SOME time ago a converted officer, anxious to let others know of the blessing which had reached him, took a large sheet of paper, on which he wrote the word
Freely, FREELY, FREELY,
three times, and pinned it outside his tent door. When asked his reasons for doing so, he said, “That is how God saved me.” The way God saved that officer is the way He can save you.
The word “freely” means without any cause or reason on your part. In one place in the New Testament the word “freely” is translated without a cause. Please bear the meaning of this word in mind whilst we look at three places where the word “freely” is found.
In Revelation 22 it is connected with a free salvation. In Romans 3 with a free justification. In Hosea 13 with a free restoration.
The New Testament closes with the salvation of God compared to a fountain. On one side is written, “I will give.” On the other, “Let him take.” The very last message sent to this world is about this fountain.
The twenty-first of Revelation shows us what a wonderful and glorious place Jesus has in store for His people. The twenty-second chapter tells us that He wants you to share the joys of that white-robed throng and golden-streeted city. From His home in glory He sends you a direct personal message. It begins, “I, Jesus.”
Now let me impress upon you that you must not treat this message with impunity. It may reach you through the pages of The Gospel Messenger, but it comes from a glorious and gracious Saviour who desires your blessing. The King may send a message by a menial, but, if it is from the King, the message is the great thing, not the messenger.
This message from Jesus is the very last He has sent. There is always something touching about a last message. Do you remember the last message your dying mother sent you?
But perhaps you are saying, Are you sure the message is for me? Let us see. It is addressed in the first place to those who are athirst. This word describes an unsatisfied longing, a craving desire, a weariness of soul fainting for something to satisfy. Do you feel happy, truly at rest? every want of your spirit met? or are you craving for you know not what to give your soul satisfaction? If so, it means you. Revelation 21:6 says, “I will give to him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
“Ah,” someone says, “that does not describe me. I have often wished I had the longing I hear some people have, but my heart is as hard as a stone.” Listen, my friend, there is a message for you: “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” “Whosoever” must mean you, for it includes anybody and everybody, you among the number.
The water of life flows as freely for you as the man who is thirsty. All you have to do is to “take” what Jesus is giving. Do not raise difficulties as to the way you shall take the living water, or how you are to come, and what you are to bring. The message is to you. The fountain is free. It is a living fountain. You will get life with the first draft. It is a giving fountain. Its waters flow for those without money and without price.
There is a well-known watering-place with a fountain famed for its healing virtues. On one side of this fountain there is a beautiful metal drinking cup, a nice tessellated pavement, and everything to please the most fastidious taste, but the entrance is barred except to those who can pay. Picture to yourself a poor old man, worn and weary, who had walked a long distance to reach this fountain, gazing at the entrance which only opens to the magic touch of a silver key. He had heard the waters were free. He has nothing to pay. Do you not think he would be glad to hear that there was another side to that fountain, a side for the very poorest. He discovers there is another road, a back way, up rather a dirty turning, but there is no barrier on that side, no entrance fee. It is the poor man’s side, but the same water, the same healing stream, flows from the one fountain. This is like God’s salvation for “whosoever will.”
If you have tried to get happiness, by what you can bring to God, and are still miserable, try another way. I admit it is a very humbling way but it is the way that every saint has traveled at one time or other. That road is named “Repentance toward God.” If you come as one of the “Whosoevers,” having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you too shall find that its healing waters flow freely for you, even you, and you need not go disappointed away, because you have neither merit nor good works to offer. For all such this free-flowing, life-giving fountain stands open. “I will give,” God says, and He will keep His word. “Let him take” is man’s responsibility. Mind you do not disregard the message, or you may find yourself where no drop of water shall ever cool your parched tongue.
Perhaps you feel that your guilt is too great a mountain. “God,” you say, “is holy. I am a wretched guilty sinner.” Let us then turn to Romans 3. There we find our word freely again. It is connected with the judgment of God upon the sin of which you are guilty. We are told elsewhere of a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness. That fountain is the blood of Jesus. That precious blood was shed to show how God could be just and yet justify the guilty sinner. God has not lightly passed over your sins. He has righteously dealt out the full measure of judgment due to them on the head of the only Man who never had any sins of His own. He has found a way of justifying freely through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. The Son of His love was both willing and able to endure the judgment. The sinless One has been made sin. The only One who had a title to live has died, has shed His life blood for those who deserved death and judgment.
It may be, however, you are one of the most miserable class to be found in this world, perhaps you are a backslider. Once you enjoyed God’s love, now you are wretched. There is a special message for you—another “freely” just suited to your case. You will find it in Hosea 14:4: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely.” These words should be written in letters of gold: they are addressed to a backslider like yourself. Let us look at the eleventh chapter of Hosea as a proof of this. There God says, “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.” God taught them, healed them, drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love, liberated them from their slavery, and fed them with His gracious hand.
Do you not recollect when this was true of you, but alas, like Israel of old, you have hewed out broken cisterns which can hold no water, and turned from the living fountain. What is God’s message to you—you who have fallen by your iniquity? It is this: “Take with you words, and turn to the Lord.” That means, tell Him all about it. Tell Him the root of your departure. Tell Him the steps of your downward course. Do not say, He knows all about it. He does. Still He says, “Take with you words.” Confess the truth.
Jesus has died for such as you, and God is faithful and just to Him to forgive. “I will love them freely.” You say, “Is that true of a poor wretched back-slider?” Thank God, it is. The salvation that reached you at first is a free salvation, the justification that is yours by the grace of God is a free justification, and now a free restoration awaits you. If you doubt it, go straight to God. Tell Him the truth, the whole truth, and you too shall discover that the love that met you is the love that is ready to meet you again, for He has said to the back-sliders, “I will love them freely.”
H. N.