SUCH was the blessed confession of one who had learned to trust the Saviour, and. to rest in what the Word of God declares concerning Him, and the work He accomplished for sinners. Weak, from heart disease, unable to drink of the world’s streams, as others, who but thirst again, this dear young girl had heard the joyful sound, had received the glad tidings of salvation, and was now quite sure that she was saved. Why this certainty? From whence does this rest of conscience and heart spring?
Does she differ from you or me? Is she, because delicate, and shut out from much of the evil around, the less a sinner? No, dear friend, no such plea arose from her heart, no mention of her own goodness, her happy feelings, her good training, her grand experiences. What then made her so sure of her salvation? I will tell you.
Having examined carefully the state of her body, and after deciding with her mother what was best to be done, she said,
“Ah well; whatever happens to her, she is ready for both worlds.” Turning to the sufferer, I asked her if this was true? “Yes” she said at once. Wishing to be quite plain with her, I said “Then are you really saved?” “Yes” was her decided answer again. Seeking still further to know the ground of her confidence, I asked what made her so sure about it? With a bright smile she looked and said “I HAVE IT IN THE WORD.” So it was; for as a lost sinner she had believed God’s record about His Son, that He had come to seek and to save that which was lost. In other words, she had appropriated to herself the Saviour that the word of God reveals; God’s “faithful saying” (1 Tim. 2:1515Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. (1 Timothy 2:15).) and Christ’s finished work (John 19:3030When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. (John 19:30).) were the ground of her confidence, and therefore she could be quite happy about her soul’s salvation.
Many others have this same confidence, and I am sure, without exception, all would endorse the sweet and blessed confession of this bright young believer “I have it in the Word,” What a perfect answer to all the unbelief of the human heart, and the insinuations of the devil! Thus it was, the Lord Himself met Satan in the wilderness, by referring him directly to the written Word; thus too, the believer can defy all the attacks of the enemy.
And if confidence in God’s word thus gives certainty, rest, and peace, and that too in view of eternity, say, dear friend, do you not covet it? It is a common thing, and never so common as now, to speak of the “uncertainty of life;” but how blessed to have God’s own authority that I am “secured for eternity,” as I once read on a country tombstone.
Dear friend, the glad tidings of salvation is made known to you from the word of the Lord; the same word which tells you so faithfully that you are lost if an unbeliever; that as a sinner you are unfit for the presence of God; and that if you remain in this state, His righteous judgment must be poured out upon you; the wrath to come must be your portion, and the lake of fire your doom. Remember too, this word endures forever, and so will your torment, dear friend, if you refuse to bow to it and the Saviour it makes known.
O reader are you not condemned by this word?
Does your conscience not awake up to the reality of being saved or lost. The same unalterable word assures you as much of the former, if you trust now in the Saviour, and rest in His finished work, as of the latter, that long eternity of “weeping and wailing,” if you refuse God’s invitation of mercy. Again I would plead with you as to the importance of being sure of what lies before you. If careless, oh be roused by the certainty of coming judgment!
If anxious, be even now persuaded to rest on what the word of God declares. Look away from your frames or feelings, your joy or sorrow, right away from yourself altogether, and rest in what Jesus has done; accept God’s testimony as to the value of that work in that He hath raised Him from the dead. “Let God be true but every man a liar,” and therefore your own heart.
Give Christ all the credit, and God all the praise, and rejoice in the knowledge of a perfect Saviour, and through Him a full and eternal salvation. He Himself says, “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my word shall not pass away.” Therefore be assured, dear friend, that if this Word be not the ground of your confidence you are still on the wrong road, and bound for judgment; but, if otherwise, then rejoice in the glad tidings, that that Word tells you of; make your boast in the work that has been done, and better still, in the One who has done it, and if challenged by man or devil as to your salvation, let this be your simple answer “I have it in the Word.” What a resting-place! That Word which can never fail—that “faithful saying” which is as true tomorrow as today, as certain for eternity as now.
T. E. P.