What is easy believism?

What then are the marks by which the evangelist, as a distinct "gift," may be known? Not necessarily by accurate enunciations of doctrine. His intense zeal for souls that sometimes carries him beyond the ordinary limits of earnestness is not conducive to, though not incompatible with, doctrinal accuracy of expression. The love of God to a lost world, the certainty of salvation to them that believe, are his staple themes. And in urging faith on the lost, repentance is sometimes apparently lost sight of. But there is no true saving faith without repentance, Faith (so-called) without self-judgment is nothing more than the mere assent of the natural mind, not a Spirit-formed faith in the heart (see Rom. 10:8). When the sun of tribulation arises, this kind of human belief withers away. Sorrowful instances of such cases recur to the writer's mind, as doubtless also to the reader.

It is granted that there is no true faith without repentance, and that what is commonly called Sandemanianism or Walkerism is in this utterly wrong. All efforts to obliterate repentance, in order to ease or simplify believing in Christ, are false, evil, and dangerous. They slight the work of God in the conscience and reduce faith to intellectualism. This however is not the point now, but the great truth that he who believes has, according to scripture, everlasting life.

The simple fact, beloved reader, is this. We see in the present day a fearful amount of flippant, easy-going, airy Christianity, so called, which we greatly dread. We meet with many who seem to have attained a kind of false peace and frothy happiness without any real exercise of conscience or any application of the power of the cross to nature and its ways. These are stony-ground hearers. There is no root, no depth, no power, no permanency. And not only are such persons self-deceived, but the tone and aspect of their profession are, among other influences, forming the channel along which the tide of infidelity shall soon roll its poisonous and desolating waters. We believe that cold, powerless orthodoxy and flippant, formal, airy profession are, just as thoroughly as dark and degrading superstition, paving the way for that infidelity which shall yet cast its mantle over the whole civilized world.

There is a very feeble idea of the gospel oftentimes in people’s minds, that amounts to this. Many a person says that God is so good and gracious, and has provided His Son as Saviour, and through accepting Him sins are forgiven, and assurance and going to heaven is given. The gospel to such is looked upon as little better than a benefit society, carrying with it no responsibility on our side as to walk and life.

Of the latter-day tokens which abound on every side, the most fatal, perhaps, is the increasing lightness with which the things of God are treated. "Salvation made easy" seems, to a large extent, the modern idea of the gospel, while will-worship, under the opposite form of a laborious and punctilious religiousness, divides with high-minded unbelief the mass of formal godliness. To many, an entrance to the kingdom seems the easiest of all things, because doctrine is shallow and is mated with an easy faith. The way that is thought by multitudes to lead to life eternal is being widened continually by the clever and accommodating sleight of men, in whose hands God's perpetual statutes take the new and unimportant form of "questions;" and smoothness and conformity to natural sympathies and tastes are accepted as the marks of a true shepherd, by a fast increasing number of those who continue still to name the name of Christ.

There are two things which are very distinct in connection with the reception of Christ. In the gospel a Person is set before us. Paul says, "It pleased God to reveal his Son in me." And there are two distinct things connected with this: one is, a renunciation of the state you are in; the other, an unfolding of that to which you have come. Simeon (Luke 2) is an instance of this. He turns his back on everything in connection with the hopes of man. When he has the Saviour in his arms, he says, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." It is an immense thing for the soul to understand what the reception of Christ means. Paul's word to the jailer is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." A Person is brought in. The more truly I have received Christ, the more I must abandon that which is antagonistic to Christ. It is not merely to say, "I believe," and to go on as usual — that is impossible. What I really receive must characterise me. It so characterised Simeon, that he can completely surrender everything of man's hopes and fears, and say, "Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."

But in all three cases, let us carefully mark that, however fair the appearance, there was, at the best, no "fruit." It was, in all, "faith," which "having not work," was dead, being alone. It wrought nothing really for God in the souls of those that had it. It brought about no judgment of sin, no brokenness of heart, no turning to God: where these are, there is fruit and real faith, and eternal life. Such shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of His hand in whom they have believed.

The "nature" of the seed determines the form of life. The new nature, God's gift, is not a mixed or partially good thing. It is in itself perfect (though capable of and needing development), without mixture of evil from the very first. In the man in whom it is implanted, evil indeed exists, as thorns and thistles in the field in which wheat is sown: these things being not the imperfection of the wheat in any wise, though hindrances to the crop they are. The character of the seed we have just seen, where the apostle says that the child of God "doth not commit (or rather "practise") sin; for His seed remaineth in him." The new life, is obscured by the evil, is untouched by it, and in essential, - nay, victorious opposition to sin. It will vindicate its character in one born of God, and manifest him as born of God; and where we do not see this result, we cannot recognize as a Christian the person in whom it fails, although granting the possibility of seed being in the ground that has not yet come to the surface. But "faith" - the first principle of the new nature - "worketh by love;" and "faith, if it have not works, is dead, being alone:" "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Gal. 5: 6; James 2: 17; Rom. 8: 14). It is needful to insist on this at all times - never more needful than at the present time. It is no exaltation of faith to maintain it as justifying and saving, and yet possibly without power to produce fruit in the world, or to glorify God in a holy life. The apostle's faith was the power of a life devoted as his was - " The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2: 20).

If we profess to have life, this life must express itself in something more tangible and forcible than mere words. There is an appalling amount of empty profession--shallow, powerless, worthless talk--today. We have a wonderfully clear gospel; we see very distinctly that salvation is by grace, through faith, not by works of righteousness, nor by works of law. Blessedly true, and our heart praises God for it! But when people are saved, ought they not to live as such? Ought not the new life to come out in fruits? It must come out if it be in; if it does not come out, it is not there.

Thus worldly minded people, whose whole lives give the lie to the assumption that they belong to Christ, are persuaded that, after all, because they once "believed," they are on their way to heaven!