Common Versus Saving Convictions

What a great mercy it is to lose all confidence and trust in self and to be privileged to place all our reliance and hope in the Triune God, being sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise! That foundation and principle can endure throughout eternity. We may not set our minds or the minds of others at ease with anything less. If we find rest any other place than Calvary, it is no other than a false rest, a false security which will alarm us greatly, perhaps already at the portals of death, but most certainly in the day of days. For this reason we should constantly pray: “Search me, O God, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Oh, how a child of God is tossed about at times and assaulted regarding his state for eternity! Oh, there are so many by-paths and only one right way leading to Zion! The by-path may be so near in some cases. And how a quickened soul may be deeply moved on this account and brought into distress and great embarrassment! “Let Thy good Spirit guide me in a straight path.” May the Lord keep us from self-deception and establish us firmly upon the perfect righteousness of Christ to the glory of His Name.

Indeed, common convictions may carry a person a long way and still basically leave a person a stranger to the saving operations of the Holy Spirit. Orpah wept and shed tears as well as Ruth, but on the borders Orpah returned and Ruth clung to her mother-in-law. Orpah’s tears were only carnal tears, which were soon wiped away when she returned to her idols. Judas repented, in fact, confessed his guilt…but in his repentance there was no grief and sorrow because of the sin committed against the most high majesty of God. His repentance was not sincere, nor was his confession made to the Lord Himself. He merely confessed his guilt to man — only a superficial act, in spite of the anguish he felt in his conscience. It was a repentance and confession which did not come from his inmost heart. David testified in Psalm 32:5, “I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid.” That came from the heart.

In God’s Word we read that the wife of Lot left Sodom with her husband. To the eyes of the world she trod the same path with him. Judging from appearances, we would say that they both had the same object in view. Outwardly there was no apparent difference. We encounter this very same thing in the visible church. People whose life and conduct conflict with their confession are not so hard to discern. They are evident enough. But there are instances which are more serious and dangerous. Think of the case of Judas Iscariot, whom I mentioned before. He belonged to Jesus’ disciples. He preached and cast out devils, and the other disciples had so much confidence in him that they had given him charge of the purse. And he remained concealed to the very end. Christ Himself knew it very well, but not one of the disciples had any suspicions. When Christ kept that last Passover with His disciples this was evident enough. Christ declared that one of them would betray Him; but one after another asked: “Lord, is it I?” Judas joined them in this, too, in a hypocritical manner, but differed from the others in that he asked: “Master, is it I?” There the snake in the grass reared its head, although other things had to follow by which he would reveal himself. Oh, that Judas is so vividly portrayed for us in Scripture as a fearful example to impel all men to examine themselves closely! Let us always consider that if Adam, our first father, had not become a Judas in his deep fall, no Judas Iscariot would ever have been born. It depicts the depth of our fall, by which we have become such horrible monsters. But it also proclaims to us how necessary it is for us to become partakers of Christ, and to be renewed by the Spirit of God.

There are some instances where a person makes it appear as though he has entered into a covenant with God. He can express himself accordingly and give this impression, but it becomes evident later on that it was not done with a perfect heart. God demands our whole heart, and He also takes possession of the whole heart of His children. Its affections are loosed from all things which conflict with God’s will and God’s law, while instead the whole mind, soul and all its powers are knit closely to God and His service.

Levi, the publican, in Matthew 9, left the tollhouse, his money and his position, and followed Jesus. When Christ came to the home of Zaccheus he promised that whatsoever he had defrauded anyone of, he would pay him four times as much. Ananias and Sapphira, in Acts 5, brought only a part of the price received to put at the disposal of the apostles, arranging to appropriate some of it in a subtle manner.

Friends, if the beginning is wrong the end can never be a happy one. God performs a complete work in the hearts of His people. Through the love of God His people are drawn out of themselves and won over to Christ. Thus they surrender themselves to the Lord with their whole heart. In the sincerity of their heart they testify: “I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments.”

It also happens that a person turns to Jesus for a time; he accepts Him in a certain sense; in fact, he appears to surrender himself to Him. There were very many who followed David in the time of His glory. Many followed after Christ when he daily performed signs and wonders. Nevertheless it was all but for a time. In the cave of Adullam only a certain part of the people came to David; and when he had to flee from Absalom the faithful ones remained with him. In John 6 we read: “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”

Rev. W.C. Lamain (1904–1984) pastored the Netherlands Reformed Congregations of Leiden (1929–1932), Rotterdam-South (1932–1943), Rijssen-Wal (1943–1947) and Grand Rapids, Michigan (1947–1984).

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