You will say, dear reader, this is a bold and searching question. So it is. But the importance of the subject demands it; and it is time to speak plainly and faithfully, for many souls are being deceived on this momentous subject.
The Son of God when on earth was personal and pointed in His ministry. He went straight to the heart and conscience of His hearers; and none ever so understood the real value of souls, or the perfectness of God’s love. To one He said, “Ye must be born again;” to another, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.” Again, we hear Him say, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish;” and on another occasion, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.” Thus we see the Lord’s true faithfulness both on private and public occasions, and should not we, who profess to follow Him, be faithful too?
In the present day the demand is urgent that our dealings with immortal souls should be close, earnest, and affectionate. We are in danger of trafficking in mere doctrine, and of allowing its purity to be an excuse for coldness, deadness, and formality. We are to present God’s love to lost souls with the fervor and point that its eternal importance demands. We are to beware of lukewarmness, for Christ is rejected, and souls are perishing. It is high time to be aroused, for the coming of our Lord draweth nigh. Our opportunities of thus spreading the savor of His precious name will soon be over, and it is, alas! too evident that worldliness and indifference to the claims of Christ are sapping the energies of the church of God, while Satan is artfully spreading His soul-deceiving nets.
The fact is, that multitudes are going quietly and respectably to hell, and it is to be feared that many of them think themselves very religious. Blinded by the traditions of their fathers, and diligent in the use of ordinances, they bolster up their false hopes by doing, as they say, their duty, and thus enter the jaws of death in utter ignorance of the present reality of forgiveness of sins, and peace with God. Many too, having been systematically trained in the false idea that none can be sure of salvation till they die, have hazarded the settlement of the vital question till a dying hour, when it may be the pain and oppression of a mortal sickness will so overcome them, that they will be unable to fix the mind on anything.
Again. There are not a few who endeavor to evade the personal bearing of the question, “Have you peace with God?” by such indefinite replies as, “It is to be hoped that we are all trusting in the Saviour;” or, “We must not judge;” or, “It is quite true there is no way of salvation but by Christ, of course we all know that,” and such like; which show that whatever be their knowledge of the letter of Scripture, they have never closed with the Son of God as their Saviour, or known the peace-speaking power of His precious blood.
Nor can we doubt that there are many true anxious souls who are longing for “peace with God,” and have it not, because they are looking for feelings, or experience, or something else within, instead of simply and only to the already accomplished work of Jesus, and the infallible Word of God.
We cannot, then, be too plain, or too personal and pointed, in dealing with souls in reference to this momentous and most blessed subject of present peace with God. Well might the dear Saviour of sinners, who fully knew the depths of the riches of Divine mercy, and the eternal agonies of a lost soul, exclaim, “What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”
And now, dear reader, let me lovingly and earnestly bring before you again the searching, pointed question, “Have you peace with God?” You may, perhaps, reply, That you are as happy as most people, and as quiet in mind as your neighbors; but this does not answer the question, “Have you peace with God?” You may be ranked among the most useful and religious of your district, you may be most kids, amiable, and virtuous, you may be most regular and devout in outward religiousness, and still the momentous question be unanswered, “Have you peace with God?” Observe, my dear reader, that the question is not as to how you stand with your fellow-man, but with God. It is not about your quietness of mind, or peace in circumstances, but “peace with God.” Oh, beware of a false peace!
Scripture speaks of “peace with God” as a present blessing, known by those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a wondrous blessing now enjoyed not by feeling or doing, but by believing. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 5:11Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1).)
Here God tells us that we have, not shall have when we come to die, but we have peace with God, and that, not through frames, feelings, experience, or doings, but “through our Lord Jesus Christ.” How simple and how blessed this is! That happy frames and feelings follow this simple faith in God through Jesus His Son I know, and so will communion, service, and testimony, but they do not precede, but accompany or follow this believing.
Those who have peace with God in the light and holiness of His presence, know that every question as to sin, death, hell, and judgment, has been forever settled for them by Jesus. It is a peace which originated in the free mercy of God, is based upon Divine righteousness in the judgment of sin on the cross of Christ, and is made sure by God raising Jesus our Lord from the dead. When clearly apprehended it cannot but give peace with God, because it is connected with an already-accomplished redemption by Christ, which has infinitely glorified God. This present peace, therefore, is not based upon what we feel, or what we have been, or are, or may be, but entirely “through our Lord Jesus Christ” ―through what God has done for us by the death and in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Peace with our holy God,
Peace from the fear of death,
Peace through the Saviour’s precious blood,
Sweet peace, the fruit of faith.”
Once more then, dear reader, let me inquire, “Have you peace with God?” Ponder it seriously. Look straight to Jesus at God’s right hand, who did by Himself, at Calvary, purge our sins. Gaze upon that blessed One, a Lamb as it had been slain, now in the midst of the throne, and see all your need, as a poor guilty sinner, fully met by Him. Christ has made peace by the blood of His cross, and, as we have seen, peace with God is alone through Him. Thus coming to God through Christ, you will find perfect peace in His holy presence. You will see there is not a question that God himself has not settled for you in Christ, and by His precious blood. Then you will be able to sing―
“Christ died! then I am clean,
Not a cloud above, not a spot within.”
Worship, service and devotedness to Him who so loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, then happily follow.