“DO you ever read your Bible?”
“Oh, yes, every day I have my chapter, and I always go to church.”
“Did you ever read John 3?”
“Oh, very often, that is a favorite chapter of mine.”
“Could you tell me what verse 16 says?”
“I think I can: ‘God so loved the world.’”
“That includes you then, does it not?”
“Of course it does― ‘that he gave his only begotten Son.’”
“God gave His Son?”
“Yes.”
“All right, go on.”
“That whosoever believeth in him.”
“What do you understand by whosoever?”
“Why, I suppose it just means anybody, everybody.”
“Exactly, that is just what it means. Well, what else?”
“ ‘Believeth in him.’”
“Then it does not say, ‘Whosoever reads a chapter every day?’”
“No, sir.”
“Whosoever goes to church?”
“No.”
“Whosoever says their prayers?”
“No, it says, ‘Whosoever believeth in him.’”
“What else?”
“ ‘Should not perish, but have everlasting life.’”
“Now, that verse says, ‘God so loved the world.’
You are neither angel nor devil, but part of that world, so that you are the object of God’s love. And to give expression to His love, ‘he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ Now, do you really believe that?”
“Oh, yes, I do believe that with all my heart.”
“You believe that God loved you?”
“Yes, I do.”
“And gave His Son?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And you have got nothing to do but to believe, and you shall never perish, but have everlasting life?”
“Yes, I suppose so, sir.”
“Well now, be honest, did you ever thank Him for it?”
“Oh, yes, I thank God every day.”
“I do not doubt you do. You thank God for rest, and food, and raiment, and shelter, and health, and strength, and all these temporal blessings.”
“Yes, I do that every day.”
“Quite so, you thank God for His mercies and gifts, but did you ever get away into some quiet spot and go down upon your knees and thank God for ‘his unspeakable gift’? (2 Cor. 9:1515Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. (2 Corinthians 9:15)). No one will thank a person for a gift if they have not taken it. And surely if any one offers you a gift, it is the least you can do to take it, and thank the giver for it, unless you mean to insult him. You really believe that God gave His Son, and yet you have never thanked Him for His gift?”
“Well, really, sir, I must confess I never saw the thing that way before. I have, indeed, thanked God for His temporal gifts, but, I feel ashamed to say it, never for His unspeakable gift.”
“Then you have never taken the gift, and therefore are not saved, or you would have thanked Him—you could not help it. Oh, to think of God’s wondrous love-gift to this poor guilty, sin-stricken world, and you have heard it, and know it, and yet, as one of that world, you have never taken that gift, and thanked the Giver. All the while you have been rejecting the gift, you have been nearing hell, deluded by Satan with the thought that you must pray, and go to church, and such like things, ere you could get saved. You have got very near to hell, just on the brink, another step or two and then it could have been said of you as it is said of the rich man in Luke 16, he died; he was buried; he lifted up his eyes in hell, being in torment. Oh, what a mercy you are not over that precipice, and God still holds out His gift.
“He asks no tears, no prayers, no church-going. No. He asks nothing; He offers something—His Son. ‘He gave His Son.’ Nineteen hundred years ago the sin question was opened up and settled on the cross (Heb. 9:2626For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:26)). Now the Son question is opened up, and whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Will you take God’s Son as God’s gift to you? He talks to you today, not about your sins, but about His Son. ‘He gave his Son.’ Jesus died for sins, the just for the unjust, to 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)). His blood meets our sins. God has raised Christ. He looks at Christ. Will you? He is satisfied with Christ and His work. Will you be? He speaks of Christ and offers you Christ? Will you accept Him?
“Well, sir, I never saw the thing like that before, and I do believe that God gave His Son for me, and I think I can go and thank God for His gift.”
“Then what about your sins now?”
“They are all gone.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because Christ atoned for them when He died.
He bore my sins in. His own body on the tree.”
“And He had them on the cross?”
“Yes.”
“And He is not now on the cross, nor in the grave, but on the throne, and the sins are―?”
“All gone.”
“And the proof is―?”
“He is up there without them, thank God.”
The Lord grant that this paper may just meet the need of the reader, if still unsaved, showing him the love of God, the finished work of Christ, and the way to make eternal life his own.
W. E.