Chapter X: Section II: The Application Of Christ’s Redemption In Its Actual (4)

The text _John 1:12, 13_—“_But as many as received him, to them
gave him the right to become children of God, even to them that
believe on his name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God_”—seems at first
sight to imply that faith is the condition of regeneration, and
therefore prior to it. “But if ἐξουσίαν here signifies the
‘_right_’ or ‘privilege’ of sonship, it is a right which may
presuppose faith as the work of the Spirit in regeneration—a work
apart from which no genuine faith exists in the soul. But it is
possible that John means to say that, in the case of all who
received Christ, their power to believe was _given_ to them by
him. In the original the emphasis is on ‘_gave,_’ and this is
shown by the order of the words”; see Hovey, Manual of Theology,
345, and Com. on _John 1:12, 13_—“The meaning would then be this:
‘Many did not receive him; but some did; and as to all who
received him, he _gave_ them grace by which they were enabled to
do this, and so to become God’s children.’ ”

Ruskin: “The first and last and closest trial question to any
living creature is, ‘What do you like?’ Go out into the street and
ask the first man you meet what his taste is, and, if he answers
candidly, you know him, body and soul. What we like determines
what we are, and is the sign of what we are; and to teach taste is
inevitably to form character.” If the taste here spoken of is
moral and spiritual taste, the words of Ruskin are sober truth.
Regeneration is essentially a changing of the fundamental taste of
the soul. But by taste we mean the direction of man’s love, the
bent of his affections, the trend of his will. And to alter that
taste is not to impart a new faculty, or to create a new
substance, but simply to set toward God the affections which
hitherto have been set upon self and sin. We may illustrate by the
engineer who climbs over the cab into a runaway locomotive and who
changes its course, not by adding any new rod or cog to the
machine, but simply by reversing the lever. The engine slows up
and soon moves in an opposite direction to that in which it has
been going. Man needs no new faculty of love; he needs only to
have his love set in a new and holy direction; this is virtually
to give him a new birth, to make him a new creature, to impart to
him a new life. But being born again, created anew, made alive
from the dead, are physical metaphors, to be interpreted not
literally but spiritually.

(_c_) It is objected, indeed, that we know only of mental substance and of mental acts, and that the new disposition or state just mentioned, since it is not an act, must be regarded as a new substance, and so lack all moral quality. But we reply that, besides substance and acts, there are habits, tendencies, proclivities, some of them native and some of them acquired. They are voluntary, and have moral character. If we can by repeated acts originate sinful tendencies, God can surely originate in us holy tendencies. Such holy tendencies formed a part of the nature of Adam, as he came from the hand of God. As the result of the Fall, we are born with tendencies toward evil for which we are responsible. Regeneration is a restoration of the original tendencies toward God which were lost by the Fall. Such holy tendencies (tastes, dispositions, affections) are not only not unmoral—they are the only possible springs of right moral action. Only in the restoration of them does man become truly free.

_Mat. 12:33_—“_Make the tree good, and its fruit good_”; _Eph.
2:10_—“_created in Christ Jesus for good works._” The tree is
first made good—the character renewed in its fundamental
principle, love to God—in the certainty that when this is done the
fruit will be good also. Good works are the necessary result of
regeneration by union with Christ. Regeneration introduces a new
force into humanity, the force of a new love. The work of the
preacher is that of coöperation with God in the impartation of a
new life—a work far more radical and more noble than that of moral
reform, by as much as the origination of a new force is more
radical and more noble than the guidance of that force after it
has been originated. Does regeneration cure disease and remove
physical ills? Not primarily. _Mat. 1:21_—“_thou shalt call his
name Jesus; for it is he that shall save his people from their
sins._” Salvation from sin is Christ’s first and main work. He
performed physical healing only to illustrate and further the
healing of the soul. Hence in the case of the paralytic, when he
was expected to cure the body, he said first: “_thy sins are
forgiven_” (_Mat. 9:2_); but, that they who stood by might not
doubt his power to forgive, he added the raising up of the palsied
man. And ultimately in every redeemed man the holy heart will
bring in its train the perfected body: _Rom. 8:23_—“_we ourselves
groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the
redemption of our body._”

On holy affection as the spring of holy action, see especially
Edwards, Religious Affections, in Works, 3:1‐21. This treatise is
Jonathan Edwards’s Confessions, as much as if it were directly
addressed to the Deity. Allen, his biographer, calls it “a work
which will not suffer by comparison with the work of great
teachers in theology, whether ancient or modern.” President
Timothy Dwight regarded it as most worthy of preservation next to
the Bible. See also Hodge, Essays and Reviews, 1:48; Owen on the
Holy Spirit, in Works, 3:297‐336; Charnock on Regeneration; Andrew
Fuller, Works, 2:461‐471, 512‐560, and 3:796; Bellamy, Works,
2:502; Dwight, Works, 2:418; Woods, Works, 3:1‐21; Anderson,
Regeneration, 21‐50.

B. It is an instantaneous change, in a region of the soul below consciousness, and is therefore known only in its results.

(_a_) It is an instantaneous change.—Regeneration is not a gradual work. Although there may be a gradual work of God’s providence and Spirit, preparing the change, and a gradual recognition of it after it has taken place, there must be an instant of time when, under the influence of God’s Spirit, the disposition of the soul, just before hostile to God, is changed to love. Any other view assumes an intermediate state of indecision which has no moral character at all, and confounds regeneration either with conviction or with sanctification.

Conviction of sin is an ordinary, if not an invariable, antecedent
of regeneration. It results from the contemplation of truth. It is
often accompanied by fear, remorse, and cries for mercy. But these
desires and fears are not signs of regeneration. They are selfish.
They are quite consistent with manifest and dreadful enmity to
God. They have a hopeful aspect, simply because they are evidence
that the Holy Spirit is striving with the soul. But this work of
the Spirit is not yet regeneration; at most, it is preparation for
regeneration. So far as the sinner is concerned, he is more of a
sinner than ever before; because, under more light than has ever
before been given him, he is still rejecting Christ and resisting
the Spirit. The word of God and the Holy Spirit appeal to lower as
well as to higher motives; most men’s concern about religion is
determined, at the outset, by hope or fear. See Shedd, Dogm.
Theol., 2:512.

All these motives, though they are not the highest, are yet proper
motives to influence the soul; it is right to seek God from
motives of self‐interest, and because we desire heaven. But the
seeking which not only begins, but ends, upon this lower plane, is
never successful. Until the soul gives itself to God from motives
of love, it is never saved. And so long as these preliminary
motives rule, regeneration has not yet taken place. Bible‐reading,
and prayers, and church‐attendance, and partial reformations, are
certainly better than apathy or outbreaking sin. They may be signs
that God is working in the soul. But without complete surrender to
God, they may be accompanied with the greatest guilt and the
greatest danger; simply because, under such influences, the
withholding of submission implies the most active hatred to God,
and opposition to his will. Instance cases of outward reformation
that preceded regeneration,—like that of John Bunyan, who left off
swearing before his conversion. Park: “The soul is a monad, and
must turn all at once. If we are standing on the line, we are yet
unregenerate. We are regenerate only when we cross it.” There is a
prevenient grace as well as a regenerating grace. Wendelius indeed
distinguished five kinds of grace, namely, prevenient,
preparatory, operant, coöperant, and perfecting.

While in some cases God’s preparatory work occupies a long time,
there are many cases in which he cuts short his work in
righteousness (_Rom. 9:28_). Some persons are regenerated in
infancy or childhood, cannot remember a time when they did not
love Christ, and yet take long to learn that they are regenerate.
Others are convicted and converted suddenly in mature years. The
best proof of regeneration is not the memory of a past experience,
however vivid and startling, but rather a present inward love for
Christ, his holiness, his servants, his work, and his word. Much
sympathy should be given to those who have been early converted,
but who, from timidity, self‐distrust, or the faults of
inconsistent church members, have been deterred from joining
themselves with Christian people, and so have lost all hope and
joy in their religious lives. Instance the man who, though
converted in a revival of religion, was injured by a professed
Christian, and became a recluse, but cherished the memory of his
dead wife and child, kept the playthings of the one and the
clothing of the other, and left directions to have them buried
with him.

As there is danger of confounding regeneration with preparatory
influences of God’s Spirit, so there is danger of confounding
regeneration with sanctification. Sanctification, as the
development of the new affection, is gradual and progressive. But
no _beginning_ is progressive or gradual; and regeneration is a
beginning of the new affection. We may gradually come to the
_knowledge_ that a new affection exists, but the knowledge of a
beginning is one thing; the beginning itself is another thing.
Luther had experienced a change of heart, long before he knew its
meaning or could express his new feelings in scientific form. It
is not in the sense of a gradual regeneration, but in the sense of
a gradual recognition of the fact of regeneration, and a
progressive enjoyment of its results, that “_the path of the
righteous_” is said to be “_as the dawning light_”—the morning‐
dawn that begins in faintness, but—“_that shineth more and more
unto the perfect day_” (_Prov. 4:18_). _Cf._ _2 Cor. 4:4_—“_the
god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that
the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image
of God, should not dawn upon them._” Here the recognition of God’s
work is described as gradual; that the work itself is
instantaneous, appears from the following _verse 6_—“_Seeing it is
God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in
our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ._”

Illustrate by the unconscious crossing of the line which separates
one State of the Federal Union from another. From this doctrine of
instantaneous regeneration, we may infer the duty of reaping as
well as of sowing: _John 4:38_—“_I sent you to reap._” “It is a
mistaken notion that it takes God a long time to give increase to
the seed planted in a sinner’s heart. This grows out of the idea
that regeneration is a matter of _training_; that a soul must be
_educated_ from a lost state into a state of salvation. Let us
remember that three thousand, whom in the morning Peter called
murderers of Christ, were before night regenerated and baptized
members of his church.” Drummond, in his Nat. Law in the Spir.
World, remarks upon the humaneness of sudden conversion. As self‐
limitation, self‐mortification, suicide of the old nature, it is
well to have it at once done and over with, and not to die by
degrees.

(_b_) This change takes place in the region of the soul below consciousness.—It is by no means true that God’s work in regeneration is always recognized by the subject of it. On the other hand, it is never directly perceived at all. The working of God in the human soul, since it contravenes no law of man’s being, but rather puts him in the full and normal possession of his own powers, is secret and inscrutable. Although man is conscious, he is not conscious of God’s regenerating agency.

We know our own natural existence only through the phenomena of
thought and sense. So we know our own spiritual existence, as new
creatures in Christ, only through the new feelings and experiences
of the soul. “The will does not need to act solitarily, in order
to act freely.” God acts on the will, and the resulting holiness
is true freedom. _John 8:36_—“_If therefore the Son shall make you
free, ye shall be free indeed._” We have the consciousness of
freedom; but the act of God in giving us this freedom is beyond or
beneath our consciousness.

Both Luther and Calvin used the word regeneration in a loose way,
confounding it with sanctification. After the Federalists made a
distinct doctrine of it, Calvinists in general came to treat it
separately. And John Wesley rescued it from identification with
sacraments, by showing its connection with the truth. E. G.
Robinson: “Regeneration is in one sense instantaneous, in another
sense not. There is necessity of some sort of knowledge in
regeneration. The doctrine of Christ crucified is the fit
instrument. The object of religion is to produce a _sound_ rather
than an _emotional_ experience. Revivals of religion are valuable
in just the proportion in which they produce rational conviction
and permanently righteous action.” But none are left unaffected by
them. “An arm of the magnetic needle must be attracted to the
magnetic pole of the earth, or it must be repelled,—there is no
such thing as indifference. Modern materialism, refusing to say
that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, is led to declare
that the hate of God is the beginning of wisdom” (Diesselhoff, Die
klassische Poesie, 8).

(_c_) This change, however, is recognized indirectly in its results.—At the moment of regeneration, the soul is conscious only of the truth and of its own exercises with reference to it. That God is the author of its new affection is an inference from the new character of the exercises which it prompts. The human side or aspect of regeneration is Conversion. This, and the Sanctification which follows it (including the special gifts of the Holy Spirit), are the sole evidences in any particular case that regeneration is an accomplished fact.

Regeneration, though it is the birth of a perfect child, is still
the birth of a child. The child is to grow, and the growth is
sanctification; in other words, sanctification, as we shall see,
is simply the strengthening and development of the holy affection
which begins its existence in regeneration. Hence the subject of
the epistle to the _Romans_—salvation by faith—includes not only
justification by faith (_chapters 1‐7_), but sanctification by
faith (_chapters 8‐16_). On evidences of regeneration, see
Anderson, Regeneration, 169‐214, 227‐295; Woods, Works, 44‐55. The
transition from justification by faith to sanctification by faith
is in _chapter 8_ of the epistle to the _Romans_. That begins by
declaring that there is _no condemnation_ in Christ, and ends by
declaring that there is _no separation_ from Christ. The work of
the Holy Spirit follows upon the work of Christ. See Godet on the
epistle.

The doctrine of Alexander Campbell was a protest against laying an
unscriptural emphasis on emotional states as evidences of
regeneration—a protest which certain mystical and antinomian
exaggerations of evangelical teaching very justly provoked. But
Campbell went to the opposite extreme of practically excluding
emotion from religion, and of confining the work of the Holy
Spirit to the conscious influence of the truth. Disciples need to
recognize a power of the Holy Spirit exerted below consciousness,
in order to explain the conscious acceptance of Christ and of his
salvation.

William James, Varieties of Religious Experience, 271—“If we
should conceive that the human mind, with its different
possibilities of equilibrium, might be like a many sided solid
with different surfaces on which it could lie flat, we might liken
mental revolutions to the spatial revolutions of such a body. As
it is pried up, say by a lever, from a position in which it lies
on surface A, for instance, it will linger for a time unstably
half way up, and if the lever cease to urge it, it will tumble
back or relapse, under the continued pull of gravity. But if at
last it rotate far enough for its centre of gravity to pass beyond
the surface A altogether, the body will fall over, on surface B,
say, and will abide there permanently. The pulls of gravity
towards A have vanished, and may now be disregarded. The
polyhedron has become immune against further attraction from this
direction.”

III. Conversion.

Conversion is that voluntary change in the mind of the sinner, in which he turns, on the one hand, from sin, and on the other hand, to Christ. The former or negative element in conversion, namely, the turning from sin, we denominate repentance. The latter or positive element in conversion, namely, the turning to Christ, we denominate faith.

For account of repentance and faith as elements of conversion, see
Andrew Fuller, Works, 1:666; Luthardt, Compendium der Dogmatik, 3d
ed., 201‐206. The two elements of conversion seem to be in the
mind of Paul, when he writes in _Rom. 6:11_—“_reckon ye also
yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ
Jesus_”; _Col. 3:3_—“_ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in
God._” _Cf._ ἀποστρέφω, in _Acts 3:26_—“_in turning away every one
of you from your iniquities_,” with ἐπιστρέφω in _Acts
11:21_—“_believed_” and “_turned unto the Lord_.” A candidate for
ordination was once asked which came first: regeneration or
conversion. He replied very correctly: “Regeneration and
conversion are like the cannon‐ball and the hole—they both go
through together.” This is true however only as to their
chronological relation. Logically the ball is first and causes the
hole, not the hole first and causes the ball.

(_a_) Conversion is the human side or aspect of that fundamental spiritual change which, as viewed from the divine side, we call regeneration. It is simply man’s turning. The Scriptures recognize the voluntary activity of the human soul in this change as distinctly as they recognize the causative agency of God. While God turns men to himself (Ps. 85:4; Song 1:4; Jer. 31:18; Lam. 5:21), men are exhorted to turn themselves to God (Prov. 1:23; Is. 31:6; 59:20; Ez. 14:6; 18:32; 33:9, 11; Joel 2:12‐14). While God is represented as the author of the new heart and the new spirit (Ps. 51:10; Ez. 11:19; 36:26), men are commanded to make for themselves a new heart and a new spirit (Ez. 18:31; 2 Cor. 7:1; cf. Phil. 2:12, 13; Eph. 5:14).

_Ps. 85:4_—“_Turn us, O God of our salvation_”; _Song 1:4_—“_Draw
me, we will run after thee_”; _Jer. 31:18_—“_turn thou me, and I
shall be turned_”; _Lam. 5:21_—“_Turn thou us unto thee, O
Jehovah, and we shall be turned._”

_Prov. 1:23_—“_Turn you at my reproof: Behold, I will pour out my
spirit unto you_”; _Is. 31:6_—“_Turn ye unto him from whom ye have
deeply revolted, O children of Israel_”; _59:20_—“_And a Redeemer
will come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in
Jacob_”; _Ez. 14:6_—“_Return ye, and turn yourselves from your
idols_”; _18:32_—“_turn yourselves and live_”; _33:9_—“_if thou
warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and he turn not from
his way, he shall die in his iniquity_”; _11_—“_turn ye, turn ye
from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?_”
_Joel 2:12‐14_—“_turn ye unto me with all your heart._”

_Ps. 51:10_—“_Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right
spirit within me_”; _Ez. 11:19_—“_And I will give them one heart,
and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony
heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh_”;
_36:26_—“_A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will
I put within you._”

_Ez. 18:31_—“_Cast away from you all your transgressions, wherein
ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit:
for why will ye die, O house of Israel?_” _2 Cor. 7:1_—“_Having
therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from
all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the
fear of God_”; _cf._ _Phil. 2:12, 13_—“_work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who worketh in
you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure_”; _Eph.
5:14_—“_Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and
Christ shall shine upon thee._”

When asked the way to heaven, Bishop Wilberforce replied: “Take
the first turn to the right, and go straight forward.” Phillips
Brooks’s conversion is described by Professor Allen, Life, 1:266,
as consisting in the resolve “to be true to himself, to renounce
nothing which he knew to be good, and yet bring all things captive
to the obedience of God, ... the absolute surrender of his will to
God, in accordance with the example of Christ: ‘_Lo, I am come ...
to do thy will, O God_’ (_Heb. 10:7_).”

(_b_) This twofold method of representation can be explained only when we remember that man’s powers may be interpenetrated and quickened by the divine, not only without destroying man’s freedom, but with the result of making man for the first time truly free. Since the relation between the divine and the human activity is not one of chronological succession, man is never to wait for God’s working. If he is ever regenerated, it must be in and through a movement of his own will, in which he turns to God as unconstrainedly and with as little consciousness of God’s operation upon him, as if no such operation of God were involved in the change. And in preaching, we are to press upon men the claims of God and their duty of immediate submission to Christ, with the certainty that they who do so submit will subsequently recognize this new and holy activity of their own wills as due to a working within them of divine power.

_Ps. 110:3_—“_Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day of
thy power._” The act of God is accompanied by an activity of man.
Dorner: “God’s act initiates action.” There is indeed an original
changing of man’s tastes and affections, and in this man is
passive. But this is only the first aspect of regeneration. In the
second aspect of it—the rousing of man’s powers—God’s action is
accompanied by man’s activity, and regeneration is but the obverse
side of conversion. Luther’s word: “Man, in conversion, is purely
passive,” is true only of the first part of the change; and here,
by “conversion,” Luther means “regeneration.” Melanchthon said
better: “Non est enim coäctio, ut voluntas non possit repugnare:
trahit Deus, sed volentem trahit.” See Meyer on _Rom. 8:14_—“_led
by the Spirit of God_”: “The expression,” Meyer says, “is passive,
though without prejudice to the human will, as _verse 13_ proves:
‘_by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body_.’ ”

As, by a well known principle of hydrostatics, the water contained
in a little tube can balance the water of a whole ocean, so God’s
grace can be balanced by man’s will. As sunshine on the sand
produces nothing unless man sow the seed, and as a fair breeze
does not propel the vessel unless man spread the sails, so the
influences of God’s Spirit require human agencies, and work
through them. The Holy Spirit is sovereign,—he bloweth where he
listeth. Even though there be uniform human conditions, there will
not be uniform spiritual results. Results are often independent of
human conditions as such. This is the truth emphasized by Andrew
Fuller. But this does not prevent us from saying that, whenever
God’s Spirit works in regeneration, there is always accompanying
it a voluntary change in man, which we call conversion, and that
this change is as free, and as really man’s own work, as if there
were no divine influence upon him.

Jesus told the man with the withered hand to stretch forth his
hand; it was the man’s duty to stretch it forth, not to wait for
strength from God to do it. Jesus told the man sick of the palsy
to take up his bed and walk. It was that man’s duty to obey the
command, not to pray for power to obey. Depend wholly upon God?
Yes, as you depend wholly upon wind when you sail, yet need to
keep your sails properly set. “_Work out your own salvation_”
comes first in the apostle’s exhortation; “_for it is God who
worketh in you_” follows (_Phil. 2:12, 13_); which means that our
first business is to use our wills in obedience; then we shall
find that God has gone before us to prepare us to obey.

_Mat. 11:12_—“_the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and men
of violence take it by force._” Conversion is like the invasion of
a kingdom. Men are not to wait for God’s time, but to act at once.
Not bodily exercises are required, but impassioned earnestness of
soul. Wendt, Teaching of Jesus, 2:49‐56—“Not injustice and
violence, but energetic laying hold of a good to which they can
make no claim. It is of no avail to wait idly, or to seek
laboriously to earn it; but it is of avail to lay hold of it and
to retain it. It is ready as a gift of God for men, but men must
direct their desire and will toward it.... The man who put on the
wedding garment did not earn his share of the feast thereby, yet
he did show the disposition without which he was not permitted to
partake of it.”

James, Varieties of Religious Experience, 12—“The two main
phenomena of religion, they will say, are essentially phenomena of
adolescence, and therefore synchronous with the development of
sexual life. To which the retort is easy: Even were the asserted
synchrony unrestrictedly true as a fact (which it is not), it is
not only the sexual life, but the entire higher mental life, which
awakens during adolescence. One might then as well set up the
thesis that the interest in mechanics, physics, chemistry, logic,
physiology and sociology, which springs up during adolescent years
along with that in poetry and religion, is also a perversion of
the sexual instinct, but this would be too absurd. Moreover, if
the argument from synchrony is to decide, what is to be done with
the fact that the religious age _par excellence_ would seem to be
old age, when the uproar of the sexual life is past?”

(_c_) From the fact that the word “conversion” means simply “a turning,” every turning of the Christian from sin, subsequent to the first, may, in a subordinate sense, be denominated a conversion (Luke 22:32). Since regeneration is not complete sanctification, and the change of governing disposition is not identical with complete purification of the nature, such subsequent turnings from sin are necessary consequences and evidences of the first (_cf._ John 13:10). But they do not, like the first, imply a change in the governing disposition,—they are rather new manifestations of a disposition already changed. For this reason, conversion proper, like the regeneration of which it is the obverse side, can occur but once. The phrase “second conversion,” even if it does not imply radical misconception of the nature of conversion, is misleading. We prefer, therefore, to describe these subsequent experiences, not by the term “conversion,” but by such phrases as “breaking off, forsaking, returning from, neglects or transgressions,” and “coming back to Christ, trusting anew in him.” It is with repentance and faith, as elements in that first and radical change by which the soul enters upon a state of salvation, that we have now to do.

_Luke 22:31, 32_—“_Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you,
that he might sift you as wheat: but I made supplication for thee,
that thy faith fail not; and do thou, when once thou hast turned
again_ [A. V.: ‘_art converted_’], _establish thy brethren_”;
_John 13:10_—“_He that is bathed_ [has taken a full bath] _needeth
not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit_ [as a whole].”
Notice that Jesus here announces that only one regeneration is
needed,—what follows is not conversion but sanctification.
Spurgeon said he believed in regeneration, but not in re‐
regeneration. Second blessing? Yes, and a forty‐second. The stages
in the Christian life are like ice, water, invisible vapor, steam,
all successive and natural results of increasing temperature,
seemingly different from one another, yet all forms of the same
element.

On the relation between the divine and the human agencies, we
quote a different view from another writer: “God decrees to employ
means which in every case are sufficient, and which in certain
cases it is foreseen will be effectual. Human action converts a
sufficient means into an effectual means. The result is not always
according to the varying use of means. The power is all of God.
Man has power to resist only. There is a universal influence of
the Spirit, but the influences of the Spirit vary in different
cases, just as external opportunities do. The love of holiness is
blunted, but it still lingers. The Holy Spirit quickens it. When
this love is wholly lost, sin against the Holy Ghost results.
Before regeneration there is a desire for holiness, an
apprehension of its beauty, but this is overborne by a greater
love for sin. If the man does not quickly grow worse, it is not
because of positive action on his part, but only because
negatively he does not resist as he might. ‘_Behold, I stand at
the door and knock_.’ God leads at first by a resistible
influence. When man yields, God leads by an irresistible
influence. The second influence of the Holy Spirit confirms the
Christian’s choice. This second influence is called ‘sealing.’
There is no necessary interval of time between the two. Prevenient
grace comes first; conversion comes after.”

To this view, we would reply that a partial love for holiness, and
an ability to choose it before God works effectually upon the
heart, seem to contradict those Scriptures which assert that “_the
mind of the flesh is enmity against God_” (_Rom. 8:7_), and that
all good works are the result of God’s new creation (_Eph. 2:10_).
Conversion does not precede regeneration,—it chronologically
accompanies regeneration, though it logically follows it.

1. Repentance.

Repentance is that voluntary change in the mind of the sinner in which he turns from sin. Being essentially a change of mind, it involves a change of view, a change of feeling, and a change of purpose. We may therefore analyze repentance into three constituents, each succeeding term of which includes and implies the one preceding:

A. An intellectual element,—change of view—recognition of sin as involving personal guilt, defilement, and helplessness (Ps. 51:3, 7, 11). If unaccompanied by the following elements, this recognition may manifest itself in fear of punishment, although as yet there is no hatred of sin. This element is indicated in the Scripture phrase ἐπίγνωσις ἁμαρτίας (Rom. 3:20; _cf._ 1:32).

_Ps. 51:3, 11_—“_For I know my transgressions; And my sin is ever
before me.... Cast me not away from thy presence, And take not thy
Holy Spirit from me_”; _Rom. 3:20_—“_through the law cometh the
knowledge of sin_”; _cf._ _1:32_—“_who, knowing the ordinance of
God, that they that practise such things are worthy of death, not
only do the same, but also consent with them that practise them._”

It is well to remember that God requires us to cherish no views or
emotions that contradict the truth. He wants of us no false
humility. Humility (_humus_) = groundness—a coming down to the
hard‐pan of facts—a facing of the truth. Repentance, therefore, is
not a calling ourselves by hard names. It is not cringing, or
exaggerated self‐contempt. It is simple recognition of what we
are. The “’umble” Uriah Heep is the arrant hypocrite. If we see
ourselves as God sees us, we shall say with _Job 42:5, 6_—“_I had
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; But now mine eye seeth
thee: Wherefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes._”

Apart from God’s working in the heart there is no proper
recognition of sin, either in people of high or low degree. Lady
Huntington invited the Duchess of Buckingham to come and hear
Whitefield, when the Duchess answered: “It is monstrous to be told
that you have a heart as sinful as the common wretches that crawl
on the earth,—it is highly offensive and insulting.” Mr. Moody,
after preaching to the prisoners in the jail at Chicago, visited
them in their cells. In the first cell he found two, playing
cards. They said false witnesses had testified against them. In
the second cell, the convict said that the guilty man had escaped,
but that he, a mere accomplice, had been caught. In the last cell
only Mr. Moody found a man crying over his sins. Henry Drummond,
after hearing the confessions of inquirers, said: “I am sick of
the sins of these men,—how can God bear it?”

Experience of sin does not teach us to recognize sin. We do not
learn to know chloroform by frequently inhaling it. The drunkard
does not understand the degrading effects of drink so well as his
miserable wife and children do. Even the natural conscience does
not give the recognition of sin that is needed in true repentance.
The confession “_I have sinned_” is made by hardened Pharaoh (_Ex.
9:27_), double minded Balaam (_Num. 22:34_), remorseful Achan
(_Josh. 7:20_), insincere King Saul (_1 Sam. 15:24_), despairing
Judas (_Mat. 27:4_); but in no one of these cases was there true
repentance. True repentance takes God’s part against ourselves,
has sympathy with God, feels how unworthily the Ruler, Father,
Friend of men has been treated. It does not ask, “What will my sin
bring to me?” but, “What does my sin mean to God?” It involves, in
addition to the mere recognition of sin:

B. An emotional element,—change of feeling—sorrow for sin as committed against goodness and justice, and therefore hateful to God, and hateful in itself (Ps. 51:1, 2, 10, 14). This element of repentance is indicated in the Scripture word μεταμέλομαι. If accompanied by the following element, it is a λύπη κατὰ Θεόν. If not so accompanied, it is a λύπη τοῦ κόσμου = remorse and despair (Mat. 27:3; Luke 18:23; 2 Cor. 7:9, 10).

_Ps. 51:1, 2, 10, 14_—“_Have mercy upon me ... blot out my
transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, And cleanse
me from my sin.... Create in me a clean heart, O God; ... Deliver
me from bloodguiltiness, O God_”; _Mat. 27:3_—“_Then Judas, who
betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself,
and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests
and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent __
blood_”; _Luke 18:23_—“_when he heard these things, he became
exceeding sorrowful; for he was very rich_”; _2 Cor. 7:9, 10_—“_I
now rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye were made
sorry unto repentance; for ye were made sorry after a godly
sort.... For godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, a
repentance which bringeth no regret: but the sorrow of the world
worketh death._” We must distinguish sorrow for sin from shame on
account of it and fear of its consequences. These last are
selfish, while godly sorrow is disinterested. “A man may be angry
with himself and may despise himself without any humble
prostration before God or confession of his guilt” (Shedd, Dogm.
Theol., 2:535, note).

True repentance, as illustrated in _Ps. 51_, does not think of 1.
consequences, 2. other men, 3. heredity, as an excuse; but it sees
sin as 1. transgression against God, 2. personal guilt, 3.
defiling the inmost being. Perowne on _Ps. 51:1_—“In all godly
sorrow there is hope. Sorrow without hope may be remorse or
despair, but it is not repentance.” Much so‐called repentance is
illustrated by the little girl’s prayer: “O God, make me good,—not
real good, but just good enough so that I won’t have to be
whipped!” Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, 2:3—“’Tis meet so,
daughter; but lest you do repent As that the sin hath brought you
to this shame, Which sorrow is always towards ourselves, not
heaven, Showing we would not spare heaven as we love it, But as we
stand in fear.... I do repent me as it is an evil, And take the
shame with joy.” Tempest, 3:3—“For which foul deed, the Powers
delaying, not forgetting, Have incensed the seas, and shores, yea,
all the creatures, Against your peace.... Whose wrath to guard you
from ... is nothing but heart’s sorrow And a clear life ensuing.”

Simon, Reconciliation, 195, 379—“At the very bottom it is God
whose claims are advocated, whose part is taken, by that in us
which, whilst most truly our own, yea, our very selves, is also
most truly his, and of him. The divine energy and idea which
constitutes us will not let its own root and source suffer wrong
unatoned. God intends us to be givers as well as receivers, givers
even to him. We share in his image that we may be creators and
givers, not from compulsion, but in love.” Such repentance as this
is wrought only by the Holy Spirit. Conscience indeed is present
in every human heart, but only the Holy Spirit convinces of sin.
Why is the Holy Spirit needed? A. J. Gordon, Ministry of the
Spirit, 189‐201—“Conscience is the witness to the law; the Spirit
is the witness to grace. Conscience brings legal conviction; the
Spirit brings evangelical conviction. The one begets a conviction
unto despair; the other a conviction unto hope. Conscience
convinces of sin committed, of righteousness impossible, of
judgment impending; the Comforter convinces of sin committed, of
righteousness imputed, of judgment accomplished—in Christ. God
alone can reveal the divine view of sin, and enable man to
understand it.” But, however agonizing the sorrow, it will not
constitute true repentance, unless it leads to, or is accompanied
by:

C. A voluntary element,—change of purpose—inward turning from sin and disposition to seek pardon and cleansing (Ps. 51:5, 7, 10; Jer. 25:5). This includes and implies the two preceding elements, and is therefore the most important aspect of repentance. It is indicated in the Scripture term μετάνοια (Acts 2:38; Rom. 2:4).

_Ps. 51:5, 7, 10_—“_Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; And
in sin did my mother conceive me.... Purge me with hyssop, and I
shall be clean: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow....
Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within
me_”; _Jer. 25:5_—“_Return ye now every one from his evil way, and
from the evil of your doings_”; _Acts 2:38_—“_And Peter said unto
them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of
Jesus Christ_”; _Rom. 2:4_—“_despisest thou the riches of his
goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the
goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?_”

Walden, The Great Meaning of _Metanoia_, brings out well the fact
that “repentance” is not the true translation of the word, but
rather “change of mind”; indeed, he would give up the word
“repentance” altogether in the N. T., except as the translation of
μεταμέλεια. The idea of μετάνοια is abandonment of sin rather than
sorrow for sin,—an act of the will rather than a state of the
sensibility. Repentance is participation in Christ’s revulsion
from sin and suffering on account of it. It is repentance _from_
sin, not _of_ sin, nor _for_ sin—always ἀπό and ἔκ, never περί or
ἐπί. The true illustrations of repentance are found in Job
(_42:6_—“_I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes_”); in
David (_Ps. 51:10_—“_Create in me a clean heart; And renew a right
spirit within me_”); in Peter (_John 21:17_—“_thou knowest that I
love thee_”); in the penitent thief (_Luke 23:42_—“_Jesus,
remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom_”); in the prodigal
son (_Luke 15:18_—“_I will arise and go to my Father_”).

Repentance implies free will. Hence Spinoza, who knows nothing of
free will, knows nothing of repentance. In book 4 of his Ethics,
he says: “Repentance is not a virtue, that is, it does not spring
from reason; on the contrary, the man who repents of what he has
done is doubly wretched or impotent.” Still he urges that for the
good of society it is not desirable that vulgar minds should be
enlightened as to this matter; see Upton, Hibbert Lectures, 315.
Determinism also renders it irrational to feel righteous
indignation either at the misconduct of other people or of
ourselves. Moral admiration is similarly irrational in the
determinist; see Balfour, Foundations of Belief, 24.

In broad distinction from the Scriptural doctrine, we find the Romanist view, which regards the three elements of repentance as the following: (1) contrition; (2) confession; (3) satisfaction. Of these, contrition is the only element properly belonging to repentance; yet from this contrition the Romanist excludes all sorrow for sin of nature. Confession is confession to the priest; and satisfaction is the sinner’s own doing of outward penance, as a temporal and symbolic submission and reparation to violated law. This view is false and pernicious, in that it confounds repentance with its outward fruits, conceives of it as exercised rather toward the church than toward God, and regards it as a meritorious ground, instead of a mere condition, of pardon.

On the Romanist doctrine of Penance, Thornwell (Collected
Writings, 1:423) remarks: “The _culpa_ may be remitted, they say,
while the _pœna_ is to some extent retained.” The priest absolves,
not declaratively, but judicially. Denying the greatness of the
sin, it makes man able to become his own Savior. Christ’s
satisfaction, for sins after baptism, is not sufficient; our
satisfaction is sufficient. But performance of one duty, we
object, cannot make satisfaction for the violation of another.

We are required to confess one to another, and specially to those
whom we have wronged: _James 5:16_—“_Confess therefore your sins
one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed._”
This puts the hardest stress upon our natural pride. There are a
hundred who will confess to a priest or to God, where there is one
who will make frank and full confession to the aggrieved party.
Confession to an official religious superior is not penitence nor
a test of penitence. In the Confessional women expose their inmost
desires to priests who are forbidden to marry. These priests are
sometimes, though gradually, corrupted to the core, and at the
same time they are taught in the Confessional precisely to what
women to apply. In France many noble families will not permit
their children to confess, and their women are not permitted to
incur the danger.

Lord Salisbury in the House of Lords said of auricular confession:
“It has been injurious to the moral independence and virility of
the nation to an extent to which probably it has been given to no
other institution to affect the character of mankind.” See Walsh,
Secret History of the Oxford Movement; A. J. Gordon, Ministry of
the Spirit, 111—“Asceticism is an absolute inversion of the divine
order, since it seeks life through death, instead of finding death
through life. No degree of mortification can ever bring us to
sanctification.” Penance can never effect true repentance, nor be
other than a hindrance to the soul’s abandonment of sin. Penance
is something external to be done, and it diverts attention from
the real inward need of the soul. The monk does penance by
sleeping on an iron bed and by wearing a hair shirt. When Anselm
of Canterbury died, his under garments were found alive with
vermin which the saint had cultivated in order to mortify the
flesh. Dr. Pusey always sat on a hard chair, traveled as
uncomfortably as possible, looked down when he walked, and
whenever he saw a coal‐fire thought of hell. Thieves do penance by
giving a part of their ill‐gotten wealth to charity. In all these
things there is no transformation of the inner life.

In further explanation of the Scripture representations, we remark:

(_a_) That repentance, in each and all of its aspects, is wholly an inward act, not to be confounded with the change of life which proceeds from it.

True repentance is indeed manifested and evidenced by confession of sin before God (Luke 18:13), and by reparation for wrongs done to men (Luke 19:8). But these do not constitute repentance; they are rather fruits of repentance. Between “repentance” and “fruit worthy of repentance,” Scripture plainly distinguishes (Mat. 3:8).

_Luke 18:13_—“_But the publican, standing afar off, would not lift
up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote his breast, saying,
God, be thou merciful to me a sinner_ [‘be propitiated to me the
sinner’]”; _19:8_—“_And Zacchæus stood, and said unto the Lord,
Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I
have wrongfully exacted aught of any man, I restore fourfold_”;
_Mat. 3:8_—“_Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance._”
Fruit worthy of repentance, or fruits meet for repentance, are: 1.
Confession of sin; 2. Surrender to Christ; 3. Turning from sin; 4.
Reparation for wrong doing; 5. Right moral conduct; 6. Profession
of Christian faith.

On _Luke 17:3_—“_if thy brother sin, rebuke him; and if he repent,
forgive him_”—Dr. B. H. Carroll remarks that the law is uniform
which makes repentance indispensable to forgiveness. It applies to
man’s forgiveness of man, as well as to God’s forgiveness of man,
or the church’s forgiveness of man. But I must be sure that I
cherish toward the offender the spirit of love, whether he repents
or not. Freedom from all malice toward him, however, and even
loving prayerful labor to lead him to repentance, is not
forgiveness. This I can grant only when he actually repents. If I
do forgive him without repentance, then I impose my rule on God
when I pray: “_Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our
debtors_” (_Mat. 6:12_).

On the question whether the requirement that we forgive without
atonement implies that God does, see Brit. and For. Evang. Rev.,
Oct 1881:678‐691—“Answer: 1. The present constitution of things is
based upon atonement. Forgiveness on our part is required upon the
ground of the Cross, without which the world would be hell. 2. God
is Judge. We forgive, as brethren. When he forgives, it is as
Judge of all the earth, of whom all earthly judges are
representatives. If earthly judges may exact justice, much more
God. The argument that would abolish atonement would abolish all
civil government. 3. I should forgive my brother on the ground of
God’s love, and Christ’s bearing of his sins. 4. God, who requires
atonement, is the same being that provides it. This is ‘handsome
and generous.’ But I can never provide atonement for my brother. I
must, therefore, forgive freely, only upon the ground of what
Christ has done for him.”

(_b_) That repentance is only a negative condition, and not a positive means of salvation.

This is evident from the fact that repentance is no more than the sinner’s present duty, and can furnish no offset to the claims of the law on account of past transgression. The truly penitent man feels that his repentance has no merit. Apart from the positive element of conversion, namely, faith in Christ, it would be only sorrow for guilt unremoved. This very sorrow, moreover, is not the mere product of human will, but is the gift of God.

_Acts 5:31_—“_Him did God exalt with his right hand to be a Prince
and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of
sins_”; _11:18_—“_Then to the Gentiles also hath God granted
repentance unto life_”; _2 Tim. 2:25_—“_if peradventure God may
give them repentance unto the knowledge of the truth._” The truly
penitent man recognizes the fact that his sin deserves punishment.
He never regards his penitence as offsetting the demands of law,
and as making his punishment unjust. Whitefield: “Our repentance
needeth to be repented of, and our very tears to be washed in the
blood of Christ.” Shakespeare, Henry V, 4:1—“More will I do:
Though all that I can do is nothing worth, Since that my penitence
comes after all, Imploring pardon”—imploring pardon both for the
crime and for the imperfect repentance.

(_c_) That true repentance, however, never exists except in conjunction with faith.

Sorrow for sin, not simply on account of its evil consequences to the transgressor, but on account of its intrinsic hatefulness as opposed to divine holiness and love, is practically impossible without some confidence in God’s mercy. It is the Cross which first makes us truly penitent (_cf._ John 12:32, 33). Hence all true preaching of repentance is implicitly a preaching of faith (Mat. 3:1‐12; _cf._ Acts 19:4), and repentance toward God involves faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21; Luke 15:10, 24; 19:8, 9; _cf._ Gal. 3:7).

_John 12:32, 33_—“_And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will
draw all men unto myself. But this he said, signifying by what
manner of death he should die._” _Mat. 3:1‐12_—John the Baptist’s
preaching of repentance was also a preaching of faith; as is shown
by _Acts 19:4_—“_John baptized with the baptism of repentance,
saying unto the people that they should believe on him that should
come after him, that is, on Jesus._” Repentance involves faith:
_Acts 20:21_—“_testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance
toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ_”; _Luke 15:10,
24_—“_there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one
sinner that repenteth.... this my son was dead, and is alive
again; he was lost, and is found_”; _19:8, 9_—“_the half of my
goods I give to the poor; and if I have wrongfully exacted aught
of any man, I restore fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, To‐day is
salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of
Abraham_”—the father of all believers; _cf._ _Gal. 3:6, 7_—“_Even
as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for
righteousness. Know therefore that they that are of faith, the
same are sons of Abraham._”

_Luke 3:18_ says of John the Baptist: “_he preached the gospel
unto the people_,” and the gospel message, the glad tidings, is
more than the command to repent,—it is also the offer of salvation
through Christ; see Prof. Wm. Arnold Stevens, on John the Baptist
and his Gospel, in Studies on the Gospel according to John. _2
Chron. 34:19_—“_And it came to pass, when the king had heard the
words of the law, that he rent his clothes._” Moberly, Atonement
and Personality, 44‐46—“Just in proportion as one sins, does he
render it impossible for him truly to repent. Repentance must be
the work of another in him. Is it not the Spirit of the Crucified
which is the reality of the penitence of the truly penitent?” If
this be true, then it is plain that there is no true repentance
which is not accompanied by the faith that unites us to Christ.

(_d_) That, conversely, wherever there is true faith, there is true repentance also.

Since repentance and faith are but different sides or aspects of the same act of turning, faith is as inseparable from repentance as repentance is from faith. That must be an unreal faith where there is no repentance, just as that must be an unreal repentance where there is no faith. Yet because the one aspect of his change is more prominent in the mind of the convert than the other, we are not hastily to conclude that the other is absent. Only that degree of conviction of sin is essential to salvation, which carries with it a forsaking of sin and a trustful surrender to Christ.

Bishop Hall: “Never will Christ enter into that soul where the
herald of repentance hath not been before him.” _2 Cor.
7:10_—“_repentance unto salvation._” In consciousness, sensation
and perception are in inverse ratio to each other. Clear vision is
hardly conscious of sensation, but inflamed eyes are hardly
conscious of anything besides sensation. So repentance and faith
are seldom equally prominent in the consciousness of the converted
man; but it is important to know that neither can exist without
the other. The truly penitent man will, sooner or later, show that
he has faith; and the true believer will certainly show, in due
season, that he hates and renounces sin.