A friend directed me to visit a girl who was seeking the Lord. As nearly as I can remember, the following conversation took place.
“Do you believe on the Lord Jesus?” “O, yes, I could not save myself, and 1 had no other way but to trust in Him.” “How happy for you, then, to know that you have everlasting life!”
“Well, sir, I think I have.”
“But God’s Word says, ‘He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.’ Do you not believe on the Son of God?”
“Indeed, I do.”
“And does not God tell you that you lave everlasting life?”
“Yes, I see it now. I know I have it, because. God says so, and what He says must be true.”
“Did you ever think how it is that God, who is so holy and righteous, can forgive you your sins?”
“I have often thought over it, and it has troubled me a good deal.”
“There is a verse in the First Epistle of Peter which will help you. In the second chapter, 24th verse, you will find it written of Christ,
‘Who His own self bare our sins in its own body on the tree,’ You are a believer, and God’s word says,
‘Christ bore your sins in His own body on the tree.’
God took the sins off you, and put them on Christ. God loved you, and, therefore, would save you but God is righteous, and cannot look on sin with the least degree of allowance—so, in order that you might go free, someone had to be punished in your stead. Then the Lord Jesus, ‘the Son,’ in answer to the desire of God’s heart, offered Himself. God accepted Him, and punished Him instead of punishing you, and now, because God is righteous, you can never be punished again.”
“Yes, I see that; Christ was punished for my sins! Ah! I have rest now. You don’t know how wearied I used to get while. I was trying to do something to satisfy God when I knew I had done wrong.”
How is it with the reader of these pages? Are you a believer on the Son of God? If so, God says you have everlasting life. He does not say you have life so long as you believe: the word is, “everlasting.” Is it not better to cast away our thoughts, and to accept thankfully what God says? The song of the redeemed in heaven,
“Unto Him that loves us, and has washed us from our sins in His own blood,” should he the song of the redeemed now.
ML 12/08/1940