ONLY yesterday I visited an old woman in her eighty-ninth year. Though she had been in bed for months, yet her cheeks were rosy, and there was a buoyancy of spirits and a merry twinkle in her eyes, which even old age and weakness could not quite subdue.
She is trusting the Lord as her Savior, and in years long fled she committed to memory countless passages of scripture, which are now a stay and comfort to her. But, spite of all this, she is not clear as to her salvation.
She declares that it is the Lord who will save her if she keeps faithful to the promises.
I spoke to her like this: "Mrs. C—, if I promised you a five pound note, would you be sure of it, if you kept faithful to the promise?”
This seemed to puzzle her, so I proceeded, “How could you be faithful to a promise you had never made? Impossible! But if I, who made the promise, was faithful to my promise you would get the five pound note. You see that would depend upon my faithfulness, not yours.
"Now," I said, “who made you the promises?
Her eyes lighted up, and she said earnestly and deliberately, "A faithful, covenant-keeping God.”
“And who,'' replied I," will be faithful to these promises?”
“A faithful, covenant-keeping God," she again responded.
“Is there any doubt of His faithfulness?”
“Oh no," she answered.
Then it is not you who have to be faithful to the promises, but the One who made the promises— EVEN GOD HIMSELF.
“If that be so, then the promises are AS SURE AS IF THEY HAD BEEN ALREADY FULFILLED.”
What a happy climax to reach! Grace is pure grace. Centuries ago the first covenant that was given to Israel partly depended upon Jehovah's faithfulness and partly upon the people's; and because it partly depended upon the people's it altogether failed, so that the Apostle could say, "The commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death." (Rom. 7:1010And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. (Romans 7:10)).
But the new covenant depends altogether upon God's faithfulness, and therefore is altogether to be depended upon.
The Apostle Peter writes of "exceeding great and precious promises." (2 Peter 1:4.)
The Apostle John writes, "This is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life." (1 John 2:2525And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. (1 John 2:25).)
The Apostle Paul writes of the blessing of believers: "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure." (Rom. 4:16.)
If the simplest believer on the Lord Jesus takes in the thought of God's pure grace and faithfulness to His own word, he or she will be delivered from all doubt as to the future. We are entitled to be as sure of reaching glory as that our Savior, our great High Priest, is there already for us in virtue of His finished work, and able to save to the very uttermost all those who come to God by Him.
Of course, there are many things that are ours already, and do not come under the head of promises. The forgiveness of my sins is not promised to me when I get to heaven, but is mine the moment I believe on the Lord Jesus. So with salvation, although there is an aspect of salvation that is future. But the moment I believe on the Lord Jesus I am saved from God's righteous judgment against me for my sins; I am saved from hell, and the future is divinely assured. So with justification. That is mine also.
But the promise of being with Christ and like Him forever, the promise of eternal life, the promise of a glorified body, the promise of being in the Father's house, these are as sure as those things that are mine already. May we enjoy our present blessing and future prospects A. J. P.