ON returning home one Lord’s day afternoon, I met a young woman, who was evidently in great mental distress. She said, respectfully, yet with deep emotion, “Sir, How can I approach God?”
I replied, “What makes you so anxious about your soul?”
She said, “I have been reading the Bible this afternoon, and feel convinced, in a way I never felt before, that I am a vile, guilty sinner.”
“I am glad,” said I, “that the Holy Spirit has thus, by the written word, shown you something of your real condition as a sinner against God. You may rest assured that God loves sinners, though He hates sin; for ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ Christ died upon the cross that we might live through Him; and, sinful as you feel yourself to be, and are, be assured you can only find access into God’s presence through the blood of Jesus, His Son.”
A few days after, I met her again in tears, bewailing her hell-deserving condition. She said, “I know that Jesus died for sinners; but I feel that I cannot approach God.” In this state she continued some time. It was clear to me, that though she talked about Jesus, yet she did not know who Jesus was. The great mystery of “God manifested in the flesh” had not been revealed to her. I therefore set before her many scriptures which refer to the person of Christ, especially such as show, that though Jesus was made of a woman, yet He came out from God, was sent by the Father, and was God and man in one person. That Jesus was the express image of the invisible God, though He was found in fashion as a man. That because Jesus was man, He was a fit substitute for sinners, and able to bear our sins, and to be made a curse for us; and because Jesus was God, there was infinite virtue in His blood-shedding and death, and infinite power to put away sin forever thereby; and that God, by raising Jesus from the dead, setting Him at His own right hand, and crowning Him with glory and honor, gave a public testimony that He accepted His finished work on behalf of His people. “Hence,” I added, “the way of approach to God is through Jesus the Son of God, crucified and risen, who is now at the right hand of God; and He gives this most gracious assurance, that He is able to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by Him.” I then prayed that she might be enabled, by the Holy Ghost, to come to God by Christ. Her whole soul seemed to cry out,
“Give me Christ, or else I die; None but Christ can satisfy!”
When I saw her again, all tears were gone, and a peaceful smile had displaced the gloom from her countenance. She said, “I am happy now, sir!” “What makes you happy?” said I. “Oh, sir, a few mornings ago, after prayer, the words, ‘Your sins and iniquities will I remember no more,’ brought sweet comfort to my soul; it seemed as if God spoke them to my heart.” “Can you really approach God?” said I. “Oh yes, sir, I approach God now without fear, through the blood of Jesus, His Son, who is at His right hand; and my desire is to live for His glory.”
This is the substance of my conversation with this young woman, and it is related because it may meet the need of some others similarly exercised, who, knowing something of God’s holiness and their own sinfulness, are saying, “How can I approach God?” It is to be feared that many never consider whether they approach God or not, who might truly say,
“I often say my prayers;
But do I ever pray?
Dear reader! Do you feel, that, sinful as you are, rebellious as you have been, and full of indwelling corruption as God declares you to be, still that you can peacefully approach God? If so, well you know that it is only through the cross of Christ; for “the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin;” and Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” “Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Not to receive, therefore, this only salvation, this only way, this only fountain opened for sin, is to expose your soul to the everlasting wrath of God, “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”