XV

XXVII. EVIDENCES OF REGENERATION

A Introductory remarks.

1 In determining what are, and what aren’t evidences of regeneration, we must constantly keep in mind what is, and what is not regeneration, and what regeneration does and does not imply.

2 Always recognize the fact that saints and sinners have similar constitutions and similar constitutional appetites, and therefore, many things are common to both. What is common to both cannot, of course, be evidence of regeneration.

3 No emotional state possesses moral character. Regeneration does not consist in, or imply, any physical change whatever.

4 The emotions of the sinner is susceptible to the same kind and degree of feelings that the saint experiences.

5 The same is true about the consciences of both saints and sinners, and the same is generally true about their intelligence.

6 The question is, “what are the evidences of a change in our ultimate intention”? What is the evidence that the love of God and our neighbor is now the ruling choice, preference, intention of our heart? It is a simple question, and it demands a simple answer. But there is so much about the nature and the evidences of regeneration, that we need patience, discernment, and perseverance to get down to the truth on this subject.

B We will first look at situations where the experience and outward life of saints and sinners can be the same.
It is clear that saints and sinners are the same in whatever does not consist in, or necessarily proceed from the attitude of their will; that is, in whatever is constitutional or involuntary. For example:

1 Saints and sinners may both desire their own happiness. This desire is natural, and of course, it is common to both saints and sinners.

2 They both desire the happiness of others. This is also natural and, of course, it is common to both saints and sinners. There is no moral character in these desires; any more than there is moral character in the desire for food and drink. That men have a natural desire for the happiness of others is clear from the fact that they become happy when others are happy, unless they have some selfish reason to be envious, or unless the happiness of others is, in some way, inconsistent with their own happiness. They also are grieved when they see others in misery, unless they have some selfish reason to want them miserable.

3 Saints and sinners alike dread their own misery, and the misery of others. This is strictly natural, and therefore it has no moral character. I have known some very wicked men, that when they were convinced of the truths of Christianity, became very concerned about their families and neighbors. Once, I heard about an old man who, when he became convinced of the truth, went around and warned his neighbors to flee from the wrath to come, declaring at the same time his own conviction that there was no mercy for him, although he felt deeply concerned for others. I have witnessed and heard many similar cases. The situation of the rich man in hell seems to be a good example of this. Although he knew his own situation was hopeless, he still wanted Lazarus to go and warn his five bothers, before they wound up in that horrible place of torment. In this situation and in the case of the old man, it appears that they not only desired that others should avoid misery, but they actually tried to prevent it, and used the means that were within their reach to save them. Now it is clear that this desire took control of their will, even though the state of their will was selfish. They sought to gratify their own desire. It was the pain and dread of seeing their misery, and of having them miserable, that led them to use means to prevent it. Selfishness motivated them, not true love.
Please understand that since both saints and sinners naturally desire, not only their own happiness, but also the happiness of others, they both may rejoice in the happiness and safety of others, and in converts to Christianity, and may both grieve at the danger and misery of those who are unconverted. I remember very well, when I was far from home, and still an impenitent sinner, I received a letter from my youngest brother, telling me that he was converted to God. If he was converted, I thought that he was the first and the only member of the family who then had a hope of salvation. I was at the time, and both before and after, one of the most careless sinners, and yet when I received this letter, I actually wept for joy and gratitude, that one from so prayer less a family was likely to be saved. Indeed, I have known many sinners to display a lot of interest in the conversion of their friends, and express gratitude for their conversion, although they had no religion themselves. These desires have no moral character all by themselves. But, as far as they are concerned, they only yield their will to their fleshly desires. This is selfishness.

4 Both saint and sinner may desire the triumph of truth and righteousness and desire to see vice and error suppressed because of the affect these things have on themselves and others. Under certain circumstances, these desires are natural to both. When they do not influence the will, these desires have no moral character; but when they influence the will, their selfishness takes on a religious type. It then manifests zeal in promoting religion. But if our desire, and not our reason, controls our will, it is selfish.

5     All moral agents naturally approve of what is right and disapprove of what is wrong. Of course, both saints and sinners approve of and delight in goodness. I can remember one time weeping over a wonderful example of goodness, even though I had no religion at the time. I am sure that many wicked men are not only aware that they strongly approve of God’s goodness, but they also are often delighted thinking about it. This is natural. It is a terrible error to think that sinners are never aware of feelings of satisfaction and delight in God’s goodness. The Bible says that sinners delight drawing near to Him. “Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching God.” (Isaiah 58:2)
     “Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not do them.” (Ezek. 33:32)
     “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.” (Romans 7:22)

6 Saints and sinners not only intellectually approve, but also have feelings of deep satisfactions in the characters of good men. Sometimes they feel complacent towards good men of their own time and who they know, but more frequently, they approve of good men who have long since died or those living in a distant country. The reason for this is because good men living in their own day and neighborhood are highly likely to make them feel uneasy in their sins and annoy them by faithfully reproving and rebuking them. This offends them, and overpowers their natural respect for goodness. But who has not observed the fact, that both good and bad men unite in praising, admiring, and loving, as far as feeling is concerned, good men who have long since died, or good men who live far away, whose lives and rebukes annoyed the wicked in their own time and place? The fact is, moral agents, from the laws of their existence, naturally approve of goodness whenever they see it. Many sinners are aware of this, and believe that this is a virtuous feeling.
It is useless to deny that sinners sometimes have feelings of love and gratitude to God, and of respect for, and complacency in good men. They often have these feelings, and to represent sinners as always having feelings of hatred and of opposition to God and to good men, will either offend them, or to lead them to deny the truths of religion, especially if they are told that this is what the Bible teaches. It may lead them to think that they are Christians, because they know they possess certain feelings that they have been told only belong only to Christians. Or, they may think that, even though they are not Christians, they are far from being totally depraved because they have so many good desires and feelings. Never forget that saints and sinners may agree in their opinions and intellectual views and judgments. I fear that many professing Christians believe that religion consists in desires and feelings, and have totally mistaken their own character. Indeed, nothing is more common than to hear religion spoken of as consisting of mere feelings, desires, and emotions. So-called Christians relate their feelings, and believe that they are giving an account of their religion. It is infinitely important, that both professing and non‑professing Christians should understand more of their mental constitution, and of the true nature of religion. Many professing Christians have a hope that they completely base on desires and feelings that are purely constitutional, and therefore common to both saints and sinners.

7     Saints and sinners both disapprove of, are often disgusted with, and deeply hate sin. Sinners must disapprove of sin. Every moral agent, no matter what his character is, naturally condemns and disapproves of sin. And often, the emotions of sinners, as well as of saints, are filled with deep disgust and loathing when they see sin. But, it is far too common these days to represent the nature of sinners as being the direct opposite of saints. Sinners are represented as being contented with sin, as having a natural craving for sin just like they have for food and drink. But these false and damaging representations contradict the sinner’s own consciousness, and it will eventually lead him either to deny his total depravity, or deny the Bible, or to think that he is saved. When we talked about moral depravity, we learned that sinners do not love sin for its own sake; but they crave other things, and this leads to prohibited indulgences, which is sin. But, it is not the sinfulness of the indulgence that they desire. The sinfulness of an indulgence might produce disgust and loathing, even if the sinner thought about it while he was indulging in that sin.
     For example: suppose a licentious man, that is, a man who is hostile or offensive to accepted standards of conduct, drunkard, a gambler, or any other wicked man, engaged in his favorite indulgence, and suppose that the sinfulness of this indulgence should be strongly placed before his mind by the Holy Spirit. He might be deeply ashamed and disgusted with himself, he might even feel a great contempt for himself, and feel almost ready, if it was possible, to spit in his own face. Yet, unless this feeling becomes more powerful than the desire that his will is seeking to indulge, he will continue in that indulgence, in spite of this disgust. If this feeling of disgust should, for a while, overpower his opposing desire, he will temporarily abandon his indulgence so he can gratify or appease that feeling of disgust. However, this is not virtue. It is only a change in the form of his selfishness. His feelings still govern him, not the law of reason. He only abandons his indulgence for a little while in order to gratify a stronger emotional impulse. His will, will return to the indulgence once again, when his feelings of fear, disgust, or loathing subside.
     This, no doubt, accounts for millions of spurious conversions that we witness all around us. Sinners are convicted, their fears are awakened, and their disgust and loathing gets all stirred up. For a while, these feelings being become stronger than their desires for their former indulgences, and as a result they abandon them for a while, not intelligently in obedience to the law of God, but in obedience to their fear, disgust, and shame. But when their conviction subsides, and those resulting feelings disappear, these false converts return to their indulgences like “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire”. (2 Peter 2:22) Please understand that any kind or any degree of feelings can exist within us; and furthermore, that any of these feelings may, at the proper time, control our will and produce a corresponding outward life, and yet at the same time, our heart can remain completely selfish, or in a state of total depravity. Indeed, it is common to see an un-repentant sinner display a lot of disgust and opposition to sin in himself and well as in others, yet this is not yet a principle within him; it is only the result of his present feeling. The next day, or perhaps even the next hour, he will repeat his sin, or do the very same thing that, when he saw others do it, he became upset.

8 Both saints and sinners approve of, and often delight in justice. It is common to see in courts of justice, and on many other occasions, un-repentant sinners manifest great satisfaction in the administration of justice, and the greatest indignation at, and abhorrence of injustice. His feelings may become so strong he can’t restrain them, and they may burst forth like a smothered volcano, carrying desolation before it. It is this natural love of justice, and abhorrence of injustice, common to both saints and sinners, which often results in demonstrations, revolts, riots, and bloodshed. This is not virtue, but selfishness. It is the will giving itself up to gratifying emotional impulses. But many believe that such feelings and such conduct are virtuous. Always remember that the love of justice, the sense of delight in justice, and the feeling of opposition to injustice, is no evidence whatsoever of a regenerated heart. I could present thousands of examples to prove this position. But such examples are so common that I don’t have to mention them.

9 We can make the same remarks concerning truth. Both saints and sinners have a constitutional respect for, approval of, and delight in truth. Who ever knew a sinner who approves of the character of a liar? What sinner will not get upset if he is accused or even suspected of lying? All men spontaneously manifest their respect for, satisfaction in, and approval of truth. This is natural; so that even the greatest liars do not, and cannot, love lying for its sake. They lie, not because they love lies, but to obtain some object that they desire more strongly than they hate falsehood. Sinners, in spite of themselves, admire, respect, and fear a man of truth. They naturally despise a liar. If they are liars, they hate themselves for it, just as drunkards and drug addicts hate themselves for indulging in their filthy lusts, and yet they continue doing it.

10 Both saints and sinners not only naturally approve of, and delight in good men when they do not annoy sinners, but they also agree in reprobating, disapproving, and abhorring wicked men and devils. Who ever personally heard of any other sentiment and feeling being expressed either by someone good or evil, than of abhorrence and indignation toward the devil? Very few ever approve, or can approve of his character. Sinners can no more approve of Satan’s character than the holy angels can. If the devil could approve of and delight in his own character, hell would cease to be hell, and evil would become his good. No moral agent can truly know wickedness and approve of it. No man, saint or sinner, can entertain any other feelings toward the devil, or towards wicked men, but feelings of disapproval, distrust, disrespect, and often of loathing and abhorrence. This intellectual feeling is uniform. Disapproval, distrust and condemnation, will naturally possess the minds of all who know wicked men and devils. And often, when occasions arise, the true character of the wicked is clearly revealed and the deepest feelings of disgust, loathing, indignation, and abhorrence of their wickedness will manifest themselves among both saints and sinners.

11 Saints and sinners may be equally honorable and fair in business transactions, as far as their outward act is concerned. They may have different reasons for their conduct, but outwardly, it appears the same. This leads me to say:

12 That selfishness in the sinner, and true love in the saint, often produces similar results or manifestations. For example: true love in the saint, and selfishness in the sinner, may produces similar desires, such as we have seen, like the desire for their own sanctification and for the sanctification of others, the desire to be useful and to have others be useful; a desire for the conversion of sinners, and many similar desires.

13 When the desires of an un-repentant sinner for these objects become strong enough to influence his will, the sinner may take substantially the same outward course of action that the saint takes in obedience to his reason. That is, the sinner is constrained by his feelings to do what the saint does from principle or from obedience to God’s law as it is revealed in his reason. Although the outward manifestations may be the same for the time being, the sinner is completely selfish, while the saint is completely benevolent. Principle directs the saint. Impulses direct the sinner. In this situation, we need time to distinguish between the two. The sinner, not having principle of unselfish love within him, will return to his former course of life as soon as his convictions of the truth subsides and his former feelings return; while the saint will demonstrate his heavenly birth by manifesting his sympathy with God, and the strength of principle that has taken possession of his heart. That is, he will demonstrate that his reason, and not his feelings, controls his will.

C Remarks:

1 For the lack of these and similar discriminations, many stumble. Hypocrites hold on to false hopes, and live on mere constitutional desires, occasionally allowing their will to yield to these desires and feelings during times of special excitement. These times of excitement, which greatly affect their will, they see as getting religion, waking up, reviving. But as soon as their excitement subsides, selfishness begins to take over. It is truly amazing and appalling to see the extent that this is true. Because, in times of special excitement they feel deeply, and are aware of feeling and acting, and of being entirely sincere in following their impulses. They have tremendous confidence in their good feelings. They say they cannot doubt their conversion. They felt this way and that, gave in to their feelings, and gave a lot of time and money to promote the cause of Christ. Now this is a strong delusion, and one of the most common delusions in Christendom, or, at least, one of the most common that you can find among those who we call revival Christians. These deluded souls do not see that their feelings govern them, and if their feelings change, their conduct will change; that as soon as the excitement subsides, they will naturally return to their former ways. When the state of feeling that now controls them has faded away and their former feelings take over, they will do what they used to do. This, in a few words, is the history of millions of those who claim to be Christian.

2 This has been a great obstacle to the openly unrepentant. Not knowing how to account for what they often see so called ‘Christians’ do, they are led to doubt whether there is any such thing as true religion.
Many sinners are deceived this way, and they later discover that they have been deluded, but they can’t understand how. They conclude that everybody is deluded, and that all those who claim they are Christians are as deceived they are. This leads them to reject and despise all religion.

3 Some of the good things that un-repentant sinners do, and are aware of doing, many Christians look at and exclaim, “They must be Christians; a sinner wouldn’t do that!” Why? Because many Christians today don’t understand the nature of total depravity. Many Christians today think that sinners naturally hate God and all good men; and they see this hatred as a feeling of malice and enmity towards God. However, many unrepentant sinners know that they have no malice towards God. Instead, they know that there are times when they have feelings of respect, veneration, awe, gratitude, and affection towards God and men. To insist that sinners only hate god, causes them to think that, because they don’t hate God, they must not be sinners. Too many Christians and ministers today represent moral depravity to be a craving for sin that sinners crave like food, and that true sinners can only have feelings of hatred towards God. Representing sinners this way will either drive them into infidelity on the one hand, or make them think that they are Christians on the other hand. But, those theologians who believe in a sinful nature cannot share the real truth with these sinners, and show them conclusively that in all their feelings that they call good, and in all their yielding to the influence of their feelings, there is no virtue. They cannot show the sinner that their desires and feelings have no moral character, and that when they yield their will to the control of their feelings, it is only selfishness. What we need is a philosophy and a theology that will admit and explain all the phenomena of our experiences, and not deny our conscience. A theology that ignores the importance of our conscience is a curse and a stumbling‑block. But, such is the doctrine of a universal constitutional moral depravity, or as we know it, the doctrine of a sinful nature.

4 It is often true, that the feelings of certain sinners become very rebellious and blasphemous, even to the point where they feel strong opposition towards God, Christ, ministers, revivals, and toward everything of good report. If these sinners are converted, they are very likely to think that all sinners have the same feelings that they had. But this is a serious error, for many sinners never have those feelings. Nevertheless, those sinners are no less selfish and guilty than those sinners are who have those rebellious and blasphemous feelings. They need to thoroughly understand what sin is, and what it is not; that sin is selfishness; that selfishness is the yielding of their will to the control of their feelings, and it doesn’t matter what type of feelings they have. They need to admit that they have good feelings, and you need to make an effort to show them that these feelings are merely involuntary, and have no moral character all by themselves.

5 Today’s popular idea of depravity and of regeneration causes many problems in another respect. I am afraid that many, both private professing Christians and ministers have mistaken these feelings (which are common among certain unrepentant sinners) for religion. They have heard how sinners are naturally depraved, that is they possess a sinful nature; and they have heard that certain desires and feelings represent religion. They are aware that they have some of these desires and feelings, and, sometimes when these feelings are very strong, these desires influence their conduct. They then assume that they have been born again and are now heirs of salvation. These views lull them asleep. The philosophy and theology that misrepresents moral depravity and regeneration in this way, must, if it is consistent, also misrepresent true religion, and oh! The many millions that have mistaken their natural desires and feelings, have mistaken the selfish yielding of their will for true religion, and have gone to the throne of God with a lie in their right hand!