WHILST visiting one day in a large town, where the Lard was saving many souls, I happened to meet a young person who for five months had been in a state of the deepest anxiety.
Many had spoken to her about her soul’s difficulties. She had attended meetings to hear the gospel preached, but still she remained unhappy. At times it seemed as if her mind would give way under the severe mental strain. Seeing me approach the door of her house, she invited me in. I had just come from visiting one who was also in deep distress about her soul’s salvation, and in the course of our conversation happened to mention this.
“Oh, indeed sir, I can sympathize with anyone like that,” she observed, “for I have been for five months―since my last illness―in a similar state. Oh, if I could only know that I am saved it would be all right!”
“And so you may be, at once,” I answered; “for Christ has died and risen, and God offers salvation freely to all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you expect to be saved?” I asked. “Is it by doing good works, by praying, or by getting better?”
“No,” she said, “I cannot get better, and my works would never save me.”
“Then do you believe that God is willing to save you as you are, in your sins, helpless, vile, and ungodly?”
“Yes, I believe He is willing to save me just as I am;” and she went on to relate how God had been showing her what she was in His sight. She had been praised by her acquaintances for her natural talents, and had been proud of herself in some respects; but she was now convinced that in God’s sight she was only a poor, vile sinner, and that her “best state” was “altogether vanity.” (Psalms 39:55Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. (Psalm 39:5).)
“Well,” I said, if you know yourself to be lost and vile, and that God is willing to save you while in that condition, what is there to hinder you believing the gospel, and being saved?”
“I don’t know,” she replied; “but I don’t feel saved, and I should be dreadfully afraid to meet God.”
“Tell me plainly now,” I continued,” What do you think your salvation depends upon?”
“I believe,” she replied, “that my salvation depends upon my acceptance of the work of Christ.”
This reply would to many believers have probably appeared quite sound; but it struck me the answer seemed to account for this dear woman’s deep distress.
“Ah,” I said, “no wonder then you have not peace, such being your idea.”
She seemed astonished, and I continued: No, your salvation does not depend upon your acceptance of the work of Christ, but upon your believing that GOD HAS ACCEPTED the work of Christ, as a full and complete satisfaction for all your sins from beginning to end.”
Her expression seemed suddenly to change, as though a flash of light from above had entered her soul, and she gazed at me enquiringly. I continued:
“Supposing you had got into debt, having run up a large account at a neighboring shop, and that you were pressed for a settlement, and were unable to pay, and that a, rich friend of yours offered to discharge the debt for you; to whom would he pay the money, to you, the debtor, or to the creditor pay the creditor?”
“To the creditor,” she replied.
“Yes,” I said, “it is the creditor that has to be satisfied, is it not?”
“Certainly.”
“And would not your peace of mind depend upon whether you believed that the creditor had accepted the money as a full settlement of your debt?”
“Yes,” she answered.
“Now tell me, do you believe that GOD, your creditor, has accepted the death of Christ as a full satisfaction for all your sins from beginning to end?”
“I firmly believe that,” she answered.
“And do you think He will ever cease to be satisfied therewith?”
“Never,” was the reply.
“Then God can never again raise any claim against you on account of your sins, Christ having suffered the penalty.”
“Never,” she again answered. “I see it all now so plainly. I never looked at it in that way before. I have been thinking whether I accepted Christ properly or not, whether I believed aright, whether I had the right faith, and so on. Sometimes I thought I might be saved, and then again I doubted it, and I could not get peace.”
“No wonder,” said I. “A peace that depends upon the estimate you form of Christ’s work, or upon your feelings about it, must always be a wretched one, changing as often as that on which it rests; but God always remembers the blood shed on Calvary, is always satisfied with it, always has the One who shed it before Him, and He refuses ever again to open a question which was eternally disposed of by the Lord Jesus on the cross.”
“Thank God,” she said, “for making it all so clear to me! How blind I was not to see it before!”
And thus the clouds were riven and the darkness dispelled for this deeply-tried and anxious one; for “being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 5:11Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1).)
What a comfort it is to know that God accepts the poor sinner who believes in Jesus, in all the value to Him of His precious blood, and in all the perfection of His adorable Person!
Believe in Him then at once, my reader, and trust God when He says, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”
J. C. T.