The first error, and it is both a very common and a very dreadful one, which inquirers are in danger of committing, is, to mistake knowledge, impression, and partial reformation, for genuine conversion.
In this day of prevailing evangelical preaching, and religious instruction, where there is no persecution to try men’s sincerity, and even much credit attaching to a profession of religion, there is most imminent danger of self-delusion. The preaching of the present day is of an exciting and impressive character, which, added to the tendency of a religious education to give knowledge, is very likely to produce a state of feeling that may be mistaken for conversion. Ignorant friends, anxious parents, and even injudicious ministers, who are too eager to swell the number of their communicants, upon perceiving a little impression of mind, and a little alteration of conduct in young people, or in others, may express a favourable opinion of their conversion, flatter them into a belief that they are safe, engage them too hastily to make a public profession of religion, and receive the Lord’s Supper, while at the same time, perhaps, the great change has never been wrought; and thus the soul is, in all probability, sealed up in delusion to eternal perdition. Nothing can now awaken them; for although their impressions die away, and they become almost as careless, as worldly, as sinful as ever; yet they have taken up a profession of religion, have been led to believe they are Christians, and therefore repress every rising fear, and stifle every incipient alarm. Fatal case! And it is the case of multitudes.
It may be worthwhile to set before you how far persons may go, and not be really converted.
- They may have many and deep impressions, many and strong convictions; they may have much knowledge of their sinful state, and a heavy and burdensome sense of their guilt; they may look back upon their past lives and conduct with much remorse; they may be sorry for their sins; and may desire to be saved from the consequences of them, being much alarmed at the prospect of the torments of hell. Was not Judas convinced of sin, and did not he weep bitterly and confess his sin, and was not he filled with remorse? Was not Cain convinced of sin? I have known many persons, who at one time appeared to be more deeply impressed with a sense of sin, and to have stronger convictions and remorse, than those who were truly converted, and yet they went back again to the world and sin.
- Nor is a detestation of sin always a true sign of conversion. Hazael, before he was king of Syria, detested those very crimes which he afterwards perpetrated in the fulness of his pride and power. Unconverted persons may even wish to be delivered from the fetters of those corrupt lusts, which have long held them fast; for there are few notorious sinners, who do not frequently hate their sins, and wish and purpose to reform. Yea, persons may sometimes desire to be delivered from all sin; at least they may desire it in a certain way, because they think that it is necessary in order to be saved from hell.
- And as conviction of sin may exist without conversion, so may religious joy. The stony ground hearers “heard the word, and with joy received it,” and yet they had “no root in themselves, and endured only for a while” (Matt. 13:20, 21). The Galatians had great blessedness at one time, which the apostle was afraid had come to nothing (Gal. 4:15). Multitudes rejoiced in Christ when he made his entrance into Jerusalem, who afterwards became his enemies.
- A person may admire the people of God, and covet to be of their number, as Balaam did, and yet not really belong to them.
- Many take great pleasure in hearing sermons, and going to prayer-meetings, and singing hymns, and frequenting missionary and other public meetings, who are not truly born of the Spirit.
- So also do many persons leave off sinful actions, and give up many wicked practices, and seem to be quite altered for a time, who yet, by their subsequent history, show that they are not converted.
- There may be considerable zeal for the outward concerns of religion, as we see in Jehu, without any right state of mind towards God.
- Many have had great confidence of the reality of their conversion; they have had dreams, impressions, and an inward witness, as they suppose, who too plainly proved, by their after-conduct, that they were under an awful delusion.
But it would be almost endless to point out the various ways in which men deceive themselves as to their state. Millions who have been somewhat, yea, much concerned about religion, have never been born again of the Spirit. Perhaps as many are lost by self-deception, as by any other means. Hell resounds with the groans and lamentations of souls that perished through the power of a deceived heart.
Do, do examine yourselves. Exercise godly jealousy over your own state. Never forget that nothing short of the new birth will save you. “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed way; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). The very nature must be changed, entirely changed. We must be renewed in the spirit of our mind.
There must be a superhuman, a Divine, a total alteration of disposition. Our views and tastes; our pains and pleasures; hopes and fears; desires and pursuits, must be changed. We must be brought to love God supremely, for his holiness and justice, as well as for his mercy and love in Christ; to delight in him for his transcendent glory, as well as for his rich grace; we must have a perception of the beauties of holiness, and love Divine things for their own excellence; we must mourn for sin, and hate it for its own evil nature, as well as its dreadful punishment. We must feel delight in the salvation of Christ, not only because it delivers us from hell, but makes us like God, and all this in a way that honours and glorifies Jehovah. We must be made partakers of true humility, and universal love, and feel ourselves brought to be of one mind with God, in willing and delighting in the happiness of others. We must be brought to feel an identity of heart with God’s cause, and to regard it as our honour and happiness to do any thing to promote the glory of Christ in the salvation of sinners. We must feel a longing desire, a hungering and thirsting after holiness, as well as come to a determination to put away all sins, however gainful or pleasant. We must have a tender conscience, that shrinks from and watches against little sins, secret faults, and sins of neglect and omission, as well as great and scandalous offences. We must love the people of God, for God’s sake, because they belong to him and are like him. We must practise the self-denying duty of mortification of sin, as well as engage in the pleasing exercises of religion.
This is to be born again: and it is no mere transient impression upon the imagination, but it is a permanent renewal of the disposition; it is not an occasional impulse, but an abiding character. The subject of it may not be violently agitated, but he is lastingly altered; his passions may not be powerfully moved, but his principles, tastes, and pursuits, are engaged on the side of true holiness. He is now a spiritual man, whereas he was a carnal one, and all things are by him spiritually discerned. Nothing short of this entire change of heart, this complete renovation of the nature, must satisfy you; for nothing less than such a view of Christ in his glorious mediatorial character, and such a dependence by faith upon his blood and righteousness for salvation, as changes the whole heart, and temper, and conduct; throws the world as it were into the background, and makes glory hereafter, and holiness now, the supreme concern, is religion.
John Angell James. The Anxious Inquirer.
