A GOSPEL paper which I offered at a cottage door, in the country, one day, was refused by the person to whom I handed it, as she imagined that I wished to sell it. No sooner, however, did she learn that it was free-for-nothing, than it was gladly accepted, and I received her thanks.
That is just how it is with many poor anxious souls who often, even after hearing the Gospel simply preached, being plainly told, and that “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)), instead of taking God’s gift, and thanking Him for it, go on for years in a miserable condition.
Now, let us suppose a person in abject poverty, penniless, and starving, and too ill to work to obtain what he so much needs. You, on hearing of his distress, go to him, taking with you an ample supply of all he requires. What would you think if, on telling him you had brought him food and clothing, he began to shake his head, as though he did not believe your word? You show him the comforts you have brought.
“Ah,” he says, “they cannot be for me; I have no money.”
“But,” you reply, “I bring you these things just because you are not able to procure them for yourself. Will you not accept them?”
What would you think if the needy, helpless sufferer still refused what was so freely offered, saying, “It is true I am in want of what you offer me, and I will do my best to try and obtain it; perhaps I may soon be well enough to do a little work”? Would you not reply— “Poor, foolish man, you are not asked to buy; you cannot work. While you are trying to do your best, you may starve to death. You are helpless. Just take what is offered you for nothing”?
My reader, it is just as idle for you to think that you can do anything to obtain salvation. Will you try and do your best? The very best an unconverted person can do is abomination in the sight of God, who has said, “There is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Will you bring to God your religion or your prayers? Do you imagine that after all your striving you will be able to produce something that God can accept in exchange for His salvation? Away, away with all such thoughts. If you want salvation you must have it for nothing.
If it had been possible for sinners to do anything worthy of God, what need for that Holy One to die to save them? Man is totally unable to help himself; by nature he is lost and far from God, yet since Christ has died, and made a propitiation for sin, God can righteously have mercy upon the sinner. This is why He now offers you salvation for nothing. To attempt to make yourself worthy, or to seek to do anything to obtain it, is clearly unbelief in what He says; it is an insult to the Majesty of heaven.
Will you not, then, beloved reader, just take your place as a receiver? Like the person who willingly accepted the Gospel paper I offered when she learned it was for nothing, so may you, ceasing entirely from all your own doings for salvation, simply accept what God is now presenting to you. Then in the enjoyment of the gift, knowing that you are saved, that the blood of Jesus has cleansed you from all sin, you will rejoice to work, not for salvation, but because you are already saved. A Christian serves the Lord, seeks to please Him, and does good works, not to be saved, but because he is saved. Having a new nature, he now delights in what before could only be irksome to him. G. J. H.