I want to say a few plain things to those who are young in the way. We are all too prone to settle down quietly with what through grace we have received, and to forget that there is such a thing as “increasing in the knowledge of God.” A child is not born to be always a child. Its parents and friends would not be satisfied if it always remained a babe in arms, and would be much disappointed if it did not grow in size, strength and intelligence day by day. Thus it is in the family of God. The apostle, in writing to the children of God, says, “I write unto you [little] children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.”
This is the wonderful privilege of even the babes in the family of God. It is a privilege common to all in the family, whatever their growth and stature may be. Thus we are told in Luke 1:7777To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, (Luke 1:77), we have the knowledge of salvation by the remission of our sins, and it is thus at the threshold of the Father’s house, and the starting-point of the heavenly way.
Are you all clear as to this?
Perhaps some are asking, “How may we be sure that our sins are forgiven?” A very important question, but thanks be to God, the answer is
clear and distinct.
These two scriptures point us upward to heaven, to the throne where the risen and exalted Savior sits at God’s right hand. Sent, by God, He came forth from the Father to accomplish His will. He descended into the depths of woe and anguish under the judgment of God, for His glory when “He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.” “He died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” He was buried, and thus His life was ended here. But in all this He was
our Substitute.
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.”
God has raised Him from the dead. He has risen into a new condition of life. “Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more.” The whole black past is not only obliterated from the eye of God, but the history of the sinful race is closed forever, and the risen Lord becomes the Head of a new race, and the Center of a new circle of blessing on which God’s eye ever rests with favor and complacency. We are brought into relation to this new scene by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, and it is God’s will that we should enter in spirit into these divine realities and thus no longer “live unto ourselves, but unto Him who died for us and rose again.” We look up and see the One who bore our sins in full acceptance and glory at God’s right hand. Nothing can touch Him there, nor can He ever change.
“I change, He changes not,
God’s Christ can never die;
His love my certain resting-place,
He lives for me on high.”
“God is satisfied with Jesus,
I am satisfied as well.”
And here there is perfect agreement, and perfect rest.