Chapter 3 – The Great Change (part 6)
Section Six
We will now endeavor to summarize all that has been set before the reader concerning the great change which takes place in one who is born again, renewed spiritually, resurrected, by the operations of the Spirit of God. Perhaps this can best be accomplished by making some epitomized statements, and then offering some further remarks on those against which certain of our readers may be most inclined to take issue. Negatively, that great change does not consist of any constitutional alteration in the make-up of our being, no essential addition being made to our persons. We regard it as a serious mistake to consider the natural man as possessed of but soul and body, and as only having a “spirit” communicated to him when he is regenerated. Again, it is a still worse error to suppose that indwelling sin is eradicated from the being of a born-again person: not only does Scripture contain no warrant to countenance such an idea, but the uniform experience of God’s children repudiates it. Nor does the great change effect any improvement in the evil principle. The “flesh”—with its vile properties and lust, its deceiving and debasing inclinations, its power to promote hypocrisy, pride, unbelief, opposition unto God—remains unchanged unto the end of our earthly course.
Yet it would be utterly wrong for us to conclude from those negatives that regeneration is not entitled to be designated a “miracle of grace,” or that the change effected in its subject is far from being a great one. A real, a radical, a stupendous, a glorious change is wrought, yet the precise nature of it can only be discovered in the light of Holy Writ. While it is indeed an experimental change, yet the subject of it must interpret the same by the teaching of Scripture, and not by either his own reason or feelings. Nor should that statement be either surprising or disappointing. The miracle of grace effects a great change godwards in the one who experiences it; and God is not an Object of sense, nor can He be known by any process of reasoning. We may then summarize by saying the great change, positively considered, consists first of a radical change of heart godwards.
God discovers Himself unto the soul, makes Himself a living reality unto it, reveals Himself both as holy and gracious, clothed with authority, and yet full of mercy. That personal and powerful revelation of God unto the soul produces an altered disposition and attitude toward Him: the one alienated is reconciled. The one who shrank from and was filled with enmity against Him, now desires His presence and longs for communion with Him.
Such a vital and radical change in the disposition and attitude of a soul godwards is indeed a miracle of grace, and cannot be described as anything less than a great change. It is as real and great as was the change when man apostatized from his Maker; as vivid and blessed a change spiritually as the resurrection will effect physically: when that which was sown in corruption, in dishonor, in weakness, shall be raised in incorruption, glory, and power; when our vile body shall be changed, “that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). For one who was a total stranger to the ineffably glorious God to now become experimentally and savingly acquainted with Him, for one who sought to banish Him from his thoughts to now find his greatest delight in meditating upon His perfections, for one who lived in total disregard of His righteous claims upon him to be made a loyal and loving subject, is a transformation which human language—with all its adjectives and superlatives—cannot possibly do justice unto. In the words of divine inspiration, it is a passing “from death unto life” (1 John 3:14), a being “called . . . out of darkness into his [God’s] marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9), a being “created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Ephesians 2:10).
Second, that great change consists in a moral purification of the inner man. Though this be the most difficult aspect of it for us to understand, yet the teaching of the Word thereon is too clear and full to leave us in any uncertainty as to the same. Such expressions as, “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you” (Ezekiel 36:25), “but you are washed, but you are sanctified” (1 Corinthians 6:11), “you have purified your souls in obeying the truth” (1 Peter 1:22) would be meaningless if there had been no internal transformation. Our characters are formed by the truth we receive: our thoughts are more or less molded, our affections directed, and our wills regulated by what we heartily believe.
Truth has a vital, effectual, elevating influence. Any man who professes to take the Word of God for his Guide and Rule and is not altered by it, both internally and externally, is deceiving himself. “The truth shall make you free” (John 8:32): from the dominion of sin, from the snares of Satan, from the deceits of the world. The tastes, the aims, the ways of a Christian are assimilated to and fashioned by the Word.
A radical change godwards, which is accompanied by a moral purification within, necessarily consists, in the third place, of a thoroughly altered attitude toward the divine Law. It cannot be otherwise. “The carnal mind is enmity against God” (Romans 8:7): it is completely dominated by ill will unto Him. The evidence adduced by the Spirit in demonstration of that fearful indictment is this, “for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be:” the one is the certain outcome of the other—hatred for the Lawgiver expresses itself in contempt for and defiance of His Law. Before there can be any genuine respect for and subjection to the divine Law, the heart’s attitude towards its Governor and Administrator must be completely changed. Conversely, when the heart of anyone has been won unto God, His authority will be owned, His government honored, and his sincere language will be, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man”—that is the soul as renewed by the Spirit (Romans 7:22). Thus, while the unregenerate are denominated “the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2), the regenerate are called “obedient children” (1 Peter 1:14), for obedience is one of their characteristic marks, evidencing as it does the general tenor and course of their lives.
After all that has been said in previous articles, it ought not to be necessary for us to interrupt our train of thought at this point and consider a question which can only prove wearisome unto the well-taught reader; but others who have drunk so deeply from the foul pools of error need a word thereon. Are there not two “minds” in a born-again person: the one carnal and the other spiritual? Certainly not, or he would have a dual personality, and a divided responsibility. By nature, his mind was, spiritually speaking, deranged—how else can a mind which is “enmity against God” (Romans 8:7) be described? But by grace, his mind has been restored to sanity: illustrated by the demoniac healed by Christ, “sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind” (Mark 5:15); or as 2 Timothy 1:7 expresses it, “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” It is true his original carnality (“the flesh”) still remains, ever seeking to regain complete control of his mind; but divine grace suffers it not to so succeed that his mind ever becomes “enmity against God.” There will be risings of rebellion against His providences, but a renewed person will nevermore hate God.
A real and radical change of heart godwards will, in the fourth place, be marked by a thoroughly altered attitude towards sin.
And again, we say, it cannot be otherwise. Sin is that “abominable thing” which God hates (Jeremiah 44:4); and therefore, that heart in which the love of God is shed abroad (Romans 5:5) will hate it too.
Sin is “the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4); and therefore, each one who has been brought to “delight in the law” (Romans 7:22) will detest sin and earnestly seek to resist its solicitations.
That which formerly was his native element has become repugnant to his spiritual inclinations. Sin is now his heaviest burden and acutest grief. Whereas the giddy worldling craves after its pleasures, and the covetous seek after its riches, the deepest longing of the renewed soul is to be completely rid of the horrible activities of indwelling sin. He has already been delivered from its reigning power, for God has dethroned it from its former dominion over the heart; but it still rages within him, frequently gets the better of him, causes him many a groan, and makes him look forward with eager longing to the time when he shall be delivered from its polluting presence.
Another important and integral part of the great change consists in the soul’s deliverance from the toils of Satan. Where the heart has really undergone a radical change of disposition and attitude toward God, toward His Law, and toward sin, the great Enemy has lost his hold on that person. The devil’s power over mankind lies in his keeping them in ignorance of the true God, in the scorning of His Law, in holding them in love with sin; and hence, it is that he “has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ . . . should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:4). While God permits him to succeed therein, men are his captives, his slaves, his prisoners, held fast by the cords of their lusts. But it was announced of the coming Savior that He would “proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound” (Isaiah 61:1). Accordingly, when He appeared, we are told that He not only healed the sick, but also “all that were oppressed of the devil” (Acts 10:38). The regenerate have been delivered “from the power of Satan” (Acts 26:18; Colossians 1:13) and each made “the Lord’s freeman” (1 Corinthians 7:22). True, he is still suffered to harass and tempt them from without, but cannot succeed without their consent; and if they steadfastly resist him, he flees from them.
In those five aspects of the great change, we may perceive the begun reversal of what took place at man’s apostasy from God.
What were the leading elements in the Fall? No doubt they can be expressed in a variety of ways, but do they not consist, essentially, of these?
First, in giving ear unto Satan and heed to the senses of the body, instead of to the Word of God. It was in parleying with the Serpent that Eve came under his power.
Second, in preferring the pleasures of sin (the forbidden fruit which now made such a powerful appeal to her affection—Genesis 3:6) rather than communion with her holy Maker.
Third, in transgressing God’s Law by an act of deliberate disobedience (Romans 5:19).
Fourth, in the loss of their primitive purity: “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” (Genesis 3:7). Their physical eyes were open previously (!), but now they had a discovery of the consequences of their sin: a guilty sense of shame crept over their souls, their innocence was gone, they perceived what a miserable plight they were now in—stripped of their original righteousness, condemned by their own conscience.
Fifth, in becoming alienated from God: “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3:8). And what was their response? Did they rejoice at His gracious condescension in thus paying them a visit? Did they welcome their opportunity to cast themselves upon His mercy? Or did they even fall down before Him in brokenhearted confession of their excuseless offence? Far otherwise. When the Serpent spoke, Eve promptly gave ear to and conferred with him; but now that the voice of the Lord God was audible, she and her guilty partner fled from Him. “And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God” (Genesis 3:8). A guilty conscience warned them that it was the approach of that Judge whose Law they had broken; and they were terror-stricken at the prospect of having a face-to-face meeting with the One against whom they had rebelled. They dared not look upon Holiness incarnate, and therefore, sought to escape from His presence.
Thereby, they evidenced they had died spiritually—their hearts being separated and alienated from Him! Their understanding was “darkened” and their hearts in a condition of “blindness” (Ephesians 4:18); a spirit of madness now possessed them, as appears in their vain attempt to hide among the trees from the eyes of Omniscience.
Those then were the essential elements in the Fall, or the several steps in man’s departure from God. A parleying with and coming under the power of the devil, sin’s being made attractive in their sight, inclining unto the act of disobedience, resulting in the loss of their primitive purity and their consequent alienation from God. The attentive reader will observe those things are in the inverse order of those mentioned above as constituting the five leading characteristics of the great change wrought in those who are the favored subjects of the miracle of grace. Nor is the reason for that far to seek: conversion is a turning around, a right-about face, a being restored to a proper relation and attitude toward God. Let us employ a simple illustration. If I journey five miles from a place and then determine to return to it, must I not re-traverse the fifth mile before coming to the fourth, and tread again the fourth before I arrive at the third, and so on, until I reach the original point from which I departed? Was it not thus with the ragged and famished prodigal who had journeyed into the far country: he must return unto the Father’s House if he would obtain food and clothing.
If the great change be the reversing of what occurred at the Fall, then the order of its constituents should necessarily be viewed inversely. First, being restored to our original relation unto God, which was one of spiritual union and communion with Him. That is made possible and actual by renewing us after His image, which consists of “righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:24), a saving and experimental knowledge of His ineffable perfections; or in other words, by the renovation and moral purification of our souls, for it is only the “pure in heart” (Matthew 5:8) who see God as He actually is—our rightful Lord, our everlasting Portion. Only then does the divine Law have its due and true place in our hearts: its authority being owned, its spirituality esteemed, the fulfilling of its holy and just requirements being our sincere and resolute aim. Obviously, it cannot be until we have a right attitude toward God, until our hearts truly love him, until after His Law becomes the rule and director of our lives, that we can perceive the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and consequently loathe, resist, and mourn over it. And just so far as that be the case with us, are we morally delivered from the power of Satan: while the heart beats true to God, the solicitations of His enemy will be repellent to us, rather than attractive.
But let us point out once more that this great change is not completed by a single act of the Spirit upon or within the soul, but occurs in distinct stages: it is commenced at regeneration, continues throughout the whole process of our experimental sanctification, and is only consummated at our glorification. Thus, regeneration is only the begun reversing of what occurred at the Fall. The very fact that regeneration is spoken of as a divine begetting and birth at once intimates there is then only the beginning of the spiritual life in the soul, and that there is need for the growth and development of the same. “He which has begun a good work in you will perform [finish] it” (Philippians 1:6) is the plain declaration and blessed assurance of what is implied by the “birth;” and such statements as “the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16) and our being “changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18) tell us something of the divine operations within the souls of the regenerate, while the great change is continued and brought, little by little, unto completion. That miracle of grace which was begun at regeneration is gradually carried forward in us by the process of sanctification, which appears in our growth in grace or the development of our graces.
If the reader desires a more detailed analysis and description of what that process consists of, how the great change is carried forward in us by sanctification, we may delineate it thus. First, by the illumination of the understanding which enables the believer to grow “in the knowledge of our Lord” (2 Peter 3:18), and gives him a clearer and fuller perception of His will. Second, by the elevation and refining of the affections, the Spirit drawing them forth unto things above, fixing them on holy objects, assimilating the heart thereto. Third, by the emancipation of the will, God working in the soul “both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13), giving us both the desire and the power to concur with Him, for He deals with us not as mere automatons, but ever as moral agents. Thus, it is our responsibility to seek illumination, to prayerfully study His Word for the same, to occupy our minds (by constant meditation) and exercise our hearts with spiritual objects, and to diligently seek His enablement to avoid everything which would hinder (and use all the means appointed for) the promotion of our spiritual growth.
As we do so, that process will issue and appear, fourth, in the rectification of our life.
From what has just been pointed out, it plainly appears that they err greatly who suppose that regeneration consists of nothing more than the communication of a new nature or principle to an individual, leaving everything else in him just as it was before. It is the person himself who is regenerated, his whole soul which is renewed, so that all its faculties and powers are renovated and enriched thereby. How can everything else in him be unchanged, how otherwise can we designate the blessed transformation which the miracle of grace has wrought in him, than by styling it “a great change”—a real, radical, and thorough one; since his understanding (which was previously darkened by ignorance, error, and prejudice) is now spiritually enlightened, since his affections (which formerly were fixed only on the things of time and sense) are now set upon heavenly and eternal objects, since his will (which hitherto was enslaved by sin, being “free from righteousness”—Romans 6:20) is now emancipated from its bondage, being “free from sin” (Romans 6:18). That glorious transformation, that supernatural change, is what we chiefly have in mind when we speak of “the moral purification” of the soul.
Just as the Fall introduced the principle of sin into man’s being, which resulted in the death of his soul godwards—for death is ever the wages of sin—so in the reversing of the Fall, a principle of holiness is conveyed to man’s soul, which results in his again being spiritually alive unto God. Just as the introduction of sin vitiated and corrupted all the faculties of the soul, so the planting of a principle of holiness within vitalizes and purifies all its faculties. We say again that man lost no portion of his original tripartite nature by the Fall, nor was he deprived of any of his faculties, but he did lose all power to use them godwards and for His glory, because they came completely under the dominion of sin and were defiled by it. And again, we say that man receives no addition to his original constitution by regeneration, nor is any new faculty then bestowed upon him, but he is now empowered (to a considerable degree) to use his faculties godwards and employ them in His service, because so long as he maintains communion with God, they are under the dominion of grace and are ennobled, elevated, and empowered by the renewing of the Spirit.
Section Seven
That which occasions the honest Christian the most difficulty and distress, as he seeks to ascertain whether a miracle of grace has been wrought within him, is the discovery that so much remains what it always was; yes, often his case appears to be much worse than formerly—more risings of opposition to God, more surgings of pride, more hardness of heart, more foul imaginations. Yet that very consciousness of and grief over indwelling corruptions is, itself, both an effect and an evidence of the great change. It is proof that such a person has his eyes open to see and a heart to feel evils, which previously he was blind unto and insensible of. An unregenerate person is not troubled about the weakness of his faith, the coldness of his affections, the stirrings of self within. You were not yourself so, while you were dead godwards! But if such things now exercise you deeply, if your eyes be open to and you mourn over that within, to which no fellow creature is privy, must you not be very different now from what you once were?
But, asks the exercised reader, if I have been favored with a supernatural change of heart, how can such horrible experiences consist therewith? Surely, if my heart had been made pure, there would not still be a filthy and foul sea of iniquity within me! Dear friend, that filth has been in you from birth, but it is only since you were born again that you have become increasingly aware of its presence. A pure heart is not one from which all sin has been removed, as is clear from the histories of Abraham, Moses, David. The heart is not made wholly pure in this life: as the understanding is only enlightened in part (much ignorance and error still remaining), so at regeneration, the heart is cleansed but in part. Observe that Acts 15:9 does not say, “purified their hearts by faith,” but “purifying”—a continued process. A pure heart is one which is attracted by “the beauty of holiness” (Psalm 29:2) and longs to be fully conformed thereunto; and therefore, one of the surest proofs I possess a pure heart is my abhorring and grieving over impurity—as Lot dwelling in Sodom “vexed his righteous soul” by what he saw and heard there (2 Peter 2:8).
Then are we not obliged to conclude that the Christian has two “hearts”—the one pure, and the other impure? Perhaps the best way for us to answer that question is to point out what is imported by the “heart,” as that term is used in Scripture. In a few passages, where it is distinguished from the “mind” (1 Samuel 2:35; Hebrews 8:10) and from the “soul” (Deuteronomy 6:5), the heart is restricted to the affections; but generally, it has reference to the whole inner man, for in other places it is the seat of the intellectual faculties too, as in “I gave my heart to know wisdom,” etc. (Ecclesiastes 1:17)—I applied my mind unto its investigation. In its usual and wider signification, the “heart” connotes the one indwelling the body.
“The heart in the Scriptures is variously used: sometimes for the mind and understanding, sometimes for the will, sometimes for the affection, sometimes for the conscience. Generally, it denotes the whole soul of man and all the faculties of it” (John Owen, 1616-1683). We have carefully tested that statement by the Word and confirmed it. The following passages make it clear that the “heart” has reference to the man himself as distinguished from his body.
Its first occurrence is, “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). “I had done speaking in mine heart” (Genesis 24:45) plainly means “within myself.” It does so in “Esau said in his heart” (Genesis 27:41)—determined in himself. “Now Hannah, she spoke in her heart” (1 Samuel 1:13). “Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart” (Psalm 26:2)—my inner man. “With my whole heart [my entire inner being] have I sought you” (Psalm 119:10). In the New Testament, the “mind” often has the same force. On Romans 12:2, Charles Hodge (1797-1878) pointed out, “The word nous [‘mind’] is used, as it is here, frequently in the New Testament (Romans 1:28; Ephesians 4:17, 23; Colossians 2:18, etc.). In all these and similar cases, it does not differ from the heart—that is, in its wider sense, for the whole soul.” Ordinarily, then, the “heart” signifies the whole soul, the “inner man,” the “hidden man of the heart” (1 Peter 3:4) at which God ever looks (1 Samuel 16:7).
Now “the heart” of the natural man (that is, his entire soul—understanding, affections, will, conscience) is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9), which is but another way of saying he is “totally depraved”—the whole of his inner being is corrupt. And therefore, God bids us, “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart . . . wash your heart from wickedness [in true repentance from the love and pollution of sin], that you may be saved” (Jeremiah 4:4, 14). Yes, He bids men, “Cast away from you all your transgressions . . . and make you a new heart” (Ezekiel 18:31), and holds them responsible so to do. That man cannot effect this change in himself by any power of his own, is solely because he is bound by the cords of his sins: the very essence of his depravity consists in being of the contrary spirit. So far from excusing him, that only aggravates his case, and compliance with those precepts is as much man’s duty and as proper a subject for exhortation as is faith, repentance, love to God. So in the New Testament, “purify your hearts, you double minded” (James 4:8).
“Make you a new heart” (Ezekiel 18:31). But, says the awakened and convicted sinner, that is the very thing which I am unable to produce: alas, what shall I do? Why, cast yourself upon the mercy and power of the Lord, and say to Him as the leper did, “If you will, you can make me clean” (Matthew 8:2). Beg Him to work in you what He requires of you. Nay, more, lay hold of His Word and plead with Him: You have made promise, “A new heart also will I give you” (Ezekiel 36:26), so “do as you have said” (2 Samuel 7:25). It is a most blessed fact that God’s promises are as large as His exhortations; and for each of the latter, there is one of the former exactly meeting it. Does the Lord bid us circumcise our hearts (Deuteronomy 10:16)? Then He assures His people, I “will circumcise your heart” (Deuteronomy 30:6). Does He bid us purify our heart (James 4:8)? He also declares, “From all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you” (Ezekiel 36:25). Are Christians told to cleanse themselves “from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1)? Then they are promised, “He which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).
God, then, does not leave the hearts of His people as they were when born into this world, and as they are described in Jeremiah 17:9. No, blessed be His name, He works a miracle of grace within them, which changes the whole of their inner man.
Spiritual life is communicated to them, divine light illumines them, a principle of holiness is planted within them. That principle of holiness is a fountain of purity, from which issue streams of godly desires, motives, endeavors, acts. It is a supernatural habit residing in every faculty of the soul, giving a new direction to them, inclining them godwards. Divine grace is imparted to the soul subjectively, so that it has entirely new propensities unto God and holiness, and newly created antipathies to sin and Satan, making us willing to endure suffering for Christ’s sake, rather than to retain the friendship of the world. To make us partakers of His holiness is the substance and sum of God’s purpose of grace for us, both in election (Ephesians 1:4), regeneration (Ephesians 4:24), and all His dealings with us afterwards (Hebrews 12:10). Not that finite creatures can ever be participants of the essential holiness of God, either by imputation or transubstantiation, but only by fashioning us in the image thereof.
It is the communication of divine grace—or the planting within us of the principle and habit of holiness—which both purifies the heart or soul, and which gives the death-wound unto indwelling sin. Grace is not only a divine attribute of benignity and free favor that is exercised unto the elect, but it is also a powerful influence that works within them. It is in this latter sense the term is used when God says, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9), and when the apostle declared, “But by the grace of God, I am what I am” (1 Corinthians 15:10). That communicated grace makes the heart “honest” (Luke 8:15), “tender” (2 Kings 22:11), “pure” (Matthew 5:8). An honest heart is one that abhors hypocrisy and pretense, that is fearful of being deceived, that desires to know the truth about itself at all costs, that is sincere and open, that bares itself to the Sword of the Spirit. A “tender” heart is one that is pliant godwards: that of the unregenerate is likened unto “the nether millstone” (Job 41:24), but that which is wrought upon by the Spirit resembles wax—receptive to His impressions upon it (2 Corinthians 3:3). It is sensitive—like a tender plant—shrinking from sin and making conscience of the same. It is compassionate, gentle, considerate.
In addition to our previous remarks thereon, we would add that a heart (or “soul”) which has been made inchoately, yet radically, pure—and which is being continually purified—is one in which the love of God has been shed abroad, and therefore, it loathes what He loathes; one wherein the fear of the Lord dwells, so that evil is hated and departed from. It is one from which the corrupting love of the world has been cast out. A pure heart is one wherein faith is operative (Acts 15:9), attracting and conforming it unto a Holy Object, drawing the affections unto things above. It is one from which self has been deposed and Christ enthroned, so that it sincerely desires and earnestly endeavors to please and honor Him in all things. It is one that is purged, progressively, from ignorance and error by apprehending and obeying the truth (1 Peter 1:22). A pure heart is one that makes conscience of evil thoughts, unholy desires, foul imaginations, which grieves over their prevalency and weeps in secret for indulging them. The purer the heart becomes, the more is it aware of and distressed by inward corruptions.
The Puritans were accustomed to say that at regeneration, sin receives its “death-wound.” We are not at all sure what exactly they meant by that expression, nor do we know of any Scripture which expressly warrants it—certainly such passages as Romans 6:6-7, and Galatians 5:24, do not; yet we have no objection to it, providing it be understood something like this: When faith truly lays hold of the atoning sacrifice of Christ, the soul is for ever delivered from the condemnation and guilt of sin, and it can never again obtain legal “dominion” over him. By the moral purification of the soul, it is cleansed from the prevailing love and power of sin, so that the lusts of the flesh are detested and resisted. Sin is divested of its reigning power over the faculties of the soul, so that full and willing subjection is no longer rendered to it. Its dying struggles are hard and long, powerfully felt within us, and though God grants brief respites from its ragings, it breaks forth with renewed force and causes us many a groan.
In our earlier days, we rejected the expression, “a change of heart,” because we confounded it with “the flesh.” The heart is changed at regeneration, but “the flesh” is not purified or spiritualized, though it ceases to have uncontrolled and undisputed dominion over the soul. Indwelling sin is not eradicated, but its reign is broken and can no longer produce hatred of God. The appetites and tendencies of “the flesh” in a Christian are precisely the same after he is born again as they were before. They are indeed “subdued” by grace; and conversion is often followed by such inward peace and joy that it appears as though they were dead, but they soon seek to reassert themselves, as Satan left Christ “for a season” (Luke 4:13), but later renewed his assaults. Nevertheless, grace opposes sin, the “spirit” or principle of holiness strives against the flesh, preventing it from having full sway over the soul. As life is opposed to death, purity to impurity, spirituality to carnality, so there is henceforth experienced within the soul a continual and sore conflict between sin and grace, each striving for the mastery.
While, then, it be true that there are two distinct and diverse springs of action in the Christian, the one prompting to evil and the other unto good, it is better to speak of them as two “principles” than “natures.” To conceive of there being two minds, two wills, or two hearts in him, is no more warrantable than to affirm he has two souls, which would mean two moral agents, two centers of responsibility, which would destroy the identity of the individual and involve us in hopeless confusion of thought. “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12) would be meaningless if the saint possessed two “hearts”—the one incapable of anything but unbelief, the other incapable of unbelief. The Christian is a unit, a person with one heart or soul; and he is responsible to watch and be sober, to be constantly on his guard against the workings of his corruptions, to prevent sin hardening his heart so that he comes under the power of unbelief and turns away from God.
“Incline my heart [my whole soul] unto your testimonies, and not to covetousness” (Psalm 119:36). This is another one of many verses which expose the error of a Christian’s having two “hearts”—the one carnal and the other spiritual—and making them synonymous with “the flesh” and the “spirit.” It would be useless by my asking God to incline “the flesh” (indwelling sin) unto His testimonies, for it is radically opposed unto them.
Equally unnecessary is it for me to ask God not to incline “the spirit” (indwelling grace) unto covetousness, for it is entirely holy. But no difficulty remains if we regard the “heart” as the inner man: “incline me unto your testimonies,” etc. The saint longs after complete conformity unto God’s will, but is conscious of much within him that is prone to disobedience; and therefore, he prays that the habitual bent of his thoughts and affections may be unto heavenliness, rather than worldliness: Let the reasons and motives unto godliness You have set before me in Your Word be made effectual by the powerful operations of Your Spirit.
The heart of man must have an object unto which it is inclined or whereto it cleaves. The thoughts and affections of the soul cannot be idle or be without some object on which to place them.
Man was made for God, to be happy in the enjoyment of Him, to find in Him a satisfying portion; and when he apostatized from God, he sought satisfaction in the creature. While the heart of fallen man be devoid of grace, it is wholly carried out to the things of time and sense. As soon as he is born, he follows his carnal appetites, and for the first few years, is governed entirely by his senses. Sin occupies the throne of his heart, and though conscience may interpose some check, it has no power to incline the soul godwards, and sin cannot be dethroned by anything but a miracle of grace. That miracle consists in giving the soul a prevailing and habitual bent godwards. The heart is taken off from the love of base objects and set upon Christ, yet we are required to keep our hearts with all diligence, mortify our lusts, and seek the daily strengthening of our graces.
Great as is the change effected in the soul by the miracle of grace, yet, as said before, it is neither total nor complete, but is carried forward during the whole subsequent process of sanctification—a process that involves a daily and lifelong conflict within the believer, so that his “experience” is like that described in Romans 7:13-25. The Christian is not the helpless slave of sin, for he resists it—to speak of a “helpless victim” fighting is a contradiction in terms. So far from being helpless, the saint can do all things through Christ strengthening him (Philippians 4:13). As a new object has won his heart, his duty is to serve his new Master: “Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Romans 6:13)—use to His glory the same faculties of soul as you formerly did in the pleasing of self. The Christian’s responsibility consists in resisting his evil propensities and acting according to his inclinations and desires after holiness.
The great change in and upon the Christian will be completed when dawns that “morning without clouds” (2 Samuel 23:4), when the Day breaks “and the shadows flee away” (Song of Solomon 2:17). For then shall he not only “see the king in his beauty” (Isaiah 33:17), see Him “face to face,” but he shall be made like Him, “fashioned like unto his glorious body” (Philippians 3:21), fully and eternally “conformed to the image of his [God’s] Son” (Romans 8:29).
