No. 1.
MY DEAR―, I rejoice exceedingly at the mercy of God in not only awakening you to a true sense of your need and danger, but also in enabling you to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour. This is eternal salvation. From first to last it is God’s work, and to Him we will give all the glory. He might justly have cut you off in anger, or have allowed you to perish in your sins, like many others, without your having a serious thought of the eternal doom that awaits the unbelieving. Surely it is by grace that we are saved; and it is well to cultivate a sense of this; for faith always receives every good thing from God, and gives all glory to God. The more we contemplate the marvelous grave that God has manifested to us in Christ, the more peaceful and humble shall we be, and the better fitted for the service He has marked out.
It is very important that you should clearly see from the teaching of Scripture that you have eternal life. We are told that “the Father sent the Son into the world that we might live through Him;” and Jesus said, “He that believeth on me HATH EVERLASTING LIFE.” (John 6:47.) You will find this frequently brought out in Scripture, so that we may be fully assured that God hath given to us “eternal life.”
It is blessed to know that we have peace with God, and access into the holiest by the blood of Jesus; but the knowledge of the present possession of eternal life not only gives much comfort and stability of soul, but it is eminently practical, giving us power for present walk. We do not hope to have everlasting life, because we have it; and if we have a new life, it must naturally result in an entire change of walk and conduct―we should walk in newness of life. God’s way in the gospel is to show us our privileges, that we may feel our responsibilities. He first gives us life, then calls us to walk in newness of life. God tells us of our high, holy, and heavenly calling, and then beseeches us to walk worthy of this calling. He shows us something of the work and worth, the love and ways of Jesus, and then exhorts us to walk worthy of the Lord. His grace to us in Christ is the spring of all worship and acceptable service; hence He fills us with the knowledge of His own matchless, perfect love, and then says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” The danger is in reversing this divine order, and thus getting into legality and bondage, or of our walking carelessly, grieving the Holy Spirit, losing communion with the Lord, and declining in faith and love. The believer is really
“Beset with snares on every hand,”
but by looking off unto the Lord Jesus, abiding in Him, feeding on Him, drawing continually out of His fullness―by frequent meditation on His word, and prayer, and faith, we shall be living Christians. Why are there so many Christians who seem cold and formal? Because they have got away from Christ —not, perhaps, as to peace and salvation, but as the source of daily strength and blessing; they have almost, if not entirely, given up the private reading of the Scriptures and closet prayer―secret dealing with God about their souls. Hence, our Lord said, “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” (John 6:57.) Christ, then, is our Life-sustainer as well as Life-giver. We must be abiding in Him if we would be earnest, practical fruitful Christians. Nothing will make up for a lack of this.
It is happy, then, to be assured that we have eternal life. There were some believers in the apostles’ days (even as there are now) who did not know that they had eternal life; therefore the Holy Ghost directed John to write and teach them this blessed truth. “These things,” said he, “have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13.) In another place he shows them that love to the children of God is the outflowing of that life: “We know that we have passed, from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” (1 John 3:14.) This is the proof that we have eternal life. The Lord also taught that all fruit-bearing resulted from union with Himself, even as branches derive all their power of bearing fruit from the life flowing from the vine into the branches.
From other parts of Scripture we learn that the life of the believer is a resurrection-life―we are risen with Christ: hence we are exhorted to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, or to have died unto sin in Christ crucified, our Substitute, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 6:11.) Once we were all spiritually dead, now we are spiritually alive; we have been quickened together, raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in “Christ Jesus. This is what God has done. We are, then, already the other side of death―risen with Christ. “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” “Our life is hid with Christ in God.” What perfect security! What cause for endless praise! Can anything tend more to establish our souls than the knowledge of having everlasting life, and that, too, in union with the Son of God in the heavenlies. What has love done!
May we rejoice continually before God, giving praise and glory to Him through our Lord Jesus Christ! and in the knowledge that Christ is our life, may we manifest in our daily walk that we really “have passed from death unto life.” Then we shall not have a name to live while dead, but we shall be happy and obedient children of God, and earnest and devoted servants of our precious Lord Jesus.
Yours affectionately, ―