JESUS CHRIST the Saviour is in the glory of God. What glad tidings this is for poor sinners for whom when on earth He died! “It was for sinners Jesus died.” He now adorns the throne of God, and the voice heard from that throne is not one of judgment, but of mercy; proclaiming glad tidings to man, whoever and whatever he may be, offering him salvation without money or without price. What a full salvation it is! It takes up a poor sinner in his sins just as he is, it strips him from all that unfits him for the presence of God, and it also clothes him with what fits him for it, and it gives him a link with the Saviour in heaven.
“Our title to glory we read in Thy blood.”
It comes to us from the heart of God, and the tender grace of the Saviour seeks to win ours to God that we may joy in Him.
One who had recently been brought to know his Saviour in the glory, and that he was fitted to stand before God in heaven’s unclouded rays, every trace of sin having been removed by His precious blood, was heard to say that he hardly liked the sleeping hours of night, lest they should dim his joy, so great it was. He had gone to a distant land as a soldier when young, and it was there, when far from kith and kin, and all the loved associations of home and country, that he began to feel a need in his soul which increased and deepened as time went on. He knew he was a sinner, and had no standing before God. Unsaved, as he knew he was, he tried to act in the fear of God, and he asked one and another for help to his soul, but he could find nowhere what gave him peace. Where was he to turn? It was useless to ask those around him whose minds were occupied with the world and its honors, and who had no thought of God; and those who ought to have been able and ready to put Christ and His finished work before him were unable to meet his need. What could a dead formality in religion do for him? A soul in agony before God and spending hours in prayer! The answer was to be found from God’s side, and in God’s way.
He returned to his native land, and that he was in anxiety as to his salvation was evident to those around him. It was said to him one day, “Since you earnestly desire to know God, of whose love you have heard so much of late, and that He is holding out salvation to you full and free, what is it that you are waiting for?”
His reply was given soberly and seriously — and oh, that all might ponder it! — “I have put myself unreservedly in God’s hands, and I am waiting on Him now.”
There was intense reality in this. He had given God His true place, and he was in his true place before God. He had got to the end of himself; all his efforts and struggles had ceased; he had learned that he was without strength; and what he had tried to be and to do earnestly had only ended in disappointment.
He now stood a sinful man before God and nothing else, and his only hope was in God. Calmly and confidingly he was waiting on Him. His soul’s salvation was at stake, eternity was at stake. Solemn moment in the history of a soul. Would God disappoint him, the God of all tenderness and grace? Did He ever disappoint anyone who came to Him and put their trust in Him? Never.
“A flax thread in oceans of fire,
How soon swallowed up it would be!
Yet sooner in oceans of mercy
The sinner that cometh to Me.”
And so he found it to be. The Lord completed the work He had begun. His light shone into his soul. He saw by faith, Jesus, the Saviour, who had died for him, and borne his sins in His own body on the tree, on the right hand of the Majesty on high; the triumphant answer to every fear, his troubled conscience was at rest, the longing of his heart satisfied, and he was at peace with God.
Do you wonder at his rejoicing soul? to find that heaven itself was now open to him, and that by faith he saw his Saviour there — joy filled his heart, such joy as he had never before experienced or dreamed of, a joy that belonged to heaven and could not be found on earth. He was joying in God.
He started on a new career at once, resolved to live for the God who had wrought salvation for him, eschewing everything that would hinder him from following Christ and serving Him.
How many anxious souls there are in this world! longing to obtain an assured salvation, earnestly striving, it may be, to be better and to fit themselves for God, and finding that their efforts are of no avail. What are they to do? What can they do? Give themselves up in despair? No. “Stand still, and see the salvation of God with you.” “The battle is not yours but God’s.” Commit yourself to Him. “He waits to be gracious.” He alone can fit you. “He has found a ransom.”
The blood of Jesus Christ has spoken before and on the throne, and salvation is awaiting every one who is wholly cast upon God. The all-sufficient and all-availing sacrifice of Christ has been accepted of God. It stands good before God, and has once and forever settled every score for you. “Praise the Lord, for His mercy endureth forever.” God’s answer is sure as His Word declares, and readily and quickly it comes. The simple word addressed by the thief on the cross to Jesus, brought out immediately the soul-assuring and comforting answer, “Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.”
We read in Zechariah 3 that a guilty sinner clothed in filthy garments stood before God. He had no plea to offer or reply to make to the accusations brought against him. Where could he look or what could he do? He was in the presence of God, and his verdict must come from God. God Himself took up his cause and said unto him, “Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.” God, with whom he had to do, was on his side, and such are His ways of blessing towards all who come to Him and look to Him alone, as His Word abundantly proves.
“Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bid’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come!
Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve!
Because Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come!”
M. V.