John Newton's Letters
Will the sins of believers be publicly declared at the
great day?
A letter to a friend, on the question, whether the sins
of believers shall be publicly declared at the great day? Or, how are we to
understand the apostle's assertion, "We must all appear before the
judgment-seat of Christ, that every one mall receive the things done in his
body, according to what he has done, whether it be good or bad?" 2Co. 5:10.
compared with Rom. 14:12.
My dear Sir,
My heart congratulates you. What changes and events many in younger life may
be reserved to see, who can tell? but your pilgrimage is nearly finished.
You stand upon the river's brink, with the city full in view, waiting and
wishing for the appointed hour: you need not be anxious concerning your
passage; for every circumstance attending it is already adjusted by Infinite
Wisdom and Love, and the King himself will be ready to receive you. While
you continue here, I am glad to hear from you, and would be glad to
contribute in any way or degree to your satisfaction, or even to show my
willingness, if I can do no more. I can propose little more than the latter,
by offering my thoughts on the subject you propose from 2Co. 5:10, and the
apparent difficulty of understanding that passage in full harmony with the
many texts which seem expressly to assert, that the sins of believers are so
forgiven as to be remembered no more.
There is doubtless (as you observe) a perfect consistence
in every part of the word of God: the difficulties we meet with are
wholly owing to the narrowness of our faculties, and the ignorance which in
some degree is inseparable from our present state of imperfection. And
we may, in general, rest satisfied with the thought that there is a bright
moment approaching, when the veil shall be wholly taken away. It is the
part of faith to rest upon the plain declarations of Scripture, without
indulging a blamable curiosity of knowing more than is clearly revealed;
yet while we humbly depend upon Divine teaching, it is right to aim at as
enlarged a sense of what is revealed as we can attain to. Every acquisition
of this kind is more valuable than gold, especially respecting those points
which have an immediate tendency to comfort and support us under the view of
an approaching dissolution: the question you have proposed is undoubtedly of
this nature.
May the Lord direct my thoughts and pen that I may not
"darken counsel by words without knowledge!" I have been looking over the
passage you refer to in Dr. Ridgley, and think I might be well excused from
saying anything further on the subject, as he has briefly and fully stated
all the arguments that have occurred to me on either side of the question,
and closes with a proper caution not to be peremptory in determining, lest
by attempting to be wise above what is written, I should betray my own
folly. Yet as you desire to have my thoughts, I must say something. I wish I
may not give you reason to think that this caution has been lost upon me.
I think all the great truths in which we are concerned,
are clearly and expressly laid down, not only in one, but in many places of
Scripture; but it sometimes happens, that here and there we meet with a
text, which, in the first and obvious sound of the words, seems to speak
differently from what is asserted more largely elsewhere; which texts,
singly taken, afford some men their only ground for the hypothesis they
maintain. Thus the Arians lay a great stress on Joh. 14:28, and the
Arminians on Jam. 2:24, &c. But their true interpretation is to be sought
according to the analogy of faith. They are capable of a sense agreeable to
the others, though the others are not intelligible in the sense they would
fix upon these. In like manner I would say, whatever may be the precise
meaning of 2Co. 5:10, we are sure it cannot be designed to weaken what we
are taught, in almost every page, of the free, absolute, and unalterable
nature of a believer's justification; the benefit of which, as to the
forgiveness of sin, is signified by the phrases of "blotting out," "not
remembering," "casting behind the back," and "into the depths of the sea."
The sins of a believer are so effectually removed, that, even when they are
sought for, they cannot be found. For Jesus has borne them away: believers
are complete in him, and clothed in his righteousness. They shall stand
before God without spot or wrinkle. Who shall lay anything to their charge?
But it is probable that these expressions, chiefly, if
not entirely, respect the guilt, imputation, and deserved consequences of
sin. None can suppose that the Lord will or can forget the sins of his
people, or that they can be ever hidden from his all-comprehending view.
Neither can I think they themselves will forget them. Their song is founded
upon a recollection of their sins and their circumstances in this life, Rev.
5:9; and their love, and consequently their happiness, seems inseparably
connected with the consciousness of what they were, and what they had done.
Luk. 7:47. And I think those are the sweetest moments in this life, when we
have the clearest sense of our own sins, provided the sense of our
acceptance in the Beloved is proportionally clear, and we feel the
consolations of his love, notwithstanding all our transgressions. When we
arrive in glory, unbelief and fear will cease forever: our nearness to God,
and communion with him, will be unspeakably beyond what we can now conceive.
Therefore the remembrance of our sins will be no abatement of our bliss, but
rather the contrary. When Pharaoh and his army were alive, and pursuing
them, the Israelites were terrified: but afterwards, when they saw their
enemies dead upon the shore, their joy and triumph were not abated, but
heightened by the consideration of their number.
With respect to our sins being made known to others, I
acknowledge with you, that I could not now bear to have any of my
fellow-creatures made acquainted with what passes in my heart for a single
day; but I apprehend it is a part and a proof of my present depravity, that
I feel myself disposed to pay so great a regard to the judgment of men,
while I am so little affected with what I am in the sight of the pure and
holy God. But I believe that hereafter, when self shall be entirely
rooted out, and my will perfectly united to the Divine will, I would feel no
reluctance, supposing it for the manifestation of his glorious grace—that
men, angels, and devils, should know the very worst of me. Whether it
will be so or no, I dare not determine.
Perhaps the difficulty chiefly lies in the necessity of
our being at present taught heavenly things, by earthly things. In the
descriptions we have of the great day, allusion is made to what is most
solemn in human transactions. The ideas of the judgment-seat, the great
trumpet, of the books being opened, and the pleadings, Mat. 25:37-44, seem
to be borrowed from the customs of men, to help our weak conceptions, rather
than justly and fully to describe what will be the real process. Now, when
we attempt to look into the unseen world, we carry our ideas of time and
place, and sensible objects, along with us; and we cannot divest ourselves
of them, or provide ourselves with better: yet perhaps they have as little
relation to the objects we aim at, as the ideas which a man born blind
acquires from what he hears and feels have to the true nature of light and
colors. Mr. Locke mentions one, who, after much thought and conversation,
supposed he had got a tolerable notion of scarlet, and that it was something
nearly resembling the sound of a trumpet. Perhaps this is no improper emblem
of the utmost we call attain to, when we are endeavoring to realize the
solemnities of the judgment-day. What we mean by memory and reasoning, may
possibly have no place in the world of spirits. We guess at something more
suitable, perhaps, when we use the term intuition. But I apprehend we must
die before we can fully understand what it signifies: perhaps thoughts
may be as intelligible there, as words are here.
In a word, my dear sir, if l have not given you
satisfaction (I am sure I have not satisfied myself), accept my apology in
the words of a much wiser, and an inspired man: "Such knowledge is too
wonderful for me: it is high, I cannot attain unto it." Before long we shall
know: in the mean while our cause is in sure hands; we have a Shepherd who
will guide us below, an Advocate who will receive and present us before the
Throne above. I trust we meet daily before the Throne of Grace: hereafter we
shall meet in glory.