IT is a common practice with drawing students, when they first commence to learn, to draw exactly the opposite way to what they should. The writer well remembers as a boy the raps on the knuckles he got from the drawing-master’s pencil for commencing to draw a house from the roof downwards, and being asked sharply how he was going to support the chimneys, &c. As all should know, the right way is to begin with the foundation—to draw the house from the ground to the roof, in the same order that a builder would erect it.
We may often gather a useful lesson from a simple illustration, and if troubled souls who may read these lines once get clearly hold of the truth that we would convey by the above, that which we are writing will not be in vain.
Many souls are just like the drawing students. They have a certain end before them, but are working just the wrong way to attain it; that is, they are seeking to put the roof on before the foundation is in its place. The way of salvation is presented in divine order in God’s word. Hundreds are saying, “If I could only leave off sinning, and feel different, and be happy, &c., should believe I was saved.” Exactly. If you could get the roof into order you would be clear about the foundation! Now God’s way is just the reverse. In order to leave off sinning, to feel different, and to be happy, I must first be saved, and to be saved I must believe.
Well, if you are troubled and exercised about the matter, that is a good sign. If truly genuine, it is a sure evidence of a work of the Spirit of God in the soul. To be burdened and heavy-laden on account of sin is not natural. The worldly and careless are not troubled about it. But the Lord’s own word to the burdened soul is, “Come unto Me.” (Matt. 11:2828Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)). This is getting the foundation in order. Christ is the Saviour. There is no rest for the soul, no power to leave off sinning, and no happy feelings until we believe on Him.
The answer to “What must I do to be saved?” is, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” It is not, when you leave off this or that, and feel this, that, or the other you shall be saved. Assurance, the refusal of sin, happy feelings, power to live to God, follow salvation, but are in no way the ground of it. To refer to our figure, these things are all connected with the “roof.” Christ is the foundation, and all the rest is built on Him.
You may be the greatest sinner in the place where you dwell; but Christ died for sinners, and is risen and glorified. Hence when, as a poor burdened soul, in self-judgment before God, you believe on His blessed name, you are from that moment and forever saved. The word of God will give you the assurance of it, for He says so, and He cannot lie. To those who believe He gives the Holy Ghost, and there is our power.
Happy feelings are the result of this assurance known and enjoyed in the soul; and in the power of the Spirit you can henceforth live to God and refuse sin. This is God’s way. As long, therefore, as you go on vainly trying to build from the roof downwards, so to speak, you will be miserable. But the moment you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, making everything of Him, and resting in child-like faith upon His finished work, peace and assurance will be yours, and all the rest will follow.
Troubled reader, come down from the roof.
E. H. C.