John Newton's Letters
The inward witness to the ground and reality of faith
Sir,
I readily offer you my thoughts on 1Jo. 26 5:10; "He who believes on the Son
of God, has the witness in himself;" though, perhaps, you will think I am
writing a sermon, rather than a letter. If we believe in the Son of God,
whatever trials we may meet with in the present life, our best concerns are
safe, and our happiness is sure. If we do not, whatever else we have, or
seem to have, we are in a state of condemnation; and, living and dying so,
must perish. Thousands, it is to be feared, persuade themselves that they
are believers, though they cannot stand the test of Scripture. And there are
many real believers, who, through the prevalence of remaining unbelief, and
the temptations of Satan, form hard conclusions against themselves, though
the Scripture speaks peace to them. But how does this correspond with the
passage before us, which asserts universally, "He who believes has the
witness in himself?" for can a man have the witness in himself, and yet not
know it? It may be answered, the evidence, in its own nature, is sufficient
and infallible; but we are very apt, when we would form a judgment of
ourselves, to add additional rules and marks of trial, which are not given
us (for that purpose) in the Bible. That the word and Spirit of God do
witness for his children, is a point in which many are agreed, who are far
from being agreed as to the nature and manner of that witness. It is,
therefore, very desirable, rightly to understand the evidence by which we
are to judge whether we are believers or not.
The importance and truth of the Gospel salvation is
witnessed to in heaven, by "the Father, the Word, and the Spirit." It is
witnessed to on earth, by "the Spirit, the water, and the blood," 1Jo. 26
5:7-8. The spirit, in 1Jo. 26 5:8, (I apprehend) denotes a Divine
light in the understanding, communicated by the Spirit of God, enabling the
soul to perceive and approve the truth. The water seems to intend the
powerful influence of this knowledge and light in the work of
sanctification. And the blood, the application of the blood of Jesus
to the conscience, relieving it from guilt and fear, and imparting a "peace
which passes all understanding." And he who believes has this united
testimony of the Spirit, the water, and the blood; not by hearsay only, but
in himself. According to the measure of his faith (for faith has various
degrees), he has a living proof that the witness is true, by the effects
wrought in his own heart.
These things, which God has joined together, are too
often attempted to be separated. Attempts of this kind have been a principal
source and cause of most of the dangerous errors and mistakes which are to
be found among professors of religion. Some say much concerning the Spirit;
and lay claim to an inward light, whereby they think they know the things of
God. Others lay great stress upon the water; maintaining a regular
conversation, abstaining from the defilement's of the world, and aiming at a
mastery over their natural desires and tempers. But neither the one nor the
other appear to be duly sensible of the value of the blood of atonement, as
the sole ground of their acceptance, and the spring of their life and
strength. Others, again, are all for the blood; can speak much of Jesus, and
his blood and righteousness; though it does not appear that they are truly
spiritually enlightened to perceive the beauty and harmony of Gospel truths,
or that they pay a due regard to that "holiness without which no man can see
the Lord."
But Jesus came, not by water only, or by blood only, but
by water and blood; and the Spirit bears witness to both, because the Spirit
is truth. The water alone affords but a cold, starched form of godliness,
destitute of that enlivening power which is derived from a knowledge of the
preciousness of Jesus, as the Lamb who was slain. And if any talk of the
blood without the water, they do but turn the grace of God into
licentiousness: so, likewise, to pretend to the Spirit, and at the same time
to have low thoughts of Jesus, is a delusion and vanity; for the true Spirit
testifies and takes of his glory, and presents it to the soul. But the real
believer receives the united testimony, and has the witness in himself that
he does so.
To have the witness in ourselves, is to have the truths
that are declared in the Scripture, revealed in our hearts. This brings an
experimental conviction, which may be safely depended on, "that we have
received the grace of God in truth." A man born blind may believe that the
sun is bright, upon the testimony of another; but, if he should obtain his
sight, he would have the witness in himself. Believing springs from a sense
and perception of the truths of the Gospel; and whoever has this spiritual
perception is a believer. He has the witness in himself. He has received the
Spirit: his understanding is enlightened, whereby he sees things to
be as they are described in the word of God, respecting his own state by
sin, and the utter impossibility of his obtaining relief by any other means
than those proposed in the Gospel. These things are hidden from us by
nature.
He has likewise received the blood. The knowledge
of sin, and its demerits, if alone, would drive us to despair; but by the
same light of the Spirit, Jesus is apprehended as a suitable and
all-sufficient Savior. All that is declared concerning his person, offices,
love, sufferings, and obedience, is understood and approved. Here the
wounded and weary souls find healing and rest. Then the Apostle's language
is adopted, "Yes, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord."
He has likewise received the water, considered as
the emblem of sanctification. To a believer, all that the Scripture teaches
concerning the nature, beauty, and necessity of holiness—as a living
principle in the heart—carries conviction and evidence. A deliverance from
the power, as well as from the guilt of sin, appears to be an
important and essential part of salvation. He sees his original and his
proper happiness, that nothing less than communion with God and conformity
to him, is worth his pursuit. And therefore he can say, "My soul thirsts for
you: I delight in the law of God after the inward man." In a word, his
judgment and his choice are formed upon a new spiritual taste, derived from
the written word, and correspondent with it, as the musical ear is adapted
to relish harmony: so that what God has forbidden, appears hateful;
what he has commanded, necessary; what he has promised,
desirable; and what he has revealed, glorious. Whoever has these
perceptions, has the witness in himself, that he has been taught of God, and
believes in his Son.
If you think this explanation is agreeable to the
Scripture, you will be satisfied that the witness spoken of in this passage,
is very different from what some people understand it to be. It is not an
impulse, or strong persuasion, impressed upon us in a way of which we can
give no account, that "we are the children of God," and that our sins are
freely forgiven: nor is the powerful application of a particular text of
Scripture necessary to produce it: neither is it always connected with a
very lively sensible comfort. These things, in some people and instances,
may accompany the witness or testimony we are speaking of, but do not
properly belong to it: and they may be, and often have been, counterfeited.
But what I have described is inimitable and infallible;
it is indubitably, as the magicians confessed of the miracles of Moses—the
finger of God; as certainly the effect of his Divine power as the creation
of the world. It is true, many who have this witness walk in darkness, and
are harassed with many doubts and perplexities concerning their state: but
this is not because the witness is not sufficient to give them satisfaction,
but because they do not account it so: being misled by the influence of
self-will and a legal spirit, they overlook this evidence as too simple, and
expect something extraordinary; at least, they think they cannot be right
unless they are led in the same way in which the Lord has been pleased to
lead others with whom they may have conversed.
But the Lord the Spirit is sovereign and free in his
operations; and though he gives to all who are the subjects of his grace—the
same views of sin, of themselves, and of the Savior; yet, with respect to
the circumstantial of his work, there is, as in the features of our faces,
such an amazing variety, that perhaps no two people can be found whose
experiences have been exactly alike: but as the Apostle says, That "he
who believes," that is, whoever believes (without exception), "has this
witness in himself;" it must consequently arise from what is common to them
all, and not from what is peculiar to a few.
Before I conclude, I would make two or three
observations. In the first place, I think it is plain, that the supposition
of a real believer's living in sin, or taking encouragement from the Gospel
so to do, is destitute of the least foundation in truth, and can proceed
only from an ignorance of the subject. Sin is the burden under which he
groans; and he would account nothing short of a deliverance from it worthy
the name of salvation. A principal part of his evidence that he is a
believer, arises from that abhorrence of sin which he habitually feels.
It is true, sin still dwells in him; but he loathes and resists it: upon
this account he is in a state of continual warfare; if he was not so, he
could not have the witness in himself, that he is born of God.
Again: From hence arises a solid evidence, that the
Scripture is indeed the word of God, because it so exactly describes what is
exemplified in the experience of all who are subjects of a work of grace.
While we are in a natural state, it is to us as a sealed book: though we can
read it, and perhaps assent to the facts, we can no more understand our own
concernments in what we read, than if it was written in an unknown tongue.
But when the mind is enlightened by the Holy Spirit, the Scripture addresses
us as it were by name, explains every difficulty under which we labored, and
proposes an adequate and effectual remedy for the relief of all our needs
and fears.
Lastly: It follows, that the hope of a believer is built
upon a foundation that cannot be shaken, though it may and will be
assaulted. It does not depend upon occasional and changeable frames, upon
any that is precarious and questionable, but upon a correspondence and
agreement with the written word. Nor does this agreement depend upon a train
of labored arguments and deductions, but is self-evident, as light is to the
eye, to every person who has a real participation of the grace of God. It is
equally suited to all capacities. By this the unlearned are enabled to know
their election of God, and "to rejoice with a joy unspeakable and full of
glory." And the wisest, if destitute of this perception, though they may be
masters of all the external evidences of Christianity, and able to combat
the cavils of infidels, can see no real beauty in the truths of the Gospel,
nor derive any solid comfort from them.
I have only sent you a few hasty hints: it would be easy
to enlarge; but I sat down, not to write a book, but a letter. May this
inward witness preside with power in our hearts, to animate our hopes, and
to mortify our corruptions!