Experimental Salvation
by Arthur W. Pink
SALVATION may be viewed from many angles and contemplated under various aspects, but from whatever side we look at it we must ever remember that "Salvation is of the Lord. " Salvation was planned by the Father for His elect before the foundation of the world. It was purchased for them by the holy life and vicarious death of His incarnate Son. It is applied to and wrought in them by His Holy Spirit. It is known and enjoyed through the study of the Scriptures, through the exercise of faith, and through communion with the triune Jehovah.
Now it is greatly to be feared that there are multitudes in Christendom who verily imagine and sincerely believe that they are among the saved, yet who are total strangers to a work of divine grace in their hearts. It is one thing to have clear intellectual conceptions of God's truth, it is quite another matter to have a personal, real heart acquaintance with it. It is one thing to believe that sin is the awful thing that the Bible says it is, but it is quite another matter to have a holy horror and hatred of it in the soul. It is one thing to know that God requires repentance, it is quite another matter to experimentally mourn and groan over our vileness. It is one thing to believe that Christ is the only Savior for sinners, it is quite another matter to really trust Him from the heart. It is one thing to believe that Christ is the Sum of all excellency, it is quite another matter to LOVE Him above all others. It is one thing to believe that God is the great and holy One, it is quite another matter to truly reverence and fear Him. It is one thing to believe that salvation is of the Lord, it is quite another matter to become an actual partaker of it through His gracious workings.
While it is true that Holy Scripture insists on man's responsibility, and that all through them God deals with the sinner as an accountable being; yet it is also true that the Bible plainly and constantly shows that no son of Adam has ever measured up to his responsibility, that every one has miserably failed to discharge his accountability. It is this which constitutes the deep need for GOD to work in the sinner, and to do for him what he is unable to do for himself. "They that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom 8:8). The sinner is "without strength" (Rom 5:6). Apart from the Lord, we "can do nothing" (John 15:5).
While it is true that the Gospel issues a call and a command to all who hear it, it is also true that ALL disregard that call and disobey that command--"They all with one consent began to make excuse" (Luke 14:18). This is where the smner commits his greatest sin and most manifests his awful erunity against God and His Christ: that when a Savior, suited to his needs, is presented to him, he "despises and rejects" Him (Isa 53:3).
This is where the sinner shows what an incorrigible rebel he is, and demonstrates that he is deserving only of eternal torments. But it is just at this point that God manifests His sovereign and wondrous GRACE. He not only planned and provided salvation, but he actually bestows it upon those whom He has chosen.
Now this bestowal of salvation is far more than a mere proclamation that salvation is to be found in the Lord Jesus: it is very much more than an invitation for sinners to receive Christ as their Savior. It is God actually saving His people. It is His own sovereignty and all-powerful work of grace toward and in those who are entirely destitute of merit, and who are so depraved in themselves that they will not and cannot take one step to the obtaining of salvation. Those who have been actually saved owe far more to divine grace than most of them realize. It is not only that Christ died to put away their sins, but also the Holy Spirit has wrought a work in them--a work which applies to them the virtues of Christ's atoning death.
It is just at this point that so many preachers fail in their exposition of the Truth. While many of them affirm that Christ is the only Savior for sinners, they also teach that He actually became ours only by our consent. While they allow that conviction of sin is the Holy Spirit's work and that He alone shows us our lost condition and need of Christ, yet they also insist that the decisive factor in salvation is man's own will. But the Holy Scriptures teach that "salvation is of the LORD" (Jonah 2:9), and that nothing of the creature enters into it at any point. Only that can satisfy God which has been produced by God Himself. Though it be true that salvation does not become the personal portion of the sinner until he has, from the heart, believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, yet is that very BELIEVING wrought in him by the Holy Spirit: "By grace are ye saved through faith, and that NOT OF YOURSELVES; it is the gift of God" (Eph 2:8).
It is exceedingly solemn to discover that there is a "believing" in Christ by the natural man, which is NOT a believing unto salvation. Just as the Buddists believe in Budda, so in Christendom there are multitudes who believe in Christ. And this "believing" is something more than an intellectual one. Often there is much feeling connected with it--the emotions may be deeply stirred. Christ taught in the Parable of the Sower that there is a class of people who hear the Word and with joy receive it, yet have they no root in themselves (Matt 13:20,21). This is fearfully solemn, for it is still occurring daily. Scriptures also tell us that Herod heard John "gladly. " Thus, the mere fact that the reader of these pages enjoys listening to some sound gospel preacher is no proof at all that he is a regenerated soul. The Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees concerning John the Baptist, "Ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light," yet the sequel shows clearly that no real work of grace had been wrought in them. And these things are recorded in Scripture as solemn warnings!
It is striking and solemn to mark the exact wording in the last two Scriptures referred to. Note the repeated personal pronoun in Mark 6:20: "For Herod feared John [not 'God'!], knowing that he as a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly." It was the personality of John which attracted Herod. How often is this the case today! People are charmed by the personality of the preacher: they are carried away by his style and won by his earnestness for souls. But if there is nothing more than this, there will one day be a rude awakening for them. That which is vital is a "love for the truth," not for the one who presents it. It is this which distinguishes the true people of God from the "mixed multitude" who ever associate with them.
So in John 5:35 Christ said to the Pharisees concerning His forerunner: "Ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light," not "in the light"! In like manner, there are many today who listen to one whom God enables to open up some of the mysteries and wonders of His Word and they rejoice "in his light" while in the dark themselves, never having personally received "an unction from the Holy One." Those who do "love the truth" (2 Thess 2:10) are they in whom a divine work of grace has been wrought. They have something more than a clear, intellectual understanding of the Scripture: it is the food of their souls, the joy of their hearts (Jer 15:16). They love the truth, and because they do so, they hate error and shun it as deadly poison. They are jealous for the glory of the Author of the Word, and will not sit under a minister whose teaching dishonors Him; they will not listen to preaching which exalts man into the place of supremacy, so that he is the decider of his own destiny.
"LORD, Thou wilt ordain peace for us: for Thou also hast wrought all our works in us" (Isa 26:12). Here is the heart and unqualified confession of the true people of God. Note the preposition: "Thou also hast wrought all our works in us." This speaks of a divine work of grace wrought in the heart of the saint. Nor is this text alone. Weigh carefully the following: "It pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me" (Gal 1:15,16).
"Unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Eph 3:20). "Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it" (Phil 1:6). "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Phil 2:13). "I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them" (Heb 10: 16). "Now the God of peace ... make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight" (Heb 13:20). Here are seven passages which speak of the inward workings of God's grace; or in other words of experimental salvation.
"LORD, Thou wilt ordain peace for us: for Thou also hast wrought all our works in us" (Isa 26:12). Is there an echoing response in our heart to this, my reader? Is your repentance something deeper than the remorse and tears of the natural man? Does it have its root in a divine work of grace which the Holy Spirit hath wrought in your soul? Is your believing in Christ something more than an intellectual one? Is your relation to Him something more vital than what some act of yours has brought about, having been made one with Him by the power and operation of the Spirit? Is your love for Christ something more than a pious sentiment, like that of the Romanist who sings of the "gentle" and "sweet" Jesus? Does your love for Him proceed from an altogether new nature, that God has created within you? Can you really say with the Psalmist: "Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee." Is your profession accompanied by true meekness and lowliness of heart? It is easy to call yourself names, and say, "I am an unworthy and unprofitable creature." But do you realize yourself to be such? Do you feel yourself to be "less than the least of all saints?" Paul did! If you do not; if instead, you deem yourself superior to the rank and file of Christians, who bemoan their failures, confess their weakness, and cry, "O wretched man that I am!"--there is grave reason to conclude you are a stranger to God!
That which distinguishes genuine godliness from human religiousness is this: the one is external, the other internal. Christ complained of the Pharisees, "Ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess" (Matt 23:25). A carnal religion is all on the surface. It is at the heart God looks and with the heart God deals. Concerning His people He says: "I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them" (Heb 10:16).
"Lord, Thou wilt ordain peace for us: for Thou also hast wrought all our works in us." How humbling is this to the pride of man! It makes everything of God and nothing of the creature!
The tendency of human nature the world over, is to be self-sufficient and self-satisfied; to say with the Laodiceans, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing" (Rev 3:17). But here is something to humble us, and empty us of pride. Since God has wrought all our works in us, then we have no ground for boasting. "What hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" (I Cor 4:7).
And who are the ones in whom God thus works? From the divine side; His favored, chosen, redeemed people. From the human side: those who, in themselves have no claim whatever on His notice; who are destitute of any merit; who have everything in them to provoke His holy wrath; those who are miserable failures in their lives, and utterly depraved and corrupt in their persons. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, and did for them and in them what they would not and could not do for themselves.
And what is it God "works" in His people?-- All their works. First, He quickens them: "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing" (John 6:63). "Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth" (James 1:18). Second, He bestows repentance: "Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel" (Acts 5:31). "Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life" (Acts 11:18; 2 Tim 2:25). Third, He gives faith: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God" (Eph 2:8). "Ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God" (Col 2:12). Fourth, He grants a spiritual understanding:'And we know the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true" (I John 5:20). Fifth, He effectuates our service: "I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me" (I Cor 15:10). Sixth, He secures our perseverance: "who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation" (I Pet 1:5). Seventh, He produces our fruit: "From Me is thy fruit found" (Hosea 14:8). "The fruit of the Spirit" (Gal 5:22). Yes, He has wrought all our works in us.
Why has God thus "wrought all our works in us?" First, because unless He had done so, all had eternally perished (Rom 9:29). We were "without strength," unable to meet God's righteous demands. Therefore, in sovereign grace, He did for us what we ought but could not do for ourselves. Second, that all the glory might be His. God is a jealous God. He says so. His honour He will not share with another. By this means He secures all the praise, and we have no ground for boasting. Third, that our salvation might be effectually and securely accomplished. Were any part of our salvation left to us it would be neither effectual nor secure. Whatever man touches he spoils: failure is written across everything he attempts. But what God does is perfect and lasts for ever: "I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before Him" (Eccl 3:14).
But how may I be sure that my works have been "wrought in me" by God? Mainly by their effects. If you have been born again, you have a new nature within. This new nature is spiritual and contrary to the flesh--contrary in its desires and aspirations. Because the old and new natures are contrary to each other, there is a continual war between them. Are you conscious of this inward conflict?
If your repentance be a God-wrought one, then you abhor yourself. If your repentance be a genuine and spiritual one, then you marvel that God did not long ago cast you into hell. If you repentance be the gift of Christ, then you daily mourn the wretched return which you make to God's wondrous grace; you hate sin, you sorrow in secret before God for your manifold transgressions. Not simply do you do so at conversion, but daily do so now.
If your faith be a God-communicated one, it is evidenced by your turning away from all creature confidences, by a renunciation of your own self-righteousness, by a repudiation of all your own works. If your faith be "the faith of God's elect" (Titus 1:1), then you are resting alone on Christ as the ground of your acceptance before God. If your faith be the result of "the operation of God," then you implicitly believe His Word, you receive it with meekness, you crucify reason, and accept all He has said with childlike simplicity.
If your love for Christ be the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:25), then it evidences itself by constantly seeking to please Him, and by abstaining from what you know is displeasing to Him: in a word, by an obedient walk. If your love for Christ be the love of "the new man," then you pant after Him, you yearn for communion with Him above everything else. If your love for Christ be the same m kind (though not in degree) as His love for you, then you are eagerly looking forward to His glorious appearing, when He shall come again to receive His people unto Himself, that they may be forever with the Lord. May the grace of spiritual discernment be given the reader to see whether his Christian profession be real or a sham, whether his hope is built upon the Rock of Ages or the quicksands of human resolutions, efforts, decisions, or feelings; whether, in short, his salvation is "OF THE LORD" or the vain imagination of his own deceitful heart.
Friday, April 13, 2007
The Holy Spirit's Work in Salvation
by Arthur W. Pink
In Acts 19 we learn that when the apostle Paul came to Ephesus he asked some disciples of John the Baptist "Have ye received the Holy Spirit since ye believed?" (v. 2) And we are told "They said unto him, We have not so much is heard whether there be any Holy Spirit." Sad to say, history has repeated itself. Without doubt, were the members of hundreds of so-called "churches" (in which modernism and worldliness rule) asked the same question, they would be obliged to return an identical answer. The reason why those disciples at Ephesus knew not about the Holy Spirit was, most probably, because they had been baptized in Judea by the forerunner of Christ and then had returned to Ephesus where they remained in ignorance of what had taken place on the day of Pentecost. But the reason why the members of the average "church" know nothing about the third Person of the Godhead is because the preachers they sit under are silent concerning Him.
Nor is it very much better with many of the churches still counted as orthodox. Though the Person of the Spirit may not be reputiated and though His name may occasionally be mentioned, yet, with only rare exceptions is there any definite scriptural teaching given out concerning the offices and operations of the divine Comforter. As to His work in salvation, this is very little understood even by professing Christians. In the majority of the places where the Lord Jesus is still formally acknowledged to be the only Savior for sinners, the current teaching of the day is that Christ has made it possible for men to be saved, but that they themselves must decide whether they shall be saved. The idea now so widely prevailing is that Christ is offered to man's acceptance, and that he must "accept Christ as his personal Savior," "give his heart to Jesus," "take his stand for Christ," etc., if the blood of the Cross is to avail for his sins. Thus, according to this conception, the finished work of Christ, the greatest work of all time and in all the universe is left contingent on the fickle will of man as to whether it shall be a success or a failure!
Entering now a much narrower circle in Christendom, in places where it is yet owned that the Holy Spirit has a mission and ministry in connection with the preaching of the Gospel, the general idea prevails even there that when the Gospel of Christ is faithfully preached, the Holy Spirit convicts men of sin and reveals to them their need of a Savior. But beyond this very few are prepared to go. The theory prevailing in these places is that the sinner has to cooperate with the Spirit, that he himself must yield to the Spirit's "striving" or he will not and cannot be saved. But this pernicious and God-insulting theory denies two things: to argue that the natural man is capable of cooperating with the Spirit is to deny that he is "dead in trespasses and sins" for a dead man is incapable of doing anything. And, to say that the operations of the Spirit in a man's heart and conscience may be resisted, withstood, is to deny His omnipotence!
Ere proceeding further, and in order to clear the way for what is to follow, a few words need to be said on "My Spirit shall not always strive with man," (Gen. 6:3) and "ye do always resist the Holy Spirit." (Acts 7:51) Now these passages refer to the external work of the Spirit, that is, to His testimony through the preached Word. 1 Peter 3:18-20 shows that it was the Spirit of Christ in Noah who "strove" with the antediluvians as the patriarch preached to them. (2 Peter 2:5) So in Acts 7 the very next words explain v. 51- "Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?" As Nehemiah said, "Many years didst Thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by Thy Spirit in Thy prophets." (Neh. 9:30)
The external work of the Spirit, His testimony through the Scriptures as it falls on the outward ear of the natural man, is always "resisted" and rejected, which only affords solemn and full demonstration of the awful fact that "the carnal mind is enmity against God." (Rom. 8:7) But what we would now point out is that Scripture reveals another work of the Holy Spirit, a work that is internal, imperceptible, invisible. This work is always EFFICACIOUS. It is the Spirit's work in salvation, begun in the heart at the new birth, continued or sustained throughout the entire course of the Christian's life on earth, and concluded and consummated in Heaven. This is what is referred to in Phil. 1:6: "He which hath begun a good work in you will finish it." This is what is in view in Psa. 138:8: "The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me." This work is wrought by the Spirit in each of "God's elect," and in them alone.
It has been well said that "The part and office of the Holy Spirit in the salvation of God's elect consists in renewing them. He quickens the heirs of glory with a spiritual life, enlightens their minds to know Christ, reveals Him to them, forms Him in their hearts, and brings them to build all their hopes of eternal glory on Him alone. He sheds abroad the Father's love in their hearts, and gives them a real sense of it. In which experience of His gracious and effectual work in their souls, they are made to say with the Psalmist, "Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and causeth to approach unto Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts" (Psa. 65:4)."
One of the delusions of the day is that an evangelical believing in Christ lies within the power of the unrenewed man, so that by performiing what is naively called "a simple act of faith" he becomes a renewed man. In other words, it is supposed that man is the beginner of his own salvation. He takes the first step, and God does the rest; he "believes" and then God comes in and saves him. This is nothing but a bald and blank denial of the Spirit's work altogether. If there is one time more than another when the sinner lies in need of the Spirit's power it is at the beginning. "He who denies the need of the Spirit at the beginning, cannot believe in His work at the after stages--nay, cannot believe in the need of the Spirit's work at all. The mightiest and most insuperable difficulty lies at the beginning. If the sinner can get over that without the Spirit, he can easily get over the rest. If he does not need the Spirit to enable him to believe, he will not need Him to enable him to love." (H. Bonar)
They err greatly who think that after the Spirit has done His work in the conscience it still remains for man to say whether he shall be regenerated or not, whether he shall believe or no. The Spirit of God does not wait for the sinner to exercise his will to believe; instead He works in the "elect" "both to will and to do." (Phil. 2:13) Therefore does Jehovah declare, "I am found of them that sought Me NOT." (Isa. 65:1. Quoted by Paul in Rom.10:20). To "believe" in Christ savingly is a supernatural act, the product of supernatural grace. There is no more power in fallen man to believe to the saving of his soul than he has any merits of his own entitling him to the favor of God; thus, he is as dependent on the Spirit for power as on Christ for worthiness. The Spirit's work is to apply the redemption which the Lord Jesus purchased for His people, and the children of God owe their salvation to the One equally as much as to the Other.
In Titus 3:5 the salvation of the redeemed is expressly attributed to God the Spirit: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit." "If it be asked in what sense men can be said to be "saved" by the renewing of the Spirit, the answer is obvious: There is a series of truths to which no link can be wanting. We are saved by the divine purpose, for God hath chosen us to salvation: we are saved by the atonement as the meritorious ground of all; we are saved by faith as the bond of union to Christ; we are saved by grace as contrasted with works done; we are saved by the truth as conveying God's testimony; and, as here, we are saved by the renewing of the Holy Spirit, as producing faith in the heart." (Prof. Smeaton)
REGENERATION IS BY THE SPIRIT
"And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." (Eph. 2:1) The quickening of those who are dead in trespasses is the work of the third Person of the Trinity: "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (John 3:6) The natural man is spiritually dead. He is alive sinward and worldward but dead Godward--"allenated from the life of God." (Eph. 4:18) If this solemn truth were really believed, there would be an end to controversy on our present subject. A dead man cannot "cooperate" with the Spirit, nor can he "accept Christ." In 2 Cor. 3:5 we read, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything." That is said of Christians. If the regenerate have no capacity to "think" spiritually, still less are the unregenerate able to.
"The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. 2:14) What could be plainer? The "natural man" is fallen in his unregenerate state. Unless he is born from above he is completely devoid of spiritual discernment. Our Lord expressly declared, "Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3) The "natural man" cannot see himself, his ruin, his depravity, the filthiness of his own righteousness. No matter how plainly God's Truth is presented to him, being blind, he cannot discern either its meaning, spiritually, or suitedness to his need. A spiritual understanding of the Gospel is as truly due to the operation of the Holy Spirit as that He is the Author of the divine Revelation. Spiritual life must precede spiritual sight, and the Spirit Himself must enter the heart before there is "life": "And shall put My Spirit in you, and ye shall live." (Ezek. 37:14)
The work of the Spirit in regeneration is a divine miracle which is the result of His forthputting of supernatural power. It is quickening of a spiritual corpse; it is the bringing of a dead soul to life. The sinner himself can no more accomplish it by an act of his own will than he can create a universe. This miracle of grace is spoken of in Scripture as "the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead." (Eph. 1:19, 29) "The same power which was put forth to raise Christ from the dead is put forth in regeneration . . . Christ's resurrection is the exemplary pattern of our spiritual resurrection, according to which, as the Spirit wrought in Him, so He works in us a work conformed to His resurrection. As the resurrection of Christ was the great declaration of His being the Son of God, so in regeneration of our being the sons of God, being the evidence of our adoption, and also the first discovery of our election. As Christ's resurrection is the first step to His eternal kingdom and glory, so regeneration is the first open introduction to all the blessings of that state of grace into which the child of God is now introduced." (S.E. Pierce)
MEETNESS FOR HEAVEN IS BY THE SPIRIT
Our title to the glory lies solely in the righteousness of Christ; our personal fitness for it lies in the Holy Spirit's regenerating of us. All our meetness for the heavenly state was wrought in us in regeneration. Writing to the regenerated Colossians the apostle said, "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." And then he shows wherein this "meetness" consists: "'Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son" (v. 13) Their title is without them; their "meetness" within. The Holy Spirit has created in them a nature which is capacitated to know and enjoy the Triune God.
In our unregenerate state we were completely under the power of darkness, that is, of sin and Satan, and we were less able to deliver ourselves from this bondage than Jonah was able to escape from the belly of the whale. We "sat in darkness" and "in the region and shadow of death." (Matt. 4:16) We were "captives," "bound" and in "prison." (Isa. 61:1) We were those "having no hope, and without God in the world." (Eph. 2:12) From this dreadful state every renewed soul has been "delivered" by the gracious, sovereign and invincible power of the Holy Spirit, and has been "translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son." Then let each renewed reader give equal homage, adoration and worship to Him as to the Father and to the Son.
JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION ARE BY THE SPIRIT
"And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justifiied in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Cor. 6:11) This is a remarkable scripture, and little pondered. It would lead us too far away from our theme were we to attempt a full exposition of it. Two things here would we barely point out: the three saving blessings enumerated in this verse are referred, first, to the "name" or merits of Christ as His own procuring cause; and then to the Holy Spirit who makes the elect partakers of them by His own effectual application. He it is who enlightens their minds and opens their hearts to take in and be assured that they are "washed, sanctified and justified."
FAITH IS FROM THE SPIRIT
A deeply taught servant of God once wrote to a young preacher, "Never represent faith as being an act so "simple" that the work of the ispirit is not needed to produce it." Yet this is what has been commonly done. A great many of the evangelists of the past hundred years have displayed a zeal which was not according to knowledge (Rom. 10:2), and manifested a far greater concern to see souls saved than to preach the truth of God in its purity. In their efforts to show the simplicity of the "way of salvation" they have lost sight of the difficulties of salvation (Luke 18:24; 1 Peter 4:18): in their pressing of the responsibility of man to believe, they have ignored the fact that none can believe till the Spirit imparts faith. To present Christ to the sinner and then throw him back on his own will, is to mock him in his helplessness; the work of the Spirit in the heart is as real and urgent a need as was the work of Christ on the Cross. For the heart to truly believe in and trust God is a spiritual act, a "good fruit," and if fallen man possesses inherent power to do good, then to present the Atonement to him is altogether needless.
There is no middle ground between life and death; no intermediate stage between conversion and non-conversion. The bestowal of eternal life is instantaneus; we are "created in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2:10) It is a most serious error to suppose that after the Spirit of God has done His work in the sinner, it still remains for him to say whether he shall be regenerated or not, whether he shall believe or no. All who are recipients of His supernatural operations are regenerated, effectually converted, and actually believe. It is not that the Spirit imparts the capacity to believe and then waits for the individual to exercise his will to believe: no, He works in the elect "both to will and to do." (Phil. 2:13) I may tell a man that in the next room there is a lighted lamp, and he may not believe me, but let me bring it into the room where he is, so, that he sees the light for himself, and he is irresistibly persuaded. So a servant of God may tell a man that Christ is sufficient for the chief of sinners, and he believes not; but when Christ is "revealed in him" (Gal. 1:16) he cannot but trust Him. See 2 Cor. 4:6.
How perversely man reverses the order of God's truth. They urge dead sinners to come to Christ, supposing they have the power or will to do so. Whereas Christ has plainly and emphatically stated that "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him." (John 6:44) "Coming to Christ" is the affections of the heart being drawn out towards Him, and how can a person love one he knows not? See John 4:10. Ah, it is the Spirit who must bring Christ to me, reveal Him in me before I can truly know Him. "Coming to Christ" is an inward and spiritual act, not an outward and natural one. Truly, "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. 2:14) We cannot so much as "see Christ" until we are born again. (John 3:3)
Saving grace is something more than an objective fact presented to us; it is a subjective operation wrought within us. As it is not by natural discernment that I discover my need of Christ, so it is not by my natural strength and will that I "come" to Him. There must be life and light (sight) before there can be motion. A babe has to be born, and have sight and strength, too, before it is able to "come" to its parent. Believing in Christ is a supernatural act, the product of supernatural power. One may, by means of grammatical phrases and scriptural propositions teach spiritual truth to another, but he cannot illumine his mind with respect thereto. He may tell a man that God is holy, but he cannot impart to him a consciousness that God is holy. He may tell him that sin is infinitely heinous, but he cannot beget in him a feeling or heart-realizatian that it is so. To those who were well acquainted with them outwardly, Christ said, "Ye neither know Me nor My Father." (John 8:19) A man may "know" the way of righteousness" (2 Pet. 2:21) theoretically, intellectually, but that is a vastly different matter (though very few are inwardly aware of it) from a spiritual experimental acquaintance with it. "We having the same Spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believe, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak." (2 Cor. 4:13) Here the Spirit of God is spoken of according to the work that He performs. "The title 'Spirit of faith' intimates that the Holy Spirit is the Author of faith; for all men have not faith; that is, it is not given to all and does not belong to all. (2 Thess. 3:2) The designation means that the procuring cause of faith is the Holy Spirit who produces this effect by an invisible call, an invitation which accompanies, according to the good pleasure of His will, the external proclamation of the Gospel. The faith, therefore, of which He is the Author, is not affected by the hearer's own strength, or by the hearer's own effectual will . . . The special operation of the Spirit inclines the sinner, previously disinclined, to receive the invitations of the Gospel; for it is He alone, acting as the Spirit of faith, that removes the enmity of the carnal mind to those doctrines of the cross which, but for this, would seem to him unnecessary, or foolish or offensive." (Prof. Smeaton)
Writing to the Philippian saints the apostle declared, "Unto you it is given . . . to believe on Him." (1:29) Faith is God's "gift" as Eph. 2:8,9 positively affirms. It is not a gift offered for man's acceptance, but actually conferred upon God's children, breathed into them. It in imparted to each of "God's elect" at His appointed time by the Holy Spirit. It is not produced by the creature's will but is "faith of the operation of God." (Col. 2:12) It is the "work" of the Spirit, by His supernatural action. The Holy Spirit given by Christ to this end, that each of those for whom He died should be brought to a saving knowledge of the truth therefore we are told "Who by Him (not by our wills) do believe in God." (1 Peter 1:21) In 1 Cor. 3:5 it is, said "by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man"; so in Eph. 6:23 it is declared, "Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." The very degree and strength of our faith is determined solely by God: "think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." (Rom.12:3) If by grace you are truly a "believer," let the reader give God the Spirit honor, glory, and praise for it.
SALVATION IS WHOLLY APPLIED BY THE SPIRIT
"We are bound always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." (2 Thess. 2:13) The mission of the Spirit in the earth is to apply to God's elect the redemption proposed by God the Father and purchased by God the Son for them. The Holy Spirit is here to make good the souls of the heirs of glory the fruits of the travail of Christ's soul. This He does by means of the Gospel by the written and oral ministry of the Scripture, for the Word of God is the only instrument He employs or uses. The Word of God is "the word of life" (Phil. 2:16), but it only becomes such in the experience of the individual soul by the immediate operation and application of the Spirit of God. As Paul wrote to the Thessalonian saints, "For our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit." (1 Thess. 1:5) This is not to deny the efficacy of the Word itself, but it is to insist that the direct agency of the Spirit on the heart is absolutely necessary in order to the reception of the Word. The Word is a lamp unto our path, but there must be an opening of the eyes of our understandings by the Spirit before we can see its light.
The salvation of God's elect was purposed, planned, and provided by God the Father before the foundation of the world. It was procured and secured by the incarnation, obedience, death and resurrection of God the Son. It is made known, applied to and wrought in them by God the Spirit. Thus, "Salvation is of the Lord" (Jonah 2:9), and man has no part or hand in it at any point whatsoever. The child of God is not the earner but the recipient of it. Faith is not a condition which the elect sinner must perform in order to obtain salvation, but is the means and channel through which he personally enjoys the salvation of the Triune Jehovah.
by Arthur W. Pink
In Acts 19 we learn that when the apostle Paul came to Ephesus he asked some disciples of John the Baptist "Have ye received the Holy Spirit since ye believed?" (v. 2) And we are told "They said unto him, We have not so much is heard whether there be any Holy Spirit." Sad to say, history has repeated itself. Without doubt, were the members of hundreds of so-called "churches" (in which modernism and worldliness rule) asked the same question, they would be obliged to return an identical answer. The reason why those disciples at Ephesus knew not about the Holy Spirit was, most probably, because they had been baptized in Judea by the forerunner of Christ and then had returned to Ephesus where they remained in ignorance of what had taken place on the day of Pentecost. But the reason why the members of the average "church" know nothing about the third Person of the Godhead is because the preachers they sit under are silent concerning Him.
Nor is it very much better with many of the churches still counted as orthodox. Though the Person of the Spirit may not be reputiated and though His name may occasionally be mentioned, yet, with only rare exceptions is there any definite scriptural teaching given out concerning the offices and operations of the divine Comforter. As to His work in salvation, this is very little understood even by professing Christians. In the majority of the places where the Lord Jesus is still formally acknowledged to be the only Savior for sinners, the current teaching of the day is that Christ has made it possible for men to be saved, but that they themselves must decide whether they shall be saved. The idea now so widely prevailing is that Christ is offered to man's acceptance, and that he must "accept Christ as his personal Savior," "give his heart to Jesus," "take his stand for Christ," etc., if the blood of the Cross is to avail for his sins. Thus, according to this conception, the finished work of Christ, the greatest work of all time and in all the universe is left contingent on the fickle will of man as to whether it shall be a success or a failure!
Entering now a much narrower circle in Christendom, in places where it is yet owned that the Holy Spirit has a mission and ministry in connection with the preaching of the Gospel, the general idea prevails even there that when the Gospel of Christ is faithfully preached, the Holy Spirit convicts men of sin and reveals to them their need of a Savior. But beyond this very few are prepared to go. The theory prevailing in these places is that the sinner has to cooperate with the Spirit, that he himself must yield to the Spirit's "striving" or he will not and cannot be saved. But this pernicious and God-insulting theory denies two things: to argue that the natural man is capable of cooperating with the Spirit is to deny that he is "dead in trespasses and sins" for a dead man is incapable of doing anything. And, to say that the operations of the Spirit in a man's heart and conscience may be resisted, withstood, is to deny His omnipotence!
Ere proceeding further, and in order to clear the way for what is to follow, a few words need to be said on "My Spirit shall not always strive with man," (Gen. 6:3) and "ye do always resist the Holy Spirit." (Acts 7:51) Now these passages refer to the external work of the Spirit, that is, to His testimony through the preached Word. 1 Peter 3:18-20 shows that it was the Spirit of Christ in Noah who "strove" with the antediluvians as the patriarch preached to them. (2 Peter 2:5) So in Acts 7 the very next words explain v. 51- "Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?" As Nehemiah said, "Many years didst Thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by Thy Spirit in Thy prophets." (Neh. 9:30)
The external work of the Spirit, His testimony through the Scriptures as it falls on the outward ear of the natural man, is always "resisted" and rejected, which only affords solemn and full demonstration of the awful fact that "the carnal mind is enmity against God." (Rom. 8:7) But what we would now point out is that Scripture reveals another work of the Holy Spirit, a work that is internal, imperceptible, invisible. This work is always EFFICACIOUS. It is the Spirit's work in salvation, begun in the heart at the new birth, continued or sustained throughout the entire course of the Christian's life on earth, and concluded and consummated in Heaven. This is what is referred to in Phil. 1:6: "He which hath begun a good work in you will finish it." This is what is in view in Psa. 138:8: "The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me." This work is wrought by the Spirit in each of "God's elect," and in them alone.
It has been well said that "The part and office of the Holy Spirit in the salvation of God's elect consists in renewing them. He quickens the heirs of glory with a spiritual life, enlightens their minds to know Christ, reveals Him to them, forms Him in their hearts, and brings them to build all their hopes of eternal glory on Him alone. He sheds abroad the Father's love in their hearts, and gives them a real sense of it. In which experience of His gracious and effectual work in their souls, they are made to say with the Psalmist, "Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and causeth to approach unto Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts" (Psa. 65:4)."
One of the delusions of the day is that an evangelical believing in Christ lies within the power of the unrenewed man, so that by performiing what is naively called "a simple act of faith" he becomes a renewed man. In other words, it is supposed that man is the beginner of his own salvation. He takes the first step, and God does the rest; he "believes" and then God comes in and saves him. This is nothing but a bald and blank denial of the Spirit's work altogether. If there is one time more than another when the sinner lies in need of the Spirit's power it is at the beginning. "He who denies the need of the Spirit at the beginning, cannot believe in His work at the after stages--nay, cannot believe in the need of the Spirit's work at all. The mightiest and most insuperable difficulty lies at the beginning. If the sinner can get over that without the Spirit, he can easily get over the rest. If he does not need the Spirit to enable him to believe, he will not need Him to enable him to love." (H. Bonar)
They err greatly who think that after the Spirit has done His work in the conscience it still remains for man to say whether he shall be regenerated or not, whether he shall believe or no. The Spirit of God does not wait for the sinner to exercise his will to believe; instead He works in the "elect" "both to will and to do." (Phil. 2:13) Therefore does Jehovah declare, "I am found of them that sought Me NOT." (Isa. 65:1. Quoted by Paul in Rom.10:20). To "believe" in Christ savingly is a supernatural act, the product of supernatural grace. There is no more power in fallen man to believe to the saving of his soul than he has any merits of his own entitling him to the favor of God; thus, he is as dependent on the Spirit for power as on Christ for worthiness. The Spirit's work is to apply the redemption which the Lord Jesus purchased for His people, and the children of God owe their salvation to the One equally as much as to the Other.
In Titus 3:5 the salvation of the redeemed is expressly attributed to God the Spirit: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit." "If it be asked in what sense men can be said to be "saved" by the renewing of the Spirit, the answer is obvious: There is a series of truths to which no link can be wanting. We are saved by the divine purpose, for God hath chosen us to salvation: we are saved by the atonement as the meritorious ground of all; we are saved by faith as the bond of union to Christ; we are saved by grace as contrasted with works done; we are saved by the truth as conveying God's testimony; and, as here, we are saved by the renewing of the Holy Spirit, as producing faith in the heart." (Prof. Smeaton)
REGENERATION IS BY THE SPIRIT
"And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." (Eph. 2:1) The quickening of those who are dead in trespasses is the work of the third Person of the Trinity: "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (John 3:6) The natural man is spiritually dead. He is alive sinward and worldward but dead Godward--"allenated from the life of God." (Eph. 4:18) If this solemn truth were really believed, there would be an end to controversy on our present subject. A dead man cannot "cooperate" with the Spirit, nor can he "accept Christ." In 2 Cor. 3:5 we read, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything." That is said of Christians. If the regenerate have no capacity to "think" spiritually, still less are the unregenerate able to.
"The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. 2:14) What could be plainer? The "natural man" is fallen in his unregenerate state. Unless he is born from above he is completely devoid of spiritual discernment. Our Lord expressly declared, "Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3) The "natural man" cannot see himself, his ruin, his depravity, the filthiness of his own righteousness. No matter how plainly God's Truth is presented to him, being blind, he cannot discern either its meaning, spiritually, or suitedness to his need. A spiritual understanding of the Gospel is as truly due to the operation of the Holy Spirit as that He is the Author of the divine Revelation. Spiritual life must precede spiritual sight, and the Spirit Himself must enter the heart before there is "life": "And shall put My Spirit in you, and ye shall live." (Ezek. 37:14)
The work of the Spirit in regeneration is a divine miracle which is the result of His forthputting of supernatural power. It is quickening of a spiritual corpse; it is the bringing of a dead soul to life. The sinner himself can no more accomplish it by an act of his own will than he can create a universe. This miracle of grace is spoken of in Scripture as "the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead." (Eph. 1:19, 29) "The same power which was put forth to raise Christ from the dead is put forth in regeneration . . . Christ's resurrection is the exemplary pattern of our spiritual resurrection, according to which, as the Spirit wrought in Him, so He works in us a work conformed to His resurrection. As the resurrection of Christ was the great declaration of His being the Son of God, so in regeneration of our being the sons of God, being the evidence of our adoption, and also the first discovery of our election. As Christ's resurrection is the first step to His eternal kingdom and glory, so regeneration is the first open introduction to all the blessings of that state of grace into which the child of God is now introduced." (S.E. Pierce)
MEETNESS FOR HEAVEN IS BY THE SPIRIT
Our title to the glory lies solely in the righteousness of Christ; our personal fitness for it lies in the Holy Spirit's regenerating of us. All our meetness for the heavenly state was wrought in us in regeneration. Writing to the regenerated Colossians the apostle said, "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." And then he shows wherein this "meetness" consists: "'Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son" (v. 13) Their title is without them; their "meetness" within. The Holy Spirit has created in them a nature which is capacitated to know and enjoy the Triune God.
In our unregenerate state we were completely under the power of darkness, that is, of sin and Satan, and we were less able to deliver ourselves from this bondage than Jonah was able to escape from the belly of the whale. We "sat in darkness" and "in the region and shadow of death." (Matt. 4:16) We were "captives," "bound" and in "prison." (Isa. 61:1) We were those "having no hope, and without God in the world." (Eph. 2:12) From this dreadful state every renewed soul has been "delivered" by the gracious, sovereign and invincible power of the Holy Spirit, and has been "translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son." Then let each renewed reader give equal homage, adoration and worship to Him as to the Father and to the Son.
JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION ARE BY THE SPIRIT
"And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justifiied in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Cor. 6:11) This is a remarkable scripture, and little pondered. It would lead us too far away from our theme were we to attempt a full exposition of it. Two things here would we barely point out: the three saving blessings enumerated in this verse are referred, first, to the "name" or merits of Christ as His own procuring cause; and then to the Holy Spirit who makes the elect partakers of them by His own effectual application. He it is who enlightens their minds and opens their hearts to take in and be assured that they are "washed, sanctified and justified."
FAITH IS FROM THE SPIRIT
A deeply taught servant of God once wrote to a young preacher, "Never represent faith as being an act so "simple" that the work of the ispirit is not needed to produce it." Yet this is what has been commonly done. A great many of the evangelists of the past hundred years have displayed a zeal which was not according to knowledge (Rom. 10:2), and manifested a far greater concern to see souls saved than to preach the truth of God in its purity. In their efforts to show the simplicity of the "way of salvation" they have lost sight of the difficulties of salvation (Luke 18:24; 1 Peter 4:18): in their pressing of the responsibility of man to believe, they have ignored the fact that none can believe till the Spirit imparts faith. To present Christ to the sinner and then throw him back on his own will, is to mock him in his helplessness; the work of the Spirit in the heart is as real and urgent a need as was the work of Christ on the Cross. For the heart to truly believe in and trust God is a spiritual act, a "good fruit," and if fallen man possesses inherent power to do good, then to present the Atonement to him is altogether needless.
There is no middle ground between life and death; no intermediate stage between conversion and non-conversion. The bestowal of eternal life is instantaneus; we are "created in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2:10) It is a most serious error to suppose that after the Spirit of God has done His work in the sinner, it still remains for him to say whether he shall be regenerated or not, whether he shall believe or no. All who are recipients of His supernatural operations are regenerated, effectually converted, and actually believe. It is not that the Spirit imparts the capacity to believe and then waits for the individual to exercise his will to believe: no, He works in the elect "both to will and to do." (Phil. 2:13) I may tell a man that in the next room there is a lighted lamp, and he may not believe me, but let me bring it into the room where he is, so, that he sees the light for himself, and he is irresistibly persuaded. So a servant of God may tell a man that Christ is sufficient for the chief of sinners, and he believes not; but when Christ is "revealed in him" (Gal. 1:16) he cannot but trust Him. See 2 Cor. 4:6.
How perversely man reverses the order of God's truth. They urge dead sinners to come to Christ, supposing they have the power or will to do so. Whereas Christ has plainly and emphatically stated that "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him." (John 6:44) "Coming to Christ" is the affections of the heart being drawn out towards Him, and how can a person love one he knows not? See John 4:10. Ah, it is the Spirit who must bring Christ to me, reveal Him in me before I can truly know Him. "Coming to Christ" is an inward and spiritual act, not an outward and natural one. Truly, "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. 2:14) We cannot so much as "see Christ" until we are born again. (John 3:3)
Saving grace is something more than an objective fact presented to us; it is a subjective operation wrought within us. As it is not by natural discernment that I discover my need of Christ, so it is not by my natural strength and will that I "come" to Him. There must be life and light (sight) before there can be motion. A babe has to be born, and have sight and strength, too, before it is able to "come" to its parent. Believing in Christ is a supernatural act, the product of supernatural power. One may, by means of grammatical phrases and scriptural propositions teach spiritual truth to another, but he cannot illumine his mind with respect thereto. He may tell a man that God is holy, but he cannot impart to him a consciousness that God is holy. He may tell him that sin is infinitely heinous, but he cannot beget in him a feeling or heart-realizatian that it is so. To those who were well acquainted with them outwardly, Christ said, "Ye neither know Me nor My Father." (John 8:19) A man may "know" the way of righteousness" (2 Pet. 2:21) theoretically, intellectually, but that is a vastly different matter (though very few are inwardly aware of it) from a spiritual experimental acquaintance with it. "We having the same Spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believe, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak." (2 Cor. 4:13) Here the Spirit of God is spoken of according to the work that He performs. "The title 'Spirit of faith' intimates that the Holy Spirit is the Author of faith; for all men have not faith; that is, it is not given to all and does not belong to all. (2 Thess. 3:2) The designation means that the procuring cause of faith is the Holy Spirit who produces this effect by an invisible call, an invitation which accompanies, according to the good pleasure of His will, the external proclamation of the Gospel. The faith, therefore, of which He is the Author, is not affected by the hearer's own strength, or by the hearer's own effectual will . . . The special operation of the Spirit inclines the sinner, previously disinclined, to receive the invitations of the Gospel; for it is He alone, acting as the Spirit of faith, that removes the enmity of the carnal mind to those doctrines of the cross which, but for this, would seem to him unnecessary, or foolish or offensive." (Prof. Smeaton)
Writing to the Philippian saints the apostle declared, "Unto you it is given . . . to believe on Him." (1:29) Faith is God's "gift" as Eph. 2:8,9 positively affirms. It is not a gift offered for man's acceptance, but actually conferred upon God's children, breathed into them. It in imparted to each of "God's elect" at His appointed time by the Holy Spirit. It is not produced by the creature's will but is "faith of the operation of God." (Col. 2:12) It is the "work" of the Spirit, by His supernatural action. The Holy Spirit given by Christ to this end, that each of those for whom He died should be brought to a saving knowledge of the truth therefore we are told "Who by Him (not by our wills) do believe in God." (1 Peter 1:21) In 1 Cor. 3:5 it is, said "by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man"; so in Eph. 6:23 it is declared, "Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." The very degree and strength of our faith is determined solely by God: "think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." (Rom.12:3) If by grace you are truly a "believer," let the reader give God the Spirit honor, glory, and praise for it.
SALVATION IS WHOLLY APPLIED BY THE SPIRIT
"We are bound always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." (2 Thess. 2:13) The mission of the Spirit in the earth is to apply to God's elect the redemption proposed by God the Father and purchased by God the Son for them. The Holy Spirit is here to make good the souls of the heirs of glory the fruits of the travail of Christ's soul. This He does by means of the Gospel by the written and oral ministry of the Scripture, for the Word of God is the only instrument He employs or uses. The Word of God is "the word of life" (Phil. 2:16), but it only becomes such in the experience of the individual soul by the immediate operation and application of the Spirit of God. As Paul wrote to the Thessalonian saints, "For our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit." (1 Thess. 1:5) This is not to deny the efficacy of the Word itself, but it is to insist that the direct agency of the Spirit on the heart is absolutely necessary in order to the reception of the Word. The Word is a lamp unto our path, but there must be an opening of the eyes of our understandings by the Spirit before we can see its light.
The salvation of God's elect was purposed, planned, and provided by God the Father before the foundation of the world. It was procured and secured by the incarnation, obedience, death and resurrection of God the Son. It is made known, applied to and wrought in them by God the Spirit. Thus, "Salvation is of the Lord" (Jonah 2:9), and man has no part or hand in it at any point whatsoever. The child of God is not the earner but the recipient of it. Faith is not a condition which the elect sinner must perform in order to obtain salvation, but is the means and channel through which he personally enjoys the salvation of the Triune Jehovah.
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