The Necessity of a Persevering Faith
By John Fast
“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.” – 2 Timothy 3:1
It was a saying of Martin Luther, “Whom God intends to destroy, He gives them leave to play with Scripture.” The implications of this statement for the mass of professing Christianity today which does little else than play, toy, dabble, and tinker with Scripture in an attempt to mold and shape it to their own lusts, preferences, and presuppositions, deny its clear message and doctrines, give new meanings to old truths, and to justify their self-centered, worldly, and often heretical beliefs, practices, and lifestyles, is frightening. When that which God has given to be the cure for mankind’s spiritual disease – the unadulterated gospel and the pure milk of the Word – becomes that which hardens and blinds people even more, “an aroma from death to death” (2 Cor 2:15), or is twisted and distorted to justify and gratify their carnal, worldly, self-centered, and sinful lifestyles (1 Pt 5:16), this is a sign not only of a dangerous season but of a people that have been forsaken of God and given over to their naturally and totally depraved mind (Rm 1:28-32). In hearing they do not hear, and in seeing they do not see, but are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tm 3:7). They are sick unto death. There is little hope for recovery. Their iniquity is full. The disease is fatal when, even though there is so much evidence of it visible, they do not know and refuse to admit it, but instead they revel in it and attribute the evil they do not like to causes other than the fallen, sinful, and wicked nature of mankind. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was simply being faithful to Scripture when he said, “The sinner is an abomination, he is a monstrosity in God’s universe, he is altogether hateful and vile.”[1]
The testimony of Scripture, especially the standard set by God’s moral law, the Ten Commandments, is intended to bring us to an experiential knowledge of this truth about ourselves. Only when we come to understand in some measure the horrendous sinfulness of sin can we begin to comprehend why God’s attitude toward it is so very different from our own. When a sinner is first brought to a true knowledge of God and of himself, instead of it being a comfort, it is intensely fearful and disturbing. They say with Peter, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Lk 5:8). Popular taste and thinking, however, is far more inclined to pithy, witty, and easily read blogs, bumper-sticker theology, and shallow, vague, fanciful, and flattering pseudo-Christian propaganda than to serious Bible study and sound doctrine. Many denominations that owe their existence to originally proclaiming the great doctrines of the Reformation now reject those doctrines as ‘Calvinism’, and have had their old, historic beliefs completely overthrown, along with the Bible’s teaching concerning the necessity and nature of regeneration, the true nature of man, saving faith, and what it means to be a Christian. Even within Reformed circles many historic biblical doctrines, such as the doctrine of sanctification, are being ‘rethought’, redefined, and given meanings other than the meaning clearly taught by the Bible.
Perhaps the most notable and noticeable element that has gone missing from what passes for the gospel today is the idea of the fear of God. Not only has the reality and experience quietly disappeared, but even the very words have been all but eradicated from the vocabulary of professing evangelicalism, despite the prominent place which it occupies in Scripture and in the true gospel, “For the Lord Most High is to be feared,” (Ps 47:2); “And by the fear of the Lord one keeps away from evil” (Pv 16:6). Jesus instructed His disciples, “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who after He has killed has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!” (Lk 12:5). When Ananias and Sapphira died for lying to the Holy Spirit, “great fear came upon all who heard of it” (Ac 5:5, 11). Believers are instructed to, “cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor 7:1). Further citations would be superfluous. The absence of this fear of God has always been the mark of the ungodly and unbelieving, “Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes” (Ps 36:1). Without the fear of God true repentance, obedience, and holiness is impossible, “But they have not become contrite even to this day, nor have they feared nor walked in My law or My statutes,” (Jer 44:10). Today the fear of God is considered to be a legalistic superstition, psychologically harmful, and something to be avoided. Hell and the wrath of God are increasingly considered mere fictions and idle threats designed to frighten ignorant people. To be a ‘God-fearing’ man or woman is a long forgotten concept. When the true nature of sin and its impact on the human heart and mind is minimized, then even the idea of the fear of God soon disappears from the life and thinking. What is missing from the content of professing evangelicalism today is the fear of God and the deeply felt conviction of sin and its utter sinfulness. These are the elements that made the old evangelicalism, the evangelicalism of the Puritans, The Great Awakening, and of the eighteenth century so unlike modern evangelicalism. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones once noted, “The genuine evangelicalism is that older evangelicalism.” Today nominal ‘believers’ believe enough to be saved, or so they think, but go no further, whereas the genuinely regenerate never stop trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord (2 Cor 5:9), to be holy as He is holy (1 Pt 1:15), to be perfect as their heavenly Father is perfect (Mt 5:48), and to purify themselves, just as He is pure (1 Jn 3:3).
The Real Problem
The real problem with the unregenerate person is they do not understand the true nature of sin. They think of sin in terms of actions; the actual act of doing something that is wrong, typically something ‘wrong’ as defined by the culture. No one can understand their need for a new nature until they understand the nature of sin. A person may have a moral code, they may believe that some things are right and some things are wrong, but that is not the same as understanding the nature of sin. Only when sin is seen and felt for what it really is – lawlessness (1 Jn 3:4), rebellion against and hostility for the holy law of God that originates from an inbred and natural hatred of God, the wages of which is eternal death – will a person become concerned and fearful for their soul and look for a Savior. If they are told that they have some goodness remaining in them that can be improved, that they are a hapless victim of sin, and that they have the ability to come to Christ by an exercise of their own freewill, then they will never understand the true nature of sin and will look to themselves as their own savior. One of the most dangerous and delusive errors ever to be committed in theology is the idea that people can plan the moment of regeneration. This is the practice of both Roman Catholicism and Protestant denominations that believe in and teach baptismal regeneration, that is, they identify the new birth with the sacrament of baptism, and in those forms which equate a ‘decision’ with ‘believing’ and ‘faith’ that triggers a new birth. The Bible clearly teaches that the new birth and its time are the sovereign prerogative of God over which no person has any influence or control (1 Tim 1:15, 16; 1 Cor 1:30; Rm 9:16-19).
In a world full of multiple religions, various beliefs, and numerous variations of Christianity, all of which consider themselves to be ‘Christian’, only one is true. All the rest, no matter what form they might take, are simply various attempts by sin-darkened people who are “seeking to establish their own righteousness” (Rm 10:3). The natural and unregenerate person only knows one religion, and that is the religion of self-righteousness. They always seek to be pleasing to God and find acceptance with Him by their own actions, efforts, and terms. They depend on themselves because they do not understand the righteousness of God (Rm 10:3). They can be content and secure in this religion because like all of its adherents they are ignorant not of the existence of God, but of the true nature of God. This is a spiritual blindness concerning God that is common to all mankind. But what makes this spiritual darkness so monstrous is not its universality, but the fact that it is dearly loved by fallen and unregenerate men and women, “and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil” (Jn 3:19); they take pleasure in wickedness (2 Thes 2:12).
The true nature of the new birth is a doctrine that goes to the heart of the greatest issue of all, namely, human inability, pride, and self-righteousness. Does man cooperate with God in salvation or is it solely a sovereign work of God? Is it his own faith that justifies or is it the faith that is the gift of God and the fruit of regeneration? Is his faith in the righteousness of Christ or in his own faith and self-righteousness? Does his faith bear the fruit of holiness or is it by itself? Here is a doctrine for which we ought to be prepared to earnestly contend, be willing to suffer the loss of all things for, and even be willing to die for. This is the doctrine to which the god of this world tirelessly works to blind our minds, and from which he endeavors to distract us with lesser controversies. Because of the abundant error and profound biblical ignorance that permeates contemporary evangelicalism, the danger of this doctrine being overshadowed by lesser issues, and thereby perpetuating a false theology of conversion, is very great. This is the only message that offers any true hope for the hopeless spiritual and moral condition of fallen men and women. Any other hope that is based on self-effort, self-improvement, a human ‘decision’, moral self-reformation, or religious activity, ritual, and devotion is a false and vain hope. It requires a divine power to change human nature, to make the bad tree good, and this is the only doctrine that “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,” (Rm 1:16). All other messages place their hope and rest their faith on the wisdom of men, not the power of God (1 Cor 2:5). It was the preaching of this truth that brought salvation to the moral cesspools of the first century, of the sixteenth century, of eighteenth century England, and it remains the only hope for the twenty-first century. There is more than enough evidence to warrant making a connection between the proliferation of a different theology of regeneration and the abysmal and dangerous moral and spiritual condition of our day.
One of the more pernicious ideas that have taken hold today in what professes to be Christianity is the notion that salvation is not based on what a person believes concerning matters of doctrine. Disputes over beliefs and theology are considered to be matters of personal conviction and opinion that should be tolerated. No one is wrong and everyone is right. All that really matters with God in the end is not what a person believes, but how they live. As long as they are trying to treat others the way they want to be treated, are a ‘nice’ person, and are sincere in what they believe, then surely they will go to heaven when they die. Such an idea, however, is not new; Charles Spurgeon saw it coming in his time,
“The old faith of the fuller” (i.e. a person who cleaned cloth, especially wool, to make it fuller) “is coming back in some places today. You remember what the fuller said, “Yes, he believed” He believed—what did he believe? He believed, “What the church believed.” And what did the church believe? “Well, the church believed—well, what he believed.” And, pray tell, what did he and the church, together, believe? “Why, they both believed the same thing.” Ah, how many there are of that sort today! They say, “We think he ought to be sincere, you know, and if he is sincere, it does not matter much whether it is absolutely true. He need not trouble greatly to enquire whether what he believes is Scriptural or not, or whether it is according to God’s revelation—that will take up too much of his time and thought—and look too much like being obedient to God’s will. Just be sincere, you know, and then, hit or miss, whatever your mother or father happened to be in religious character, go at it with all your might and it will be all right.”[2]
To separate people simply on the basis of what they do or do not believe is today regarded the epitome of arrogance, narrow-mindedness, prejudice, and intolerance. The problem with this concept, if the Bible is to be the judge of Christianity, is that this bears no relation to the Christianity of the Bible.
The theology of regeneration that has prevailed and influenced the life and practice of professing Christianity for the past two-hundred years wants to leave room for some sort of human participation and cooperation. It is not as though this theology has remained static and without any revisions and updates. Its proponents are nothing if not original in their innovations, but to look for and encourage any participation or act of the human will in the new birth is to change its true meaning. There are no natural abilities and goodness in an unregenerate person which can be improved and acted on that will lead to their cooperating and contributing to their own salvation. As B.B. Warfield pointed out, “The Reformation doctrine not only entails but strenuously asserts that there is nothing in sinful man on which deliverance can “take hold,” and that he is therefore incapable of deliverance save by the re-creation of his dead soul and by the almighty power of the Holy Spirit.”[3] Simply consider what the Bible says concerning the universal moral and intellectual condition of unregenerate men and women; they are “evil” (Mt 7:11), “foolish”, “futile” and “darkened” (Rm 1:21), “depraved” (Rm 1:28), “hardened” (2 Cor 3:14), “blinded” (2 Cor 4:4), “hostile” (Col 1:21), “deluded” (Col 2:4), “deceived” (Col 2:8), “fleshly” (Col 2:18), “arrogant” (Jm 4:16), “unholy” (2 Tm 3:2), “corrupted” (2 Tm 3:8), “defiled” (Tit 1:15), “enslaved” (Tit 3:3), “in opposition” (2 Tim 2:25). Mind you, this is only a partial list of the terms which the Bible uses to describe the moral, intellectual, and spiritual condition of natural men and women. Given all the biblical evidence to the contrary, how anyone could have concluded that there is something left in fallen men and women to which the gospel might adhere is truly an unparalleled feat of human ingenuity. The problem with the natural man is they think that they know themselves, thereby revealing their basic problem. They avoid and evade the testimony of Scripture because its assessment is too debasing and offensive to the good opinion which they have of themselves. Sin and evil must be attributed to something other than man’s sinful, evil, and wicked nature.
Sin or Something Else
There is much talk of late within some religious circles of the need for the church to take the issue of mental health more seriously, and in the process revealing this willful ignorance of the true nature of sin, when the real need is for professing evangelicalism to take sin much more seriously than it has for the past two-hundred years. The need is for more biblical preaching that convicts of the true nature of sin, not to turn church into a group therapy session. The problem is a sin-cursed and sin-depraved mind, and a fallen nature that hates God and is enslaved to sin, not mental illness. The problem is spiritual, not psychological and psychiatric. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceeds the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man” (Mk 7:21-23). What is needed is not a therapeutic cure and a renovated old nature, but a new birth, new nature, new heart, and new mind that loves God and hates sin. As far as contemporary evangelicalism is concerned, what is central to the message of the New Testament, the need and nature of regeneration (Jn 3:3), has been relegated to the fringes and substituted by a different theology of regeneration that makes ‘faith’ the cause, not the result of regeneration, and this is reflected in the general state of professing evangelicalism today. The gospel of Jesus Christ was not given to save people from their own personal problems, worries, bad habits, poor self-image, or mental and emotional struggles, but from the problem that has plagued all mankind since the Fall, that we are all condemned, guilty, self-absorbed sinners who are by nature hostile to God and enslaved to sin, under the wrath of a holy and offended God whose holy law we hate, with no desire or ability to do anything to remedy our hopelessly lost condition.
The message and practice that once characterized evangelicalism is well-represented by the statement of the nineteenth century pastor Robert Candlish,
“I do not speak to [people] of a certain amount of atoning virtue purchased by the obedience and death of Christ, as if it were a store laid up for general use, from which they may take what they need. I speak to them of Christ as being himself the atonement, and summon them to a personal dealing with him accordingly…having in his hand a special pardon and special grace for every one who will resort to him – and nothing for any who will not.”[4]
In connection with this, the words of Charles Spurgeon bear frequent repeating,
“I have hear it often asserted that if you believe that Jesus Christ died for you, you will be saved. My dear hearer, do not be deluded by such an idea! You may believe that Jesus Christ died for you and may believe what is not true! You may believe that which will bring you no sort of good whatever. That is not saving faith! The man who has saving faith attains to the conviction that Christ died for him afterwards, but it is not of the essence of saving faith. Do not get that into your head or it will ruin you! Do not say, “I believe that Jesus Christ died for me,” and because of that feel that you are saved! I pray you to remember that the genuine faith that saves the soul has for its main element—trust—absolute rest of the whole soul—on the Lord Jesus Christ to save me, whether He died in particular or in special to save me or not and, relying as I am, wholly and alone on Him, I am saved! Afterwards I come to perceive that I have a special interest in the Savior’s blood, but if I think I have perceived that before I have believed in Christ, then I have inverted the Scriptural order of things and I have taken as a fruit of my faith that which is only to be obtained by rights—by the man who absolutely trusts in Christ, and Christ alone, to save!”[5]
When a wrong theology and model of conversion becomes widely accepted, adopted, believed, and practiced, the implications are immense and tragic. To base saving faith on a statement such as ‘Jesus Christ died for you’ is a dangerous error. With the popularization of the idea that salvation could be made easier and reduced to a ‘once-and-done’ act and ‘decision’, performed at any time by anyone, then inevitably ‘conversion’ and what it means to be a Christian took on a whole new meaning than that of the Bible’s. ‘Success’ and ‘growth’ came to supersede all other considerations and priorities. The result has been disastrous for contemporary evangelicalism. It has produced a ‘Christianity’ that is devoid of any understanding and conviction of sin, the fear of God, and any moral transformation. It is no coincidence that beginning in the early twentieth century books on evangelism began to appear in droves, many of which promised almost certain ‘success’ if the ‘new’ methods advocated were implemented. Virtually all, however, were based on a faulty theology of regeneration, a wrong understanding of sin, and a defective knowledge of the true nature of man. Martyn Lloyd-Jones identified the bitter fruit of this ‘new’ understanding of what it means to be a Christian, and the theology on which it is based,
“[False teaching] does not emphasize the utter sinfulness of sin and the total inability of man to do anything about his own salvation. It often does not really believe in sin at all, and certainly does not emphasize its vile nature. It does not say that we are perfect; but it does suggest that sin is not serious. Indeed, it does not like to talk about sin; it only talks about individual or particular sins. It does not talk about the fallen nature, or say that man himself in his totality is fallen, lost and depraved….And it does not emphasize the fact that man is ‘dead in trespasses and sins,’ and utterly helpless and hopeless. It does not like that; it does not see the necessity of doing that.”
“[False teaching] does not emphasize repentance in any real sense. It has a very wide gate leading to salvation and a very broad way leading to heaven. You need not feel much of your own sinfulness; you need not be aware of the blackness of your own heart. You just ‘decide for Christ’ and you rush in with the crowd… It is entirely unlike the evangelism of the Puritans and of John Wesley, George Whitefield and others, which led men to be terrified of the judgment of God, and to have an agony of soul sometimes for days and weeks and months.”[6]
False teachers “secretly introduce destructive heresies” (2 Pt 2:1) into the church. Most people do not realize just how many erroneous and destructive beliefs and practices have been secretly introduced into contemporary evangelicalism. The word used by Peter, pareisago, and translated “secretly introduce”, is a rare word occurring only here in the entire New Testament. It means to secretly and craftily introduce and bring factors in from the outside, in this case, from outside the Bible. Such is this false theology of regeneration, the evangelism based on it, its altered definition of ‘faith’, and its different understanding of what it means to be a Christian. Whenever the primary emphasis in evangelism is on getting people to ‘accept’ and ‘receive’ Jesus, anything that might be a hindrance to that goal will be assiduously avoided. Therefore, declaring to sinners their true nature, that they are enslaved to sin, dead in trespasses and sin, by nature a child of wrath, hostile to the law of God with no desire or ability to submit themselves to it, under the just condemnation of God with no ability to do anything or to contribute anything to their salvation, these are truths and sound doctrines which are regarded as counterproductive to the reception of the good news of the gospel. The problem with this reasoning is that it is based on a false theology of regeneration that believes salvation is ultimately an act of a person’s own free choice and that nothing must be said or done that might discourage or provoke resistance. Ultimately, it is a denial, if not in word then in practice, that mankind is in the horrible condition and has the hostile nature that God has revealed. Either God’s word is true or it is not. Either it is true or it is not that, “the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth;” (Gn 9:21); that the unregenerate person is, “alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds” (Col 2:21); that “a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot (ou dunatai – “does not have the ability”) understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” (1 Cor 2:14); and that “the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God,” (and why not?) “for it is not even able to do so” (Rm 8:7).
If all this biblical testimony is true, and more could be cited, then salvation is not dependent on gaining the acceptance of a person’s will, but on God alone who is able to grant a new birth, impart spiritual life to a sinner that is dead in trespasses and sin (Rm 9:16), and give the gift of the only faith that justifies (Eph 2:8; 1 Cor 1:30). True saving faith is the opposite of self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-effort, self-importance, and self-righteousness. It looks to and trusts in a power, a righteousness, and a Person outside of itself, confesses its own weakness and helplessness, puts no confidence in the flesh, and does not lean on its own understanding, but distrusts it and walks by faith. A salvation that is understandable and congenial to the mind of fallen man is a salvation that is the product of the fallen mind of men. True salvation is beyond the ‘faith’ of an unregenerate person. Saving faith is called “the gift of God” (Eph 2:8) precisely because the natural man, being hostile toward God, does not possess the ability to believe savingly. It is not that the exercise of saving faith is exceptionally hard; rather it is because the truths that must be believed are so intensely hated by the natural man (1 Cor 2:14); therefore he has no desire or ability to believe them. The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing (1 Cor 1:18). ‘Faith’ therefore cannot be the cause of the new birth, but must be the fruit of it. Where ‘faith’ is professed without a changed life it is because there has been no new birth, without which no one can enter into the kingdom of God (Jn 3:3, 5). It is a dead faith, being by itself (Jm 2:17). John Owen, the great Puritan genius, stated it this way,
“It is denied that any faith, trust, or confidence, which may be imagined, so as to be absolutely separable from, and have its whole nature consistent with, the absence of all other graces, is that faith which is the especial gift of God, and which in the gospel is required of us in a way of duty….Wherefore we say, the faith whereby we are justified, is such as is not found in any but those who are made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and by him united unto Christ; whose nature is renewed, and in whom there is a principle of all grace, and purpose of obedience.”[7]
Two things are consistently true of every false and non-Christian; they have never felt or seen their own total depravity, and they have never experienced the deep conviction wrought by the Holy Spirit. There is a real and great danger that under increasing and sustained hostility to biblical truth, professing Christians may be tempted to make ‘minor’ concessions and modifications to unpopular doctrines. To counter this temptation it must be remembered that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not given to us as something that is open to discussion. It is the revelation of God which cannot be altered, compromised, or rejected without incurring the greatest guilt and the judgment of God, “But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him” (Hb 10:38; cf. Lk 9:26). Instead of hiding the fact of their true condition, and intimating that there is still some good in them that can cooperate with God, avoiding what the sinner might find offensive, the secure sinner needs to realize the awful truth and extent of their hopeless position before a holy, just, and offended God, and their total dependence on His grace and mercy to create the new nature within them that they so desperately need to be a child of God.
This is the gospel vise in which the sinner must be pressed – they cannot believe, yet they must believe to be saved – thereby seeing that their only hope is to flee to the only One who can save them and who has demonstrated His love, “in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rm 5:8). The reason for faith on the part of the unbeliever is based on Christ’s offer of salvation to all who believe, not on their own ability to believe. All who come to Christ must come to Him “like a child” (Lk 18:17), or they cannot come to Him at all. Jesus is not speaking of coming to Him with a simple child-like faith, but “like a child” (paidion), the word often used to denote an infant (cf. Jn 16:21; Mt 2:8-13; Hb 11:23), and which use the context unquestionably supports, “And they were bringing even their babies (their brephos – newborn infants) to Him” (Lk 18:15). Jesus is not emphasizing the kind of faith, but the necessity of realizing our own helplessness, inability, and total dependence which all that come to Him must possess, as helpless and dependent as a newborn babe. The sinner’s responsibility to believe has nothing to do with their ability to believe. The unregenerate person’s inability is the result of their sinfulness for which they alone are responsible. Inability does not absolve from responsibility. Only when a sinner sees, feels, and understands their inability do they begin to see and feel their need for a new nature. The command of the gospel is addressed to human responsibility, not ability.
The lie that Satan used to first draw mankind into sin was the lie that God did not love them, and it is this lie that Jesus came to disprove (Jn 3:16). The universal call of the gospel is irrefutable proof of God’s love freely offered and extended to all people. God lovingly offers Christ to all who are willing to trust in Him alone for salvation. The problem is not that God does not love sinners, but that sinners hate God (Jn 15:24); not that Christ is unwilling to save all who trust in Him, but that the natural man is unwilling to come to Christ that they might have life, “and you are unwilling to come to Me, that you might have life” (Jn 5:40). It is people themselves, not God, who exclude themselves from the love of God in Christ Jesus; they do not believe because they are unwilling, and therefore unable to believe, Their natural hostility to the truth of God prevents them from believing His truth, “But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me” (Jn 8:45). It is the belief that they have already ‘believed’ that blinds the minds of many to the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, to the true nature of sin, and to their need for a new nature. The truly regenerate person loves God, loves Christ, loves the Bible, loves obedience, loves holiness, hates sin, and loves those who likewise do the same. They delight in the law of God which is now written on their heart as an indwelling principle of life. Or, as John Murray expressed it, “That is to say, regeneration cannot be conceived of apart from the new life which it begets.”[8] And this is for the simple reason, “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (Jn 3:6).
Strange Voices
Most of what today passes for Bible-teaching and the gospel sounds too much like the voice of a stranger. It is definitely not the voice of the Good Shepherd, and it cannot be supported by a true and unadulterated understanding of Scripture. There is a great emphasis on increasing the ‘success’, efficiency, appeal, and popularity of ministry and an almost total abandoning of increasing the quality, character, knowledge, and holiness of ministry. In a by-gone era when people lived in moral and spiritual darkness, it was believed that the success of the gospel was dependent on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit working through the accurate preaching of His Word. But in this modern, scientific, technological, and enlightened era, the success of the gospel is now dependent on and measured by the pouring out of the wallet. Preachers preach in a way that most profits them. They ignore, waterdown, or misrepresent unpopular and ‘controversial’ truths and overemphasize those that flatter the natural man’s pride, self-centeredness, lusts, and self-righteousness. There is no ‘narrow gate’ and ‘hard way’ in their teaching. We have somehow come to the conclusion that error consists only in what is outrageously wrong and blatantly false, and have forgotten that false teaching is known not so much by what a person says, but by what is left unsaid. Nothing that is offensive to the sensitive ears of the natural man will be found in false teaching. When people content themselves with God’s common graces and gifts, and with the gratification of their own carnal lusts, fleshly desires, worldly interests and pleasures, and never have their presuppositions, opinions, and lifestyles confronted with the truth of God’s Word, this shuts the Spirit out of their life because they can be content with a form of godliness that denies its life transforming power.
The kind of preaching now in vogue is heavy on flattery, vague generalities, psychology, humanitarianism, motivationalism, politics, and storytelling, and light on theology and sound doctrine. The tendency is to downplay and ignore the doctrine of man’s total depravity – a doctrine which runs afoul with the dominant Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian view of man that insists people are basically good, just merely ‘broken’, where acts of evil are attributed to mental illness instead of a depraved mind and nature, and where desperate, humanly devised solutions are put forth for what are ultimately spiritual problems – and to generalize and sentimentalize the atonement of Christ until it disappears into an undefined, indefinite, and impotent idea. The methods, manners, backdrops, visual aids, and showmanship of pastors hold more of the attention of people than their expositions of Scripture. Most of all, they look for attractions that are appealing to young people, and which will attract large numbers and enable them to compete with other churches in numbers and novelties. With this goal in view, nothing that might sound harsh, dogmatic, and unpleasant to very sensitive ears must ever come from the mouth of the preacher. They dance around the edges of hard truths rather than press their implications on calloused and secure consciences. The unpopular doctrines of God’s sovereignty, holiness, justice, and wrath, of human depravity and helplessness, and of divine election, if referred to at all, must be by way of misrepresentation, obfuscation, or denunciation. They will enthusiastically preach on popular topics such as ‘social justice’ while at the same time ignore the unpopular truth of God’s justice. They have a dread of offending the unregenerate and self-righteous worldlings in their midst and that make up the bulk of their congregations, so they invent multiple classes of Christians unknown to Scripture, unheard of by historic Christianity, and that exclude virtually no one. True biblical preaching that clearly and accurately expounds the Scripture and makes clear distinctions between saving faith and a false faith, and between true Christianity and all its various counterfeits, can never leave unbelievers comfortable in the company of true Christians. The same truths that unbelievers and nominal Christians find so offensive are loved and cherished by the genuine believer. They may sometimes cut to the quick and cause great personal grief, but for the true believer it is a good pain and sorrow because it is “the sorrow that is according to the will of God” and which “produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation;” (2 Cor 7:10). To blur the distinction between the true and the false, and to preach vague generalities so that believer and unbeliever alike find it to their liking may increase the quantity of church goers, but it will not convict and convert sinners, recover the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, nor advance His cause and kingdom.
No wonder that this different gospel and theology of regeneration, which has nothing in it that is offensive, convicting, or unpalatable, but is perfectly suited to the worldly, self-centered, self-righteous, and unhumbled sinner, finds such a ready and willing audience, incurs no opposition among unregenerate people, and makes so many supposed converts who are full of confidence, security, and joy without any fears or convictions. Its success is its greatest defense and any message that would emphasize the nature, perfections, and sovereignty of God, His law, the true nature of man, the evil of sin, the duty of obedience and holy living, and that would distress and pain the conscience is considered an unwelcome hindrance and barrier to making disciples. No wonder then, when all the parts of the gospel that are so offensive and foolish to the natural man are omitted, that the gospel is no longer found to be offensive and foolish. No wonder then, when the gospel is made acceptable to the carnal, fleshly, and self-righteous mind that carnal, fleshly, and self-righteous minds fall in love with it. No wonder then, when this gospel that is calculated to fill the unrenewed mind with a false confidence and hope, that it actually has this effect. No wonder then, when the message, worship, activities, programs, and ministry of the church are specifically designed to increase the number of church goers, that they actually accomplish this goal. No wonder then, when the true nature of God is unknown, and a false representation of Him is presented to the mind – a God who is all love and no wrath and justice, and who is very fond of such ‘believers’ as themselves – that they have a great love towards Him and no fear of Him? No wonder then, when these sorts of ‘believers’ are of one mind, and admire, praise, and receive glory from one another that they seem to be full of love for each other. However, it is not Christ’s holy image in them that they love, but their own image, a reflection of themselves.
There is a vast difference between preaching and teaching that seeks to meet the demand and hunger for sound doctrine and that which seeks to create a demand for religious feelings and experiences. The first is in response to a previous sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, while the second is a product of human effort and methods. The former will not be endured by nominal pseudo-Christians, while the latter will leave true Christians spiritually starved and empty. Only the true meaning of Scripture is Scripture, and without the true meaning of the Bible there is no ‘sword of the Spirit’ (Hb 4:12). The sole purpose of the church is to bring glory to God by being the pillar and support of the truth (1 Tim 3:15), and that glory is only given to Him by men and women who have been brought to a true and right understanding of sin, the Bible, and a greater faith in it and obedience to it. It would appear that what Charles Spurgeon repeatedly told his students for the ministry, “To be effective preachers you must be sound theologians”, has been largely forgotten in our day.
Today the importance of sound doctrine and an accurate understanding of theology are not only minimized, but disparaged. It is now considered a virtue and a mark of humility for a pastor to admit that he is just as ‘broken’ as the people he is seeking to shepherd. Natural gifts and intelligence are confused with and given priority over spiritual gifts and understanding. The requirements of 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:5-9, while still given token lip-service, in practice have, for the most part, been quietly set aside. Seminaries are more concerned with the size of their student body than with the quality, character, and biblical qualifications of the students who make up that body. The idea that a man could be trained for the ministry before there was any real proof of his biblical qualifications, or that seminary training qualified a man for ministry, was unthinkable to the people who made up the bulk of the old evangelicalism. Churches and seminaries do not make faithful pastors; rather it is God alone who calls and qualifies a man for ministry, and He has given us His list of qualifications and the evidences of His calling in His sufficient and authoritative Word. Is it any wonder that the church is full of wolves in sheep’s clothing, hirelings, compromisers, innovators, flatterers, politicians, and showman when God’s qualifications and evidences have been bypassed for so long? No wonder then, when both the biblical qualifications for ministry and the Bible’s theology of regeneration have been supplanted by humanly contrived substitutes that, like first century Judaism, pre-Reformation Europe, and pre-Great Awakening England, contemporary evangelicalism has degenerated to the point where the blind once again are leading the blind. In such a season no truth will be more opposed than the teaching concerning the nature and necessity of the new birth, an opposition noted by the great nineteenth century pastor and theologian, Archibald Alexander,
“And nothing is more certain, than when people have sunk into this deplorable state they will be disposed to manifest strong opposition to faithful, pointing preaching;…Accordingly, when God raised up preachers, animated with a burning zeal, who labored faithfully to convince their hearers of their ruined condition, and of a thorough conversion from sin, the opposition to them was violent. The gospel, among people in such a condition, is sure to produce strife and division between those who fall under its influence and those whose carnal minds urge them to oppose it.”[9]
Professing Christianity and the ministry have not only parted company with sound doctrine, theology, and holiness, but in many instances actively oppose it. Regeneration and conversion are given a superficial treatment. That which may take weeks, months, even years to confirm, namely, true salvation, is now affirmed in a matter of seconds. What God has joined together – regeneration and moral transformation, justification and sanctification, saving faith and a holy life – man has today rendered asunder. Sin is understood as nothing more than a wrong action that requires forgiveness, not an evil, indwelling principle and nature that rules and governs a person’s heart, mind, and life, and to which they are enslaved and utterly incapable of freeing themselves. Emphasizing a sinner’s inability and helplessness, the knowledge of which makes them realize their need for a new nature, is incompatible with the theology of regeneration endemic within contemporary evangelicalism. Conversion is represented as simply a change in status from condemnation to forgiveness without any radical change in a person’s nature that transforms them from a life of disobedience and self-centeredness to a life of obedience, self-denial, and holiness. Being a Christian means nothing more than being freed from the guilt and punishment of sin, a belief expressed in the once popular bumper-sticker, ‘Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven’, instead of being delivered from the power and dominion of sin, “For sin shall not be master over you,” (Rm 6:14; cf. Rm 6:11-13; 1 Pt 2:24). Forgotten is the truth that Jesus “bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Pt 2:24). Forgotten is the fact that the regenerate person is the one to whom holiness has become a reality of everyday life, and that where there is no holy life there is no Holy Spirit. From what does Jesus save; from a sense of emptiness, unimportance, lack of self-worth, and of victimization; from feelings of loneliness and isolation; from ‘brokenness’ and mental anguish? NO! Jesus saves from the wrath to come (1 Thes 1:10). He saves from the anger, justice, and righteousness of God Almighty. He saves from the power and dominion of sin (Rm 6:6, 22).
A Kind of Christianity
After many years of observing, warning, preaching, and writing against the alarming drift and decay of professing Christianity, A.W. Tozer, before his death in 1963, came to the conclusion that, “A widespread revival of the kind of Christianity we know today in America might prove to be a moral tragedy from which we would not recover in a hundred years.”[10] Given the current moral and spiritual state not only of this nation in general, but of modern evangelicalism in particular, it would appear that Tozer’s concerns with “the kind of Christianity we know today in America” have been realized to an extent that even he could not have imagined. No matter how diligently preventive measures may be employed to counteract the negative consequences of introducing humanly devised methods, means, wisdom, innovations, and practices into the church, for which the only argument in their favor is their apparent ‘success’, the fact is, to a great extent they are inseparable from the system which produced and introduced them, and history has repeatedly shown that any countermeasures prove to be woefully inadequate. We cannot circumvent the immutable principle that if we sow to the flesh, from the flesh we shall reap both moral and spiritual corruption (Gal 6:8). The warning given by Jonathan Edwards has proven to be true time and time again throughout church history,
“Tis no argument that such things are right, that they do a great deal of good for the present, and within a narrow sphere; when, at the same time, if we look at them in the utmost extent of their consequences, and in the long run of events, they do ten times as much hurt as good. Appearing events are not our rule, but the law and the testimony.”[11]
The suppression and burying of historical fact is accomplished by a misrepresentation and caricature of its true nature. It is never a wise thing to ignore, misrepresent, or suppress the truth. It may serve the short-term interests of those who do, but the long-term consequences can be, and usually are, disastrous. We cannot avoid the principles of, “and be sure your sin will find you out” (Nm 32:23), and, “whatever a man sows, this he shall also reap” (Gal 6:7). “The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment; for others, their sins follow after” (1 Tm 5:24). Sometimes the consequences are immediate and obvious, sometimes it takes several generations before their bitter fruit are fully realized, which by then the practices which spawned them, and on which ‘success’ depends, have become fully entrenched.
It would be difficult to identify a case where the long-term effect of suppressing the facts has been more ruinous for contemporary evangelical Christianity than those concerning the life, theology, and ministry of Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875). By selectively choosing those facts that served self-interest and suppressing those that did not, after several generations the ruinous consequences of abandoning the theology of regeneration dominant in this nation since Plymouth Rock for one that equates a physical action with regeneration and conversion are all too obvious. This theology is exemplified in the commonly accepted and familiar appeal, ‘To receive Jesus, pray this prayer’. There is a destructive theology that lies behind this seemingly innocuous plea. Many who rejected Finney’s heretical Pelagian theology nevertheless enthusiastically embraced his innovative and wildly ‘successful’ methodologies along with the theology of regeneration on which these methods were based – a theology which makes conversion a work of man and that has come to dominate the thinking and practice of the bulk of modern evangelicalism.
This is not to say that some people have not been brought to a true saving faith while under this system, but they were not saved by the system, but by a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit working through the Word preached. What this system has done, however, is to thoroughly confuse true faith with a counterfeit, and erase virtually any distinction between a genuine conversion and one that is merely the product of emotional and psychological manipulation and human activity, until any attempt to make a clear distinction between the genuine and the spurious by applying biblical tests of sound doctrine is offensive and intolerable to not only the mass of professing Christians, but to a system of religion that is incredulous at the very suggestion that the ‘altar call’ is unbiblical and based on a false theology of regeneration, a wrong view of man, and a defective understanding of sin. Charles Spurgeon was one of the men who predicted the change which this new theology of conversion would bring to evangelicalism; another was William Booth, the founder of The Salvation Army. When an American newspaper asked Booth what he regarded to be the primary dangers facing the new (twentieth) century, his answer was succinct and to the point, “Religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell”[12] This is precisely the kind of Christianity that characterizes present day evangelicalism.
True Christianity and its spiritual fruit of holiness, obedience, and purity of life have reached such a low ebb that all of the extraordinary and extreme measures and methods so common today must be adopted and are necessary to impart any appearance of spiritual life. Nowhere, however, is the power of true and practical godliness and fervent holiness more scarce than where humanly devised means and methods are the most popular and practiced. Today the greater part of professing Christendom is dependent upon human means, wisdom, methods, innovations, and instruments, and has been led astray from a total dependence on the Holy Spirit to overcome man’s natural hostility, hardness, spiritual deadness, and to grant a new birth. If your goal is to increase numbers, grow a church, and gain a following, you can do it, just as you can grow tasteless tomatoes in winter by artificial light and heat. There are ways to make virtually anything live and grow by the use of artificial means, but the true work of God neither needs nor is helped by such means; rather they grieve and drive away the Holy Spirit and produce nothing but an artificial Christianity. People whose ‘faith’ is a product of this counterfeit theology of conversion, and who live under its influence for generations, become virtually impervious to genuine conviction and conversion. They are certain that they are Christians because they once responded to the gospel and made a profession of faith, but they are not convinced of anything, other than the persuasion that they are a Christian, and will not subject themselves to the searching light of biblical criteria. It has become all too common for someone to appear to be preaching the gospel when, in reality, and when judged by the tests of Scripture, they are not doing so at all.
Bad Tree, Bad Fruit
It is not every faith that saves, but only that faith which is the result of a sovereign work of regeneration by the Holy Spirit. There is a supernatural faith and there is a natural ‘faith’, which when confused results in a natural ‘Christianity’. A ‘faith’ that does not result in purity of life is not the faith that is the fruit of regeneration. The fruit of this natural ‘faith’ is not good but ‘bad’. To make this point more clear we need to understand what Jesus is saying in His teaching concerning the good and bad tree, “every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit (Mt 7:17). Two different words for ‘bad’ are used by Jesus, one for the tree itself (sapron), and one for its fruit (ponerous). The first word, referring to the tree itself, does not mean ‘rotten’ or ‘decayed’ because a rotten tree does not produce fruit of any kind. Rather it refers to something that is of poor or inferior quality. By all appearances the good and bad trees look very similar, but in reality the bad is of inferior quality to the good tree. The bad tree is an inferior tree, not one that is cultivated; it springs from the inferior rootstock, not from the superior scion, which is seen by the kind of fruit it produces. Notice, the tree is known to be bad not by the appearance of the tree itself, but by its fruit. This brings us to the second word for ‘bad’ used to describe the fruit produced by the bad tree. It too does not mean ‘rotten’ or ‘corrupt’ since even the fruit from a good tree can rot when over ripe. Rather it means ‘worthless, unusable, possessing a serious flaw’. The fruit from a good tree is useful, whereas the fruit from a bad tree serves no useful purpose, exposing the true nature of the tree as bad despite its outward appearance. It is impossible for a bad tree to produce useful fruit since that would be contrary to its inferior nature (Mt 7:18; 12:34). Jesus is teaching a profound truth that being a Christian is not something superficial and on the surface. It is not just a showy outward profession, but something that radically changes the very nature of a person, and that change is evidenced by the fruit which is born by the new nature that has been created within them.
This form of Christianity that is the product of a different theology of regeneration is a blasphemous travesty of the real thing, a foolish, delusive sham, and counterfeit spirituality. As J.C. Ryle pointed out, “A regeneration which a man can have, and yet live carelessly in sin or worldliness, is a regeneration invented by uninspired theologians, but never mentioned in Scripture.”[13] A Christianity that does not produce a life of holiness and obedience is a ‘Christianity’ without the Holy Spirit. It is a form that denies its power. It is a bad tree that has gone to seed and which continues to yield a bumper crop of bad fruit (cf. Hb 6:7, 8). Whenever erroneous, innovative, and unscriptural methods are popularized, and based on weak and wrong theology, the cause of Christ is marred, corrupted, and confused. Dependence on men, whoever they may be, or upon human means, is ultimately the very opposite of biblical Christianity. Where sound doctrine is weak or not endured then ‘success’ usually seems to rest in the things that should be avoided rather than approved and practiced. This feverish, superficial conception of regeneration springs from an unbiblically high and optimistic view of man, a deficient understanding of sin, and a low view of God to which the natural man is addicted, and even more so in this pragmatic, apostate, entitled, and self-centered age.
The recent declaration of September 8, 2019 as ‘Baptism Sunday’ by the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in America, and their seemingly noble goal of ‘One Million Baptisms’ that came out of their 2005 convention are direct products of this different theology of regeneration popularized by Finney which makes conversion a work of man and that has come to dominate the thinking and practice of professing evangelicalism in this nation for the past two-hundred years. As people forgot that regeneration is a sovereign work of God, of which saving faith is a result, so dependence on the Holy Spirit disappeared and was replaced by dependence on human means, activity, schemes, gimmicks, and instruments. It is the absence of genuine spiritual life, not the absence of means and methods designed to counterfeit it that explains the lack of the power of godliness today. The use of artificial means to provide a semblance of spiritual life actually has the opposite effect, culminating in a dangerous season. Faith must first be saving if it is to be persevering. This is not to say that many do not cling to and persevere in a false faith; rather just the opposite is true, especially in a dangerous season. But true persevering faith is a faith that is first and foremost the result of genuine regeneration.
Faithful Christians find themselves in much the same position today as the Reformers did in the sixteenth century. They can no longer operate within the existing religious mold and the faulty system of evangelism based on a different theology of regeneration. They must break with the existing mold and work to put another in its place, one that seeks to recover a biblical theology of regeneration, reclaim the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, rekindle a healthy fear of God, inculcate a true understanding of sin, restore the evangelism of old evangelicalism, salvage a biblical understanding of what it means to be a Christian, and reemphasize and promote the New Testament standards of morality and holiness that are the only evidence of a new birth. As A.W. Tozer once remarked, “Nothing is new that matters and nothing that matters can be modernized. The old way is the true way and there is no new way.” If something can be modernized you can rest assured that it is of human and not divine origin.
False conversions occur under any type of preaching and evangelism, but where the true nature of regeneration is inverted to where regeneration becomes the result of a ‘faith’ that is equated with a physical act in response to the gospel, and holiness, obedience, and purity of life are treated as if they had no relation to true salvation, then the instances of false conversions are dramatically increased, resulting in a generation of ‘believers’ who will not endure sound doctrine and who cling to a form of godliness while denying its power. When the gospel that is preached consists only of forgiveness of sin, a change of status before God, that can be had merely for the asking and by the right exercise of a person’s own will, this may appeal to the self-interest of the unregenerate person. They may ‘accept’ and ‘believe’ in that message and still remain content to live as they did before their ‘conversion’. They consider themselves to be a ‘Christian’, even though they have never felt their own sinfulness or known any lasting moral transformation. When the guilt, conviction, and sense of sin goes missing from gospel preaching, it becomes necessary to invent other reasons that motivate people to look to Christ. Conversion and Christianity become not deliverance from the power and dominion of sin and a radical moral transformation, but something else far inferior. The result is ‘converts’ and ‘Christians’ who have never known the fear of God and what it is to love God’s law and hate sin. As the number of these ‘Christians’ grow and populate the churches, so any difference between them and the world diminishes until the line of demarcation virtually disappears, both are blended together, and any attempt to make a distinction is intolerable to the mass of professing ‘believers’. It is those who would come to us in sheep’s clothing and who disguise themselves as servants of righteousness who tell us that we must never say anything that might cause someone to doubt the legitimacy of what they believe, or cause them to question their salvation. Rather, we are told that we must stick to vague messages that make people feel good about themselves and never upset anyone. Darkness still hates the light, and will not come to the light, lest its deeds should be exposed (Jn 3:20).
Is it merely a coincidence that in a season where conviction of sin is almost nonexistent, where shame and guilt are regarded as psychologically harmful, and where the evidence of a totally depraved nature are attributed to mental illness, that the commands of God and the necessity of holiness and moral purity are scarcely if ever heard? And if they are heard, they are typically dismissed as ‘legalistic’, ‘pietistic’, and considered to be an attempt to corrupt the gospel by adding works to faith. We are sure to be scolded and reminded that Christians “are not under law, but under grace” (Rm 6:14). The Apostle Paul anticipated such an antinomian reaction, which is why he quickly countered it with, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (Rm 6:15-18). This passage requires no comment. It speaks for itself. There is a radical moral transformation in the life of a true Christian.
Within the current system of modern evangelicalism, “The doctrine of justification by faith…has in our time fallen into evil company and been interpreted by many in such a manner as actually do bar men and women from the knowledge of God. The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without a jar to the moral life and without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be “received” without creating any special love for him in the soul of the receiver. The man is “saved” but he is not hungry and thirsty after God.”[14] Becoming and being a Christian is not as easy as it has been portrayed by the mass of professing evangelicalism for the past two-hundred years. Genuine faith is much scarcer than people realize or are willing to admit, and it is rarest among those who have trusted in a false theology of regeneration that equates some physical action on the part of the ‘believer’ with saving faith and conversion. Such a theology and ‘faith’ is the equivalent of trying to enter by another way into the fold of the sheep (Jn 10:1), a broad and easy way. Jesus, on the other hand, has told us that the way that leads to eternal life is narrow and hard, and few are those who find it (Mt 7:14). Not all who say, “Lord, Lord”, will enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt 7:21). Only that faith which is the fruit of regeneration, not the multitude of its artificial counterfiets, and which produces a moral transformation, purity of life, hatred of sin, and fear of God is genuine saving faith and true biblical Christianity. This is the faith that is necessary if we are to persevere and not shrink back to destruction in a dangerous season.
Courageous Perseverance
This perseverance or endurance requires a holy, supernatural courage in a time of danger; the courage expressed by Paul that when he was told “bonds and afflictions await me” (Ac 20:23), he could say, “But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, in order that I may finish my course,” (Ac 20:24). It is the courageous faith to stand firm in the evil day, as Paul did before the tyrant Nero (2 Tm 4:16, 17), rather than compromise one jot or tittle of divine truth, recede from any biblical principle, make the demands of the gospel and sound doctrine more congenial to the unregenerate heart and mind, or resort to ‘new’ and ‘innovative’ means and methods that produce far greater ‘success’. Paul understood the principle that a slave is not greater than his Master (Jn 15:20), a principle that seems to be all but forgotten by contemporary evangelicalism in this nation. If we ever hope to stand firm in a dangerous season and come off victorious we must heed the command of the Apostle Peter, “Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pt 1:13). It was the necessity of this bold, courageous, and persevering faith which the author of Hebrews sought to impress upon his readers, an attitude of faith “which could rise above the seen to the unseen, the present to the future, the temporal to the eternal, and which in the presence of sufferings could retain patience, in the midst of disappointments could preserve hope. This is the key to the whole treatment of faith in the Epistle to the Hebrews – its definition as the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (x.1); its illustrations and enforcement by example of the heroes of the faith in the past, a list chosen and treated with the utmost skill for the end in view (xi); its constant attachment to the promises (iv.1, 2; vi.12; x.36, 38; xi.9); its connection with the faithfulness (xi.11, cf. x.23), almightiness (xi.19), and the rewards of God (xi.6, 26); and its association with such virtues as boldness (iii.6; iv.16; x.19, 35), confidence (iii.14; xi.1), patience (x.36; xii.1), hope (iii.6; vi.11, 18; x.23).”[15] In a dangerous season it is essential that we arouse and awaken our fear and courage for God, the necessity of which will appear in the following four considerations.
First and foremost, it is this bold persevering faith that honors Jesus Christ and His Word when we are called upon to uphold them, live by faith upon them, and if it is the will of God, to suffer for them, “For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong” (1 Pt 3:17). Accommodating the standards of Christian morality to those of the culture, making salvation easier, turning the worship of God into an entertainment event, ignoring the offensive doctrines of God’s sovereignty and man’s total depravity, overlooking popular and ‘successful’ errors that have been secretly introduced, pandering to the flesh, and redefining what it means to be a Christian will in great measure make us more fashionable and shelter us from the scorn, reproach, and ridicule of man, but it will dishonor Jesus Christ and incur the judgment of God. There is a great solemnity to the suffering of a true believer. Heaven and earth are witnesses to how we respond. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who have gained approval through their persevering faith (Hb 11:39-4:1). We have Jesus Christ as our model of submissive suffering for doing what is right, namely, for faithfully doing the will of His Father, and it is for this purpose which every believer has been called by God (1 Pt 2:21). It is not that God has called us to suffer simply for the sake of suffering, but in a world that calls evil good and good evil, right wrong and wrong right, and that is hostile to the will and Word of God, then when we do what is right it will invariably incur the hostility, scorn, animosity, and vilification of not only the world in general, but of false Christianity in particular. When we appear as lights in the world, this will incite the malevolence of a crooked and perverse generation (Phil 2:15), because we cannot avoid the principle that darkness hates the light. When we refuse to run “into the same excess of dissipation” (1 Pt 4:4) as others, that is, behaviors and practices that show no thought or concern for their consequences, then we will be maligned. Good behavior will be maligned by a world that consistently and increasingly calls good evil (1 Pt 3:16).
While the power and ability to persevere lies in the hands of God (Is 40:29; Jn 10:28-30; Rm 8:31-39; 1 Pt 1:5; Jude 24), very much lies in the hands of a true believer. If the enemy can entice them to compromise with evil, to yield one inch of ground, to resort to secretly introduced methods, beliefs, and practices, to be friends with the world, and to participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, then it will provide the enemies of the gospel and the powers of hell with all the excuse they need to say, “Is that what you believe? Is that how you live? Is that what Christianity is? Then what difference is there between me and someone who professes to be a Christian? Absolutely none that I can see!” I readily admit that it is easy to tell someone to stand firm when you are not the one being tempted to shrink back, or compromise with evil; when it is not your life that is impacted, your career and livelihood that is not being subtly or not so subtly threatened; when it is not your friends and family that are pressuring you, forsaking you, and even becoming hostile toward you. I understand all this not just theoretically, but experientially, yet these are the things that cause us to see the necessity of a persevering faith, look to Christ for it, and to prove ourselves doers of the Word, and not merely hearers who delude ourselves (Jm 1:22). Let us always remember the warning of the wisest man, except One, who ever lived, “Like a trampled spring and a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked” (Pv 25:26). There are far too many who have made a great show of being brave in times of ease, accommodation, and prosperity who have crumpled like a wet rag and given way before the wicked when they have been put to the test and made to trust in nothing but the promises of God and their own professed principles. Just as the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner who truly repents and believes, so devils and evil men love to gloat over one professing Christian who gives way before the wicked. “Behold, we count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and merciful” (Jm 5:11). May it be true of us as it was of Job, “he still holds fast his integrity” (Job 2:3), and may we like Moses chose “to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin;” (Hb 11:25). This is the kind of faith that is necessary if we are to truly honor Jesus Christ as Lord not just with our lips, but with our lives.
Second, the success of the devil’s temptations, the reasonings of the world, and the enticements of the flesh in the hour of distress and danger are all dependent on the weakening, collapse, and overthrow of this grace. This was the devil’s purpose behind all the afflictions which God inflicted upon Job, “he will curse You to Your face” (Job 2:5). This is the reason behind all the persecutions which the devil incites against Christians, because such threats to our earthly comforts, reputations, and ambitions are designed to work on our fleshly and carnal fears which arise when faced with these dangers, and make our soul like a storm-tossed sea. This is what the enemy and his instruments always aim at, “He was hired for this reason, that I might become frightened and act accordingly in sin, so that they might have an evil report in order that they could reproach me” (Neh 6:13). What makes these schemes so successful is that our old fleshly nature has a tendency to multiply them and imagine them to be worse than they really are, and so drive us to snatch at the bait and into the snare laid by the devil. “The fear of man brings a snare,” (Pv 29:25), is a truth that has manifested itself in the best of saints, in Abraham (Gn 12:11-13), in Isaac (Gn 26:7), in Aaron (Ex 32:22-24), and in the Apostle Peter (Mt 26:69-75). If the enemy of our souls can succeed in subduing this grace, he will succeed in having us compromise and capitulate on the most sordid, self-centered, and dishonorable of terms. Therefore the possession and cultivation of a persevering faith is an absolute necessity in any season, but especially in a season that is as dangerous as the one in which we now live, “do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised” (Hb 10:35, 36).
Third, our own peace as well as God’s glory is dependent on having a persevering faith. This is the basis for “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension” (Phil 4:7), and for the confidence that can say with the Apostle Paul, “And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:19). It is a great mercy to be freed from those vultures of fear, worry, distress, and self-interest that feed on and eat up the dead faith of others in such times and which have caused so many in our day to shrink back to destruction. Certainly God Himself considers His promise of this faith a great mercy bestowed on all who possess it, “He will not fear evil tidings; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord” (Ps 112:7); “But he who listens to me shall live securely, and shall be at ease from the dread of evil” (Pv 1:33); “The Lord God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes Me walk on my high places” (Hab 3:19); “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33). This bold, confident, courageous persevering faith is of vital necessity if we are to know the peace which the promises of God are intended to bestow on all who perseveringly trust in them, “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convince that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rm 8:37-39). In a dangerous season when we are surrounded by confusion, distraction, evil tidings, false hopes, false peace, and dead faith, to know true peace is a great mercy.
Fourth and finally, your perseverance is of great benefit to other saints who are in danger of shrinking back. Those who are strong have a divinely mandated duty to help those who are weak, “and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another, and all the more, as you see the day drawing near” (Hb 10:24, 25). Sadly, this is precisely what many Christians are doing today, “forsaking our own assembling together”. Having understandably given up on the local church, yet not willing to travel more than a few miles from their home, or to give up all the things that have been “secretly introduced” into the church, they stay at home and listen to their favorite Bible teacher. They have a churchless Christianity. They do no one any good. They are doing precisely what the devil desires them to do. Any positive influence they might have contributed has been effectively silenced. They have removed themselves from the only sphere where they can, “strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed” (Hb 12:12, 13). It is a sad reality that before contemporary evangelicalism and the mass of professing Christians can say with the Apostle Paul, “I am ready”, and before they can “stand firm in the evil day”, there must be a massive recovery and improvement of the only faith that will persevere and not shrink back in a dangerous season.
I will conclude this study by briefly providing the reader with a definition and description of the nature of this bold persevering faith, not only so you may know what it is, but also in hopes of convicting you of how scarce it is, and of the necessity of making sure that we are in possession of it in this dangerous season. No better and more concise definition and description can be given than that provided by the great Puritan John Flavel,
“It is a holy boldness in the performance of difficult duties, flowing from faith in the call of God, and his promises to us in the discharge of them. And so you have the nature of it in these four particulars.
- It is a holy boldness, not a natural or sinful boldness, arising either from the natural constitution, or evil disposition of the mind.
- It is expressed about duties for truth, not error, Jer. 4:3, for the interest of Christ, not of the flesh.
- The season in which it appears is, when duties are surrounded and beset with difficulties and dangers, Dan. 3:16; 6:10.
- The fountain whence it flows is faith, and that as it respects the command and call of God to duty, Acts 16:10. And his promises to us in the discharge thereof, Josh. 1:5, 6
And his grace stands opposed both to the fear of man in the cause of God, Heb 10:27, and to apostasy from the truth for the fear of suffering.”[16]
In the next study on ‘Living in Dangerous Times’, we will consider the necessity of having a heart and mind, to use an old Puritan term, mortified to all earthly and temporal pleasures if we are to suffer according to the will of God, or as the Apostle Paul stated, “But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6:14).
[1] D.M. Lloyd-Jones, Romans: Exposition of Chapter 5, Assurance (London: Banner of Truth, 1971), 123.
[2] Charles H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. 58, Sermon No. 3331, p. 6
[3] B.B. Warfield, ‘Albrecht Ritschl and His Doctrine of Christian Perfectionism’ in Perfectionism: Part One (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, reprint 2003), 20.
[4] Robert S. Candlish, The Atonement: its Reality, Completeness, and Extent (Edinburgh: Nelson, 1861), 232-233.
[5] Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. 58, Sermon No. 3331, p. 7
[6]D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971), 502-504.
[7] John Owen, ‘The Nature of Justifying Faith’ in The Works of John Owen, Vol. 5 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1965), 104.
[8] John Murray, ‘Regeneration’ in Collected Writings of John Murray, Vol. 2 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1976), 198
[9] Archibald Alexander, The Log College (First published 1851; Reprint, London: Banner of Truth, 1968), 17-18.
[10] A.W. Tozer, Leaning into the Wind (Wheaton, IL: Creation House, 1984), 18.
[11] Quoted in, Iain H. Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1987).
[12] Quoted in, Iain Murray, The Old Evangelicalism: Old Truths for a New Awakening (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2005), xi.
[13] J.C. Ryle, Holiness (Moscow, ID; Charles Nolan, 2001), 21.
[14] A.W. Tozer, Renewed Day by Day: A Daily Devotional (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1980), for Dec. 12.
[15] B.B. Warfield, ‘The Biblical Doctrine of Faith’ in Biblical Doctrines (Reprint, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2003), 498.
[16] John Flavel, The Works of John Flavel, Vol. 6 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, Reprint 1968), 48, 49.