I do not, but I know they are."
"Now; I cannot understand that. How can any one know it?"
"If you had wronged me, and I told you that I forgave you, would you not know it?"
"Most certainly, but how can you say that God ever told you that He forgave you? Did you just feel at a certain time something that you thought was God's voice, inwardly telling you that your sins were pardoned?"
"I certainly did not."
"Then how can it be? I have tried to get converted as hard as any man could. I have prayed for grace, for strength, for the pardon of my sins, and for the Holy Spirit, and I do not yet feel any difference. I never could feel as I have heard some men say they have."
"I quite understand you; I was for years in the same condition."
"Then how did you get out of it? I know all about the plan of salvation, about the work of Christ, and the necessity of the Spirit; that we must be justified by grace through faith alone without the works of the_ law; that the promises are all most certainly secure to them that are in Christ. But how am I ever to know whether I am in Him or not?"
"I know that you may have heard some Christians say they feel they are pardoned, they feel they are saved; but this only tends to mislead. It did mislead me, and I have no doubt it is misleading you. These Christians may mean a right thing, but they state it wrongly. I feel happy because I know that my sins are pardoned; and I will show you how I know that by and by. However, I do not feel that my sins are pardoned. Let us suppose a case. A poor widow has no money to pay her debts, The creditor comes demanding his righteous due. A friend steps in and says to the creditor, Ti! pay you the widow's debt.' He puts down the money, and the creditor hands him a slip of paper on which is written, 'Received from Widow Blank the sum due, settled,' with the creditor's signature affixed. The receipt is handed to the widow, and she feels very happy because she knows that her debt is paid. If you were to call that day, and say to the widow, 'Do you feel that your debt is paid?' what would she say?".
"Feel it! What do you mean? There is the receipted_ account. I don't feel that it's paid, but I feel very happy' because it is paid."
"Now, do you not see the difference? The feeling is all right, but I do not feel my sin pardoned. I know it and hence feel happy."
"But does it not say somewhere in Scripture that the Spirit beareth witness with our spirit?"
"Now, from the very fact that you speak so vaguely about 'somewhere in Scripture,' I fear that you do not know well what Scripture is. The Bible is not a number of texts strung together at random; it is a perfectly arranged whole. Truth in a wrong connection is the worst kind of error. You find in Romans 8:1616The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: (Romans 8:16) this most blessed and wondrous revelation from God, 'The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.' Mark carefully, this is not given as a ground to know that our sins are forgiven, but comes after the whole revelation of the truth concerning what we have done, what we are, and how our responsibilities are met. It comes after the triumphant assertion of Romans 5:1,1Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1) 'Being justified by faith, we have peace with God,' and that crowning triumph after -every question has been settled against us, 'There is . . . no condemnation' (Rom. 8:11There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1) ). At peace with God, and with no condemnation, we now advance into our peculiar place among the creatures of God. Angels are at peace with God and have no condemnation, but they are only servants. But we are the SONS of God. Having been taken from the swine troughs and given food, and raiment, we should therewith be content, glad that we are in the house at all, even among the servants. But higher than servants are we become, even sons. We may well pause, and ask if this is presumption."
"Dare I say that all things are mine? that I am a child, a son, an heir of God?"
"Yes, indeed, you may. The Spirit has been sent to dwell with you and to be in you. He has come from the throne, revealing to your spirit (which can now discern spiritual things) that without presumption you may lay claim to the title and the relationship, of son of God, heir of God, and joint-heir with Christ. That Spirit is within every believer and seals only saved ones. He quickens the unsaved. God has sent forth this testimony, and he that is a believer has the testimony in himself (1 John 5:1010He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. (1 John 5:10)). The important point I wish you to see is this, that the Holy Ghost is never said to bear witness to me by any internal feeling that I am at peace with God. It is after a man knows he is a saved man that there is a step further shown him—namely, that he is a son. He is not only out of prison; he is set at the table of the King, whom he calls `Abba,' that is, Father."
"I quite understand the distinction, but I never saw it before. If I could know that I was at peace with God, I would be quite satisfied."
"Yes, but God would not. However, this is the first point for you to know—`being justified by faith we have peace with God,' not by the feeling of faith."
"But don't some people feel it while others do not?"
"Not at all. What I am contending for is that the forgiveness of sins is a thing that can be felt by no one unless the knowledge of it is founded on the Word of God, and that alone, for every one, individually. Scores of anxious people have been deluded into the idea that they knew the Gospel when some pleasing emotion passed through their minds. When Satan sees people awakened and that he cannot keep them quiet, he takes his stand beside the preacher of the Gospel, and while he is inviting them to the rock, Satan pushes out planks of feeling. A drowning man will catch at a straw, and the poor troubled one finds a little relief in resting on some plank of quietness of conscience, till storms rage, and then he finds himself with nothing beneath him. I am therefore suspicious when a person tells me he is 'a little better.' If he does not believe the Gospel, he has no right to be any better, and if he has taken the good news to himself, he is entitled to be at perfect peace."
"Then you don't allow for any feeling?"
"Most certainly I do, but what am I warranted to feel? If I could tell you that you were saved, and you believed it, would you not feel happy?"
"Of course I would."
"This is what I feel. Whenever I say to myself, 'I'm saved,' I feel happy, and the more I realize that my knowledge that I am saved depends only on God's word, the more happy I become."
"Is there nothing about this 'feeling saved' in the Bible?"
"Indeed, there is not. You can easily satisfy yourself by turning to a concordance. Never once is the word put beside `salvation,' forgiveness,' or anything about a man's peace with God. But we find in Luke 1:7777To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, (Luke 1:77) that part of John's commission is declared to be `to give KNOWLEDGE of salvation,' and in many parts of Scripture we find references to knowing our sins forgiven, knowing whom we have believed, knowing we have passed from death to life, knowing we are born of God. Did Abraham feel he was to have a son when he was so old? No! But he knew it. And how did he know it? Because God said it. He felt glad because he knew it, because he believed what God said. It is really 'because people do not believe that God means exactly what He says, that we see so many intelligent men who cannot say whether they are saved or not."
"I have often thought that I had received Christ and trusted in Him alone, but I find my faith so incapable of producing effects."
"But did you start saying 'I'm saved,' before trying to do anything?",
"Oh, no! I was always waiting for fruits."
"Fruits of what? Fruits of doubt? Suppose you had the right fruits, would you then have believed you were saved?"
"Oh, yes!"
"That is to say, you would trust the fruits you brought forth rather than God's Word—not for your salvation, but for your knowledge of it. But you must be saved, and know you are saved, before one acceptable fruit can be brought forth. Otherwise the works are legal. All evangelical obedience is done by a man who is saved, who does it because he knows that he is saved."
"Then am I to do nothing?"
"Absolutely and literally nothing. You must take salvation exactly as the thief on the cross did. He could not turn over a new leaf; his last wretched leaf had been turned when he reviled the Saviour. He could not do any work for God, for there was a nail through each hand; he could not run in the way of God's commandments, for them was a nail through his feet. And until you stand still and realize that there is a nail through all your self-righteous activity and a nail through all your carnal agility, and accept salvation for nothing, knowing that you are saved simply on the authority of the bare Word of God, you will never be saved. We do not look inward to what we feel, nor outward to what we do, but to the Son of man lifted up and to God's account of how well He is pleased with Jesus."
"Well, I think I see what you mean, and it clears up a real difficulty. I am not to examine to see if I feel better, feel saved, feel forgiven, or feel happy. But here is the next difficulty—how am I to know it?"
"I well remember that when I began trying to feel converted, I felt myself becoming worse and worse and my heart getting further and further from peace. Then I began to study this and that theological question. I knew all about what Calvinism and Arminian-ism were. I studied my Bible till I knew its contents pretty well, but at last I found I was not on the right track for salvation at all. I was thinking that salvation came intellect-wise, and not faith-wise.
"But a man cannot be saved apart from his understanding?"
"Most certainly not, no more than he can be saved against his will. But the eyes of his understanding must be enlightened, that he may be made willing to receive the gift of salvation in God's way. You see if God had made His salvation dependent upon education or intellect, He would have left the great mass without the chance of salvation until they were tutored up to the requisite point. But as there is one salvation for high-and low, rich and poor, educated and ignorant, so there is one method of receiving it, and, of course, that must be according to the standard of the most unlearned. Hence the truth of the remark that a friend made to me, 'Intellect never helped me, to Christ, but it often hindered me.'
"I was trying to explain this (which I believe to be of the greatest importance) to some poor people, and I tried to illustrate it in this way. If, in traveling by rail, I had a first-class ticket, I could travel one part of the journey in first-class accommodations, another part in second-class accommodations, and another in third-class accommodations, and the railway officials could find no fault. But if I had only a third-class ticket, I must remain in the third-class section from beginning to end. Thus, in regard to salvation, the educated man can come to the uneducated man's platform; the uneducated cannot rise to his. Therefore, it is on the common platform on which ALL men can stand that God deals with men concerning salvation.
"This is the great difficulty. This is why not many great, not many wise, and not many noble are saved. They do not feel they can afford to come low enough among the common run of people, to take a guilty sinner's place, receive a lost sinner's Saviour, and rejoice in a condemned sinner's pardon. This is why Christ taught that men had to become like little children before they could get into the kingdom of heaven."
"I see the justice of your remarks, but tell me, now, how am I to get into the kingdom?"
"As you said before, you know that it is of grace, that is to say, God is waiting to give it to you all for nothing, without a feeling in payment, without a prayer as the condition of it, just as the widow's friend dealt with her debt. That it might be of grace, it was made to be by faith, not by attainment either in intellect or feeling. This is the impression that sometimes has been left upon my mind after having heard the Gospel stated—that faith is the condition which God has demanded from the sinner in order that he may be saved—-that the great Physician will heal the most wretched, sin-burdened soul, but He must receive faith as His fee. Now this, as you have no doubt found, would be the most difficult of all fees to procure. Feeling is hard to get up, but faith is harder. Faith is the mere apprehension of grace—thankfully accepting what God has already freely given. Faith puts God in the chief place as the giver, it being more blessed to give than to receive, and lets Him do everything, man being the silent and passive receiver of blessing. Faith has to do, not with what I feel toward God, but with what God feels toward me, what He has done for me, and what He has told me. Faith does not look into its own formation; it looks out to God's provided substitute for the sinner. Faith does not tell me to feel that I am converted, but it fixes me to the Word of God.
Faith tells me to take God at His word. Faith has not to do with what I am thinking of myself, bad or good, but it lets God think of me.
"Two things are to be distinguished, 'salvation' and the 'knowledge of salvation.' First, how am I to get saved? and then, how am I to know it?
"First, then, my salvation depends solely and entirely upon the work, the person, of Jesus Christ our Lord. (My salvation is supported by His work; His work is supported by His person.)
"Secondly, the knowledge that I am saved depends" solely on the record, the word, the testimony of God.
`He that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record [testimony] that God gave of his Son.' A man is saved the moment that he accepts Christ, on account of Christ having died in his place. He knows that he is saved because he believes the record that God gave of His Son."
"Well, now, tell me briefly what 'believing in the Lord Jesus Christ' is. Of course I believe He is able and willing to save anybody, His atonement is sufficient, and His offer free and, full, but how is He to become mine?"
"What is it to believe in a man? What is it to believe in a bank? You do not believe in one whose name is on the black list, but you can look around and say to yourself, 'Well, I believe in so and so.' It is just the same with Christ: I believe in Him—not merely in His historical existence, but I trust Him, I receive, I rest upon Him alone for my salvation."
"In a word, then, what should I do? I am wishing to take God's way, and willing now to do it. When I begin to go through trains of thought, I feel I get confused and I should just like to know in a sentence what my path ought to be."
"Take the lost sinner's place, and CLAIM the lost sinner's Saviour!"
"Will the claim be allowed?"
"Yea, God commands thee to claim Him."
"Can I claim Him?"
"Only a lost sinner can."
"I am allowed, urged, besought, commanded to take Jesus as mine; surely I have nothing to lose. Yea, Lord, I believe Thee, Jesus is mine."
"I take comfort from the fact that my sins were laid on Christ. I do not feel they were there, but God says it. 'He was wounded for our transgressions'—not for those of angels (they had none), not for those of devils (they can claim no Saviour), but for those who take the sinner's place. 'The chastisement of our peace was upon him.' Therefore it would be unjust to lay it on me since I believe in Him. He is a real Saviour for real sinners. My only qualification for such a Saviour is that I am such a sinner. And now I believe my sins are not on me—not because I feel them gone, for I do not, but because God says they were laid on Christ (Isaiah 53:66All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6))."
Robert McCheyne says, "We must not close with Christ because we feel Him, but because God has said it, and we must take God's word even in the dark." We do not feel we have faith. We accept God's way of dealing with sin.
Man would try to settle God's claims. God Himself has settled the claims, and offers the settled account for nothing. Man would try to make his peace with God. God has come and "made peace," Christ Himself becoming "our peace," and He "preached peace" for the acceptance of all (Eph. 2:14-1714For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. (Ephesians 2:14‑17)). Most anxious inquirers seem to think that we have to fight against ourselves in order to be saved, whereas we fight against ourselves because we are saved. We have a race to run, but it is not to the cross, it is from the 'cross. Man's way is to believe because we feel; God's way is to feel because we believe and believe because God has said it. Dr. Chalmers says, "Yet come the enlargement when it will, it must, I admit, come after all through the channel of a simple credence given to the sayings of God, accounted true and faithful sayings. And never does light and peace so fill my heart as when, like a little child, I take up the lesson that God hath laid on His own Son the iniquities of -us all."
Take the lost sinner's place, and claim the lost sinner's Saviour.
No works of law have we to boast—By nature ruined, guilty, lost, Condemned already; but Thy hand Provided what Thou didst demand: We take the guilty sinner's name, The guilty sinner's Saviour claim.
No faith we bring.
'Tis Christ alone
'Tis what He is, what He has done.
He is for us as given by God,
It was for us He shed His blood:
We take the guilty sinner's name,
The guilty sinner's Saviour claim.
We do not feel our sins are gone,
But know it from Thy word alone;
We know that Thou our sins didst lay
On Him who has put sin away:
We take the guilty sinner's name,
The Guilty sinner's Saviour claim.
Because we know our sins forgiven,
We happy feel: our home is Heaven.
O help us now as sons, our God,
To tread the path that Jesus trod:
We take the guilty sinner's name,
The guilty sinner's Saviour claim.