Gairney Bridge

One of the badges of modern evangelicalism is knowing the exact moment in time of one’s conversion. Granted, it might be possible to do so (I’m sure that the Jews at Pentecost or the Philippian jailer or Lydia, for instance, could all nail the time down fairly well, but who’s to say how long the Lord may have been working on their hearts prior to hearing the gospel the first time). It is not always so cut and dried. For instance, for the child raised in a Christian home, there may never be an exact moment in time when knowledge of conversion occurred, and more likely than not, there may not be a moment when the child did not know the Lord (at least a time that can be remembered — I don’t remember anything much before age 5, I suppose). If godly parenting and godly households were the norm, this might be the rule and not the exception. And certainly that child can (and should) make a profession of faith before a body of Christians, but the moment of profession is not the moment of salvation; something happened before that caused that individual to profess the Wonderful Savior.

In my own personal experience, I was converted as an adult at age 21. I know roughly when it happened (the fall of 1988), but I cannot really nail down a specific date or time of the day. Would it be going too far to say that certain evangelicals might actually cast doubts upon my (or someone else’s) salvation if this is the case (I don’t know, because I don’t normally run in such circles)? If so, it is a sad an terrible weight to press on an individual who has obviously placed his or her trust in Christ.

Of course, we often fail to see that God is sovereign over every aspect of our lives (that would include — gasp! — even those times before we ourselves knew Him). I remember being under desperate conviction of sin for years. I knew that I was guilty before God, I knew I was a law-breaker, but there wasn’t a thing that I thought could be done about it. I tried the legalism route to a small degree (I even mildly considered joining an Amish community once — and I’m not kidding), but it was very unsatisfying and quickly jettisoned in favor of more plunges into sin. I took great pleasure at time poking fun at Christians. They seemed to take it in stride, though I don’t remember any every pointing me to Christ. I “consoled” myself with the idea that if I could just make myself perfect, then God would accept me This is part of the reason that Philippians 3:4-9 is one of my favorite passages from the NT.

If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.

These thoughts came to me today when I read the following two quotes:

No man can describe his first birth; it remains a mystery. Neither can he describe his new birth; that is a still greater mystery, for it is a secret inward work of the Holy Ghost, of which we ought to feel the effect, but we cannot tell how it is wrought.

I do not think you can tell, with regard to yourself, when the first gracious thought was sown in you, when you first lived toward God. You can tell when you first perceived that you believed in God; but there was an experience before that. You cannot put your finger on such and such a place and say, ‘Here the east wind began,’ nor canst thou say, ‘Here the Spirit of God began to work in me.’

Those quotes, btw,  come from the great 19th century English Baptist preacher, Charles H. Spurgeon. I wonder: if Spurgeon were alive today, would he have been considered a good evangelical?