THERE is a very general but none the less great blunder made with regard to what is required of a poor sinner before he can meet God. The idea is that he has to go through a certain preparation, a process, an undefined something, which will make him worthy to be received. God is holy and good, and therefore, it is thought, a man needs to become, in some measure at least, holy and good too before he can be received of God.
This is such a plausible idea that it gets possession of the mind, and the result is discouragement and despair in the honest, earnest soul, self-righteousness and hypocrisy in the superficial, or infidelity in the rebellious.
The truth is, God requires no preparation of this sort, no holiness, no goodness, on the sinner’s part. All He requires of him is to come honestly confessing his sins, his guilt, his uncleanness, and unworthiness in every way. That is all. God Himself does the rest. He does the forgiving, the removing of guilt, the cleansing. He does that through His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus died for what? Why, for our sins, of course. Very well, then, because of that death for our sins God immediately and to all eternity grants the remission of sins to every man that comes to Him confessing his need of it. Jesus suffered for sin as the guilty one, God therefore removes all guilt from the poor sinner who comes to Him with his guilt, and pleads only the blood of Jesus. This is God’s way of cleansing man―so simple, so utterly without merit in man, and so solely to the praise of God who gave Jesus to do this mighty work, and to the praise of Jesus who gave Himself up to do it, that it is beyond man’s capacity to stoop low enough to see it. It requires the power of the Spirit to bring him to this―the place of “a little child.”
Come, fellow-sinner, let me take thee by the hand and lead thee there. It is a place of blessing beyond expression. I tell thee that to be able to come to Jesus as a sinner, nothing but a sinner, bringing nothing save sin, guilt, and misery, secures a meeting with Him than which there is no other like it. Come and taste it. It frees the conscience, it makes the heart overflow with His praise, it humbles the man in truth, and gives Jesus a place in his heart such as He has up there in the throne of God.
P. J. L.