THE INNER WITNESS

The wisdom of the fathers

THE INNER WITNESS

...Instead of the inner witness we now substitute logical conclusions drawn from the text. A conversation between a seeker and a worker in an inquiry room is likely to run like this: "Do you want the Lord to receive you and make you His child?" "Yes." "Well, read this: 'Him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.' Do you believe that?" "Yes." "Now if He doesn't cast you out, what does He do?" " I suppose He takes me in." "Amen. Now He has taken you in and you are His child. Why don't you tell others about it?"

So the bewildered seeker forces a waxy smile and testifies that he has been converted to Christ. He is honest and means well but he has been led astray. He has fallen victim to a spiritless syllogism. There is no witness, no immediacy of knowledge, no encounter with God, no awareness of inner change.

Where there is a divine act within the soul there will always be a corresponding awareness. The act of God is self-validating. It is its own evidence and addresses itself direct to the religious consciousness. Abundant external evidence may exist that a work has been done within, and in this the reason may rejoice; but such evidence cannot be sufficient to guarantee that a saving work has been wrought.

Whatever can be judged by reason is subject to the limitations and errors of reason. God waits to assure us that we are His children in a manner that eliminates the possibility of error, that is by the inner witness. 1. John 5.10-12:

"The one who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness that God has given concerning His Son. And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life."

(from "Born after Midnight" by A.W. Tozer)