READER, have you accepted the Lord Jesus as your all-sufficient Savior? I ask not whether you are religious, attend a place of worship, and so on; no, for well I know that there may be all this without a particle of affection for the glorified Savior at God’s right hand. Again, I repeat my question, have you accepted―fully and simply―Christ Jesus as your Savior? If so, if you can say from your inmost heart, “have taken Him in all His preciousness as my very own Savior as presented to me by God, and my conscience enjoys perfect rest through His finished work,” then you have a prize, as well as being yourself the prize of Him who stooped in infinite love―”gave Himself,” as the Scripture says―to die for wretched rebels.
Well, then, I desire to show a little of what belongs to you as a saved one, a believer on the Son of God.
1. It is certain from the Scripture that the Lord Jesus took all your sins upon Him on the Cross, and received at the hands of a Holy God all the punishment they justly deserved. God, as it were, with His searching eye saw all your sins―not those committed previous to conversion merely, but the sins of your whole lifetime―and laid them upon His well-beloved Son, who put Himself willingly under the consequences of them, and who in bearing them away forever, infinitely glorified God, and as a consequence is now in the Glory of God. What a joy, then, to know that God cannot impute a single sin to one of His own, and the result of that precious work is to give a cleansed conscience to every simple believer. Once purged he has no more conscience of sins, but is forever perfected by the one offering of Jesus Christ. (Read Heb. 10.)
2. Through faith in the Son of God you have eternal life―the life of the Glorified One on the Throne above ― Himself your life. (Col. 3:44When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4).) This life is to be seen here below in the Christian. It cannot mingle with the world, for it belongs to another scene. Christ gives it (John 10:2828And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:28)), is it (Col. 3:44When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4)), feeds it (John 6:5757As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. (John 6:57)), and is the object of it (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)). “To me, to live is Christ,” says Paul.
3. At the Cross of Christ, where your sins were put away, God condemned that evil nature, “sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:33For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (Romans 8:3)), that you still feel within you rising up betimes, and seeking again to get possession of the reins and drive you about at its pleasure, having the government of your body as in times past. But having the new man you now love that which is good, and hate that which is evil. But perhaps you have been sadly troubled on account of experiencing so much evil still within. Let me say that conversion has not improved the flesh, or the presence of a new nature set aside the old. “But am I never to lose the sense of sin?” you say. Never while in the body. Try as much as you please, faith and experience never will run together here; but when the Lord comes, and we get our new bodies, then there will be perfect harmony between them. Yet, nevertheless, it is not at all necessary that you should be under the dominion of sin, but to be free from it (when I say free from it I do not mean free from feeling it) you must simply reckon yourself to have died at the Cross of Christ, that Christ’s death there was death to sin, so in His death you have likewise died to sin. (Read Rom. 6, 7.). God says that our old man has been crucified with Christ, and as He sees us dead to sin, so He desires that we should reckon ourselves to be as He sees us. This gives liberty and settled peace before God. Our history, then, as children of Adam has been closed at the Cross.
Further, that same Cross which is the end of our sins and of ourselves, is likewise the ground of our separation from this evil world, for by it “The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” (Gal. 6:1414But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. (Galatians 6:14).) May we then keep ourselves apart from the follies, fashions, and ways of this present world.
4. But the believer is also risen and seated in Christ in heavenly places. (See Eph. 2:66And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: (Ephesians 2:6).) These are present blessings, and to be enjoyed now, as true of the babe in Christ as of the father in Christ. Our blessings are heavenly, not earthly; bear this in mind, for ignorance or forgetfulness of this leads many who belong to the Lord to seek the earth and its good things, and thus practically to deny that they belong to heaven. (See Phil. 3:19, 2019Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) 20For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: (Philippians 3:19‑20).)
5. Union to Christ, the Man in glory, is a blessing all believers have now, though known but little and enjoyed by few, but when known makes us conversant with the things of heaven, and draws our heart and affections from things here to Himself above. (See 1. Cor. 6:17.)
6. This union is effected by the Holy Ghost, who also makes the body of each believer His temple (see 1 Cor. 6:1919What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19)); and being in us, is the power of our worship, service, and testimony; sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts (Rom. 5:55And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Romans 5:5)), being also the power by which the flesh is kept under, and Christ manifested. How important, then, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. But He is very sensitive, and can easily be grieved, even by a thought, a word, or a look (see Eph. 4:3030And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30)), and, as a consequence, we lose our joy and communion with God; but for our comfort let us remember that He can never leave us, for though David could and did pray, “Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me,” it was at a time when He had not come to take up His abode upon the earth (see John 7:3939(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) (John 7:39)), but merely came and went again; so David’s prayer was quite consistent with that time, but entirely inconsistent now, for the Son of God has said (John 14:1616And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; (John 14:16)), “He shall abide with you forever.”
But, further, the same Spirit has baptized all in whom He dwells into one body; so we are not now individual believers merely, as in other dispensations, but members one of another, and of that body of which Christ in glory is the Head (see Acts 9:55And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. (Acts 9:5); 1 Cor. 12:1313For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13)). May we walk in the practical recognition of this blessed truth.
This event is drawing near: evil is making rapid progress, but for us our Lord is coming first before He deals with the evil; and He is now patiently waiting at the right hand of God for that moment of deepest joy and interest both to Himself and us, when He shall descend into the air, and with a shout awaken His saints now sleeping in their graves, (and whose spirits have waited on high with Him, see Phil. 1:2323For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: (Philippians 1:23); 2 Cor. 5:88We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8)), and that same voice which will vitalize the dust of His sleeping ones, every particle of which has been watched over by Him through successive ages, will also change the vile bodies of His living ones, transforming them in a moment into glorious conformity with Himself (see Phil. 3:20, 2120For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: 21Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philippians 3:20‑21)), for God has predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son (see Rom. 8:2929For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:29)), who became a man that He might by death and resurrection have the joy of having us with and like Himself throughout eternity’s ages. (See Heb. 2:10-1510For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. 13And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me. 14Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:10‑15); John 17:2424Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24); 1 John 3:22Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2).)
Oh, the riches of the grace and glory of our God! May it be our aim to glorify Christ here below, getting more acquainted with His mind and will, walking in His steps, and awaiting patiently His coming which draweth nigh.
Unsaved reader, one word with you ere I close. You are missing joys and blessings incomparably superior to any of earth ― What have you? This passing world, a grave, a judgment, and then an eternity of woe unutterable. Terrible prospect! Stop, then, and consider; own thyself lost ― wholly lost-and accept the Savior provided by God for sinners, and you will then have what time, nor death, nor the grave can ever rob you of. Grace will be thy portion now, and glory thine in the future, for “He giveth grace and glory.”
“O Blessed Savior, Son of God!
Who halt redeem’d us with Thy blood
From guilt, and death, and shame;
With joy and praise, Thy people see
The crown of glory worn by Thee,
And worthy Thee proclaim.”