The Oberlin Evangelist

January 20, 1841

Lecture XXVI.

SUBMISSION TO GOD.--No. 2

By The Rev. CHARLES G. FINNEY

Modernized by Cliff Collins

“Therefore submit to God.” (James 4:7)

III. What are some different delusions that people practice, concerning submission?

1. Some people confuse desire with will. Because so many people desire to be reconciled to God; because they desire to give up their sins, to be pious and because they desire similar things, they think that they are willing. But, they don’t see that willingness and desire are very different things, and that people often desire, and strongly desire, that which they are basically unwilling to do. Sinners desire to be Christians for many reasons; but they are unwilling to forsake everything and follow Christ. Multitudes deceive themselves concerning the very foundation of their moral character by confusing desire with will. When you ask them, whether they are right, whether they are deeply engaged in the service of God, they reply, “I want to be; I am willing to do anything; but I am a poor creature, and cannot do as well as I desire”. Then fleeing to the 7th chapter of Romans, they think that their experience is just like the experience of Paul, whom they understand in that chapter to say, that “when I would (am willing to) do good evil is present with me”. (See verse 21) However, the true rendering of this passage is, “when I desire to do good evil is present with me; so that the good that I desire to do I do not, and the evil that I desire to avoid, that I do”. The situation depicted by the Apostle Paul in this chapter, is one in which the soul is in bondage to sin, where conviction is fastened on the mind, and strong desires for deliverance are excited, but where the will is still under the dominion of sin.

2. Many people deceive themselves, by confusing emotion with the heart or the will. Emotions, or feelings, are involuntary states of mind, and become excited whenever we focus our thoughts on those things that naturally produce such feelings. Now we commonly think that these feelings or emotions come from our heart. However, feelings no more come from our heart than our conscience comes from our heart. And their existence is no more certain evidence of piety than the convictions and reproofs of our conscience are evidences of piety. Any kind or degree of emotion may exist in the mind, while the heart is entirely selfish. I have already said that submission belongs to our will, or our heart. And when we confuse our emotions with our heart, the delusion can ruin us. This is why so many people mistake simple excitement for religion. Even though they are supremely selfish in all their business transactions, nevertheless, they still maintain a hope of eternal life. Under stirring preaching, circumstances, or activities, they become strongly excited, and fill with deep emotion. They call these feelings the feelings of their heart, and so they take it for granted, that their hearts are changed; but their lives demonstrate that their hearts are still supremely selfish.

3. They mistake conviction, remorse, and emotions of sorrow, for that repentance that forsakes sin. Please understand that repentance belongs to our will, and emotions of sorrow for sin are a result of repentance, but emotions of sorrow for sin don’t constitute repentance. Indeed, emotions of sorrow for sin may and often are very strong without repentance, or without that change of will that actually rejects or forsakes sin. Always remember, that a truly penitent soul cannot live in sin; that is, that it is naturally impossible for a truly penitent soul to live in sin.

John says, “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God”. (1 John 3:9) Now this seed is not some root or kernel, but this seed is the result of the voluntary attitude of our will. Our will controls our thoughts. Our will controls our outward actions. Remember, that repentance is a determined choice. Repentance is a preference or intention, which controls the conscious decisions that directs our thoughts and actions. Suppose a person chooses or intends to go to Europe. This choice or intention will produce and be the cause of all those conscious decisions that moves his muscles, directs his thoughts, and uses all the means necessary to accomplish his intended goal. Now if our will or heart is right with God; if we are in a state of penitence, it is as impossible that we should live in sin, as that we should act against our will. By this I don’t mean, that no regenerate soul can fall under the power of temptation; that no regenerate soul can commit a sin at anytime. A single conscious decision, or even a series of conscious decisions may, under the pressure of temptation, be put forth by a person’s mind, which are inconsistent with the healthy or ruling choice or preference of that mind.

If our heart is truly regenerate, as soon as the pressure of temptation is removed and our thoughts are no longer diverted from the great goal or end we aim at, our whole being will immediately come back under the influence of our heart. In other words, it will come back under our supreme choice and intention. People under conviction, often experience deep agonies of remorse. They deeply regret having sinned for many reasons, and yet, throughout all of this, they know nothing about that repentance which is unto life, or of that state of submission to God, that puts and keeps the soul strongly on its guard against iniquity.

4. Many mistake agreement and conviction for faith. They overlook the fact that faith belongs to their will. Instead, they believe in their heads, while, in fact, they really don’t confide in faith. Now faith is a practical confidence in God. It is a practical confidence, because it is confidence that comes from the heart. To call anything faith, that does not produce a corresponding practice, is absurd. That is no more an act of faith, than looking at something is an act of faith. Simply understanding the truth by your intellect, simply having conviction is just as different from faith as looking at something is different from what happens after you see something.

I see a house on fire; but this is not faith, it is simply perception. I perceive, know, and am convinced that the house is on fire; but this is not faith. Faith is that act of our mind that this perception produces. Faith is an act of our will. In perceiving this truth, our mind goes into action. It makes a choice, a conscious decision, and our whole being goes into motion to extinguish the flames, or to rescue the occupants of the house.

In the same way, when our mind perceives the great truths of religion, our mind apprehends and knows that these things are true. However, at this point, our mind is in an involuntary state. This is not confidence. This is simply an understanding, or knowledge. It may be the foundation or cause of our confidence or our faith, or it may not. Faith is that act of our will, that choice, that confidence and trust, which results from our intellectual understanding of truth; but faith does not consist in this understanding. Now to confuse conviction with that act of our will that constitutes faith is a deadly error. Faith always consists in a practical confidence; because faith is an act of our will, which must produce corresponding behavior.

5. Many confuse a foolish and wicked Antinomian state of mind with true submission. They have such absurd views of the sovereignty and agency of God, that they think it is unnecessary to make any efforts to accomplish their own salvation, or the salvation of others. They think they are submissive concerning the salvation of their own children, while they make no more efforts to bring about their conversion or sanctification, than they would to produce a thunderstorm.

6. Many mistake a legal and outward reformation for religion.

7. Others take it for granted, that the standard beliefs of the Church, concerning what constitutes true religion is religion indeed. They especially believe that the beliefs of their particular denomination are correct; and ignoring the Bible, they call anything religion that agrees with the views of their church. In fact, anything their minister describes, as being religion, they think is religion. Now suppose that a minister mistakes conviction for conversion, as thousands of professing Christians and many ministers really do. Naturally, his own experience of what religion is would guide him when he preaches. His religious experiences, he would describe as religion. Whenever anybody in his congregation came into the state of mind he is in, he would think they are converted, and encourage them to join the church. All of them, thinking that they have been converted, remain securely entrenched under their delusions. Thus, the Church develops with these ruinous notions of what true religion is. And out of this mess, the churches send young men to prepare for the ministry, who don’t know the difference between conviction and conversion. Then they are sent out to form and gather churches that have the same notions of what religion is. Thus this delusion reproduces itself, until multitudes of churches and ministers have radically defective views, and, as a result, radically defective experiences. All such ministers, and such professing Christians, would think it highly censorious and uncharitable, of course, for any one to even suggest that they were not truly converted. Now, you can’t reasonably dispute or doubt that what I am saying is true, at least, in some large branches of the Christian Church. And the longer I live, the more ripe and painful is my conviction, that large numbers of ministers have mistaken conviction, and a mere legal religion, for conversion and the religion of the gospel.

8. Many people deceive themselves, by ascribing to unselfish love or true religion, what is, in fact, the result of other and radically different principals of action. Some call that kind of love, which is the result of their natural behavior, true unselfish Christian love. Others ascribe to unselfish love, what is the result of the influence of public sentiment or the result of a regard for their own reputation, but true unselfish love may or may not do that. They never question their motives for what they do; they simply take it for granted that it is real religion; because, outwardly, it conforms to the principal of unselfish love. Or, they think that those duties they perform under the influence of hope and fear, or those duties they perform from merely legal considerations, is really unselfish love and true religion of the heart. In short, they deceive themselves because they are too careless, or too insincere to thoroughly discriminate between those things that are truly unselfish, and those things that come from other and opposite principles.

9. Others deceive themselves when they confuse a boisterous, legal, bitter zeal, with true religion. They forget that nothing is true religion but love and its fruit. They mistake a noisy and highly excited state of mind, for that sweet, composed, heavenly, and yet energetic love that constitutes the true religion of the Bible. Such persons will usually confuse Christian faithfulness with a very harsh and abusive manner of reproving and rebuking sin. Instead of manifesting a deep disposition to instruct and reclaim self-deceivers and backsliders, they seem to think that they are doing God a service by using harsh scriptural language when addressing those who are the most hardened reprobates and blasphemers.

10. Many deceive themselves by saying that they are willing to do anything, when in fact they really do nothing. They say they are willing to give up sin; yet, they don’t give it up. They are willing to forsake all and follow Christ, and yet really forsake nothing to follow Him. This is a deep delusion. I have often said, that as our will is so our conduct is, and that to will is the very thing that God requires. It is a principle in the government of God, that “if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have”. (2 Cor 8:12) This is always true under God’s government. To will the rejection of sin is rejecting it. To will obedience to Christ is obedience to Christ. In other words, to will what Christ requires, is to do what He requires, since the will and the necessary conscious decisions that follow from the will are connected. Many deceive themselves by saying and thinking that they are willing, but are unable to obey God. However, the truth is, that they are able enough, but unwilling to do His will.

11. Others deceive themselves, by thinking that they are pious, when in fact they don’t even possess common honesty. They are guilty of lying, fraud, and many sins, which have hurt their neighbors; and yet they refuse to make confession and restitution. Even when they are in their best frame of mind, they are greedy and selfish in their dealings, and will perhaps defraud the Post-Office, by sending or receiving double letters, and paying single postage, or they take any other selfish and unlawful means to promote their own interest, when they can do it without getting caught.

IV. Is salvation, without true submission, naturally possible?

1. No! God must and will govern the universe. This He will do, whether you like it or not. If He governs without your consent, and contrary to your will, you won’t like it, because His government will continually conflict with your own desires and intentions. And, since it will constantly oppose your will, God’s government will constantly vex and annoy you.

2. God will do as He pleases with you for His own glory, whether you consent to it or not. Now if you don’t agree with God’s conduct, if what He wants to do with your life is not what you want to do with your life, you will become miserable. The more your will perfectly coincides with His will concerning what you should do with your life, the happier you will be. Unless God’s will is the supreme choice and delight of your soul, to be used for His glory, in whatever world it may fix your destiny, and under whatever circumstances your lot may be cast, you are not and cannot be happy under His government. If, on the other hand, you have a will of your own, and you want to make a different plan for your self, property, time, talents, or anything you possess, than what agrees with God’s will, you are of course rendered wretched, by having your own feelings crossed by one whom you cannot resist. You see, then, that it is naturally impossible for you to be saved, any more than you are truly submissive to God.

3. It is naturally impossible for you to have peace, unless your will is completely subdued to God’s will. When you become so dead to your own interests that you have no will of your own, except that God’s will should be done, then, and not until then, can your “peace be like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea”. (Isaiah 48:8) Peace is opposed to war. War is a state of conflict. Every moral being, whose will is not completely conformed to the will of God, is striving with his Maker. Under these circumstances, it is certainly and naturally impossible that you should have peace, while your will is in a state of conflict with God’s will. He cannot yield to you. He should not yield to you. His will is supremely good, and He should not yield His will to gratify any being in the universe. Therefore, you must yield. Your will must be completely subdued. You must come into such a state that you feel supreme complacency and delight in God’s will, not only in all other things, but in His will concerning yourself, or your salvation is forever and naturally impossible. God cannot possibly save you any other way.

4. God has no right to save you, unless you are submissive to His will in everything. I have already said that His will is supremely good. For this very reason, He must insist, that every moral being shall be totally conformed to His will. The more you resist His will, the more He is required to treat you as an enemy of the universe.

5. God cannot possibly save you unless you are completely conformed to His will. What is salvation? If salvation implies holiness and happiness, then it is self-evident, that He is unable to save you in any other way, than by you being entirely conformed to His will. Suppose He should change His will; and for the sake of keeping you happy, and to avoid a conflict between your will and His will, suppose He should submit to you, instead of you submitting to Him. This would do you no good; but it would ruin Him and you also. The laws of His existence are forever the same; and He has no power to change them. He cannot possibly be happy any more than He conforms to the laws of His own existence. Supreme and universal unselfish love completely conforms to the laws of His existence, and therefore, His unselfish love naturally and necessarily constitutes His happiness. You are moral agents. If God should so change your nature that it destroys your moral agency, He would make it impossible for you to be holy, or morally happy. However, without a change in your very nature, happiness to you is as naturally impossible without holiness, as it is to God. The fact is, there is only one thing that we can conform to which can make us happy, and that is the law of perfect and universal unselfish love. Therefore, because God is love, and He is unselfish, it is absurd to say that He can render a moral being happy, only as far as that moral being is holy. For holiness is the exact conformity of our heart and life to the nature and relations of moral beings.

V. If we truly submit, will salvation naturally follow?

1. Yes! Let God do what He will with you, and you cannot but be happy, if you are submissive. Always remember, that submission is not a mere negative state of mind. It is by no means a passive state of our will. It is an active, joyful, supreme acceptance and delight in God’s will. Therefore, if you are in a state of true submission to God, you are supremely pleased and delighted with whatever God wants to do with you; and therefore, you are happy whether in heathen or in Christian lands, whether poor or rich, whether sick or in health, or whether in heaven or in hell. Whatever circumstances you may be in, if you are truly submissive, your “peace is like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea”. You are supremely blessed, because you are supremely pleased, gratified, and delighted, with the will and providence of God concerning you. Now what is this but salvation? What other idea can you form of salvation, than what this state of mind implies?

2. Salvation will naturally follow because, whatever God does, or may do, would be just as you would want it. If it is His duty to send you to hell, and certainly He will never send you there unless He must do so, this would be just as you would want it, and the very place that you would select yourself, if left to your own choice in view of all the circumstances of the case. If you believe it is God’s duty to send you there, you would feel it to be your duty to consent to go there. Suppose He saw that the interests of the universe demanded, and could be better promoted, by making you a monument of His justice, than by any other way. If sending you to hell would be the most economical thing He could do with your life, and accomplish more good than anything else He could do with you life; this is the very choice you would make if you were totally submitted to God.

3. If salvation consists in holiness and happiness, true submission puts you in possession of salvation in any world. God Himself could not prevent your happiness if you truly submit to Him; even if you were in the depths of hell. For even there, you would shout forth His praise for putting you there, and you would be supremely delighted that you were in circumstances, where you would be of the greatest possible service to the universe. Now, if to do good is your delight, if you desire to be truly and perfectly unselfish and loving, so that you find it more blessed to give than to receive, if you truly desire to do the most good you can possibly do, then, if God were to put you in any possible circumstances, in any possible world, with the knowledge that you can do the greatest possible good that you can possibly do, you will be supremely blessed and delighted. In fact, you will be supremely satisfied, just to be in those circumstances.

Do I hear talk that submitting to God’s will might make you miserable! Why, it is forever naturally impossible, as long as you remain in that state of mind I have been talking about. Happiness is a state of mind. All happiness and all misery belong to the mind. They are the natural and necessary result of conformity or non-conformity to the laws of our existence. When we submit to God in all things, the whole machinery of our mind works with a most divine sweetness, like a perfect machine, in which there is no friction, no jarring; but all is exquisitely balanced, and a most divine sweetness flows over our soul, in its harmonious results. It is like a sweet instrument, so exquisitely tuned and touched with such divine skill, that it breathes the very harmony of heaven.

The mind, in a state of entire submission to God, not only harmonizes in all its own movements, but it also completely harmonizes with the workings of all the machinery in the universe. God’s mind, government, plans, and the minds of all holy beings, work together with the most divine and exquisite harmony. Whenever each mind keeps its place in exact harmony, the law of order is so fully realized, that there is no friction, no note of discord, among all the holy minds in the universe. We read about music in heaven. Do you suppose we will need instruments there to create our music and feast us with their harmonies? Why, the true idea of music is this very harmony of mind with mind I’ve just mentioned.

The mind is so constituted, that when all its powers harmonize in action, and when all holy minds act precisely according to their nature, it naturally produces a universal harmony, a universal sweetness, and a ravishing delight, that needs no instruments or audible sounds to enable the mind to realize what is meant by the music of heaven. Universal submission to God is universal harmony, while opposition to God’s will is the friction and discord of the soul. The infernal grating of mutiny and rebellion naturally and necessarily produces misery. And while a holy soul is like an exquisite instrument that breathes forth nothing but the harmonies of heaven, a sinful soul is like a wretched discordant and infernal instrument, whose keys are touched with a diabolical agency, and groans forth the very dissonance of hell.

REMARKS.

1. Submission does not go any farther than true peace and happiness. This is true. We can easily see how little submission there is in the world! If all the unhappiness, distress, and misery on earth is because of a lack of true submission to God, then there certainly is very little true submission.

2. A submissive soul can know what it means to agonize in prayer. He can know the pain of struggling with temptation. This is not inconsistent with perfect peace in God, and with that happiness, that is the natural result of holiness. This agony in prayer, and this painful struggle with temptation, is only emotional, and it is not inconsistent with the deep rest of our will in God. But, our agony in prayer and our struggle with temptation reveals to us that we are in a state of true submission to God. For, if we were not in a state of submission to God, we would not seriously resist temptation. Nor would there be an agonizing struggle in our soul for the salvation of sinners.

3. No one is saved unless his will is subdued to God’s will. It is useless to talk about salvation without talking about submitting to God. Many people entertain the hope of salvation, who obviously are not saved, and as far as we can tall, won’t likely be saved. God‘s providences continually annoy them. They are only happy when God’s providence favors their selfish plans. Everything else annoys and displeases them. If the weather is not just the way they would want it, if their business operations don’t favor their own interests, if their health and the health of their families are not according to their selfish views and aims, they become miserable. Things don’t go their way. The truth is, they have a will of their own. They have interests of their own. They have their own goals, and their happiness depends on accomplishing these goals. If God’s providence favors them in these respects, they are happy, and think they enjoy religion. Otherwise, they are miserable, and think they are highly virtuous if they refrain from openly rebelling against God. They think that submission is nothing more than not murmuring, complaining, and accusing God of wrong. They don’t understand, that submission implies delightfully accepting, sweetly yielding, and delightfully willing; that, in all respects, God’s will should be done.

Now it is clear, that such people think that salvation consists more in a change of place, than in a change of heart. They believe that God saves you when He takes you to heaven; that He gives you eternal life when He pardons you. Certainly, this is a deadly mistake. Heaven is a state of mind, and we can enjoy this state of mind in any world. That is why the Bible represents the saints as already enjoying eternal life. Hell is also a state of mind; and it does not require a change of place to give the wicked a foretaste of the pain of hell. Why, then, do you talk about salvation, as long as you are not saved? Why talk about happiness, as long as you are not holy? Why hope for heaven, as long as you have the spirit of hell?

4. An unsubdued will is conclusive evidence of an unrepentant heart. An unsubdued will is nothing more than an unrepentant heart. True repentance and submission in a sinner, are the same thing. Now, multitudes of professing Christians claim to be penitent, but they continually display a very unsubdued will. They are not submissive to either God or man. They sometimes have emotions of sorrow. They weep and they pray. They confess their sins. But, to yield their will to God’s will is out of the question. They don’t know what submitting their will to God is all about. God’s providence keeps them constantly in a state of unrest and distress, and yet, they think that they are penitent. What oceans of delusion exist among professing Christians on this subject!

5. This subject shows the immense importance of teaching children, when they are very young, lessons of true and unconditional submission to parental authority. Parents should remember that, to very young children, they stand in the place of God. They should lay the hand of parental authority and influence on their will when they are very young. If their will is not subdued early, it may not be subdued at all. If the infant does not learn unconditional and sweet submission to parental authority at an early age, he may never learn it. And, if the youth never learns to submit to parental influence, it is almost certain that the child will never submit to either God or man. I have witnessed a great many situations where adults struggled and agonized for years over religious issues, when, throughout the entire time, they never experienced anything of the peace and sweetness that comes from unconditional submission to God’s will. After questioning them, I believe that I have found it to be universally true, that when these people were children, they never learned submission.

6. You can see from this subject, how to account for the way God deals with so many people today. They are almost constantly undergoing severe discipline. They are smitten, stripe upon stripe. Now, in such situations, we may rest assured that there are good reasons for this, since “God does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men”. Under such chastisements, we often hear people saying that they can’t understand why God should deal with them this way. They seem to think there is something very mysterious in the way God deals with them. They are ready to cry out, “What have I done. Why should I be treated this way”?

Now this response reveals the reason and shows why God needs to deal with you the way He does. He sees that your will is not subdued; and if you want any other reason for His dealings with you than He deals with you according to His will, this is a sufficient reason why He should cross and disappoint you. It is indispensable to your salvation that you should be supremely pleased with whatever agrees with His will. Now whatever His providence towards you may be, if you are not supremely pleased with it, if you ask for any other reason why He has dealt with you the way He did, other than that it seemed good in His sight, this shows that you are not submissive. This shows that you don’t have complete confidence in His wisdom and unselfish love. This is why you want Him to give you reasons for His conduct, before you will fully accept what He does. This demonstrates that God needs to cross and re-cross your path, until you will submit. God can never get you to understand all the reasons for His conduct; and unless you have sufficient confidence in Him, and you are sufficiently submissive to His will, to be happy in whatever He does; you need to be, and must be chastised until you unconditionally submit, or else be given up and sent to hell.

7. From this subject you can see the great blessing it is for God to chastise us until we submit. We should most devoutly beg God not to spare us until our submission is perfect.

8. Now you know what to think about those sinners and backsliders, who live and prosper without providential chastisements. “And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: ‘My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives’. If you endure chastening, God deals with you, as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.” (Hebrews 12:5-8) If you don’t live and walk with God, and He’s not chastising you, don’t conclude from your prosperity, that God approves of your lifestyle, or that you are the favorite of heaven. In fact, you have reason to fear that God has given up on you; that God has abandoned you to your own ways, and left you to fill up the measure of your iniquity.

9. Now you can see the indispensable need to thoroughly discriminate between what does and what does not constitute true Christian submission. Some people think that true Christian submission consists in a kind of dreamy, heartless indifference to what they call the mysterious sovereignty of God. They believe that submission is obeying church laws and leaders. They seem to have no idea that true submission consists in voluntarily conforming to the revealed will of God. These people are never interested in making any efforts to save and sanctify the souls of men. They think they should leave this with the sovereignty of God, and that submission is concerned more with the unrevealed, than the revealed will of God. Now it is impossible that we can submit to the unrevealed will of God, for the obvious reason that we don’t know what it is, and therefore we can’t possibly submit to it. Therefore, the person, who neglects to conform himself to the revealed will of God and thinks he is submissive to the sovereignty of God, deludes himself.

10. True submission and entire consecration are the same thing. In other words, no one is truly submissive to God any more than he is consecrated to God. And, it is obvious, that there can be no true submission, unless, for the time being, there is universal submission. A person certainly does not submit to God in one thing, and, at the same time, refuses to submit in something else. It is possible that he will be submissive at one time and not at another time. But, it is certainly impossible that he can both submit to and rebel against God at the same time. Present submission then is present consecration; continued submission is continued consecration, and permanent submission is permanent consecration, or sanctification to God. Do you know what this is by your own experience?