The Word Comes to an Honest Heart

Devotional Classics, Watchman Nee,  Excerpts from What Shall This Man Do?

God has made, from His side, a threefold provision for every person in that person’s hour of crisis: Firstly, Jesus has come as the Friend of sinners; secondly, it is He personally (and no intermediary) whom we are called to meet; and thirdly, the Holy Spirit has been poured out on all flesh, to bring to pass in us the initial work of conviction of sin, repentance, and faith, and, of course, all that follows. . . .  We are not required – in the first place – to believe, or to repent, or to be conscious of sin, or even to know that Christ died.  We are required only to approach the Lord with an honest heart.

In the Gospels the Lord Jesus is presented as the Friend of sinners, for historically He was found, first of all, moving among the people as their Friend before He became their Savior.

I met a student who said it was too early for him to come to the Lord. . . .  He said to me, “The thief on the cross was saved, but he had his fling, and it was high time that he repented.  But I – I am young.”

“Well what do you want to do?” I asked him. 

He replied, “I want to wait another forty years and have a good time, and then I will repent.” 

So I said, “Let us pray.”

“Oh, I can’t pray,” he answered.

“Yes, you can,” I said.  “You can tell the Lord all you have told me.  He is the Friend of unrepentant sinners like you.”

“Oh, I can’t say that to Him.”

“Why not?  Whatever is in your heart, you tell it to Him.  He will help you.”  Finally he prayed, and told the Lord that he did not want to repent and be saved, but that he knew he needed a Savior; and he just cried to Him for help.  The Lord worked repentance in him and he got up a saved man.

What is salvation?  Many think that to be saved we must first believe that the Lord Jesus died for us, but it is a strange fact that nowhere in the New Testament does it say precisely that.  We are told to believe in Jesus, or to believe on Him; not to believe that He died for us.  “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,” were Paul’s words.

The first condition of salvation is not knowledge, but meeting Christ.

For what is it to be reckoned righteous?  It is to touch God.  That is why our first object must be to lead people to meet Him.

[Salvation] is, as we have seen, a question of meeting God – of people coming into first-hand contact with Christ the Savior.  So what, you ask me, is the minimum requirement in a person to make that contact possible?  The basic condition of a sinner’s salvation is not belief or repentance, but just honesty of heart towards God.  God requires nothing of us except that we come in that attitude.

At first, Watchman Nee’s statement about coming to God without repentance or belief seems wrong.  How else could someone come?  Jesus himself said, “Repent!”  Paul speaks of faith as the sole avenue for righteousness from God.  Yet he says we need only meet God with an honest heart.

When I read this, I found that Nee had hit on something I learned a while ago, but easily forget.  (Funny how that works. . . .)  I cannot find God without this “honest heart.”  Repentance cannot be a precursor to coming to God because by their very nature, sinners are unrepentant.  Repentance follows conversion.

Similarly if belief is understanding some things about God, a person who does not know God will know very little about him.  This kind of understanding follows coming to God.  Belief as trust is the same.  I cannot trust God before I come to know him.  Somehow, I must touch him, experience him.

My certainty about this only increases as I grow closer to God.  The thing that takes me into the road of religious pride and away from God the quickest is trying to change (repent) or believe (understand or trust) without touching God.  The whole thing becomes powered by my will and guided by my pride.

One of the most tempting ways (maybe the most tempting) of dealing with sins and shortcomings in my life is to bring pride in to beat them into submission.  “You’re better than that!”  “At least I’m not as bad as. . . .”  “I may do this, but at least I don’t do that.”  All these statements and many more of them  come to my mind when I try to resist my faults and sins with pride.  I may see improvement with certain sins, but I exchange them for something far more deadly.

I think this “honest heart” is one way of describing humility.  In the story above, the young student practiced humility through confession.  Confession is not so much admitting I am wrong as being honest before God about where I am at.  Confession is not so much “I’m sorry” as “I’m here.”  Meeting Jesus keeps me from the source of pride: hiding from God.  Hiding means I am trying to take care of it on my own rather than bring it to Jesus for help.

Nee’s three provisions are absolutely necessary to make this kind of “honest heart” effective.  Jesus is my Friend before I repent.  He is on my side.  He wants to be around me and will be, even if I have ambivalent feelings.  Jesus is merciful and forgiving.

Next, this meeting with Jesus is all that is necessary.  He alone stands before me when I am alone in grief or sin or pain.  He alone stands with me when I face what I fear, whether God or people.  He alone is my mediator, not his death or his teaching or his resurrection.  These come with him, but they are not mediators; only Jesus is.  I go to him with an honest heart, not to his teachings or his promises or his achievements.  Jesus himself answers my needs and cries.  He alone is the mediator.

Finally, I meet Jesus through his Spirit.  His Spirit overshadows me and all people, awaiting my cries to him.  He is as close as the cries from my heart.  His presence and power are available immediately when I seek him out apart from my repentance or my belief.  I access Jesus by my heart crying out to him, not my efforts to please him or know him.  This is grace: Jesus’s immediate presence to each person.

Jesus’s grace takes the honest heart and fills it with repentance and belief.  All that matters is how my heart turns to Christ in each moment, whether crisis or peace.  He is my Friend, faithful at all times even when I am not.

Lord, recently I have once again turned to you.  I have seen how pride grows easily in my heart.  I begin to hide.  I grow cold.  I forget your presence beside me.  I try to conjure repentance and create belief.  For you, I let it go today.  They are not worth anything.  I need you and you alone, Jesus, this day and every day.  Let me eyes be on you as I open myself completely before you.  Then I will turn.  Then I will trust.  Amen.

Confession is powerful tool to beat on pride.  Pride thrives in darkness and hiding.  Confession brings light and community.  Pride competes.  Confession brings the knowledge that everything is loss compared to knowing Jesus, my Friend, my Mediator, my Help.