AND now, believing in the name of the Son of God, and simply resting on the faithful word, you can say, "My sins are forgiven. I have eternal life. I am saved." Praise the Lord! Even now there is joy over you in the presence of the angels. And no wonder! Saved from such a hell! Saved for such a glory! Not only forgiven, but made righteous, justified from all things!
God your Father! Christ yours! and the Comforter to dwell within you! For, having believed in Christ, you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit until the day of full redemption, when the Lord Jesus will come back again to take us to Himself, to be ever with Him and like Him, to see Him as He is, to behold His glory. Lift up your heart to Him in praise!
But remember the ground of all this. Our one resting-place is Christ-not our joy, or love, or inward feelings. Nothing connected with self can be a ground of peace with God. Jesus Christ Himself is our peace. And it is not frames or feelings that bring us the knowledge of peace-no, nor even the fruits of the Holy Spirit in us; but the testimony of the Holy Spirit to Christ. Sin was the cause of the enmity between us and God; the blood of Christ has put away sin, and so made peace. But it is easy to say, "Christ is my peace-I rest only on the word"-when the heart is filled with love, and joy, and praise. How will it be if your heart grow cold, and your joy have ebbed, and all seem dead within? Oh! beware of the wiles by which Satan will then try to make you doubt God. Will you listen to the Tempter, and begin to say within yourself, "I thought I was a Christian, I felt such peace, and love, and joy; I had such delight in the word and in prayer; but now I fear it was all a delusion. I was deceiving myself." Or will you then boldly stand by the word of God, and give the lie to every sinful doubt? Oh! forget not that Christ, and not self, is the ground of peace. Self may change, but Christ never; feelings may fluctuate, but the faithful Word is still the same.
Our "old man," that is, the nature we have received from Adam by natural descent, is "corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;" and think not that it has been changed in your conversion. It will remain with you unchanged, lusting against the spirit, and contrary to the spirit, till you lay down the body in death, or until the Lord come. (Eph. 4:2222That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; (Ephesians 4:22); Gal. 5:1717For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. (Galatians 5:17)) But God tells you that He has searched to its depths the filthy source of all your sins, and knowing all, He has loved you and saved you. You, however, are ignorant of the extent of your sinfulness; and, as day by day you make fresh discoveries of it, Satan will try to stumble you.
God points you to the cross as the ground of peace with regard to all; for there, not only has condemnation passed upon your sins, but God has dealt in judgment with yourself as a child of Adam, and all your responsibilities have been met, and every claim against you satisfied in death. God has gone into the whole question of the sin of your very nature, the polluted source of every transgression, and He has once and forever settled it.
Be sure that Satan will struggle hard to gain this point against you; but cling to the truth of God" Christ for me, my peace." And if he fail to raise within you a fear of condemnation, he will try a yet more subtle device, and point to your sin as a proof that you are not fit for heaven, not holy enough to meet God; and thus set you to spin out for yourself a kind of spurious holiness, without either power to enable you to be holy, or blessing in the attempt.
When such temptations and assaults of Satan come upon you, remember the one solid, unchanging ground of confidence, "He is our peace"-"having made peace by the blood of his cross." What shall we say then to these things? "If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom. 8:31-3931What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 34Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31‑39).)