Have you ever heard someone’s testimony about being saved and thought, “Why can’t I have a testimony like that?” Maybe you’ve seen folks walk the aisle at church, crying buckets of tears. You secretly feel less saved because your eyes stayed dry. Someone else pontificates about their deep investigation into God and all things related, eventually bringing them to Christ. You think, “I don’t have answers for all those questions. Am I really saved?”
When we listen to other people’s experiences of salvation, it’s easy to feel like we’ve been cheated out of something and don’t measure up. Maybe we don’t even have the real thing!
Some folks approach salvation with intense emotions; others with logical analysis. Which should it be? Should salvation be an emotional experience or an intellectual one?
Here is my answer: both.
Or maybe either one…or possibly it’s somewhere in the middle. In reality, every person comes to Christ a different way, and sometimes it depends on personality. Salvation is not about having all the answers or boo-hooing at the altar. It is about faith in Christ.
Emotions and intellect both play an important role in salvation, and while you may lean a little heavier to one side, you likely can find traces of each in your own experience. So, let’s consider both the emotional and intellectual aspects to salvation, then we’ll look at a third element—one that must be there for salvation to take place.
1. The experience may be emotional
Emotions are a valid part of salvation. Sometimes people feel things so deeply that it causes them to change. Some preachers who realize this become masters of manipulation, developing their ability to tell stories with such passion that would drive even the most devoted Christian down the aisle.
I have been to services where the preacher just does not seem satisfied until the whole congregation has abandoned their seats and crowded piously at the altar to pray about…well…anything. Until he can brag about the overwhelming response to his message, he refuses to offer the benedictory prayer and release his subjects.
While I have little use for such charlatans, they are smart enough to realize the power of emotions. They reach for the heartstrings, allowing them to elicit just about any response they want.
Of course, this doesn’t work for everyone. Not being an overly emotional person myself, I remember standing alone in my pew while hundreds of other stepped into the aisle. I was not about to stroke this guy’s ego when I hadn’t really heard him say much of anything substantial in his sermon.
For those of us who get turned off by overtly emotional appeals, let me share some benefits of the emotional aspect of salvation.
Benefit: An inner conviction of sin
When our emotions are affected by something, we can’t shake it. I recently saw a meme that said, “People may not remember what you did, but they will remember how you made them feel.”
When our emotions are touched with the conviction of sin, we cannot just ignore it and walk away. We have to do something about it.
Benefit: Emotions cause change
Have you ever kept putting off a task because you just didn’t feel like doing it? That’s because your emotions were not involved. Once your emotions get involved, the task seems to take care of itself.
That is why proponents of the latest animal rescue endeavor show those sad puppy videos on television. If you feel pangs of compassion, you’ll empty your pocketbook to give those poor little doggies a good life. Emotions have power because they prompt us to do things.
When our emotions are affected through understanding of the gravity of our sin, we will do something about it. Not only will we put trust in Jesus, but hopefully we will continue to live in obedience to Him.
While emotions can be a positive inclusion in our salvation experience, there are also some cautions that we should recognize.
Caution: No incentive to mature as a Christian
If we come to Christ because we feel the burden of sin, we may be tempted stray once the burden is lifted. To combat this, we should periodically remind ourselves of what convinced us to come to Christ in the first place—our dismal failure at fulfilling our purpose in life, which is to bring glory to God.
Caution: Struggle with doubt
If we come to Christ amidst a flurry of passionate emotions, what happens when we stop feeling it? When those warm fuzzy feelings fade, doubt may creep in. Was it ever real?
2. The experience may be intellectual
While some may come to Christ in a flurry of emotions, others may respond to the call of salvation strictly through their intellect.
Many popular apologists have this experience. For them, it wasn’t emotional, at least originally. They studied the claims of the gospel and concluded that the gospel was true, so they trusted in Jesus.
Benefit: Conviction of the truth of the gospel
Those who come to Christ intellectually have answers to their questions. They have thought through it so they really believe it. As a result, it is difficult to talk them out of it. They know the reasons they believe.
Benefit: Ability to argue for the truth
Because these people know the reasons they believe, they can persuasively convince skeptics. Whereas people who have more of an emotional experience may simply say, “I know it changed me, and you can’t talk me out of it,” these people can provide reasons.
Caution: Struggle with doubt
These folks may struggle with doubt just like their emotional counterparts, but for different reasons. While they have found answers to their questions, more questions will inevitably arise. “If I cannot answer that question, is Christianity really true?” They do not have an intense emotional experience to remember, so a crucial unanswered question may begin to unravel their faith.
These doubts may be encouraged by the zealous evangelists who repeat the “If you are saved, you will know that you know that you know it.” The “intellectual” believers may have something deep inside that doesn’t “know that they know that they know,” and one unanswered question may plague them endlessly.
One remedy for this is to remember that we never know exhaustively about everything. Regardless of what we believe about almost anything, there are some areas we just have to accept. Faith is not exhaustive knowledge or the absence of doubt. It is trust in something that we have reason to believe is reliable.
Caution: Struggle with sin
Another problem that these “intellectual” people may have is that they may be more prone to succumbing to the temptation to sin. They are not driven by an emotional revulsion to sin, so they may find it easier to fall for it.
In Romans 6, Paul anticipates a question that some people may ask. If God’s grace is shown more clearly through my sin, then am I doing God a favor by sinning more?
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? (Romans 6:1)
That kind of question could only be asked by one who has had merely an intellectual experience and not one that came from the heart. He may never have felt the full weight of his sin and therefore is more easily tempted to fulfill his fleshly lusts.
So, who is saved? The one who is more emotional or the one who is more intellectual? My answer: both. Salvation requires both hearing and believing (intellectual) and an inner understanding
But I think it’s both—you have to hear the message and believe it. That’s the intellectual side.
Then you have to respond: “Help, I’m in trouble!” That’s the emotional side.
When you move from “Jesus died for wicked sinners” to “Oh, no, that’s me!” you have integrated intellect and emotion.
Let me illustrate this. Suppose you are flying in an airplane and the pilot announces that the engines have died and you have to put on your parachute and jump. An intellectual person may investigate the credentials of the pilot, the condition of the airplane, and the smoke billowing from the engine, and conclude that, “Yep, I’m gonna die if I don’t do something.” The emotional person will just freak out. Both of them heard of the danger and have responded to it differently. And they’re both going to die if something doesn’t change. It is what they do with that information that matters.
This leads us to a third aspect we did not discuss–the will (volition).
3. The experience must be volitional (of the will)
Whether you “feel” it or “know” it, you must make the choice to do something about it. This is what evangelism is about—appealing to the intellect and emotion of a person to get them to make a willful choice. Salvation always requires a response of the will.
Practical application
Understanding how emotions, intellect, and volition work together affects how we share the gospel with other people.
1. Share the truth of the gospel (intellectual)
When I was young, there was a big push to get people to simply pray a prayer and then they were saved. Church members were trained to try to convince others to accept Christ the first time they heard.
While this may work for some, we cannot depend on it. That is an appeal to emotions—it often takes time to understand everything. We need to appeal to the intellect with the truth of the gospel, so the person can understand why he needs to become a Christian. After he has understood the truth, he will begin to desire the forgiveness that can be found in Christ. He d is then in a position for his will to make the decision whether or not to accept it.
2. Touch the emotions with the gospel
Along with an intellectual approach to evangelism, we should strive to aim for the emotions, sparking a response of the will. Maybe this is why there is so much discussion about Heaven in the Bible, not to mention Hell. We are not told about the eternal state of people simply so we can know it. The truth is supposed to touch the emotions: “I want this and not that!”
3. Encourage a response (volition)
It is not enough to know the truth. Neither is it sufficient to feel something. For salvation to be applied to a person, they have to respond to it in faith. Encourage people to take what they know and feel and step over the threshold of salvation.
