“HAVE you known the Lord many years?” we lately asked a well-known Christian lady. She replied, “If I know the Lord, I have known Him many years.” “Why do you say ‘if?’ Have you any doubt about your salvation?” “I hope I know Him,” she said; “and as to salvation, I hope I shall be saved; but, sir, ‘tis if I endure; for does not the Scripture say, that ‘he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved’?” We refer to this case because it is by no mean a singular one; and no marvel, when we hear of those whom we trust are servants of Christ preaching from this test to endeavor to persuade their hearers by it that no one can be quite sure of salvation, and that it is presumption to say that we are saved. It is really distressing to find so many whose ways and words make us hope that they are really born again of God’s Spirit, who are constantly doubting their security. They little think how greatly it dishonors Christ, and grieves the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption.
It is quite true that the Scripture does say, that “he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” (Matt. 24:1313But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. (Matthew 24:13); Mark 13:1313And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. (Mark 13:13).) But the question is, Who are the persons here spoken of? Certainly we are not; for we know that we have everlasting life, and shall never perish, that we have passed from death unto life, that Christ is our life; for we are in Him who is true. But the Lord is here putting forth a prophetic discourse. He is speaking of what will take place after the Church is gone, before Christ appears with us in manifested glory at the end of the age. The people here spoken of are godly Jews, who will be inspired with hopes concerning Messiah and the kingdom, who refuse to bow down to the beast and his image, at the time when this wicked one shall be putting to death all those who do not receive his mark in their right hands or in their foreheads. Then we can easily see it will be a question of endurance; for such as do endure this fiery persecution will be saved in the flesh, as Noah was. Such will be brought through the fiery persecution, as he was through the flood, and enjoy Messiah’s presence in the kingdom when He reigns before His ancients gloriously. When the Lord repeats the same statement in Matthew 10:2222And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. (Matthew 10:22), He evidently contemplates “the gospel of the kingdom” which He there commissions the twelve apostles to carry, as being resumed before the end when the Son of man cometh, which we now know will be taken up by the Jewish remnant after the Church is removed. The question then, I say, will be one of endurance. Now it is simply a question of being in Christ; for such have been quickened together, raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Instead, therefore, of looking forward to a questionable salvation at the end, we have eternal life at starting, we are born again of the Spirit, we have passed from death unto life, we are justified from all things, we shall not come into condemnation, we have died unto sin, we are alive unto God, through Christ Jesus, joined to the Lord, and already seated in Him in heavenly places, who is our life and righteousness, and who hath obtained eternal redemption for us. Nay more, we now know the heavens opened, the veil rent, that Jesus is ascended and gone in there by His own blood, time giving us title to enter now with boldness into God’s presence at all times. Instead, therefore, of its being a question of our faithfulness, or of our endurance, our hearts are taught by the Holy Ghost through the Scriptures to rest in God’s word God’s faithfulness, and the unchangeableness of Him who cannot lie, and who declares that Christ is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” (Heb. 7:2525Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25).) We therefore can glory in the Lord, and not in the flesh. Our joy is, that we are now brought into the result of an accomplished work of salvation, according to God’s eternal purpose and grave, and that nothing can change His perfect love to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. We can look up, therefore, and unfeignedly ring,
“Without one thought that’s good to plead,
O what could shield us from despair
But this, though we are vile indeed,
THE LORD OUR RIGHTOUSNESS IS THERE?”
Such, and much more, the gospel of the grace of God brings us; and this received into the heart is the source of all peace and rest of conscience, the ground of all worship and communion with the Father, and the spring also of devotedness and service to our Lord Jesus. If any fear whether such amazing love to such thoroughly unworthy ones would make them careless as to walk and testimony for the Lord, we would ask them, Have you tasted this goodness of God? have you revolved this unspeakable grace of God in Christ into your heart as eternal truth?
Dear reader, there is all the difference between the bare knowledge of the fact that Christ died for sinners, and receiving into your soul for your own blessing the marvelous grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ. To know Him crucified as God’s way of saving you, to hold firmly the blessed fact, that when nothing else could cave you, and none else cared to save you, that God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up freely to die the death of the cross, that whosoever―you or anyone else―believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life―I say, to grasp such a fact in the deep consciousness of your hell-deserving state, can it fail to move the affections? Can it do otherwise than win the heart? Is it capable of less than moving the bowels and affections, and making us long to be wholly consecrated to Him who so loved us, and gave Himself for us? Be assured, my reader, that those who have known and believed this gospel of the grace of God, find the Lord Jesus to be an untiring object of delight, an inexhaustible fullness of eternal riches, a ceaseless cause for wonder and praise, and they have a constant longing to know Him more perfectly, and serve Him more faithfully. So vast and boundless is the blessing God has given us in Christ Jesus, and through His blood, that the soul sometimes cries out,
“What in thy love possess I not?
My star by night, my sun by day,
My spring of life when parched with drought;
My wine to cheer, my bread to stay,
My strength, my shield, my safe abode,
My righteousness before my God.”
Dear reader, before you lay down this paper, do ask yourself the plain question, “Have I eternal life?” Do not say, “I hope I shall,” for almost every person intends to have it, and thus allows the mere intentions to deceive and cheat them out of the reality. The point is, Have you eternal life now? Are your sins forgiven? ARE YOU justified from all things? Why not? Because you have not believed God’s testimony to the work of eternal redemption, which Christ accomplished on the cross for every one that believeth? O that I could persuade you now to look up to Jesus at God’s right hand in glory, and take Him as your Saviour! Why not now? O do think most seriously of this, for eternal consequences regarding yourself hang upon it. No longer refuse this sinner-loving Saviour, who delighteth in mercy, who came into the world to save sinners, “he died for the ungodly, and though now alive again from the dead, and at God’s right hand in heaven, still saves sinners; still welcomes all who come to Him; still says, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
Reader, are you going on to judgment, to receive “WAGES” for your works? or will you now receive eternal life as God’s free “GIFT” through Jesus? Hearken to God’s truth: “The WAGES of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23).)