"All Gone, or Gone Where?"

IT was but this afternoon that I had a conversation with a young man about God. He admitted that man in his natural state is unfit for God, and therefore that some change is absolutely necessary before he can ever hope to enter God’s presence. But on asking the conditions under which God could come out to man, so as to fit him for His presence, I discovered that he was ensnared in the darkness of philosophy. His idea was that man by his own efforts must elevate himself to a degree of excellence sufficient to meet the demands of God. This degree of excellence was to be attained by the light of science and philosophy. Such is the delusion of Satan!
After much talk I left him with the words―
“All the fitness God requireth
Is to feel our need of Him.
If he had known his helpless condition his tale would have been different. He would not have spoken about fitting himself for God. The jailor in his agony of despair cried out, “What must I do to be saved?” and such is ever the cry of the one who has come to himself.
Have you come to yourself, reader? On this depends your suitability for God, because Christ came to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance (Matt. 9:1313But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (Matthew 9:13)).
Quite recently I met one who had come to herself. After preaching the gospel I spoke to her as she was about to leave the room. She was in darkness, but as I anticipated, was anxious to know her sins forgiven.
Thank God, no one has ever been turned away by Him. Christ came into this scene as a lowly Man to lay a basis in His death whereby God could righteously come out and forgive the sins of the vilest.
I therefore directed her gaze to the glorified Man at the right hand of God (Heb. 2:99But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. (Hebrews 2:9)), but like many another anxious yet real soul she could not understand how God could save her. Her eye was turned inward to find internal evidence that her sins were forgiven, but God always directs the eye outward to Christ in glory.
After reading many scriptures we turned to Romans 10:9,9That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9) where we read, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
On the latter part of this verse we conversed as follows: ―
“Did Christ bear your sins when He hung upon the cross?”
“Yes, I can truly say that He did, because God says so in His Word” (1 Peter 2:2424Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24)).
“And what became of Christ afterward?”
“He was, of course, laid in the tomb.”
“Did He take your sins with Him there?”
“Yes, He must have done so.”
“Now then, the scripture we have just read tells us that God hath raised Him from the dead. So tell me what became of your sins?”
With joy and much to my surprise, she exclaimed in a tone of mingled satisfaction and delight, “Why, they are all gone.”
Yes, I found that she had undoubtedly received light from God, demonstrating to her that Christ had settled the question of her sins, not only to her joy, but to God’s satisfaction. She was justified through Christ (Rom. 3:2424Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (Romans 3:24)), who was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification (Rom. 4:2525Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25)).
What a joy it is to know that one’s sins are forgiven! Have you ever thought of your sins, reader? Some day you will have them in remembrance; if not now, while it is yet the day of God’s grace, then most surely in the day that is fast approaching. There is no forgiveness beyond the grave. If you die in your sins, you will live to be haunted with them forever in outer darkness. Just turn to Jesus where you are, and as you are, and He will forgive you freely and fully. “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
Let me narrate to you another instance. A few weeks after the above conversation took place, I met another young person who was in a somewhat similar state of soul.
Trying to do her best, she hoped that she belonged to the Lord, but she did not know her sins forgiven. I related to her the story as I have penned it above. While endeavoring to show her that her sins were gone if she trusted in Christ, she answered, “But where are they gone to?”
This question was easily answered by a simple illustration. Suppose a man to be condemned to a period of imprisonment for breaking the law of the State. After serving out his sentence he is once again at liberty. The officers of the law have now no power to seize him. He is as free as if he had never committed the crime, inasmuch as he is free from being condemned again on account of it.
Now God has dealt likewise with the sins of the believer in Christ. The sinner is incapable of bearing the judgment of God, but Christ has suffered in his stead (1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18)). He has borne the full penalty instead of us. We are free. Our sins and iniquities will be remembered no more (Heb. 8:1212For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 8:12)).
This was enough. She saw that what she was attempting to do Christ had done.
What about your sins, dear reader? Are they forgiven or unforgiven? Perhaps they have never caused you one anxious thought. If so, Satan has been successful in deceiving you.
The present day is an age of moral darkness, and how often, alas, Satan succeeds in blinding the minds of those that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them (2 Cor. 4:44In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:4)). Infidelity, philosophy, and science are occupying men’s minds, and the light of God is refused.
Oh, beware lest that come upon you which was spoken aforetime (Acts 13:40,4140Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets; 41Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you. (Acts 13:40‑41)).
Flee to Christ, and in Him know your sins forgiven. Reject no longer; procrastinate no more; today believe, and thou shalt be saved.
J.T. C.