As we were driving through a distant village, a woman crossed the road in front of us. Though bent on another errand, I could not help going to speak to her, and finally I followed her into her cottage. I had known her for many years as one always more or less anxious about her soul, but never able, as people say, to "lay hold," or, in other words, never having "received with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save the soul." After a few minutes' talk, which ended in her telling me how great a sufferer in body she often, and even then was, I asked her, "Are you ready for a better world than this?”
"Ready," she replied, "O, no; not any more than when you used to come and see me.”
"But whose fault is that, Joan?" I asked. "Has not God made salvation ready for you?”
"Yes, but somehow I can't see it, and yet H. (naming a Christian man in the neighborhood) comes in to read and pray with me, and he explains it all, but I can't see it.”
"Do you remember," I asked, "that Jesus said, `Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest'? Are you heavy laden?”
"O, yes, I am," she replied, and in such a tone that I could not doubt that my poor friend felt the weight of her sins to be indeed a heavy load, and that she longed to be free from it. So I turned to that verse—
"Joan," I said, "There is no reason why you should not know now that you are saved. Do you believe what that verse says? Let me try to explain it to you. Suppose one of your children had been naughty, and you were going to punish her; and suppose that another child came and said, 'Mother, punish me instead,' would you punish both of them?”
"O, no.”
"Of course not. You would, I suppose, punish the one who wanted to take her sister's place, and this, as the little hymn says, is what Jesus did for His people.
"'He knew how wicked men had been,
He knew that God must punish sin;
So, out of pity, Jesus said
He'd bear the punishment instead.'
He was the just One, God's Son, and He took the place in death which we deserved.
`He bare our sins in His own body on the tree,' and now we who believe on Him go free, and are saved. You are 'unjust,' you are a great sinner, but "'God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' Can you believe that?" To my surprise—(and, O, shame, that I was not expecting such a blessing,) she replied,
"Yes, I believe now.”
The whole expression of her face had changed, her suffering was forgotten; she was leaning forward, and again she, said, "O, I do believe now; I see it all!”
Together we turned to some other passages of Scripture, one being that never-to-be-forgotten text, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Wishing to test her belief, I said, "Shall you ever perish?”
"No," she replied, "for I believe what God has said.”
"Have you everlasting life?"
"Yes, I have.”
"But," I said, "when I came in here you told me you were not ready.”
"No more I was, but since you have been here, I see it all so clearly, and I am saved now.”
"What makes you ready?" I asked.
"Because I believe that Jesus died for me.”
I asked her if she could thank the Lord for what He had done, and it was beautiful to see her kneel down and to hear her voice joining with mine in heartfelt praise to God for His mercy.
And now, dear reader, ask yourself, "Am I saved now?”
I cannot speak to you face to face as I could to this poor woman, but let these words speak to you, or, rather, hear God's words. God commends to you His own love, a love that sent Jesus, nineteen hundred years ago, from a throne of glory to a cross of shame. If He took the place there that you deserved, you may be saved now by believing Him.
Your believing or not believing makes no change in what God has done; His work will stand for eternity, but it does make a change in you. If you believe, you are saved, have passed from death to life, and are privileged to say, Jesus died for me—the Just One for the unjust.
If you do not believe, you are unsaved, without hope, condemned already, because you have not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. The Lord give you to receive His Word and go on your way rejoicing.