ONE day I saw a little girl twelve years old, lying in bed in a hospital. I asked her, “Do you love the Lord Jesus?”
“No,” she replied, “but I want to, very much.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because I am a sinner. I have tried to be good, but I do want to come to Him and to love Him.”
“Now, Emily,” I replied, “I want you to think carefully of these two verses, ‘God hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all,’ and, ‘His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree’. Now, if God laid your sins on the Lord Jesus, and He bore them, where are they?”
“Well,” she said slowly, “if God put them on Jesus, and He bore them, I can’t bear them too.”
“That’s just it. The Lord Jesus bore the punishment for your sins on the cross, instead of you.”
“Then I do trust Him now, and I will try to be good.”
“I am glad you have trusted Him, Emily, but don’t think that you must try to be good so that Jesus will love and save you. He loved and died for you long ago, and now that you have trusted Him it is quite right to try to please Him, because you now belong to Him.”
I believe little Emily, then and there in her hospital bed, really put her trust in the Lord Jesus, her Saviour; and to you I would say: Come to Him with all your sins for He will save you. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” John 3:3636He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36).
Messages of the Love of God 12/5/1948