So wrote the Apostle Paul to his beloved Thessalonians; and in these days, the question at the head of this paper has become the all-important one. We do not ask, “Have you heard the gospel?” To the vast majority, if not all, of those whose eyes scan these lines it is a superfluous enquire. We are persuaded, dear friends that you have heard it preached by many men, and in different ways, scores, aye, hundreds of times; but this is the very ground we now desire to occupy in asking you, “Where do you stand before God, as those who have so often heard the glad tidings of his grace to poor sinners?” Has the gospel come to you in word only, or also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. In other words, often as you have heard it, have you ever once received it in your inmost soul as God’s message of love and mercy for you and to you, as that which exactly suits you, a poor, helpless, needy, guilty sinner; and having believed it, are you enabled to say that you have everlasting life, that you are saved, that your sins have been forgiven, that you are made meet for heaven and have been brought to God?
Be not deceived, my reader. You may have been all that is moral, upright, amiable, and even religious, and yet never have received God’s salvation, You may be to this hour a Bible-reader, a church-goer, an almsgiver, even a regular communicant at the Lord’s table, and yet unsaved. After the door of mercy has been closed many will come and knock, saying, “Lord, Lord open unto us; we have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou had taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are, depart from me all ye workers of iniquity” (Luke 13:25-2725When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: 26Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. 27But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. (Luke 13:25‑27)). Alas! too many are putting their trust in things, which (right enough in their own place for those who have received Christ) are simply a blind and a delusion to them, for they are putting them in place of Christ.
But what are the glad tidings of God? Who are they for? How are they received? And what effect is produced by their reception?
In it God’s righteousness is revealed. The love of God, too, is fully told out. In a word, while in the law God was not made known, in the gospel all His heart is fully manifested. To the poor, needy sinner in his sins, conscious that he wants a title to heaven, and also the putting away of all his sins, it comes and gives both. It makes known how the sins are put far away, while the sinner is brought near; it delivers me from hell and fits me for heaven; it abolishes death and brings in life; it removes the fear of judgment, and causes me to rejoice in hope of glory; it breaks the chains of Satan’s slavery, and makes me the Lord’s free man; it turns me from doing my own will, and I become the slave of Jesus Christ; I am brought to God, made a child of God, an heir of God, join their with Christ; sealed and indwelt by the Holy Ghost, I am united to Christ; as He is, so am I in this world.
Tell me, my reader, is it not good news that brings me the possession of all this; and much more, when I am not deserving of anything but the endless flames of the lake of fire? Yea, for such alone is the glad tidings of the grace of God intended. The salvation of God is for the lost. Pardon for rebels; everlasting life for the death-deserving; heaven for the hell-deserving. Peace has been made for those who were enemies. Access to God provided for those who were far off. Only take your place as ruined, guilty, and undone, and every blessing is offered to you unconditionally. Nor need the sinner fear anything from the thought of God’s holiness and righteousness. The gospel fully meets every necessity. Yes, its very foundation stands on the righteousness of God. Wondrous thought! Grace reigns through righteousness. God is just, and yet the Justifier.
Do you ask, How has this been accomplished? Hearken to His own blessed word, which declares “How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-43For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: (1 Corinthians 15:3‑4)). “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)). “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18)).
“Who was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:2525Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25)). Thus does the Spirit of God bring before us the blessed work of, Christ in making, an atonement for sin by His death on the cross, and God’s acceptance of that work, and the expression of His delight in it, proved by His raising His Son from the dead! And the blessed results of that work must be, and are, commensurate with its perfectness, and God glorifying character! It has accomplished two things, sins have been put far away, and the sinner brought near to God.
This double effect of Christ’s work is beautifully illustrated by the scapegoat of Lev. 16, and the live bird let loose of Lev. 14. On the head of the former all the sins of the people were confessed, and it was then led away and let go into a wilderness, a land not inhabited. The latter, after being plunged into the blood of the slain bird, was let loose in the open field, and as it mounted up and disappeared in the distance above, it carried the blood up. Lovely type of sins carried away into the land of God’s forgetfulness, and of the blood, which was shed to put them away, borne by Him who shed it Himself in resurrection into the very presence of God on high, where it has been sprinkled, as it were, in seven-fold perfection “before and on the throne.” Both are put together in Heb. 10. “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (ver. 17). “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus” (ver. 19).
Do you ask, “How is all this blessedness made good to me, how may I know it is all my own?” God says, “Only believe.” “By him, all that believe are justified from all things,” —cleared from every charge of sin; “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace (favor) wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.”
Thus, dear reader, you are authorized, the moment you believe on, and put all your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work, to know you have eternal life, that your sins are all gone, that you have peace with God, access into His favor, and joy in hope of His glory. Blessed gospel! May you receive it now, and may the effect produced upon you be as distinctly manifested as in the case of the Thessalonian converts of old. Of them it could be said: “Ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and the true God, and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come.” Thus shall it be seen and known that the gospel has come to you not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.
H. P. A. G.