by Peter Jeffery
“I know I am a sinner and on several occasions I have asked God to forgive me and asked Jesus to be my saviour, but nothing happened.”
Such an experience is not uncommon
Such an experience is not uncommon, particularly among youngsters who have grown up in a Christian family. It causes bewilderment and frustration, and this is understandable. Sinners are told to confess their sin to God and to go to him in repentance and faith for forgiveness. They do so, but in their estimation nothing happens. What are we to say to these folks, and how are we to help them to find the Lord?
The first thing is, what did they expect to happen? Did they expect to hear bells ringing, an angelic choir singing, and God in a deep baritone voice telling them all is now well? Perhaps not, but at least they believed they would feel something. That is not unreasonable, but feel what? Feelings are so unreliable and are easily manipulated by others or by ourselves. When someone is saved, he may or may not have a deep emotional experience, but that is not essential to his salvation. What he experiences or feels may depend more upon his temperament and personality than the grace of God. No one is saved without some emotion, but it is not the main thing. To help this person we need to start, not with his feelings, but with his mind. He says he asked Christ to save him. Why did he need to be saved? Does he understand what sin is and what the cost of salvation was to God?
DEAD IN SIN
The consequence of sin in the human nature is that we are all dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1-3). This means that we are incapable of making a spiritual response to either God or the Gospel. It does not mean that we can make no response to the Gospel. A person who is spiritually dead can make certain responses to the Gospel and may on the surface appear to be spiritual but, in fact, is motivated by all sorts of other reasons. For instance, on hearing the Gospel a person may have a measure of conviction of sin and fear of going to hell because of that sin. When Felix heard Paul preach on righteousness, self control and judgement to come, he was afraid. But this was not the spiritual response of repentance as the incident in Acts 24 clearly reveals.
A man like the rich young ruler in the Gospels can have a serious desire to have eternal life and go to heaven. He even came to Jesus with a humble spirit and asked the right questions (Mark 10:17), but it did not save him. In Hebrews 6:4-6 we see how far a person dead in sin may respond to the Gospel. It is easy to see why some people think these verses refer to believers, but we are not told they were saved, born-again, justified or any of the other words the New Testament uses to describe someone what has come to a saving experience of Christ.
“They had claimed to believe the truth; they had had some remarkable experiences in the realm of the Church together with others, some indeed may even have had some of the miraculous gifts. But all this does not necessarily prove that a man is a Christian, that he is regenerate.”
(Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
NEW BIRTH FIRST
Clearly, there are responses to the Gospel that are not spiritual and, therefore, do not lead to salvation. In order to respond spiritually, a soul dead in sin must first be made spiritually alive. This only God the Holy Spirit can do. Regeneration precedes faith. A man must be born-again of the Holy Spirit before he can make the spiritual response of faith to the Gospel. If we take seriously the New Testament statement that man is dead in sin, then this becomes obvious.
But it is not popular among evangelicals today. The activity of the dead sinner, rather than the activity of the living God, has become the crucial thing in salvation. This basic misunderstanding of the Gospel produces endless numbers of decisions for Christ, but nothing has happened in terms of the spiritual condition of many of these people. At the moment of the decision, there may have been tears and deep feelings, but subsequent weeks and months prove there has been no real spiritual change. Of course, God graciously overrules our misunderstandings and wrong actions, but it is true of a great number of decision-makers. Something happened to them in terms of the emotion of the moment, but nothing happened in terms of eternal salvation.
A SAVING FAITH
A spiritual response prompted by the Holy Spirit will bring a man, conscious that he is a sinner in desperate need of salvation, to Christ. The seriousness of the matter will dominate his thinking. To be saved will not be a vague desire but an urgent necessity. Also, he will be aware that Jesus is the only one who can save him. These things are produced in his heart and mind by the Holy Spirit through the message of the Gospel. Therefore, repentance from sin and faith in Christ alone will motivate how he comes.
Conviction of personal sin and guilt, a deep longing for salvation and an awareness that only Jesus can save are all essential to true faith. The rich young ruler had no conviction of sin, therefore, he was not saved. Felix did have conviction of sin but there was no longing in him to be saved, and he continued in his sin. These could be termed the natural responses of a man dead in sin. They may create a passing interest or a glib profession of faith, but this is well short of what the New Testament means by salvation.
When someone makes a profession of faith in Christ what we should be looking to see is a new creation in Christ, old things passing away and new things becoming new. New attitudes, new desires, and new appetites should gradually become evident. So when someone says, “I asked Christ to be my Saviour but nothing happened,” we need to turn his thoughts from a passing emotion to a gradual and lasting change in his life.
Does he now love the Lord Jesus Christ?
Does he now love the Lord Jesus Christ?
Does he want to meet with other Christians?
Has he started praying and reading the Bible regularly?
Is there a longing in him to be free from sin?
Does he want to see friends and family saved?
If these things are happening, then there is good ground to assure him that he is saved. Something amazing has happened to him that can only be explained in terms of the activity of the Holy Spirit.
This blog post is a transcription of a brochure published by Peter Jeffery, from the Reformed Baptist Church of Lafayette, New York.
