LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE

For the past several weeks our Insights have centred on a particular spiritual experience of the pioneer missionary James Hudson Taylor. In 1869 he saw with deeper understanding what it meant to be united to Jesus Christ and to live out of him rather than out of his own resources. It changed his life profoundly and subsequently influenced many other people.

But a question arises in our minds – at least in the minds of those of us who have been schooled to base our lives on the Word of God rather than in Christian experience. That question is, “Can we trust Hudson Taylor’s experience as a guide for our lives?” After all, isn’t the practice of basing our lives on experiences – ours or others – one of the problems facing the church today?

This is not a simple question to answer. From one point of view we can say categorically that we cannot blindly trust anyone’s experience (other than that of the Lord Jesus Christ and his inspired apostles) as a guide for life. The Apostle John’s counsel to early Christians still rings true today: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God...” (1 John 4:1). Every human experience – our own included – has to examined and interpreted in the light of God’s Word. It has been correctly said that religious experience without religious reflection is blind. It is perilous to launch out into life on the uncertain sea of experience alone.

But it has also been said – with equal truthfulness – that religious reflection without religious experience is empty. Christianity is ultimately not about ideas but about life and relationships. Evangelical Christians believe that God renews their hearts and calls them into a living, personal fellowship with himself (1 John 1:3; 1 Corinthians 1:9). They hold that the Spirit of God lives within them to teach, empower and lead (John 14:21). They contend that God works in them to will and do of his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13). All of these realities express themselves in life and contribute to our experience of God. Being a Christian does have an aspect of experience about it.

That so, can our experience of God be trusted? It can certainly be received as valid experience, but whether or not it is a safe guide for life is another thing. For we can genuinely experience God working in us – in exciting us to pray for someone, for example, or giving us insight into the Bible – yet not accurately perceive or interpret what he is saying. At least, not completely! That means there must always be an element of uncertainty about our experience, something that keeps us cautious about letting it serve as an infallible guide for life. In the end only experience interpreted and validated by the Scriptures is trustworthy. The Bible alone is our final (and sufficient) source of authority.

That doesn’t mean, however, that spiritual experience isn’t of any value or that it doesn’t play a part in spiritual growth. Truth, experience and spiritual growth are closely intertwined. Sometimes God causes us to grow by first teaching us the truth then by enabling us to experience it (live it out in practice). But at other times he meets us in the cauldron of life and teaches us (or at least, gives us deeper insight into truth) in the context of experience.

Paul alludes to this in his second letter to the Corinthians. In the first chapter he relates how he and Timothy suffered in the Roman province of Asia (modern Turkey). He speaks of how they were under great pressure, far beyond their ability to bear (2 Corinthians 1:8ff.). Yet, God comforted them in the midst of this suffering (v. 4). This was a distinct spiritual experience, one that enabled them later to comfort others who were suffering. And what is more, through it, they were taught not to rely on themselves, but on God “who raises the dead” (v. 9). Here is a case of personal spiritual experience being used to teach and to equip for ministry. Something similar is recorded in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. Through weakness the Apostle was taught to rest in the power of Christ alone. These are just two instances in which experiencing God in life becomes the matrix of spiritual growth. The experience itself doesn’t produce growth, but God working in and through it makes it the context of growth.

This is how I understand what happened to Hudson Taylor. Something real, something from the Spirit of God happened when he read John McCarthy’s letter and saw more fully what it meant to be united to Christ. That insight changed his life from that moment on. As to exactly how that change took place and what it meant in terms of how Christians generally come to experience the fullness of life in Christ – that’s a matter that can be open to interpretation. Hudson Taylor himself, and others who shared his experience, may not have got that right. But the faulty explanation of an experience does not mean that it was not valid and valuable. It simply means that you cannot trust experience alone as a guide for life.

Andrew Young

Associate Principal (South Island)