SUCH were the words of one into whose soul the light of God’s saving grace had shone.
She was on a sick bed, and I had been asked to go and see her, and speak with her about her soul. After I had asked her some questions about her health, and bodily condition, which, through mercy, was better than it had been, I said to her―
“And how is it as to your soul?”
“I don’t know,” was the reply; “I am all mixed up. They tell me I must just believe in Christ; but I can’t see through it; I don’t understand it. I do believe in Christ, but still they tell me I am net saved.” “Why do they tell you, you are not saved?”
“Because I don’t believe right. I don’t understand it; I am all mixed up,” she repeated.
“Do you understand what it is to be lost?” I said to her, thinking, perhaps, the work of conviction needed to be deepened in her soul, and that she needed to learn more fully the utter hopelessness of her condition as a sinner in God’s sight.
“I am a sinner,” she replied, looking at me questioningly.
“A lost sinner? or only half-lost?”
“I did not know there was any half-way about it. I thought it was either lost or saved.”
“So it is,” I said; “but I wanted to see whether you realized that you were really lost. You know how God’s Word speaks of the condition of the sinner. It speaks of him as utterly ruined and undone.”
“Hand me a Bible,” she said to a sister-in-law who was present; “I want to know what the Bible says about it.”
I said to her, “An aged Christian was once asked for his photograph. He replied, ‘You will find my photograph in the third chapter of Romans.’ Now I want you to look into that chapter, and see the photograph that is there given of the sinner by the Spirit of God.”
I then turned to the chapter, and read verses 9-19, seeking to show her that the evil in her heart, as well as in the heart of every one, was capable of being developed until it exhibited all the horrid features of this dark and humbling picture. “And now,” I said, “do you see your photograph here?”
“It’s pretty bad,” she said.
“Yes,” I replied, “it is bad, but it is a picture, true to life, of the heart of every unsaved sinner.”
She owned that this was true, and that she was lost, and utterly undone.
I then endeavored to set before her the provision that God had made for those that are lost. How that God had given His only begotten Son, in His infinite love, to a lost world; that He made propitiation for our sins; that through faith in Him we receive the pardon of our sins; that receiving Him we receive eternal life, as it is written, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:1212He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:12)). I also sought to show her that genuine faith in the Lord Jesus involved submission of heart to Him as Lord, quoting Romans 10:9, 109That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9‑10), ― “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” It is not merely assenting to the fact that there was such a person as Jesus; but as a lost sinner, believing the truth that God gave His Son to be the Saviour of such, and yielding the consent of the heart to have Jesus as Lord and Saviour, and submitting to Him as such.
“Now,” I said, “do you consent in your heart to have Jesus, ―to receive Him as God’s gift,―to receive Him as a Saviour, and submit to Him as your Lord and Master? If you do, you are saved.”
“But how am I to know?”
“By the Word of God. God’s Word says that such are saved. ‘He was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ ‘He bare our sins in his own body on the tree.’ God’s Word is plain, that if we are believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, all the value of His sacrifice is applied to our sins, and we are pardoned and justified before God. Look also at 1 John 5:1313These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:13), ― ‘These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.’ These scriptures show that if you believe in Jesus, ―if you believe on the name of the Son of God, ―you are forgiven, justified, saved, and have eternal life; and you know simply by believing God’s testimony. You have no work of your own to do; you have but to believe, yielding the consent of your heart to have Christ as your Saviour and Lord.”
“Is that all I have to do?”
“Yes, that is all!”
“But I am so wicked,” she said, as the tears filled her eyes.
“This is your very title to claim Jesus as your Saviour, for He came not to call the righteous, but sinners. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. If you could say you were good, or righteous, in any measure; you could not claim Him. If you realize that you are wicked, it is your title to the sinner’s Saviour; and the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth from all sin. It is perfectly clear that if you own by simple faith Jesus as Saviour, and confess Him as your Lord, all the value of His sacrifice stands to your account; and it clears all the past, and covers all the future. On the ground of the infinitely precious blood of Jesus, God blots out all the guilty past, and will never impute sins to you in the future. As a Father He may have to use the rod, but you will never again, as a guilty sinner, have to meet Him in the character of a Judge. As a righteous God He has justified you, once and forever, on the ground of the blood of Christ, who bore all your sins in His own body on the tree; and the blessedness of Romans 4:7, 87Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 8Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. (Romans 4:7‑8), is yours― ‘Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.’”
The tears ran down her cheeks, as the light broke in upon her soul, and she said― “I SEE IT; IT IS ALL CLEAR NOW.”
The truth had done its own work in her soul, purging her conscience, and setting her in peace in the presence of God. The sense of God’s love and grace took possession of her soul, and filled her with joy.
Giving thanks to God for His grace, and commending her to Him, I left her with her newfound joy in the company of the Saviour who had revealed Himself to her soul.
And now, unsaved reader, let me ask you to take your Bible, and read Romans 3:9-199What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 10As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17And the way of peace have they not known: 18There is no fear of God before their eyes. 19Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. (Romans 3:9‑19), and see there the photograph which the Spirit of Truth has made of your unrenewed heart; so that, your mouth being stopped, you may take your place before God as a guilty and undone sinner. And when the truth has closed your mouth, you will find that grace has opened God’s mouth to proclaim unconditional and eternal pardon through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose precious blood cleanseth from all sin.
A. H. R.