The following is the substance of a recent conversation with a young man in deep concern about his soul. He introduced himself by saying,
“I would like to speak to you by yourself. I am very anxious, very unhappy, cannot rest. I cannot see my way clear at all.”
“Well, what a mercy! what a mercy it is to have the conscience touched about sin, and the heart in any measure turned to God! Can you believe that He is doing all this in love? Are you satisfied that God loves you notwithstanding all your sins?”
“That is what I want to feel, but I can’t feel it. I feel that I am a great sinner. You don’t know what I have been, but I can’t feel as if I would be forgiven.”
“Do you really believe that God regards you as a great sinner?”
“O, yes, indeed I do; I am sure of that.”
“But, now, tell me, how are you so sure of that?”
“Because I know it, I feel it. I have been a very great sinner.”
“But is there no other way that we may know it besides feeling it? Has not God told us in His Word that we are all sinners?”
“Yes, I know He has; and I would give the world to know that I am pardoned.”
“O, you need not speak about giving; God is not asking anything; neither is He seeking to condemn you because of your sins, but to turn your heart to Jesus. But, now, take the ground of faith as a sinner. You can only have to do with God now by faith. Know and believe that you are a sinner, not because you feel it, but because God says it. And then comes the important question, ‘What is God to me, a sinner?’ Now, don’t look within; look to Himself; hear His Word. What does it say?
“‘But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ Romans 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8). Can you receive the truth here so plainly stated, namely, that God is love to you a sinner?”
“The Word says it, and we should believe it; I know that.”
“But should not you believe it now? Will it be truer tomorrow? Does not God say He loves the sinner? and you say that’s what you are. Therefore He says plainly that He loves you.”
“That’s what I want to believe, but I can’t feel that He loves me; my sins seem so great.”
“Well, that’s true; but in place of looking at your sins, as you know them in yourself, look at them in the light of this verse, and you will see that it is by means of these that you know how much God loves you. It was your sins that drew forth this wondrous love, in the gift of Jesus. God loved us, Christ died for us, ‘while we were yet sinners,’ while we were black and vile as sin could make us. Righteousness judged the sins, and love saves the sinner, through the sufferings and death of the blessed Lord Jesus. O, wondrous, wondrous love! But mark, this is not all. Not only has God manifested His love in giving Jesus to die for you a sinner, but the same love has followed you in all your wanderings, and followed you to this room tonight, and now He has laid His hand of love upon you, and is drawing you to His beloved Son. O, yield your heart to the drawings of His love. Look up! only look to Jesus! Hear Him saying to you,
‘Look unto Me,... and be ye saved,’ and ‘Come unto Me,... and I will give you rest.’
“Be done, then, with your feelings and reasonings about yourself. Dwell on the love of God as it has been manifested in the death of Christ for you, and let your whole soul rest on the truth of that word,
“‘The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.’ (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)). The moment you take your place among the ‘us’ who believe, your sins are all cleansed away. The answer of Jesus to your every anxious look and earnest desire is, ‘Thy sins which were many are all forgiven. Go in peace’” (Luke 7:47-5047Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. 48And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. 49And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? 50And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace. (Luke 7:47‑50)).
“Well, I think I believe all that; I see it quite differently now. But I thought that I ought to feel it all in myself before I could believe it was true to me. I now see I must not look to myself, but only to Jesus.”
“Yes, my dear young man, the only sure way of keeping our eyes off ourselves, is to keep them fixed on Jesus.”
Before closing this paper we desire to say a plain word on the perplexing subject of “feeling.” We meet with it everywhere. The mistake into which so many fall is that of confounding the enjoyment of truth, when believed, with the mere feelings or impressions of their own minds. When persons say, “I can’t feel that God loves me, that Christ died for me, that my sins are forgiven,” we believe they simply mean, “I do not enjoy or feel the power of these blessed truths.” But how can these or any other truths be enjoyed, or their power felt, until they are believed? Faith never refers to self, but always to the Word of God. We meet with many who want to feel that they are believers, before they have believed the truth, and to feel that they are safe before they trust in Jesus.
Now, this is all confusion. The truth to be believed is outside of self; the enjoyment of it is within.