The Privileges of the Apostate
By John Fast
For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame. – Hebrews 6:4-6 (NASB)
Ideas have a way of outliving the people who initiated them and taking on a life of their own that continues long after the life and name of the one who introduced them are forgotten. Such are the ideas and teachings introduced by Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), a name that outside of the ivory towers of academia has long been forgotten, yet whose ideas about the nature of Christianity have become the life blood of the mass of modern evangelicalism. Schleiermacher was born in Germany in an age known as ‘The Enlightenment’. It was an age in which human reason was regarded as the only means by which truth can be known. In keeping with the spirit of the age, Schleiermacher advanced the idea that religion is primarily a matter of feeling, intuition, and experience, not of doctrine and divinely revealed truth. Faith, therefore, does not have its origin in an external source of truth and doctrine; rather it arises from within, from a person’s own experience, feelings, and intuition. Therefore, no revealed truth from an authoritative and inerrant Bible is necessary for one to have faith; instead how we feel and what we experience becomes the test of truth and more important than how we think and what we believe. Faith is something that exists within us, not a gift of God’s grace (Eph 2:8), nor is it that which only “comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Rm 10:17). In fact, feeling, experience, and intuition, not divinely revealed truth and doctrine, are the bedrock of not only charismatic theology, but of the subjectivism and relativism that characterizes modern methods of Bible interpretation and teaching. The current experiences, intuition, feelings, reasoning, and understanding of the interpreter, not the text of Scripture, becomes the starting point for interpretation, as noted by Dr. Robert Thomas,
“With so much attention to the subjective inclinations of the interpreter, current hermeneutical trends have in effect invited secular fields to reinterpret the Bible in terms that they dictate. That is exactly the invitation that integrationists welcome….That is exactly what philosophy does: It focuses on human reasoning capacity as its principle object, rather than on the Scripture to be interpreted.”[1]
As a result of these trends, the plethora of theologies introduced and popularized in the last one-hundred years have been more concerned with things of this world and dealing with present problems than with teaching and articulating timeless truth, sound doctrine, and historic Christianity. Consequently, most students preparing for ministry today enter seminary biblically illiterate and graduate hermeneutically confused and theologically inept and unprepared to transmit and defend the faith once for all delivered to the saints. They are more skilled at questioning, distorting, and evading the plain meaning of Scripture than explaining it. They are steeped in pragmatism, syncretism, and humanitarianism, and prepared to innovate, entertain, and make people feel good about themselves, but not to instruct in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict. For many the primary purpose of religion is to make us feel good about ourselves, and any teaching that would make us feel bad about ourselves, much less condemn us, is a teaching to be abandoned. The ‘faith’ of most professing Christians today is a faith based not on sound doctrine and divinely revealed truth, but a customized and personally tailored faith based on a person’s own feelings, preferences, perceptions, presuppositions, and experiences. It is essentially nothing more than faith in ‘faith’, and any faith at that, not faith in Jesus Christ as He is revealed in Scripture. What we are witnessing today is the tragic legacy of at least three generations of churchgoers who have been trained to ‘share’ their opinions, feelings, and experiences in their small-group settings, not to know, understand, or be equipped in Scripture and sound doctrine. They are highly skilled at providing uplifting music, various forms of entertainment, man-centered and self-affirming messages, staying up to date with the culture, and inventing programs, but woefully inept, shallow, and impatient when it comes to preaching and teaching sound doctrine. Iain Murray identified what made Schleiermacher’s idea of Christianity so popular when he wrote,
“So instead of a straight denial of Scripture truths Schleiermacher simply did away with the need for revealed truths and an authoritative rule of faith. Christian experience consists of life, not doctrine. It derives from Christ, to be sure, but it is Christ within, not Christ revealed in Scripture and by the Holy Spirit. The Bible is simply the original interpretation of the Christian ‘feeling’, and by means of our own feeling we are free to add further ‘interpretation’.”[2]
In other words, the Bible can have multiple interpretations and meanings for different readers, meanings which we are free to add based on our own situation, feelings, and experiences. Today it is not uncommon to find churches that actually boast of the fact they are ‘theologically diverse’, as if that were a good thing, and as if truth did not matter. Different people may read the same text, but the meanings of that text may be as diverse as the feelings and experiences of the people who read it. This is the view of the Bible now held by the mass of regular churchgoers. Murry continues,
“In part [Schleiermacher’s] popularity arose from the support of undiscerning Christians who, confused by his language, supposed he had rescued religion from intellectual attack by showing that it stood on a different foundation. Many more of those who praised him were simply happy to be confirmed in the idea natural to the human heart, that beliefs are not vital to a relationship with God. A definition of Christian which holds that creed and character have no necessary connection – that it matters not what we believe so long as our hearts are right – was bound to be popular. That one axiom of his, that religion stands in no need of doctrine and rigid precepts, or of revelation from another world – that certain pious and devout sentiments towards God and Christ are all that is necessary for salvation, was well calculated to carry along with him the majority of those who still inclined to have no religion at all.” [3]
This is the ‘Christianity’ that constitutes the bulk of modern evangelicalism; it is a ‘Christianity’ where doctrine and truth has been superseded by feeling and experience, and where perception equals reality. A Christianity in which unbelief in the truths and doctrines of Scripture does not bar someone from going to heaven, whether that unbelief is total or in part, and one in which facts become subservient to feelings and experience, is bound to be received as good news by people who have no desire to submit their heart, mind, and life to the rule of God’s will revealed in His Word. It is a ‘Christianity’, however, that is not Christian, but another religion altogether. It is a religion that worships self by making self, not the will and truth of God revealed in Scripture the ultimate authority. It is a religion that leans on its own understanding, not one that trusts in and loves the God and Christ revealed in Scripture with all its heart, soul, mind, and strength. It is a religion in which a person’s faith rests on the wisdom and reason of men, not on the power of God. This is the religion of all unregenerate men and women. A ‘Christianity’ that accepts and believes only as much of the Bible as it can humanly understand and reconcile with human wisdom and reasoning is no Christianity at all, as the 18th century pastor Thomas Scott discovered in recounting his mindset as a pastor prior to his genuine conversion,
“I was further led to suspect that I might possibly be wrong, because I had not hitherto sought the truth in the proper manner, by attending to Proverbs iii, 5, 6. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not on thine own understanding: in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct they paths.” Evidently I had not hitherto trusted in the Lord with all my heart, nor acknowledged him in all my ways, nor depended on his directions in all my paths; but in my religious speculations had leaned wholly on my own understanding….I was far from being like a little child, sitting humbly and simply at the Lord’s feet, to learn from him the very rudiments of divine knowledge….for though I began to allow it probable, that in some few matters I might have been in an error, yet in the main I still was confident my scheme of doctrine was true….This drew me aside from the pure word of God, occasioned my being more remiss and formal in prayer, and furnished me with defensive armor against my convictions, with fuel for my passions, and food for my pride, and self-sufficiency.”[4]
There are many today, who while pretending to teach, seek, and search for truth, evidently think they will find it, not by trusting in the Lord and His Word with all their heart, but by leaning on their own understanding. This is the reason for so many objections brought against doctrines and truths clearly revealed in Scripture – doctrines such as Scripture’s inspiration, inerrancy, authority, clarity, and sufficiency, the true nature of man, the nature and necessity of the new birth, what is a Christian – all with a design to invalidate the Bible’s divine authority, as if their feeble and half-witted objections and arguments based on fallen human emotion and reason were sufficient to prove the clearest truths and doctrines of Scripture falsehoods, all while ignoring or rejecting the testimony of Scripture; “The way of a fool is right his own eyes,” (Pv 12:15); “Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.” (Pv 21:2); “There is a kind who is pure in his own eyes, yet is not washed from his filthiness” (Pv 30:12). Thus, such looseness and liberality today in interpreting and criticizing the Word of God. All this proves that such people are total strangers to a sincere and earnest desire to know the truth that would set them free. Many who pretend to have a desire to know the truth are never bothered by suspicions that they are, or can be wrong. They have made up their minds before they begin their search of Scripture, and begin their search with the aim of finding support for their own understandings, not to see if those understandings are supported by Scripture. If they find any discrepancy, it is Scripture that must be made to suit their own minds and be conformed to serve their own designs and desires, making self the rule of God.
The great controversy between God and man since the Fall has been whether He or they shall be God; whether His wisdom or theirs, His will or theirs, His Word or theirs, will be the guiding and ruling principle and authority. When people reject the only divine and authoritative standard of truth, they do not believe in nothing; rather, they will believe anything, just so long as it is not the truth of Scripture. Any faith will do. If they do believe and obey any of God’s Word it is not for the honor of God and because He has commanded it, but because it is agreeable with self and their own will, feelings, and experiences, thereby exalting self above God. Every attempt to set aside or nullify the commands and truth of God is to deify self and depose God, as if He must bow to our will, and every attempt to explain away and bypass the authority of Scripture is to set up self and human reason as the ultimate authority. Thus, we make self the ultimate standard of good and evil, right and wrong, true and false. Our understanding will not knowingly agree to anything that is false except it be regarded as true, and our will does not embrace anything evil except it be considered good, but the rule by which we judge and measure the truth and goodness of anything is not the inerrant and authoritative Word of God, but the lusts, desires, and inclinations of self, the gratifying of which is the goal that consumes our entire lives. When mankind fell into sin, they fell from loving God into loving themselves and their own understanding above all else. Like the rich man in Jesus’ parable who when told by Abraham of God’s means of saving sinners, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them” (Lk 16:29), presumes to prescribe more effective means than Scripture to save sinners from the condemnation incurred by their sin and unbelief, “No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent” (Lk 16:30).
This has been the fundamental difference between true Christianity and all other forms of belief. A person either lives trusting in and worshiping self, or trusting in and worshiping Jesus Christ. It is either “He who believes in the Son has eternal life;”, or “he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (Jn 3:36). It is either “He who has the Son has the life;”, or “he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (1 Jn 5:12). A ‘Christianity’ that neglects, rejects, corrupts, and mutilates Christian doctrine and truth cannot result in a Christian life. It is not Christian to regard, affirm, or call ‘Christian’ people, institutions, organizations, and denominations whose beliefs, teachings, practices, lifestyles, and conceptions of Jesus habitually contradict and deny the truths, doctrines, and Jesus revealed in the Bible.
This apostasy from the rule and knowledge of God reaches its peak when people no longer “see fit to acknowledge God any longer” (Rm 1:28), that is, they no longer consider it worthwhile or in their self-interest to retain a true and accurate knowledge of the nature and will of God in their hearts and minds. They do not want His will to be what informs and trains their consciences, or to be the guiding light for determining right and wrong, good and evil, truth and error, in order that they might set up another directing rule more suited to their carnal, worldly, and fleshly nature. They expunge the rule and knowledge of God under the pretext of separation of church and state to where not a spark of divine light is allowed to influence the determination of what is good and what is evil. They invent and shape models and conceptions of God that are more in keeping with their own fleshly wills and desires, and they devise self-pleasing and sin-accommodating doctrines and a ‘Christianity’ in which belief and sound doctrine play little if any vital role. They are happy to profess and admire Jesus and call Him Lord, provided that He will rule by their rules and affirm their beliefs. Concerning Schleiermacher’s conception of Jesus, one nineteenth century German-speaking pastor, Daniel Edward, wrote,
“The Christ of Schleiermacher was a mere man. There was a gorgeous drapery of incomparable attributes and functions thrown around him for the benefit of those who were prepared not to look further than the surface, and a flimsy veil of subtle and glozing” (i.e. “to veil with specious comments; to cloak; to explain away”) “expressions to prevent offence on the part of such as were willing to be deceived … The false Messiah set up by Schleiermacher only differs from the false Messiahs about the time of Christ – the Theudas and Barcochbas – as the nineteenth century differs from the first.”[5]
The same situation prevails today; the multitude of false Christs set up by modern Christianity only differ from Schleiermacher’s false Jesus so far as the nineteenth century differs from the twenty-first. The nature, character, and doctrine of the Jesus Christ revealed in Scripture “is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever” (Hb 13:8), but all false Christs change and adapt to the times and spirit of the age, or, as one twentieth century liberal theologian affirmed, Jesus Christ “is part of an infinite variety of human experiences, which alter from age to age”.[6] A nominal Christianity always makes people ripe for the large-scale acceptance of a false Christianity. It is this maxim introduced and popularized by Schleiermacher, that feeling and experience is more important than fact, truth, and doctrine, which has had the greatest influence on how people view what it is to be Christian, and “is correctly viewed as the chief source of the massive change which has occurred in the historic Protestant denominations during the last two hundred years.”[7]
When the truths, doctrines, and commands of Scripture lose their influence and authority, when the message of Christianity no longer impacts the indifferent and unbelieving, when spiritual and moral decay is shameless, blatant, and militant where biblical standards were once the norm, and when what professes to be Christian is obviously not – when these symptoms and more are evident, it is time to ask if we have lost the fundamental knowledge and understanding of what it is to be Christian. No one should be regarded a genuine Christian merely because they are in some way associated with a church, or because they have been baptized, or at one time made a profession of faith. Yet today, thanks in large part to Schleiermacher, no affiliation with a church or no interest in the truths and doctrines of the Bible will, in the opinion of most, necessarily exclude someone from heaven. In Schleiermacher’s Christianity someone may be a Christian and not even know it, as John Murray showed in a review of an article published by a theologian influenced by Schleiermacher’s theology,
“The alleged atheists then may deny God with the top of their minds, but they believe in Him in the bottom of their hearts (p. 52). They believe in God even though they don’t know that they believe in Him. Indeed, so thinks our author, this intellectual denial need not completely destroy the spiritual life …. ‘For not for a moment,’ he says, ‘are we prepared to exclude utterly the adherents of other religions from the saving grace of God’ (p. 89). ‘For how can we hold that the pagan or the Jew who has had a solemn experience of conversion within his own religious tradition is as little in a state of grace, and as completely in a state of nature, as he was before?’ (p. 90).”[8]
In other words, there is no exclusivity, no narrow way to Christianity; it is not the gospel alone that is the power of God for salvation (Rm 1:16); it is not through the foolishness of the message preached that God saves those who believe (1 Cor 1:21); there is salvation in other beliefs, and there are other names and other Jesus’ under heaven by which we can be saved (Ac 4:12). It is a Christianity in which, no matter how much of the Bible, its truths, and its doctrines someone is ignorant of, rejects, corrupts, tortures, and disbelieves, is able to maintain the belief that they will go to heaven when they die. In the words of John Ballie (1886-1960), professor of theology at the University of Edinburgh and the theologian whose article John Murray reviewed, “We thus attain an outlook, generous, rich, and elastic; yet also graduated, positive, unitary, and truly Catholic”.[9] This minimization of truth and doctrine inevitably leads to a minimization of all the Bible’s warnings regarding the subtle, deceptive, and destructive nature of error and wrong doctrine and belief. The Bible, both Old and New Testaments, treats error in doctrine and belief as much more toxic, dangerous, and deadly than rank unbelief, and it incurs the strongest warnings and condemnations of Jesus. That this erroneous conception of salvation and Christianity was not confined to the dusty classrooms of liberal seminaries and the pulpits of apostate denominations is evident by the by now well-known remarks made by Billy Graham in a May 31, 1997 interview with Robert Schuller, the proponent and propagator of an erroneous self-esteem gospel. In answer to a question by Schuller as to Graham’s view of the future of Christianity, Graham replied,
“I think that everybody that loves or knows Christ, whether they are conscious of it or not, they are members of the body of Christ…. He is calling people out of the world for his name, whether they come from the Muslim world, or the Buddhist world or the non-believing world, they are members of the Body of Christ because they have been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus but they know in their hearts that they need something they do not have, and they turn to the only light they have, and I think that they are saved and they are going to be with us in heaven.”[10]
How can anyone love or know a Jesus of which they have never heard? How can they believe in a gospel they have never heard, “How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Rm 10:14). No one can love who they do not know, and who they love they want to know better. Graham’s aberrant, incoherent, and universalistic view of salvation cannot be explained away, as some have attempted, as the remarks of a mind enfeebled with age, for almost nineteen years earlier in 1978 he is quoted in an article in McCall’s magazine as saying, “I used to believe that pagans in far countries were lost if they did not have the gospel of Christ preached to them. I no longer believe that.”[11] Sadly, neither does the bulk of modern Christianity. It seems that by 1978 Graham had already fully embraced the conception of Christianity introduced by Schleiermacher two-hundred years earlier – a conception that has become the most sacred belief, at least in practice, within modern evangelicalism.
The rise and spread of antichristianity within modern evangelicalism and the contemporary church which began in the 1950’s and 60’s is now virtually universal as can be seen by its pragmatism, secularism, subjectivism, relativism, antinomianism, universalism, and its heaven-for-all-ism. It is a ‘Christianity’ which has been so thoroughly assimilated to the thinking, reasoning, values, and image of the unregenerate world that it is now characterized by a spirit that can only be described as the spirit of antichrist which affirms any and every form of quasi and pseudo-Christianity, paganism, and practical atheism. It is to be feared, unless they bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance, that many who have recently added their voices to those who for years have been warning against and striving to reverse the weakness, worldliness, and ungodliness of modern evangelicalism, are doing so either because they are blind to, or hope to divert attention from the fact, that it is their own teachings, principles, and pragmatism that have contributed, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to its weakness, worldliness, and apostasy. Like the Pharisees who were afraid Jesus would undermine their carefully constructed system of religion by His not observing their traditions, yet were blind to the fact they had already corrupted and apostatized from the faith by their pragmatic setting aside the commandments of God (Mt 15:3). Or, like the Pharisees and Sadducees who came to John the Baptist to be baptized by him, they have no intention of actually repenting of their worldliness and pragmatism on which their success depends, but only hope to profit from what they perceive as another religious fad (Mt 3:7, 8).
It is high time we admit the fact that the twenty-first century’s broad, inclusive, undiscerning, unoffensive, pragmatic, and intellectually respectable conception and definition of Christian is false. Contemporary evangelicalism bears all the marks of a false teacher. It promises much but produces very little in the way of true spiritual and moral change and growth, holiness of life, and freedom from the bondage of sin. Instead it has turned the grace of God into licentiousness (Jude 4), secretly introduced destructive heresies (2 Pt 2:1), that is, philosophies, ideologies, and schools of thought from outside the Bible, thereby making the descriptions of false teachers given by Peter and Jude justly applicable, “These are springs without water” (2 Pt 2:17), and “autumn trees without fruit” (Jude 12). This is because it is built on the pragmatic wisdom and methods of the world, not on biblical principle, thereby grieving the Holy Spirit. Instead of the Bible being the sole authority, teachers have been “seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord has not spoken” (Ezk 22:28); “They speak a vision of their own imagination, not from the mouth of the Lord” (Jer 23:16); “Your prophets have seen for you false and foolish visions; and have not exposed your iniquity so as to restore you from captivity, but have seen for you false and misleading oracles” (Lam 2:14). Without the Holy Spirit, apostasy is inevitable, and recovery is impossible when men have lost the will to truly repent of and forsake their error and pragmatism on which their success depends, and to boldly proclaim dogmatic truth, teach sound doctrine, contend with and expose error, make distinctions, and refuse to compromise with error, no matter the cost.
Schleiermacher paved the way for the idea that belief played no essential role in being a Christian; instead, experience regardless of belief became the determinative factor in being a Christian, resulting in a different definition of Christian that spread like wild-fire through the English-speaking world. In essence, a person can be a Christian without believing in and obeying the doctrines and commands of Christianity. We see this belief publicly illustrated whenever some well-known person dies, that in spite of their habitual ungodly lifestyle, practical atheism, and indifference to and denial of the truths of Scripture, they are eulogized straight into heaven, or at least to a ‘better place’. In modern Christianity, heaven is not a place only for true Christians, but for all who may have had, at one time or another, some warm and sincere feelings toward God in general which found their highest expression in acts of humanitarian ‘love’ and kindness and a desire to live a ‘better’ life. Today the only requirement to enter into heaven, or at least someone’s conception of heaven, is to die. If we feel that someone was a relatively good person, then it is beyond all doubt that they go to heaven, or our equivalent of heaven, thereby imposing our standard of goodness on God, and dictating the terms by which He must allow someone to enter His rest. Experience and feeling, not truth and doctrine, steadfast trust in them, and a life ruled and conformed to them, are the only essential requirements. It is a Christianity in which the only belief that is dogmatic and sacred is the belief that a person’s profession of faith, religious experience, and acceptance in heaven should never be called into question. For Schleiermacher and for all those who follow in his train, which includes the bulk of modern evangelicalism, the people whom the inspired author of Hebrews describes as apostates would today be regarded, without question, genuine and sincere Christians.
Tasted the Good Word of God
I concluded our last study before finishing the examination of the fourth of five privileges which the author of Hebrews attributes to these apostates, namely, that they “have tasted of the good word of God” (Hb 6:5). In the last study we saw what is meant by “the…word (rhema) of God”, and in what sense this Word is “good”. As I mentioned in our last study, the author of Hebrews repeats this metaphor of tasting on purpose to emphasize the extent of their interaction with the Word of God. They had merely tasted and sampled, not ingested, consumed, and assimilated this Word into their heart and mind. This brings us to the task of explaining how, or in what way, these apostates had tasted of this good Word of God.
First, they had tasted the truth of it. They were convicted and convinced that this good Word is true, and they acknowledged its truth. Such were many of the people who responded to the preaching of John the Baptist and were baptized by him. John preached the necessity of repentance. The Jews must undergo a radical change in their thinking about sin, God, and what it meant to be in a right relationship with Him. They could not rely on their Jewish birth as a guarantee of acceptance with God, because “God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham” (Mt 3:9). They must turn from their evil ways and from their empty, shallow, superficial, external, and ritualistic religion, and bear good fruit. In other words, they must be converted. Many of the common people and tax-gathers “acknowledged” these divine requirements as being just and righteous, and demonstrated this by turning from sin, turning to God, and submitting to baptism, a rite that within Judaism was reserved exclusively for non-Jews converting to Judaism, “they acknowledged God’s justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John” (Lk 7:29). Many of these, however, following the example of their religious leaders who felt no need for repentance, were beginning to find fault with John and to reject what they had formerly accepted, prompting Jesus to compare them with fickle, capricious, and changeable children (Lk 7:31, 32). When they first heard the truth preached by John, they were willing to rejoice in his light, but only for a while (Jn 5:35). The same was true of multitudes who heard Jesus preach, yet remained unconverted, “And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips;” (Lk 4:22); “Never did a man speak the way this man speaks” (Jn 7:46). Many came to “believe” in Jesus “as He spoke these things” (Jn 8:30), but Jesus had to warn these same “Jews who had believed in Him, ‘If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine’” (Jn 8:31). Yet these same Jews “picked up stones to throw at Him” (Jn 8:59) when Jesus declared, “before Abraham was born, I am” (Jn 8:58), thereby showing they were unwilling to abide in His Word and not true disciples. Many of the same people who spread palm branches in front of Jesus and shouted, “Hosanna!” (Jn 12:13), were a few days later shouting, “Crucify Him” (Mt 27:22).
The Galatians quickly deserted the truth of Christ for a different and distorted gospel (Gal 1:6, 7). When, like the Galatians, people begin in the Spirit (Gal 3:2), it is because they have tasted something of the truth in the good Word of God that their mind finds good and advantageous. When people who at one time, by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, escape the defilements of the world (2 Pt 2:20), they do so because they tasted a goodness in this knowledge of Christ. They imagine, however, that in merely tasting, they themselves are really possessed by this knowledge, but when they are again entangled in the defilements of the world, they show they were never renewed and converted. They are like those described by the great Puritan Steven Charnock,
“They will walk with [God] as far as he pleases them, and leave him upon the first distaste, as though God must observe their humors (i.e. their tastes and desires) more than they his will. Amos must be suspended from prophesying, because the “land could not bear his words” (Am 7:10), and his discourses condemned their unworthy practices against God” [12]
Likewise, people today must be censored, removed from social media, and lose their jobs if they dare to call sin by its right names, call evil, evil, instead of good, or merely state the obvious fact that a man pretending to be a woman is not a woman. It takes more than the mere possession of the Bible and a mere tasting of the truth of God’s Word to make someone a Christian, nor can any church provide what is necessary. It requires a supernatural work of God, working in and through the good Word to give someone a new nature, the effects of which are always faith in, hunger for, submission to, and love of the truth.
This definition of Christian, however, requires us to make clear distinctions between what is and what is not Christian, something that has always been very unpopular with the world, and which modern Christianity finds increasingly offensive and intolerable. The question asked by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in 1966 at The Evangelical Alliance Conference, “What is a Christian?”, is still the elephant in the room. It is a question that has been largely ignored and avoided by the mass of modern evangelicalism. Until its definition corresponds with that of the Bible’s, it will remain blinded to the answer by the god of this world and continue to trust in a lie and the devil’s counterfeits. Is it not, we are told, intolerant, judgmental, and arrogant to suppose that we can distinguish true Christians from those who merely profess to be? Are there not, it is insisted, many different kinds and subcategories of Christians, and does not ‘love’, ‘unity’, and ‘tolerance’ demand that we esteem them all as genuine believers? Such thinking is often based on the assumption that the New Testament itself provides no warrant or description to make such a distinction possible, and if the Bible does not make such a distinction and provide the answer to what is a Christian and to who does or does not go to heaven, then we must accept and justify virtually all opinions and definitions. However, if the New Testament does give us clear, precise, and unambiguous criteria, and if it does answer the question, then we have no authority or justification, other than self-worship and unbelief in the good Word of God, to redefine ‘Christian’ in language and conceptions which neither Jesus nor His apostles ever used, permitted, or sanctioned.
True Christianity has always been distinguished by the conviction that the Bible is very clear on this fundamental subject, and that it gives us all the truth we need to discern between the genuine and the false, between the cultural and the converted, between the baptized and truly born again, between the nominal and the true, between the merely religious and the truly regenerate, between those who have only tasted the truth of God’s Word and those who love it, hunger for it, and desire to obey it. While it is true that we cannot always infallibly discern the genuine from the false, we can and must discern and recognize beliefs, teachings, practices, behaviors, and lifestyles that are clearly incompatible and inconsistent with Scripture. Where no attempt is made to distinguish Christian from the world or regenerate from unregenerate, and where such a distinction is resisted and regarded as ‘unchristian’, there is clear disobedience to the plain commands of Scripture. Teachers and leaders who resist and refuse to make a distinction fall under the heading of false teachers to whom the warnings of Scripture certainly apply, “He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord” (Pv 17:15); “He who says to the wicked, ‘You are righteous,’ peoples will curse him, nations will abhor him;” (Pv 24:24); “Like a trampled spring and a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked” (Pv 25:26) “Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: the committing of adultery and walking in falsehood; and they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one has turned back from his wickedness” (Jer 23:14).
For over a hundred years there has been a sustained and concerted effort to promote and propagate a definition of Christian other than the definition given in the Bible. How can those who blur the distinction or who refuse to make any distinction be the ones to recover and reclaim the meaning of being Christian? How can anyone preach, teach, and feed others with doctrines and truths which they themselves find unpleasant to their tastes? When God’s plain Word becomes distasteful to the heart and mind of the teacher, it will soon disappear from the ears of the people, and those errors, distortions, and redefinitions that are more in keeping with the worldly, carnal, and natural tastes of the teacher, are then passed on to the people. The words written by the great Puritan John Owen still ring true today, “The letting go this principle, particular churches ought to consist of regenerate persons, brought in the great apostasy of the Christian Church.”[13]
True Christians, therefore, should not be surprised when the truths, doctrines, and values they believe, defend, and live by are met with a reception far different than the tolerance, acceptance, and approval shown to more inclusive and broad views of what is a Christian. It was not a passing fad and prejudice unique to the first century that Christianity was “spoken against everywhere” (Ac 28:22). We can choose to be popular, admired, and spoken well of by all by being unfaithful to the Word of God, or we can be unpopular in our commitment and perseverance to be faithful. To be both faithful and popular is something not even our Lord Jesus attempted, and we would do well to learn from Him, as did His apostles, “If I were still trying to please men,” wrote the apostle Paul, implying that at one time he had been trying to please and gain the approval and admiration of men, “then I would not be a bond-servant of Christ” (Gal 1:10). He could not be both. The reason why many of the Jewish rulers who ‘believed’ in Jesus were unfaithful to confess their belief openly was because, “they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God” (Jn 12:43). The Scripture is clear, we can have one or the other, but we cannot have both. We are faced with the same choice when it comes to clearly defining in biblical terms, what is a Christian. We can be popular or faithful, but not both.
Let us then turn to this good Word. When we do, we find one common thread. To be a Christian is to be ‘born again’, it is to be ‘a new creature’ (2 Cor 5:17), it is to experience the life transforming power of Christ in repentance, faith, forgiveness of sin, and being made a new person with a new life, new thoughts, new desires, and new affections. Three times in five verses Jesus declared it absolutely essential to salvation that one must be “born again” (Jn 3:3), “of the Spirit” (Jn 3:5), and “from above” (Jn 3:6). It is absurd to suppose that such strong expressions refer to nothing more than praying a prayer, making a decision, acknowledging some truths, or being baptized in water. This change is accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the good Word of God apart from any human effort, cooperation, merit, or religious ritual. Even the faith through which we are saved, like the new birth itself, is a gift of God’s grace, not an acquisition; it is a gift of God and a fruit of this new birth, not of ourselves (Eph 2:8). Faith is not the means of procuring a new nature, but the result of being given a new nature – a new nature “which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph 4:24). Faith, repentance, obedience, love, submission, trust, holiness, all are a result of this new birth. They do not contribute to it, nor do they contribute anything to our acceptance with God and being made children of God. It is the perfect righteousness of Christ alone, imputed to the believer by faith, which reconciles us to God, “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, ….He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:18, 21).
The Bible gives various descriptions by which a true believer shows evidence of having been born anew and “delivered…from the domain of darkness and transferred…to the kingdom of His beloved Son,” (Col 1:13). Chief among these is the object and content of the faith exercised. True faith is grounded in true knowledge. If what we believe is not a fact, then it is a false faith, “and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain” (1 Cor 15:14). For God to grant “repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim 2:25), and “to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4), and to “receive the love of the truth so as to be saved” (2 Thes 2:10), is biblical Christianity. True saving faith necessarily involves believing a message. This is why Paul cited the Thessalonian’s acceptance of the message as evidence of their conversion, “And for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God’s message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe” (1 Thes 2:13). The first characteristic given by Luke of the fledgling church in Jerusalem was, “they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching” (Ac 2:42). Being a Christian involves knowing, loving, and trusting the Jesus Christ revealed in Scripture by the Holy Spirit not as a concept or ideal, but as a living and divine Person, “and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls” (1 Pt 1:8, 9). This knowledge of Christ so captivates the heart and mind of the believer that, like the apostle Paul, they “count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,” (Phil 3:8). A Christian is someone who has denied and died to self and the world so that, with the apostle Paul, they can say and understand, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me” (Gal 2:20). The contrast between this true knowledge and a false knowledge is clearly expressed in the words of a hymn by John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace,
What think you of Christ? is the test
To try both your state and your scheme;
You cannot be right in the rest,
Unless you think rightly of Him.
As Jesus appears in your view,
As He is beloved or not;
So God is disposed to you,
And mercy or wrath are your lot.
Some take Him a creature to be,
A man, or an angel at most;
Sure these have not feeling like me,
Nor know themselves wretched and lost:
So guilty, so helpless, am I,
I durst not confide in His blood,
Nor on his protection rely,
Unless I were sure He is God.
Some call Him a Savior, in word,
But mix their own works with His plan;
And hope He His help will afford,
When they have done all that they can;
If doings prove rather too light
(A little they own, they may fail)
They purpose to make up full weight,
By casting His name in the scale.
Some style Him the pearl of great price,
And say He’s the fountain of joys;
Yet feed upon folly and vice,
And cleave to the world and its toys:
Like Judas, the Savior they kiss,
And while they salute Him, betray;
Ah! What will profession like this
Avail in His terrible day?
If asked what of Jesus I think?
Tho’ still my best thoughts are but poor;
I say He’s my meat and my drink,
My life, and my strength, and my store,
My Shepherd, my Husband, my Friend,
My Savior from sin and from thrall;
My hope from beginning to end,
My Portion, my Lord, and my All.
The views of Christianity expressed by those quoted at the beginning of this study, and many more could be cited, convey the belief that a person who has never heard the name of Jesus or the gospel message, or who even rejects and is opposed to it, may still be regarded as a Christian and go to heaven when they die. Many others teach and promote the idea that beliefs, behaviors, desires, and lifestyles which the Bible clearly condemns are nevertheless consistent with being a Christian. This is obviously not the Christianity taught by Jesus and the apostles, nor is it the Christianity of historic Christianity. It is another religion altogether. It is a different Jesus and a different gospel. According to Jesus, the first and consistent result of the new birth is spiritual sight, “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:3); “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see; and that those who see may become blind” (Jn 9:39). Those who are physically blind know they cannot see, but those who are spiritually blind are convinced they see (Jn 9:40), that is, until they are given the sight to see their spiritual blindness and their true and desperate condition. They receive “not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God,” (1 Cor 2:12). They are among those of whom it can be said, “And they shall all be taught of God” (Jn 6:45), and “for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another”, that is, fellow true believers. Their minds are illumined by the Holy Spirit so that the Word, truth, commands, and doctrines of God are set far above all the teachings, philosophies, ideologies, theories, and opinions of men.
The first effect of being indwelt with the Holy Spirit is He guides the believer into all truth (Jn 16:13) because He is “the Spirit of truth” (Jn 14:17). The Holy Spirit does not give new or additional truth; rather He illumines and leads into the truth already revealed in Scripture. He does not give that revelation new meanings, but teaches and illumines its one true and original meaning. Their minds are opened to understand the Scriptures (Lk 24:45). There is a great difference and distinction between knowing the Scriptures and having a true spiritual understanding of Scripture. The Sadducees certainly knew their Bible, but Jesus declared that their error resulted from “not understanding the Scriptures, or the power of God” (Mt 22:29). It is not advanced theological degrees, scholarship, or impressive academic credentials that opens and illumines the mind to spiritual truth. The notion that knowledge alone makes someone a Christian is false. The devil knows, believes, quotes, and uses the Bible, as do all of his human servants and instruments who disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, yet he, as do they, remain unholy, earthly-minded, and in love with all that God condemns. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that professional theologians, scholars, para-church leaders, and popular preachers can be knowledgeable in the text of Scripture, as were the Pharisees and Sadducees, yet remain unconverted and unchanged. The depravity of the human heart and the hostility of the fallen mind to spiritual truth are such that more than knowledge is needed. It was a Jewish scribe, an academic, that Jesus told when He “saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God’” (Mk 12:34). This was a warning, not a complement or encouragement, as the Puritan William Gurnall wrote,
“Such a one is deepest in condemnation. None sink so far into hell as those who come nearest heaven, because they fall from the greatest height. As it aggravates the torments of damned souls in this respect above devils, [because] they had a cord of mercy thrown out to them, which devils had not….None will have such a sad parting from Christ as those who went half-way with him and then left him.” [14]
This is not to say that the new birth is primarily a change of belief or opinion, or intellectually assenting to the truths of Scripture. It is so much more. It involves being given a new nature that now has a love for the truth and the desire, willingness, and ability to humbly submit their mind and life to the truth and obey the truth, not perfectly, but sincerely and consistently. It is the apostate who habitually goes “on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, (Hb 10:26). Our own reason and understanding, to say nothing of our feelings, emotions, and intuition, will always prove to be blind guides until our senses are humbled and trained to discern good and evil by the good Word of God illumined by the Holy Spirit (Hb 5:14). This new nature results in a radical and thorough change of character and principles that issue from a complete alteration of a person’s views of religion, both in their beliefs and practice. Sometimes this change is sudden and immediate, and sometimes it is gradual, but there is always an unmistakable and noticeable change which the believer knows did not result from some act on their part. Every true Christian can identify with the description which the great nineteenth century pastor and author J.C. Ryle gave of his own new birth,
“I say that all these principles seemed to grow upon my mind about the winter after I was 21. I am quite certain I knew nothing of them at all before, and I am as certain as I am of my own existence that they rose up within my mind in a distinct though mysterious manner, without the instrumentality of any person. Nothing I remember to this day, appeared to me so clear and distinct, as my own sinfulness, Christ’s preciousness, the value of the Bible, the absolute necessity of coming out from the world, the need of being born again, and the enormous folly of the whole doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration….People may account for such a change as they like, my own belief is, that no rational explanation can be given of it, but that of the Bible; it was what the Bible calls ‘conversion’, and ‘regeneration’….And nothing to my mind can account for it, but the free sovereign grace of God.”[15]
The consequences of this change for Ryle’s personal relationships is also something with which almost all true believers can sympathize,
“The consequences of this change were very great indeed, and it brought with it many losses as well as gains. As to losses, it caused great uncomfortableness in my own family, and made my position very unpleasant indeed. In fact no one can tell what I had to go through in hundreds of petty ways. Nor was this all – it made a complete breach between all the friends and all the relatives I ever had before. I mean by this, that it made a kind of gulf between us, and there was a kind of tacit understanding that my tastes, and likings, and habits, had undergone a complete change….It made an awkwardness, and uncomfortableness, and an insensible kind of estrangement which no one can comprehend but those who have gone through it.”[16]
This is simply to experience the reality of the words of Jesus, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household” (Mt 10:34-36). Oftentimes the most hostile enemies to the truths of Scripture and of true Christians are those who are Christian in name only, and who profess to believe the same things as the true believer. A believer’s understanding of salvation no longer depends upon themselves, their own feelings, experiences, and conceptions, or upon the thinking and opinions of other people or the denominational dogmas in which they were raised, but, “And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you;” (1 Jn 2:27); “The one who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself;” (1 Jn 5:10). Or, as Paul wrote to the believers in Rome, “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 become slaves of righteousness” (Rm 6:17, 18), and like the Ephesians, “for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord;” (Eph 5:8).
From these facts we see that one determinative test of a genuine Christian profession given by the New Testament is how a person responds to the good Word of God. Unregenerate people may taste of God’s Word, but they do not receive the love of it because they have no moral or spiritual ability to do so. They may like the taste of some of it, but not all of it. They may like it if they can flavor it with their own meanings to suit their own tastes, but they will always reject its true and single meaning. This is because by nature they are hostile toward both God and His truth, “But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me…He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God” (Jn 8:45); “But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;” (Jn 10:26, 27); “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so;” (Rm 8:7); “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” (2 Cor 2:14).
In spite of what the world and modern evangelicalism (for in most cases they are indistinguishable) would like us to think and believe, and all the objections that such dogmatism is ‘unchristian’ aside, the Bible gives us a definition of Christian, and a distinction from the world, that is unambiguous, clear, and definitive. When the apostle Paul instructed the Corinthians to “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!” (2 Cor 13:5), he was not telling them to see if they felt themselves to be Christians; rather Paul wanted them to examine themselves not by some subjective emotional experience, not by their own loose, self-made, and subjective definitions of Christian, not by whether or not they had been baptized, but by objective, clear, unambiguous, and dogmatic biblical criteria and standards. Those who merely taste and sample the good Word of God reject those truths and doctrines as unpleasant and distasteful which they cannot season and sweeten to suit their own carnal and worldly tastes and reasonings. On the other hand, those who receive the love of the truth may have to chew on it awhile, but, like the scroll given to Ezekiel, even though it contained “lamentations, mourning and woe” (Ezk 2:10), yet because it is the good Word of God, “it was sweet as honey in my mouth” (Ezk 3:3). Mere tasters work to conform Scripture to their own tastes and reason, while those who love the truth have their tastes, reason, and thinking conformed by and to the good Word of God. The true Christian can be known by their response, or lack of response, to the good Word of God, “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us (i.e. to apostolic teaching); he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (1 Jn 4:5, 6).
Secondly, they had tasted of the subject matter of the Word. They had a taste of the goodness in its promises, and in the hopes which it gave them for the present and future. Grace, mercy, forgiveness, new life, immortality, and glory are all offered in the “good word of God”. Like the stony ground hearer on whom the Word of God fell, he “immediately receives it with joy” (Mt 13:20). This feeling and experience of joy in the prospect that they will be partakers of all the promises of God, especially when this hope in which they deceive themselves calms all their fears and pacifies their convictions, provides them with a feeling and experience that convinces them they are genuine Christians. Just as those who really are converted and trust in, love, and obey Christ as He is revealed in Scripture, those who merely taste of His good Word may also “greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Pt 1:8), but their joy and hope is built on a sandy foundation of feeling and experience, not on the solid rock of scriptural truth, sound doctrine, the person of Jesus Christ revealed in Scripture, and a transformed life that bears fruit in keeping with genuine repentance. How long do these stony ground hearers believe? Jesus said, “for a while” (Lk 8:13). It is a joy that is temporary and based on circumstances, not one that is permanent and abiding no matter our circumstances, for “in time of temptation they fall away” (Lk 8:13). They come to hate the Word that once gave them such joy. We see this happen every day.
Thirdly, by this taste they may have experienced many of the effects of this good Word on their minds and consciences, and in the process experienced and felt some of the power of the Word of God, but their experience falls short of a transforming and regenerating true conversion. Their tasting comes short of feeding on, loving, believing, trusting, acting on, obeying, and abiding in this good Word by faith, which is distinctive to true believers. Some of the effects which may accompany this tasting of the good Word are:
Enjoyment and personal satisfaction at hearing the Word preached, especially when it is delivered by someone with a commanding and pleasant voice, great natural gifts of communication, captivating stage presence, and a charismatic personality. So it was with those Jews who flocked to hear the prophet Ezekiel preach, “And behold, you are to them like a sensual song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument;”, yet, “they hear your words, but they do not practice them” (Ezk 33:32). Such was Herod’s enjoyment at the preaching of John the Baptist, “he used to enjoy listening to him” (Mk 6:20), and such was the satisfaction of the multitudes who flocked to hear Jesus. Benjamin Franklin used to enjoy listening to the preaching of George Whitefield, corresponded with him regularly, and considered Whitefield a dear friend, but he remained a Deist and humanist all his life, once writing, “Mr. Whitefield used, indeed, to pray for my conversion, but he never had the satisfaction of believing that his prayers were heard.”[17] Mere tasters may find some personal delight and satisfaction in being hearers of the Word, but they are not doers of the Word (Jm 1:22), and it is to be feared that it is this way with many in the days in which we live.
They not only find enjoyment in listening to the Word preached, but they experience some peace and joy from the things heard, like those whom Jesus compared to the stony ground hearers who when they first heard the Word, received it with joy (Mt 13:20). The Word, when only tasted, has this effect on their minds and affections, but it is not an abiding or permanent joy, but only fleeting, fading, and temporary. It is a joy that comes from hearing the good things of the Word declared, such as forgiveness, mercy, comfort, strength to endure, immortality, and eternal life, but because they confuse emotion with reality and feeling with fact, they never have the abiding joy of having a saving interest in and knowledge of these things. True and abiding joy and peace are the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22) and only belong to those who walk by the Spirit (Gal 5:25), that is, they are only known and understood by someone who has truly been born again; “’There is no peace for the wicked,’ says the Lord” (Is 48:22). This is why unregenerate religious people need an ‘inspiration’ app or devise to give them daily doses of ‘encouragement’ and self-affirmation. Abiding joy and assurance of salvation are not the result of a feeling; they are not the product of a onetime decision, nor are they the result of a past act or ritual; rather they are the fruit which comes from being doers of the Word, and of a transformed life that brings forth fruit in keeping with repentance.
Sometimes the effect of the Word only tasted will be to work some sort of conviction that will motivate a person to implement a change and external reformation of their lives, yet produces no inward transformation of their heart and mind. It may produce a sincere intention to become more serious about spiritual things or to make some sort of moral reformation, and in intending, they think the intention is the same as the doing. Hell will be full of people who were good intenders, but poor practitioners. The rich young ruler knew that he lacked something, and was prepared and motivated to make some reformation, but he lacked one essential thing, “One thing you still lack;” (Lk 18:22). This “one thing” includes many things. The thing he lacked could not be so easily gained as he imagined, as B.B. Warfield clearly explained,
“He had everything to commend him. He was young, he was rich, he was highly placed, he was clean. He was accustomed to desire good things, and, desiring them, he was accustomed to obtain them for himself: and with the resources at his command…he was accustomed to obtain them without much difficulty….It never occurred to this rich and influential youth, accustomed to get what he wanted, but that this good thing which he now desired might be obtainable at its own proper price; and was he not prepared and fully able to pay the price to secure it? It seemed to him an easy thing to purchase eternal life. It was our Lord’s painful task, in response to the young man’s appeal for guidance, to reveal to him to himself in the shallowness of his nature and outlook; to open his eyes to the nature of that eternal life which he sought, in its radical difference from the life he was living; and to make it clear to him that what he had thought so easy to acquire was to be had only at a great price, a price which he might not be willing to pay, a price which he might find it was impossible for him to pay. And it was our Lord’s task, further, on the basis of this incident, to carry home poignantly to the consciousness of His disciples the lesson He had already taught them in the incident of the blessing of the little children, that the Kingdom of God is not a thing into which in any case men can buy their way; that they stand before it helpless, and can make their way into it as little as a camel can force itself through the eye of a needle. It may be conferred by God: it cannot be acquired by men.”[18]
This wealthy, influential young man, accustomed to getting what he wanted, could not procure the one thing he lacked. He lacked a heart that was able and willing to deny self, take up his cross, and follow and obey the Word and will of God, no matter the cost. He came to Jesus not to receive instruction from Him, but expecting a conformation of his own standard of righteousness, rather than the imposition of one he could not meet. He was seeking commendation more than instruction, and upon being disappointed, “he became very sad; for he was extremely rich” (Lk 18:23). He was sad that Jesus would not grant him the hope of inheriting eternal life while at the same time preserving his life in this world, and leaves Jesus because His demand was not compatible with his love of self. He loved his life in this world and was unable and unwilling to lose it, but sought to preserve it while at the same time treasuring a false hope that he would inherit eternal life. He was perfectly willing to make some modifications and reformations, provided they did not significantly impact his lifestyle or social status. He could not, however, bring himself to submit to the terms of salvation demanded by Jesus, because “with men this is impossible,” (Mt 19:26). Compare the response of the rich ruler to that of another rich man, namely, Zaccheus (Lk 19:8), who didn’t even have to be asked, but willingly gave half his wealth to the poor, and restored four times the amount of money he had fraudulently collected in taxes. He brought forth fruit in keeping with repentance. Zaccheus encountered Jesus a materially rich but spiritually poor man, but came away spiritually rich and significantly poorer materially. The rich ruler left the way he came, with his self-righteousness and life in this world still intact, but spiritually bankrupt, still imagining that in some way he might be able to buy or earn his way into heaven and do something to acquire eternal life, all because he lacked the one thing which he could not acquire by his own means or efforts, namely, a new nature.
More than a Taste
True faith not only tastes the good Word of God, but feeds on it, loves it, hides it in our hearts, assimilates it, transforms the mind by it, obeys it, believes all of it, and trusts in it with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. In other words, true faith takes the good Word of God and turns it into spiritual nourishment for our souls. If most professing Christians fed their physical bodies the way they feed their souls, they would starve to death within a month, or be so obese from a steady diet of junk food that they couldn’t waddle through the door of their home. For the good Word to be turned into spiritual nourishment, at least four things are required:
First, this good Word must be taken in, stored, and treasured in our heart, “Take hold of instruction; do not let her go. Guard her, for she is your life” (Pv 4:13); “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12); “For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good;” (Mt 12:34, 35). In order for natural food to be turned into nourishment for the physical body it must first be taken into the stomach and digested. Likewise, if the good Word is not placed in the heart and mind and digested by meditating, thinking, studying, praying over, and dwelling on it, it might provide some temporary feelings of joy and satisfaction, but it will not feed and nourish the soul.
Second, in order for food to nourish the body it must be digested properly. Give a person all the nutritious food they desire, if there is some disorder in their digestive system that prevents it from acting on the food, then it will not nourish their body as it should. Likewise, unless the good Word of God is acted on by faith, it will prove to be of no profit to our soul, “For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard” (Hb 4:2). The good Word of God must not only be heard and taken in, but acted on by faith, “And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand” (Mt 7:26); “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (Jm 1:22).
Third, when anyone feeds on the good Word of God, it is turned into spiritual nourishment that results in spiritual growth and spiritual strength within, which a mere taste will never produce. As natural food is turned into energy, flesh, and blood, likewise the Word of God illumined by the Holy Spirit and dwelling within the believer causes them to grow “with a growth that is from God” (Col 2:19). It is by means of “the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation” (1 Pt 2:2). We “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pt 3:18) by means of the good Word of God. It is by the truth of Scripture that we are sanctified and conformed to the image of God (Jn 17:17). A mere taste may provide some immediate refreshment. Like Jonathan, a person may say, “See now, how my eyes have brightened because I tasted a little of this honey” (1 Sm 14:29), but it does not produce any growth or lasting strength.
Fourth, when the Word is received as it should be, it will progressively transform our minds and conform us more and more to the image of God, “that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph 4:23, 24). It is God who has given us this food to transform our entire nature and conform it to His; we “are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory,” (2 Cor 3:18). A mere taste will not result in this kind of transformation, nor will it give us a love of the truth so as to be saved (2 Thes 2:10), nor provide us with the strength to persevere until the end under all sorts of trials, tribulations, and temptations, nor bear the fruit of submission and obedience to all of His good Word. No one can obey truths, principles, and commands they do not know or care to know.
It is to be feared that modern evangelicalism is composed mainly of people who satisfy themselves with mere notions of the truth, and vain speculations about the truth, and their own opinions and private subjective interpretations of the truth, yet who have never so much as even tasted of the goodness of the Word of God, much less love it and feed on it. Spiritual and moral decline resulting in apostasy is not something on which Scripture sheds no light. It is always the inevitable consequence of truth being overshadowed by and eventually substituted with falsehood, and faithfulness being abandoned for pragmatism, “For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jer 2:13). Pragmatism is so subtle because it promises and presents itself to the mind as a means of obtaining a higher good, thereby leading the mind astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ and to deviate and eventually abandon clear biblical principle: “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit”, says the Lord” (Zech 4:6); “God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe” (1 Cor 1:21); “And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Cor 2:4); “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves;” (2 Cor 4:7); “for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Pt 1:23); but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men but God, who examines our hearts” (1 Thes 2:4). The setting aside of biblical principle will always lead to compromise with error and spiritual bankruptcy. Pragmatism is not unique to our times, as the great Puritan Steven Charnock once observed,
“Hence in all ages men have been forward to disfigure God’s models, and dress up a brat of their own; as though God had been defective in providing for his own honor in his institutions, without the assistance of his creature. This hath always been in the world; the old world had their imaginations, and the new world hath continued them….It is natural by creation to worship God; and it is natural by corruption for man to worship him in a human way, and not in a divine; is not this to impose laws upon God, to esteem ourselves wiser than he? to think him negligent of his own service, and that our feeble brains can find out ways to accommodate his honor, better than himself hath done? Thus do men for the most part equal their own imaginations to God’s oracles:…this is not only to impose laws on God, but also to make self the standard of them.”[19]
We can be sure that the question, “What is a Christian?”, will not be answered correctly and biblically as long as professing Christians are content to remain mere tasters of the good Word of God, and as long as their ultimate authority is their own feeling, emotion, and understanding rather than Scripture. The apostates described by the author of Hebrews were mere tasters of the good Word of God. They never came to a love of the truth so as to be saved. They never saw their need for a new nature, nor their inability to do anything to obtain one. Like the mass of contemporary evangelicalism, they had a Christianity and ‘faith’ based on the shifting sands of human emotion, intuition, feeling, reason, wisdom, opinion, and understanding, not on the solid rock of Jesus Christ revealed in Scripture and his infallible, unchanging, and authoritative Word.
In our next study we will examine the fifth and final privilege enjoyed by these apostates, name they had also tasted “the powers of the age to come”, that is, the mighty and miraculous works of the Holy Spirit.
[1] Robert L. Thomas, Evangelical Hermeneutics: The New versus The Old (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2002), 127, 128.
[2]Iain Murray, Evangelicalism Divided: A record of crucial change in the years 1950 to 2000 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2000), 8.
[3] Ibid, 9.
[4] John Scott, The Life, Letters, and Papers of the Late Rev. Thomas Scott (New Haven: Nathan Whiting, 1827), 548.
[5] Quoted in Iain Murray, Evangelicalism Divided, 7, 8.
[6] Humphrey Carpenter, Robert Runcie: The Reluctant Archbishop (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1977), 304.
[7] Evangelicalism Divided, 11.
[8] Review of Our Knowledge of God by John Baillie in Collected Writings of John Murray Vol. 3 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2007), 296, 297. Emphasis mine.
[9] Ibid, 297.
[10] To read a full transcript of this interview go to www.biblebb.com/files/tonyqa/tc00-105.htm The full interview can be viewed on YouTube
[11] Quoted in Evangelicalism Divided, 73.
[12] Steven Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, Reprint 1996), 135.
[13] Quoted in Iain Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1987), Ch.17.
[14] William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armor, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Reprint 2015), 55.
[15] Edited by Andrew Atherstone, Bishop J.C. Ryle’s Autobiography (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2016), 73.
[16] Ibid, 74.
[17] Arnold Dallimore, George Whitefield: The life and times of the great evangelist of the 18th century revival, Vol. 2 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1980), Ch.32.
[18] B.B. Warfield, ‘Jesus’ Alleged Confession of Sin’ in Christology and Criticism (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, Reprint 2003), 100-101.
[19] Steven Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, Reprint 1996), 134.