Have I Come to Christ?
There is nothing wliicli should awaken surprise in the statement, that believers bear certain marks by which they may discover themselves to be such; for religion works a real and important change, which admits of being ascertained. Many are the treatises which have been written on this sabyt, and it would be easy to add to their nndfber, because every fruit of grace might in a sense be called an evidence, and the recital of all these would fill a volume. It is not intended now to enter upon so large a field, nor to treat the whole round of Christian evidences. It will be more expedient to contemplate the subject only as it stands related to our proper topic; in other words, to examine the evidences of a gracious state under this single aspect, as evidences of having come to Christ.
Before proceeding to indicate any marks of faith, it will be desirable to state a few principles,’the neglect of which has given rise lo 113”
much confusion; these principles have a direct bearing on all that is to be said in the sequel.
The evidences which are to to be proposed are not for the world, but for the inquirer. On the world there can be no marks but those of external conduct, and these are often fallacious. He who would know his own state must go deeper than this; for as the venerable Stoddard observes: “All visible signs are common to converted and unconverted men; and a relation of experiences among the rest.” Not onbr the world, but the most pious and experienced church officers may be deceived, and take chaff for wheat; the sincere believer will therefore aim to push his search more to the root of things.
These marks must he of divine authcnnty. Hundreds of rules have been laid down, and pressed with great earnestness, which have nevertheless no foundation in the Word of God, but are barely the inventions of men, sometimes of imprudent and erroneous men. In times of unusual awakening, and times when there is earnestness for particular doctrines, it is common for many new tests to be proposed. Thus, for example, the day has lU been when a man would not be reckoned a true Christian, unless lie abandoned all his goods; or unless he was fully prepared for martyrdom; or unless he was delivered from all self-love; or unless he was willing to be damned; or unless he professed full assurance of hope; or unless he had attained sinless perfection. By setting up such tests, weak and trembling believers have often been cast into needless despondency, while presumptuous zealots have triumphed. ISTo discrimination has the slightest value here which is not founded on clear declarations of the Scripture; and these are so abundant as to cut off every pretext of arrogant inventors. “To the Law and to the Testimony.”
The marks of Christian character go together as parts of an undivided whole. There is such a unity and symmetry in the religious life, as proceeding from “one and the selfsame Spirit,” that we can no more have a half-Christianity than a half-life. For, first, since there is a total depravity in the unrenewed, and since there is no grace, even apparently the smallest, which is not the fruit of regeneration, it follows, that any one undeniable evidence would ascertain a soul to he renewed. If, for example, any one could be absolutely certain of his having genuine faith, or holy love, or gospel humility, he would need to look no further. Just as in a case of suspended animation, when anxious friends surround the body, not knowing but that it is a corpse; there are many signs of animal life, but one breath, or one opening of the eyes, or one voluntary motion settles the question. But lest this should render any presumptuous, let it be added, that for the same reason, secondly, the total absence of any one essential mark ivoidd ascertain the soul to he unrenewed. All graces do not indeed blossom and bear at once; there are seasons for particular exercises, and stages in Christian growth; so that this rule is not to be hastily applied. But of its general truth no one can be in doubt, who will reflect, that the absolute and undeniable want of humility, or of brotherly kindness, if it could be ascertained, would as-’certainly stamp a man an enemy of God, as perjury or murder. In a word, the Christian life, though not always acting in the same manner, or the same degree, is always fully present in renewed minds.
It is the recdity and not the degree of these evidences which is the present object of our search, IIG
In another connection we ought to be deeply concerned about the small measure of our piety, and ought daily and with tears to strive for its highest degrees; but when the inquiry is whether we have any piety whatever, it is not a question of degree; and many a humble soul needs the suggestion. There maybe life where there is little strength and little development. The new-born child is as truly alive as the giant. This should not make us willing to remain children, but it should keep us from pronouncing that there is no renewal, because its evidences are small in degree. At the same time it is to be acknowledged, that the principal reason why any real Christians are in doubt as to their acceptance, is that the degree of their evidence is so small; the fire burns so low that it can not be perceived among the ashes; and the obvious method for such persons is to desist from the search for that which is so small, and to strive that it may become greater.
The evidence of our conversion is not he sought in any one moment hut in the luhole tenor of the life. Regeneration itself indeed is not gradual; the transition from death to life is instantaneous; but we arc not competent to judge
of that single instant. Too great stress has undoubtedly been laid on the marked character of the first exercises supposed to be saving; and the error has operated in twofold evil, by darkening the views of the desponding, and making the self-deceiver more presumptuous. It is not by any single moment, even though it were the best, that we can judge of the genuineness of piety. Judged thus, the stony ground hearers, believing and rejoicing. Matt. 13: 20, would have been unblamable. In applying tests, we must look at tendencies as well as frames and states, and must consider the constancy no less than the ardor of feelings and acts. Take into view the whole of your religious life for years, if you would arrive at a sound conclusion.
The last of these preliminaries is not the least important; it is, that the difficulty lies not so much in laying down marJcs, as in discovering their existence in the said. Marks there are, and those infallible, as founded on clear Scriptures, which are nevertheless obscure in some true believers, and seemingly present in some hypocrites. It would be a sad mistake to come with any formula, expecting to apply it as one docs a chemical test for the discovery of a given ingredient in a mixture. The best treatises may be abused in this -way. We may say with truth, for example, that true religion proceeds from the Holy Spirit; is accompanied with spiritual views and relish, and supreme love to God; but the problem is to ascertain the existence of these verymarks. Still it is important to have in the mind a few unquestionable tokens of the new nature; if for no other reason, that we may be always trying to realize them in our experience.
Since the question is, whether we have come to Christ or not, it may serve a useful purpose to recur in thought to the time when it was possible to come to Christ by a bodily approach, that is, the days of his ministry. In those days he often uttered the words of invitation, such as, ^’ Come unto me,” “Follow me;” and these in the first instance were obeyed literally. Many came to him, and remained with him. This, their external coming, was only in order to a more important and spiritual coming, by means of faith; but one throws light upon the other. Those who so came to Christ forsook all their previous associations; they henceforth were present with him; they were found in possession of those things for which they s came; and they stood in new relations to Christ and to his people. In all these respects their case may guide in the inquiry how any soul in our day may be known to have come to Christ. Disavowing, as above, any attempt to exhaust this subject, let me point out a few evidences of this great change.
I. He who has come to Christ has forsaken his former associations. When Jesus called disciples on the sea of Tiberias, he said, “Come ye after me;” upon which Simeon and Andrew straightway “forsook their nets and followed him.” James and John” left their
father und went after him.”
(Mark 1: 16-20.) In reference to which, one of the persons here named, said afterwards: “Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.” (Mark 10: 28.) That comiog to Christ involves the abandoning of what comes into rivalry with him, is apparent from his own words in Luke 14: 33: “Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he can not be my disciple.” And when an inquirei pleaded that he must first attend to the funeral of his flither, “Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bur j their dead.” (Matt. 8: 22.) This separation from former ties is represented as a death, nay, as a crucifixion: “The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” (Gal. 6: 14.) It is a divorce from the law, as to its curse and penalty and slavish fear: “Wherefore, mj brethren, ye also are become dead to the law, by the body of Christ.” (Rom. 7: 4.) It is no less a divorce from sin: ‘’they that are Christ’s, have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts.” (Gal. 4: 24.) That which is to be forsaken for Christ’s sake, might all be summed up in this particular, it is sin. When we renounce, the world, the flesh, and the devil, and the pomps and vanities of the world, it is really the sin that is in these things which we renounce. The very intent of Christ’s coming was, “that he might destroy the works of the devil;” and those who come to Christ have ceased from these works. The gift of the Holy Spirit has for its object the renewal of the soul in holiness; or, what is the same thing, its restitution to spiritual health. Keligion is only another name for the normal condition of the soul, and in its com- ]^lete state the balance and jierfection of all 121 the faculties. For this cause it is that sanctification becomes evidence of justification. Sin can not reign in a renewed soul. The believer makes great use of this in judging of his state. He hates those things which he once loved. The empty pleasures of the world, forbidden indulgences, sensual joys, imrighteous gains, every form of falsehood, deception, selfishness, pride, malice, revenge, and whatsoever God condemns, have become as odious to him as some of them may once have been delightful.
The question is then appropriate: What have you forsaJcen f Sins will exist, and may for a time prevail, in truly regenerate persons, “for there is no man that sinneth not;” but they are objects of abhorrence, and do not indicate the character. The seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Komans merits close study in this connection; for it records the experience of a renewed soul, yet of one who cried, as the reader may possibly have done: “0 wretched man that I am 1 who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (v. 24.) Yet this regenerate soul could also say, in regard to this very sin, and in terms which no ungodly man could adopt: “That which I do I allow not; for what I would that do I not; but what I hate that do I;” “To will is present with me;” “The evil that I would not, that I do;” “For I delight in the law of •God, after the inward man.” As to the abiding temper of his mind, the true Christian has abandoned his ancient country, and entered on a new. The tide in his affections, under some temporary influence may run the wrong way, but the main stream ill flows away from sin. If then you would judge of your state, ask how you are affected towards the things which you profess to have left for Christ. Have you bidden farewell to sin? Do you hate it? Do you loathe it? Your past sins; are they still bitter and humbling, so that you are made to posses’s the iniquities of your youth? Your present sins; into which you have been plunged, as if in spite of yourself; do you groan under them, as within the coils of a serpent? Your future sins; is the thought of yet further offending Christ horrible to you? Have you abandoned the world? Do you shun the road to sin, by avoiding and deprecating temptation? Are you endeavoring to mortify sin, and has God granted you some success in the work? These questions, and such as these, may properly be suggested to those who persuade themselves that they have become disciples. And if it truly appear that in these respects old things have passed away, there will be good reason to believe that all things have become new.
n. He who has come to JJhrist is actually with Christ. Does not all personal coming imply this? He is brought into the presence of Christ; or to vary the expression, Christ is present to him. This includes several particulars, which may be noticed with profit.
1. Believing makes Christ present. We have already seen that this is the very essence of coming to Christ: it is by believing that we come: “Faith is the evidence (the eknchics or conviction) of things not seen.” (Heb. 11: 1.) Nature would prompt the wish that we had lived in the days of Christ’s bodily presence on earth, but faith reveals a Saviour “whom having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice, with joy unspeakable and full of glory,” He is the same to faith, in heaven and on earth, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day and forever.” Now is Christ present to your apprehension? Have you come to him in this sense? As the question is concerning your own mental state, you may fairly appeal to consciousness; do you then believe? Has the Lord Jesus become to you such an actuality, that your soul has come to deal with him personally, individually, and really, as though he were beside you in bodily presence, and as if his sacred hand was locked* in yours? Are you conscious of being near to Christ, and present with him, in such a sense, as to rely on him habitually, yea, this very moment, with all the might of your soul, so that if you were to miss him, or even suspect his absence, you would feel that all the prop of your salvation was gone? The question as to faith is best answered by essaying the acts of faith, that is, by looking at the great object of faith. The best way of removing all dubiety as to whether you have come to Christ, is to come now. And doubtless much of the time which we exhaust in searching for evidence of faith would be better spent by actually believing.
2. Union makes Christ present. Nothing can
be more truly with us, than that which is one
with us. Faith is the bond which unites us
to Christ, and thus compacts us into the glori-OTIS body of wliicli he is the head. So far as this is a divine transaction, beyond the sphere of experience, it is too transcendent for our cognizance, and can not be summoned as evidence; but this union has its visible fruits, and it is these, after which we must inquire. These fruits coincide with justification, adop- *tion, and sanctification, and may be treated of under the following head:
3. He who is with Christ has communion with him. Those who hearkened to his voice and came to him, when he was on earth, enjoyed converse with him, and delighted in his society; in the days of rejoicing, when the “children of the bride-chamber” were too happy to fast.
Nor are such condescensions altogethier wanting now. He still knocks at the door, and to him who hears and opens, he comes in and sups. Our views are habitually too low, in regard to the possibility of enjoying Christ’s presence on earth. It is to be the joy of our heaven hereafter, but God pours out to us some prelibations on earth. The reality of spiritual enjoyment, -^here the soul goes forth to Christ in his holy spiritual attributes, affords bright evidence of having really come 12G to him. Ask the question of your closet, your church, and your sacraments.
in. He who has come to Christ has some possession of that for which he came. For what did you come to Christ? The answer is easy, for SALVATION”. It is too common to speak of salvation as a remote or even a contingent blessing. The believer is already saved. His sins are pardoned. He can never come into condemnation. He is united to Christ, and nothing can separate him from God’s love. He has a new life, and a new nature, being regenerated and restored to God’s image, and conformed by sanctification to his nature. He has the peace of God begun in his soul. In these brief but comprehensive statements, which none can deny, is included salvation; and it is for this that the soul comes to Christ.
All this is admitted and incontestable; but the difficulty is to derive from these truths such practical marks as shall enable us to try our own state. As to pardon, it is the very thing of which we desire to be assured; it can not, therefore, be the medium of proof This is true, yet pardon is coordinate with some other blessings for which we approach
127 the Lord, and which are cognizable in our experience. Two of these shall be meiltioned. 1. The filial disposition. He who comes to Christ for pardon, and obtains it receives a salutation like that in Luke 7: 48: “Thj sins are forgiven.” Faith and justification are followed by peace, (Rom. 5: 1,) as is abundantly shown in those glowing chapters. Were there more of simple affiance in the word of promise, there would be more of this evidence of having obtained pardon. Though, like the ‘’ white stone,” it is incommunicable to man, I am disposed to believe it is in the most rejoicing Christians the chief ground of their comfortable persuasion that God is reconciled. They feel him to be so. His love (to them) is shed abroad in their hearts, and they cry Abba, Father. * Examine, my reader, whether this be in you and abound. Is the spirit of servility and fear cast out? Is the blood of Christ so sprinkled on your heart and conscience as to purge it from dead works, and release it from a sense of wrath? When you kneel in prayer, is there any flowing of the affections in a deep channel towards God, as a beloved Father in heaven? Unless you mistake here, there is reason to trust, if sucIl are your exercises, that your pardon has been sealed. But the obscurity of single evidences makes it desirable to gain the confirmation of concurrent tokens; hence remember that
2. Holiness is a part of salvation, and a principal blessing for which believers come to Christ. The subject is too wide to be discussed in a paragraph. Its difficulties however are not theological but practical. All agree that sanctification is good proof of justification; but am I sanctified? Here is the critical question, into which, indeed, all the others might be resolved. As long as we live we ought to be daily pressing this inquiry, whether we are growing in conformity to God.
Under this head, the subject of sanctification may be viewed in another aspect. He who has come to Christ resembles Christ. The principle is obvious. Kow holiness is resemblance to Christ. If the Christian graces and fruits of the Spirit are found in us, they show that we have been with Christ, and have caught some traits of his character. The subject is vast, so as not to allow details. There is not a virtue, grace, habit, act, feeling, thought, enjoined or approved in Scripture, 129
which may not come in for a share in this examination; and hence the topic must be dismissed with a simple recommendation to practice.
8. Peace — beautiful, heavenly word — is a part of salvation; it has already gained our attention. In quest of peace we ventured to* seek Christ, even before we had a spiritual relish for holiness, and he graciously vouchsafed not to cast us off for preferring the effect to the cause. But true peace is a divine quality, and where it prevails shows that the soul has been brought to Christ. There is a false peace, and the chief task is to distinguish this. Recourse must be had to the characters of true peace, which have been frequently indicated; the chief of these being that genuine peace is founded on Christ, is consistent with high activity, is inseparable from earnest endeavors to maintain universal holiness. If the tranquillity which followed your supposed believing has left you easy in conscience and less scrupulous about offending; if you have less veneration of God’s majesty, and less fear of offending, and less sense of your need of attoning blood, and less hatred of corrupt habits and motions, then be assured it is a spurious, and is likely to be a destructive calm. But if in connection with a persuasion of pardon, and an increasing purity, you grow happier and happier, there seems to be ground to think that you are saved; in other words, that you have possession of that for which you sought Christ.
IV. He who has come to Christ stands in new relations to Christ and to his people: and of this he has some inward feeling, which enables him to use it as a testimony.
1. A relation of friendship. Those who companied with Jesus as disciples were his friends, and as such they loved him. To be without this affection is to be under the curse: “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.” If you could only ascertain beyond a doubt that you love the Lord, you would at once possess the highest evidence of faith, and, so far as this inquiry is concerned, might desist from seeking other testimony. Here we are authorized to inquire of our own consciousness, by the example of the Lord Jesus himself, who thrice said to Peter, after his denial: “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?” And this instance shows us that even an imperfect disciple may some- 131 times have such witness as to exclaim with a burst of humble, affectionate confidence: “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee I” Though the great criterion of love is its fruit, we are not to despise its actual motions in the soul. As no man can be the subject of a high affection without some knowledge of it, we may justly expect to have some direct cognizance of strong love to Christ. Those who are so affected towards him, have his sacred person much in their thoughts, and prize all those means, such as meditation, prayer, and sacraments, which bring him to the thoughts; and have a consciousness of something more than a dull, neutral approbation and respect, being drawn out towards his adorable character and person with a tenderness and warmth as real and unmistakable as what they experience towards friends or offspring. Friends think much of one another; deliberately call up the beloved image; seek correspondence and mutual tokens and messages; ardently press towards society and intimate fellowship; lament over absence; seek the honor and advantage of one another; and ascribe to the most indifferent objects a preciousness if they
HAVE I COME TO CH^ST? 21
stand related to the cherished object. Let each of the tests here condensed into a sentence, be expanded in the secret examination of your heart.
2. The relation of service. “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” There is no love which does not work obedience. No labor, sacrifice, or suffering is too great for love; thus it fulfills the law. The “love of Christ,” says Paul, “constrains us.” The whole Christian service of the Church is only love in act. “In this the children of Grod are manifest, and the children of the devil; whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God.” (John 3: 10.) The principle is plain and too familiar to need a word more, but its application demands unremitting care. Look inward on your heart and, backward on your life, and see whether love has wrought performance. “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and truth.” (1 John 3: 18.) The scope of the inquiry is hence as wide as the entire field of divine command and human obedience, and must be dismissed with a recommendation to make scrutiny as to the fact.
3. Relation of f rater nily to those who are 133
22 HAV^ I COME TO CHRIST?
Christ’s. Nothing can be more obvious than the operation of the principle. That which draws men to Christ draws them to one another. The Apostle John, who had learnt the nature of love from lying on the bosom of incarnate Love, declares this mark to be infallible: “This is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” (1 John 3: 11, 14.) And his argument is that hatred between brothers is hellish: “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murder,” and a Cain; (vv. 12 and 15.) ‘’ If a man say I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (1 John 4: 20.) Even though treatises upon the evidences of piety may not give prominence to this mark, it occupies a high place in Scripture, and admits of more easy application to our experience than many others. Are you then in charity with those who profess to be Christ’s friends? Do you freely forgive them, even as you look for forgiveness yourself? even to the seventy times seven? Are you not only forgiving, but prompt to be reconciled, and resolute, at every hazard, to remove the scandal of livinsr in alienation? These are amons the most ordinary demands of Christianity; we must look further. In respect to those who give evidence of being not only professed but real believers, do you love the image of Christ as reflected in them? Have you so much of the reality of religion as to have risen above the haughty pharisaism of gilded vulgarity, in those who sit doiun at the Lord’s table with a brother to-day and deem him uniuorthy of a salutation to-morrow? Have you been long enough with Jesus to have learnt that connection with him is the greatest of distinctions; greater than the difference between one quality of honor and another, or once degree of fortune and another, or one branch of trafl&c and another, or one profession and another; and that “Christian is the highest style of man”? If you have not, “Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?” (James 2: 4.) The disregard of this duty is perhaps the most prevalent form of unfaithfulness now existing in our churches, especially in commercial cities; nor do I suppose there is 135 an individual among us wHo is not guilty of it every day. It is offensive to the Lord Jesus, and diametrically opposed to the whole course of his lovely example. It is not patronage, but respectful love, that we demand in the name of Christ for his poor members, forewarning the rich that the day will arrive when lie will say: “Inasmuch as ye did not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.” (Matt. 25: -iS.)