There are few Scriptures which contain more peaceful testimony for anxious, troubled souls, than the above; they present the very truth that is calculated to meet the difficulties which are treasured up in the poor burdened heart, and they tell of a liberty and a peace which nothing but possession of, and occupation with the Son of God can give.
Nothing can be more distinct than this fact, that God has placed the evidence of a sinner’s acceptance outside himself. Nothing we can either say, do, or feel, is any ground upon which we can rest our souls: what an unspeakable comfort that it is so. For, think for a moment; this day, all might be favorable and bright about me; happy frames, sweet experience and the like; but tomorrow all is as dark as yesterday was bright; coldness and deadness within me, and all that I prized so much has vanished in a night. What a state of destitution and wretchedness mu I plunged into all in a moment! It seems to me that such a state resembles very nearly that of the man who formed his judgment of the sun, by looking at it in a pool of water, ever and anon was the surface of the storm swept by angry winds, and to him did the sun appear as often to move as to stand still; but when he learned no longer to use as his medium, a muddy tempest-tossed water, then did he discover that that sun was ever the same,steadfast and fixed. So is it ever, Dear Reader, in the question of salvation, evidence of it rests not in me or with me, but outside of me. I mean by this, it is not what I think, or feel, or do, it is what God has done and says: firmer ground or safer foundation God could not give us than His own Word—nothing can change that, neither time, circumstances, nor events. With this I meet the fury and rage of Satan, with this I silence every rising and murmur of my heart.
Let us then look at these testimonies a little. First then the Holy Ghost says, “God has given to us eternal life:”—what a sentence that! it begins with the Giver and closes with the gift; “God HATH given”—here then you have God’s own witness, record, testimony; but more than that, is not what He gives worthy of the name of the Giver? “eternal life!” Dear Reader, do you know what eternal life is I have you got it? Eternal life, is nothing less than the very life of the One who took our place in grace, bore the wrath, and rose again from the dead—His death has ended your—history, your life before God, the Lord Jesus Christ is the “last Adam,” as well as the “second man” the Lord from Heaven, (1 Cor. 15) you remember His own blessed testimony in John 3, “the Son of man must be lifted up.” There was a necessity on the side of God, as well as on the side of man. Man—God’s creatur—had set up a will of his own in opposition to God and in consequence had forfeited the condition in which God had placed Him. The judgment was, “in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” and God drove him out of His presence— “so he drove out the man.” The love of God undertakes to remove in righteousness this distance, and alienation from God—and God gives His only, and well beloved Son, who Himself came into the world where all was against God—manifested the secrets of that heart in which He shared, “ the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father”—and finally as “the Lamb of God,” bears the wrath of God—gives up His own spotless and blessed life, for the life that was forfeited and under judgment—He dies—is buried; the love of God has in His cross taken out of the way in righteousness all that hindered its outflow; but He rises again on the third day; “the glory of the Father” raises Him from the dead; and He is now the author of eternal life to all that believe. It is not man set up in his old life, and his debts all cleared away; nor man set up in innocence as Adam before he fell; but the believer united by the Holy Ghost to Christ risen from the dead and in glory, the recipient of all that finds expression in the words “God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son.” To recapitulate a little then, on this first head we have God’s testimony, or record of Himself, His Son, his gift. As to Himself, He is the giver—the blessed giver— “God hath given.” As to His Son, all that God gives is in Him; and as to His gift, it is eternal life.
Now the second testimony or record of God is contained in ver. 12; “He that hath the Son hath life”—and we might place alongside of them those blessed words of the Lord Jesus Himself in John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24), “verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life”—so here the record is that faith in Christ, receives God’s gift; the word is “hath,” a present thing. Faith never raises a question about me, for faith knowing that God hath set me aside altogether in the death of His Son; it does not want to revive that which is dead, that of which to be rid is an unspeakable relief. Faith hears Christ’s word, believes the Father who sent His Son, possesses Christ, and has everlasting life. This is God’s testimony. Do you not see how the eye of the soul is turned out in faith on Christ, not in on oneself? and do you not see that it is the person of the Christ, the blessed Son of God, that is the object, not His work merely, but Himself? Is this to make little of His work? far be it; it is the one who makes most of His person knows how to value His work. God says then “this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son, He that hath the Son hath life”—Have you the Son? W. T. T.