Yes, reader, whosoever thou art, if thou art yet “neglecting so great salvation,” be assured no other proof will be required of thy unbelief. Thy contempt of the Savior is sufficiently evinced in thy neglect of His salvation. And oh, remember that this is the great, the crowning sin, for which, especially, if you persist in it, condemnation, hopeless, eternal condemnation, is sure to overtake you. Nay, you are now under condemnation. “He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Other sins you are guilty of; sins more in number than the hairs of your head: and if you live and die in unbelief, these too you will have to answer for; the punishment of these you will have to bear forever: but the great, the awful sin of all, is that of which you think the least — the sin of disbelieving God’s testimony to his Son, and of slighting the mercy proclaimed to you in the gospel. All your other sins, yea, and your past unbelief as well, would be forgiven this moment, if at this moment your heart were but opened to believe God’s testimony concerning Jesus. But unbelief, persisted in to the end, binds upon you with chains of adamant, the whole burden of the guilt of all your other sins, besides aggravating, by its own weight, that burden ten thousand-fold! Ο that you might be really convinced of sin because you believe not in Jesus! Convinced in your conscience — so as really to wake up and inquire, What is this testimony I have despised? Who is this Jesus of whom God speaks to me in His word? God grant that your souls may be aroused to these inquiries. And may you find them so met by God’s testimony in His word — His word brought home with power to your consciences, and your hearts — that you may at once believe in Jesus, and be saved.
There may be those, however, who, in view of the question we have been considering, would anxiously say, “I do indeed believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He died for our sins, and that God raised Him from the dead; but I wish to know my personal interest in Him: I wish to know that I am one, to whom the benefits of His death and resurrection are applied.” Dear reader, whoever you may be, will you ponder this question — how do you know — what proof have you — that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He died and rose again? “The word of God, to be sure,” is your instant reply. “It is God’s word which assures me of these facts.” Is this your real and only reason, for believing these blessed facts? Then you have the same word to assure you, and the same reason for believing, that you are a saved person. “By him all who believe ARE justified from all things.” He who believes the facts on the authority of God’s testimony to them in His word, is the one who has a personal interest in the benefits of them, and he knows this by the same word which assures him of the facts themselves.