"Ain't It Nice"

 •  5 min. read  •  grade level: 6
 
A mechanic and his wife had taken a poor sick woman into their home, who had been turned out of house and home, because of her inability to pay rent. I entered the sick room and found lying upon the bed a woman past middle life, far gone with a terrible disease that was literally eating her life away. She was wan and thin; her face was marred with pain and plowed into deep furrows with suffering. At the time, she was moaning with agony; so that for a while I could not speak to her, but taking her thin hand in mine, I sat by the bedside and waited awhile till she turned her face toward me.
"My dear friend, I am sorry to see you so sick and suffering so much.”
"Yes," said she, "I am sick, and I am suffering more than I can tell you. O, the pain is so great, but it won't be for long, I think.”
"And are you at peace with God?" I asked.
With this, a look of darkness and mental distress worked its way into the face of pain, and turning her distressed eyes away from mine, she said in a despairing kind of way, "No, no, I have not as yet made my peace with God, and I am too sick to do it now; I am in such pain that I cannot even think of it for long at a time. O no, I have not made my peace with God.”
Then in a few detached sentences, she betrayed the false teaching she had received upon the whole subject of salvation, by grace, through faith; all of which was so mingled with despair, that my heart was greatly moved.
I waited till she was done, and then said kindly, and softly to her, "I have some good news to tell you.”
"Good news for me," she said, "there can scarcely be any good news for such as me; but, what is it?”
"Why, that you have no need to try and make your peace with God." Upon this, she turned with a quick eager glance toward me, and said, "What is that you say, sir? And what do you mean by saying that I do not have to make my peace with God?”
"I mean this, peace with God has been made by another, and I have come to tell you about it. And first, let me say, you are quite right in saying that you are too sick to try and make your peace with God; and even if you were ever so well, you could not yourself make peace with a justly offended God. But God Himself, has, through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son, opened up a way by which you can obtain peace with Him. Jesus Christ is our peace; and He came into the world to be a propitiation for our sins and iniquities, but is now entered into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
And then as simply as I could, I went on to explain to her God's plan of salvation; how that Jesus had come into the world to save sinners; and that God made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, and how that God laid upon Him the iniquity of us all; how that He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities, and how that the chastisement of our peace was laid upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. And again how He bore our sins in His own body on the tree; and how that He died, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, and many other like precious truths.
And then opening my Bible, I read to her from Col. 1:20, that Christ had made peace for us by the blood of His cross; and from Eph. 2:14, that Christ is our peace; and from vs. 17, that He came and preached peace to us, who were far off, and that we therefore have no need to take it upon ourselves to try and make peace by our works, or our walk, our penitence, our prayers, or penances; but that Christ having made peace for us, once for all, by the sacrifice of himself on the cross—He now declares it to us, and is now offering it to us freely—on the simple condition of our accepting it in the simplicity of faith. And so I said to her: "Do you not now see what God in Christ has done for you? and that He now can, as it were, say to you, "You, poor helpless sinner, you have no need to try and make your peace with God, only believe in what has been done for you, and rest contended there.”
During all this reading and explaining, she had regarded me most intently and eagerly; and indeed so great was her interest that she had raised herself partly on her elbows, resting her forehead on her hand. And when I had finished and was waiting a moment to see the effect the "Word" was having upon her, she said, with great eagerness, "O, sir, would you read again to me about the peace?”
So I read the passages again to her, and again sought to show her how that the Lord Jesus had undertaken her cause for her, and how completely He had made peace for her; and how utterly useless and unnecessary anything would be that we might attempt to do to this end.
Her eyes closed with my last words; the tears trickled into, and down the deep furrows of her pain-worn face; a sweet restful smile came about her lips, and laying herself down, she said again, and again, "Ain't it nice! O, ain't it nice, that the Son of God should come into this world, and die, to make peace for one like me? Ain't it nice? O, ain't it nice?”
I arose softly, and left her with a new found Savior and peace.
As I went away from that house, my own eyes were full of tears; but my heart was full of joy and peace; and I was saying to myself as I have hundreds of times since, "Ain't it nice? O, ain't it nice? that the Son of God should come into the world and die to make peace for one like me, simple and unworthy me! Ain't it nice?”