Evidence Of Pardon
Some people depend upon strange things as "evidence" that they are saved. They are going before God in the judgment on "evidence" that would be laughed out of a magistrate's court.
The matter of being saved is a most important one. If a man is lost, his whole life is a miserable; eternal failure. No matter what worldly success he may attain, what pleasures, wealth or honors he may enjoy in this life, if, when he comes to die, his soul is lost, then all is lost and lost forever. "For what shall a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?" — or "what shall a man give in exchange for his life?" (Matt. 16:26).
No man can know that he is saved except as he knows it from the Lord. Nothing that frail, fallible, uninspired men say or do can assure anyone that he is saved. The Lord only can save people and only the Lord can tell who are saved. Everyone is dependent entirely upon what the Lord says about it. Unless the Lord says a man is saved, he is not saved.
The Lord speaks to men in the Bible. The Holy Spirit, who wrote the Bible by the hands of inspired men, who spake "as the Spirit gave them utterance," (Ads 2:4) revealed "all the truth" through them. (John 16:13). Hence "all things that pertain unto life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3) are taught in the Bible by inspired men. "That the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work." (2. Tim. 3:17).
Then the only communication from God is made in the Bible. "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly." (1 Tim. 4:1.) But He speaks only in the Bible, nowhere else. He does not communicate any impression to any man's heart, nor give him an idea, except as He speaks to him in the Bible. So if the Bible says a man is saved, then he is really saved. If the Bible does not say he is saved, then he is unsaved, no matter how he "feels," or what he believes, or what sort of sight he has seen. The Holy Spirit, through inspired men, tells men and women what to do to be saved. If they obey what the Spirit commands, as the Spirit speaks to them only through inspired men, in the Bible, then they have the word of the Holy Spirit for it that they are saved. If they do not obey the commands of the Spirit, as the commands of the Spirit are given in the Bible, then they do not have the word of the Spirit saying or witnessing that they are saved, no matter how they have "felt" or what "experience" they have had.
Some times the "revivalist" asks people to "hold up their hands" that they want to be saved, or to sign a card that they "accept Jesus as their personal Saviour." But for a man to hold up his hand that he wants to be saved is not evidence that he is saved. Nor is signing a card that he "accepts Jesus to be his personal Saviour" evidence that Jesus has saved him. A man can accept Jesus as his Saviour only by submitting to His authority, confessing Him to be the Lord, and rendering obedience to His commandments. Jesus saves those who obey Him. "And having been made perfect, He became unto all them that obey Him the Author of eternal salvation." (Heb. 5:9.) Jesus says: "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46.) Jesus says: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.". (Mark 16:16.) So when a man believes the gospel and obeys the command of Jesus to be baptized, Jesus says that he is saved; and when Jesus says a man is saved, he may rest assured that he is saved, regardless of holding up his hand or signing a card. Can there be better "evidence" of pardon than the word of Jesus?
Some others believe they are saved because they believe that the Spirit has given them a "sense" of pardon or of sins forgiven. Omitting names and address, we copy from a religious journal the following "experience," upon which the gentleman who tells it depends as "evidence" that he is saved:
Experience
I have thought of trying to write what I hope has been some of the Lord's dealings with me.
If it ever has pleased God to show me my lost and ruined condition, it was in the year 1922. One day, as I was standing in front of my home at , looking up the road at the mountains, all at once everything that I could see looked as strange as if I had never seen that place before. If I have ever felt to be a stranger in a strange land, it was then. I felt to be the most lonesome person in the world. If I had been carried into some foreign country where I had never been, things would not have looked any stranger than they did there. I felt that I was a poor sinner, and that after death hell would be my doom. Instead of laughing and telling jokes, my head was bowed and my heart ached.
I went on in this condition for about six months. I could not rest day or night and there seemed to be nothing I could do to get rid of my burden. I tried to keep my troubles from my wife. One morning as I started to read the Bible, I noticed one of the children ran in the kitchen and said, "Mama, papa is reading the Bible." Oh, you don't know how little I felt.
One night, after six months in this condition, I was so troubled and there seemed to be such a great burden on me that I did not know what to do. As I lay there with the tears running down my face, I felt to be one of the worst sinners on earth. Finally, I fell asleep and dreamed that I heard a voice saying to make ready that I was bidden to a great supper. I started traveling the prettiest, straightest road I ever saw. Then, I looked and saw someone coming to meet me. He took me to that great supper. A great number of people gathered around me and told me to come in and eat, that there was enough for all. After this, I was relieved of my great burden and everything was peace and happiness for a number of days. I felt as the poet did when he said, "It is a heaven below, my Redeemer to know." I felt that I wanted to join the church and be baptized.
There was an ________________ Church in ____________ and when their meeting day came, I went to hear them. It was there that I met the people that I had been made to love, and when I got home I told my wife that people could say what they pleased about the __________, but they were the people for me. So, on the third Saturday in April, 1923, I offered myself to the church and was received and baptized the next day by the late Elder__________. Written by a sinner, saved by grace if saved at all.
This gentleman gives as his reason for believing that he is saved, that while he was so troubled and that seemed to be such a burden on him, he "fell asleep and dreamed that I heard a voice saying to make ready, that I was bidden to a great supper." He adds: "I started traveling the prettiest, straightest road I ever saw. Then, I looked and saw someone coming to meet me. He took me to that great super. A great number of people gathered around me and told me to come in and eat, that there was enough for all. After this, I was relieved of my great burden and everything was peace and happiness for a number of days. I felt as the poet did when he said, 'It is heaven below, my Redeemer to know'."
In the first place, we do not doubt for a moment that this gentleman had this "experience," just as he relates it. All who understand psychology, or the workings of the mind, instantly see that what he thinks was a divine communication was merely a psychological "experience" and a result of natural laws. The mental relaxation and glow was the corresponding reaction from his feelings of gloom and troubled heart-ache, induced by the doctrinal idea fixed in his mind. No one without such a doctrinal idea fixed in his mind ever had such an "experience." No one of the many millions of people who were saved under the preaching of the apostles ever had, or related, such an "experience." There is not one such "experience" told in the Bible.
To assume that the Holy Spirit was the Author of this "experience," and that by it the Spirit conveyed to him the assurance that he was saved, would be to assume that the Holy Spirit contradicts Himself. Remember that the Spirit, speaking through inspired men in the Bible, commands every believer in Jesus of Nazareth, the world over, to "repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins." (Acts 2:38.) And, remember, that this gentleman had not obeyed this commandment of the Spirit. Can it be assumed that the Holy Spirit would come down to any man in an "experience" and contradict what He says to all the world in the Bible? We absolutely know, as far as incontrovertible and overwhelming proofs can show, that the Holy Spirit speaks to us in the Bible. How can any man know that such an "experience," as the one above related, is the work of the Holy Spirit? Of course, if such an "experience" is not the work of the Spirit, then it is wholly pointless and valueless, and would be no evidence whatever of pardon or sins forgiven. To regard it as such evidence contradicts the plain and positive words of the Bible. Can a man be saved by repudiating the Bible?
The gentleman himself, who tells the "experience," seems to have his moments of doubt. He concluded by saying, "Written by a sinner, saved by grace, if saved at all." "If!" "If saved at all!" No convert, under the preaching of inspired men, as recorded in the Bible, ever talked that way! Invariably, without a single exception, after obedience, every converted person "went on his way rejoicing." (Acts 8:39.) After the jailor and his house obeyed, he "rejoiced greatly, with all his house, having believed in God." (Acts 16:34.) Jesus says: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." (Mark 16:16.) Those who believe in Jesus do not have a doubt of it, but rely trustingly upon what He says, and go on their way rejoicing, to live faithfully the Christian life.