READER, ―Do you know that you are known? There is One you could not enlighten as to the thoughts and acts of your whole life. In the secret depths of its hidden springs and motives, it lies naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Will you carefully weigh this fact? It only needs to be realized in order to arrest and arouse you, as to how YOU stand in relation to God. A merchant was once thus awakened, and he owned to the writer that “it was a deep delusion for any man to think that he was not perfectly known by God, because God knew all about him.”
“O Lord, thou halt searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me..., Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee” (Ps. 139:1-5, 12).
When you get into the knowledge of this solemn truth, the first sense in your soul is the feeling of fear; but God would not be God, if He did not fully know us, and this feeling of fear is the just consequence in view of His holiness.
For the Word of God clearly shows that “there is none righteous, no, not one.” We are inclined either to shirk this searching and sweeping statement, or practically deny it; but it is of supreme importance to face the truth, which He who knows us testifies of us, so I ask you to ponder deeply the following weighty statements from the Word of God: ―
“There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3:10-1810As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17And the way of peace have they not known: 18There is no fear of God before their eyes. (Romans 3:10‑18)).
Having now beheld your character in the light of the holiness of God, it is a matter of the deepest concern to understand the groundwork of peace with God as made known in Scripture.
In Romans 3:2525Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (Romans 3:25) we read: “Whom (Christ Jesus) God has set forth a propitiation through faith in his blood.” Observe the expression “through faith in His blood.” The blood is the witness that the life has been surrendered, or given up. It is here represented as the basis of righteousness of God in acting in grace towards the sinner. God Himself has laid a righteous ground on which He can meet your sinful condition in perfect consistency with His holiness. The Holy One could not bless you and pass by sins. But this He can do through the judgment of sin in the cross of Christ, having there secured the harmonious repose of all His attributes. Thus, the cross clearly and conclusively shows that God did not compromise one of His attributes in order to redeem and bless man.
I beseech you, therefore, reader, in view of the discovery of your true condition, in the presence of a Holy God, to meditate on the wondrous fact of the death of Jesus Christ. He, in love, took upon Himself the judgment which was wholly due to you―the judgment of God on the cross. What a truth! He, who knew no sin, God made Him sin for us, and He―Jesus―bore our sins in His own body on the tree. Thus God, who was the offended One, has, in matchless grace, and at infinite cost, brought salvation, full and free, to you, sinner. But you get the good of it, not by works of righteousness, nor merit of any kind, but alone by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ―risen and seated at the right hand of God, a Saviour for all, therefore for YOU.
READER, DO YOU BELIEVE IN HIM?
“In Christ I now learn that I’m made
Partaker with saints in the light;
Perfection divine
In Him is made mine,
Who dwells in the glory so bright.”
J. M’D.