Books For Christian - God In You

Publisher: Whitaker House
ISBN: 0883685450
Pages: 240
Book Type: Paperback
Size: 0.71 x 8.29 x 5.30 inches
Released Date: Nov 1998

Reviews
Table Of Contents

Description:
In these pages, Charles Finney delves deeply into the Scriptures to reveal the true differences between sinners and saints. You will be moved to examine your heart, your thoughts, and your actions in light of the Bible, so that you can reach a higher experience of God¿s love and power.

Introduction --- 7
1. Sinners Must Change Their Own Hearts --- 9
Remarks --- 27
2.How to Change Your Heart --- 43
Remarks --- 59
3.Traditions of the Elders --- 66
Remarks --- 83
4.Total Depravity: Part One --- 89
Remarks --- 103
5.Total Depravity: Part Two --- 108
Remarks --- 122
6.Why Sinners Hate God --- 127
Remarks --- 136
7.God Cannot Please Sinners --- 143
Remarks --- 153
8.Christian Affinity --- 161
Remarks --- 164
9.Stewardship --- 175
Remarks --- 182
10.The Doctrine of Election --- 187
Remarks --- 194
11.Reprobation --- 199
Remarks --- 216
12.The Love of the World --- 220
Remarks --- 234

Chapter 1 SINNERS MUST CHANGE THEIR OWN HEARTS

Get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die? Ezekiel 18:31

These words were addressed to Israel, who, according to their history and the passage from which our text verse is taken, were evidently in a state of impenitence. This command to get themselves "a new heart and a new spirit" was enforced by the weighty penalty of death. The death mentioned in the text cannot mean natural death, for natural death comes to both those who have and those who do not have a new heart. Nor can it mean spiritual death, which is a state of entire sinfulness, for then the verse would have read, "Why are you already dead?" The death spoken of here must mean eternal death, or the state of banishment from God and the glory of His power. It is the state into which the soul that dies in its iniquities will be cast.
The command here addressed to the Israelites is binding upon every impenitent sinner to whom the Gospel is addressed. Sinners are required to perform the same duty, with the same penalty. Therefore, it becomes a matter of infinite importance that we well understand, and fully and immediately obey, the requirement. The questions that naturally arise when reading the text verse ask the following:
1. What is meant by the requirement to get a new heart and a new spirit?
2. Is it reasonable to require the performance of this duty under the threat of eternal death?
3. How is this requirement consistent with the often repeated declarations of the Bible that a new heart is the gift and work of God? Does God require us to perform this duty, without expecting its fulfillment, merely to show us our powerlessness and dependence upon Him? Does He require us to get ourselves a new heart under the threat of eternal death, when at the same time He knows we have no power to obey and that if ever the work is done, He Himself must do the very thing He requires of us?

In order to answer these questions satisfactorily, I will attempt to show, first of all, what is not the meaning of this requirement. Then I will show what is.

Note here that, although the Bible was not given to teach us intellectual ideas, we may rest assured that all its declarations are in accordance with true wisdom. In the Bible, the term spirit is used in different senses: it sometimes means a spiritual being or moral agent, while in other places it is used to describe the disposition of a man. In the latter sense, we say a person has a good or bad spirit, a lovely or hateful spirit. The word spirit is evidently used in this sense in the text verse: "Get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit."
The term heart is also used in various senses in the Bible: sometimes it appears to be synonymous with soul; sometimes it evidently means the will, sometimes the conscience; sometimes it seems to be used so extensively as to cover all the moral activities of the mind; and sometimes it refers to a person¿s natural or social inclinations. In nearly every case, using the context of the word, one may easily determine the particular sense in which it is to be understood. Our task in this chapter is to discover its meaning as it is used in Ezekiel 18:31, for it is in this sense that we are required to get ourselves "a new heart and a new spirit."
I begin, therefore, by saying that heart in this case does not mean the fleshly heart or the bodily organ. Nor does getting a new heart mean getting a new soul. We have one soul, and we do not need another. Also, we are not required to create any new physical or mental abilities. We already have all the powers to choose to follow what is moral or what is not; we are just as God made us and do not need any alteration in the substance of mind or body. Nor does this verse mean that we are required to add to our minds or bodies any new principle or inclination. We are not to make any physical change in ourselves.
Some people speak of a change of heart as something miraculous, something in which the sinner is to be entirely passive and for which he is to wait as he would wait for a surgical operation. We need nothing added to our bodies or minds, nor is it true that those who have a new heart have any physical alteration of their powers whatsoever. They are the same people, as far as both body and mind are concerned, that they were before. A physical change, either in body or mind, would destroy a person¿s identity. A Christian, or one who has a new heart, would not be the same individual that he was before in regard to his powers of moral choice- he would not be the same person having the same responsibilities. The alteration, therefore, lies in the manner in which he uses his moral and physical powers.
A physical alteration in the substance of one¿s mind would also destroy all the virtue of his obedience. It would make obedience to God a mere gratification of appetite, in which there would be no more real virtue than in eating when we are hungry or drinking when we are thirsty. Think of it: if a principle of holiness were implanted in the mind, it would render the perseverance of the saints physically necessary, make falling from grace a natural impossibility, and would thus destroy all the virtue of perseverance.
Such a thing would also dispense with the necessity of the Holy Spirit after conversion. A recreation of a person¿s mental faculties, and the implantation of an inclination toward holiness in the substance of his mind, would plainly dispense with the need for any other power in his life than the power that could keep him alive and give him power to act. For, in obedience to the laws of his renewed nature or in the gratification of his new appetite, he would, of course, obey.
But this implantation of a new principle, which dispenses with the need for the influences of the Holy Spirit after conversion, is contrary to experience in many ways. First, those who have a new heart find that the Holy Spirit¿s constant assistance is as indispensable to their perseverance in holiness as it was to their conversion. Second, the idea of a physical change is inconsistent with backsliding. If the physical makeup of the mind were changed, if an inclination toward holiness and obedience were implanted in the substance of the soul, then to backslide, or to fall from grace, would be as impossible as to alter the appetites of the stomach.
A physical change is also unnecessary. Some people suppose that the Gospel has no real tendency to move the mind to obey God unless there is a corresponding affinity to do so in the person. In other words, because the influences of the Gospel are holy, there must be something equally holy implanted in the substance of the mind before these influences can act as influences at all. Thus, if the outward influence is holy, there must already be something holy in the person; but if the outward influence is sinful, the person must already have corresponding sinful inclinations.
But this is absurd and contrary to fact. Based on these theories, I must inquire, How did Adam sin? Was it God or the Devil who first implanted a sinful inclination within his physical body as an answer to the outward influence? And how did one third of the holy angels sin? Did God also implant a sinful inclination in their beings? Were Adam and "the angels who did not keep their proper domain" (Jude 6) originally created with sinful inclinations that corresponded to those outward influences? Then they were always sinners and were created as such. Who, then, is the author of sin and is responsible for all their wickedness?
It is true, the physical makeup of the mind must be suited and adapted to the nature of the outward influence before the influence can produce any desired action of the mind. And the outward influence must be equally adapted to the mind. Every human being possesses the power to understand, to perceive, and to weigh; he has the power of conscience to decide upon the nature of moral opposites; he has the power and liberty of choice. Now, to the person who possesses these faculties, the influences of the Gospel are directed, and there is plainly a natural tendency in these weighty considerations to influence him to obey his Maker.
If a change of heart were physical, it would have no moral character. In order to have moral character, the change must be voluntary. But no change to the nature of man¿s soul, no implantation of a craving for obedience to God, could bring him to holiness. All holiness- whether in God, angels, or men- must be voluntary, or it is not holiness at all. To call anything holy that is a part of the mind or body, to speak of a holy substance, unless it is in a figurative sense, is to talk nonsense. Holiness is virtue; it is something that is praiseworthy. Therefore, it cannot be a part of the created substance of the body or mind but must consist in voluntary obedience to the principles of eternal righteousness.