It is commonly held by many in Christendom that instant salvation from the penalty of sin is impossible. It is supposed that conversion is a process which requires much time and earnest perseverance before God can accept the sinner and pardon his sin. It is supposed that the blood of Jesus, although it cleanses from all sin, can only be applied to those who sincerely repent and turn from their iniquities; and that this repentance must not be the fear of hell, but a godly sorrow for having offended so kind and so holy a God.
It is supposed that it is necessary to cry earnestly and perseveringly for mercy, in order to obtain it. The parable of the importunate widow, and such passages as these: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate,” and “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force,” are supposed to prove that great earnestness and long-continued efforts are requisites in order to be saved.
However plausible this appears, it is an erroneous representation of the gospel–powerless, comfortless, and fruitless. It never did, and never can, lead one sinner to glory.
Such a system rests on a wrong foundation because it places the sinner where the Saviour should be and the Saviour where the sinner should be. No wonder it leads to nothing. The Bible represents the Saviour as standing at the door of the sinner’s heart, waiting and longing, and even entreating to get in. All that is needed is that the sinner should open the door. But men cannot bear the idea of salvation being had so easily, and therefore they represent the sinner as standing at the door of the Saviour’s heart, knocking and waiting until it be opened. Oh, how dishonoring to God! How contrary to Scripture.
The Bible represents the Saviour as a shepherd going after the lost sheep. This powerless gospel represents the sheep as standing at the closed door of the fold, calling on the shepherd to let him in. The Bible bids the sinner accept the salvation freely offered him; but this gospel retracts the offer and tells the sinner that he must not only pray for salvation, but must continue to pray, without any certainty that he has received it.
No, you do not even need to pray for it; you may have it simply by believing and accepting it. If, while we were yet sinners, God gave His Son that we might be reconciled, the holding back, the enmity is now all on our side, not on His, “…as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled unto God” (2 Cor. 5:20).
I wish that every sinner would agonize in prayer for salvation; but that in itself would not be conversion, because it would not be faith. It is only when the sinner believes in God’s willingness to save him and accepts eternal life freely given to him in Christ, that he receives the pardon of his sins.
It is only then that he believes the record that God gave of His Son; for this is the record: “that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life….” If you are really willing to have Christ, all you have to do is to tell Him so, and the thing is done. Cease that unbelieving cry, as if you had discovered your danger and not God; as if you only were in earnest and not He, about the salvation of your soul.
This idea of substituting prayer for believing is not only dishonoring to God, it is also cruel to the sinner. He prays, and even agonizes in prayer, waiting till he gets some sign that God has answered him. And because he feels no change he thinks that God does not mean to save him. He looks inward for something to rest his hopes on, but the more he looks in, the more he sees to terrify him. The change he looks for cannot take place till he accepts salvation. No wonder, then, that he cannot see it. The love, joy, and peace are received by resting on the promises; they cannot exist before.
Repentance
But, you ask, Must I not repent before I can get Christ? I answer: If you mean by repentance that which the Scripture means, a change of mind, then I say, “Yes.” You must repent, for that is what God calls you to do now. But if you mean by repentance, “a godly sorrow for sin,” then I say, “No.” You can have no godly sorrow until you yourself are godly. It is one of the instincts of the new nature; and that can be had only in believing. If you must have this new nature before you come to Christ there is no need of your coming to Christ to get it. If you wait till you have “a godly sorrow for sin,” you will never come to Christ at all.
The only thing that you can feel before you come to Christ is the fear of hell, and a desire for rest: you can have no higher motive and therefore you have no merit in coming to Him. It is not love to God, nor even a real hatred of sin, that the unconverted man feels. He may be disgusted with some sins to which he is not inclined, and he may hate the sins that he indulges in; but it is not because they are sins against God and dishonoring to Him–and without this there can be no “godly sorrow.”
Your coming to Christ, therefore, must be an act of the purest self-interest, as God’s willingness to save you is the purest benevolence. He knows that you have no love to Him, and that your only anxiety is to escape the punishment of your sin; but He invites you notwithstanding, and appeals to your very self-interest as an inducement to come. “Turn ye, turn ye; why will ye die?” He knows that you dislike Him, and therefore He cannot appeal to your love; He knows that your heart is polluted, and therefore He cannot appeal to your hatred of sin. What He wants is, that you would have compassion on yourself; and what He mourns over is your madness in neglecting your own most important interests.
The repentance spoken of in the Bible is a change of mind, not a change of heart. Repentance is the turning point of a man’s history, when he discovers his misery and turns to Christ as his only hope of salvation. The prodigal son repented when he rose from the swine-trough to return to his father, saying: “How many hired servants of my father have bread enough, and to spare, and I perish with hunger.” This was pure self-interest but it was true repentance notwithstanding: for he never felt sorrow for his sin, or shame at the treatment he had given his father, until he had received the kiss of forgiveness and was restored to the place of a son.
But is it not said: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate” (Lk. 13:24)? Yes, but though the gate is strait, it is open, not shut; and the striving is not with the gatekeeper, but with your own heart of unbelief that struggles to prevent you from going in. The door is narrow, but it is wide enough to let the sinner through if he will not attempt to carry his idols in with him. Perhaps the last thing he is willing to part with is his own righteousness. He would fain enter with some rag of his own to cover him, but it is impossible. It is too strait even for that.
Yet as soon as he consents to go in empty and naked, helpless and ruined, trusting all to Christ, that moment he passes through without any difficulty. In one sense this may be called a gradual process, but it is nothing the better for that; an instant and unconditional surrender would have been more pleasing and more honoring to God. But, moreover, it is not a gradual conversion, because the entering in, when it does take place, is an instantaneous act. It is impossible to be both in and out at the same time.
But is it not said that “many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able”? Yes; but read the next verse and you will see that “when once the master of the house has risen up and shut to the door” then we are told that striving will be in vain (see Lk. 13:24-25). In the matter of salvation it is God’s call to the sinner that makes the door open, though it be narrow. “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded…then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer…” (Prov. 1:24, 28).
But is it not said that we are to knock, and it shall be opened unto us? And, have we not the parables of the importunate widow, and the friend who wanted three loaves, besides other passages, showing that although prayer is not answered at first it shall be assuredly answered at last? Yes, but these promises are all to God’s children in Christ, and the only reason why He does not at once give them what they ask is because He is their Father and knows best what and when to give them.
Notwithstanding, He wishes them to continue praying, assuring them of His fatherly love, even when He does not answer; and promising that, when the right time shall come, “He will avenge His own elect speedily.”
But it is a fatal mistake to suppose that the believer’s privilege is also the sinner’s misfortune. It never can be good for the sinner to continue under God’s wrath and curse, an enemy to God and a slave to sin, even for one moment. If God had really promised salvation to those who prayed instead of to those who believed, the very first cry of the unbeliever should have been answered, for there can be no love in withholding mercy.
What then must one do to be saved? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). But you reply: “I have always believed and yet am not saved. I know the doctrines of Christianity and have no doubt about their truth, and yet I cannot say I know that I possess the gift of God.” You believe that Christ is offered to you in the gospel, but that is not the same as receiving Him. “…as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (Jn. 1:11-12). You must not only believe the doctrine, for that is only opinion. You must believe in Christ Himself, trusting Him as a Person to be your only means of salvation.