“IF I saw my name in the Bible I should be sure then.” The speaker was a young woman, who was conversing with me at the close of a very interesting gospel meeting, many years ago, in a town a few miles north of Edinburgh. She lived at “the Manse” in this town, and there had heard so much about the Lord, that a great longing to be saved, and have the assurance of God’s salvation possessed her mind. Receiving a notice of an address I was to give in the Town Hall, on “Christ’s Three Appearing’s,” she came, hoping to taste God’s blessing.
1. HIS PAST APPEARING.
The scripture I had in hand that night is quoted at the head of this paper. There we read of the Lord that “now once, in the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” The definite object of the Son of God in entering this scene, and becoming incarnate, was to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. That gives the most comprehensive view of Christ’s work. What the first man had brought in—sin—He came to put away by the sacrifice of Himself. His atoning death, in all its ineffable preciousness and unspeakable value to God, has taken place. By it, and it alone, can sin be removed from God’s eye. Christ’s work for that is finished. He has not yet cleared the world of sin, but the ground on which He will do it is laid. Having Himself sustained the judgment due to sin, He will sweep away the last vestige of it from the scene when, at the Great White Throne, He judges those who have not availed themselves of the atoning value of His death.
He not only meets God’s just claims and the necessity of His nature, but He likewise meets man’s need and the demands of his conscience, “for as it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment (i.e., the natural lot of man), so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” The question of sin in its totality He took up when “made sin” before God in His death, and thus God has been glorified about sin. But further, He has borne the sins of many. The two consequences of sin, viz., death and judgment, He in voluntary grace and as a substitute sustained when offered to bear the sins of many. He bore the sins, and then sustained their necessary consequences—death’ and judgment. As a result those who believe in Him, who look to Him, who rest in Him, are cleared from their sins, and likewise from their inevitable consequences, and can await His final appearing with joy and gladness.
This then was the object and the effect of His first appearing.
2. HIS PRESENT APPEARING.
The “many” whose sins He bore are entitled to know that their sins are gone, and gone forever. He bore those sins on the cross; He bears them no more, for we read in vs. 24 that He has entered “into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” He represents believers in the presence of God. He once represented sinners vicariously on the cross; He now represents believers before God, in life, peace, and acceptance. He died to make us clean; He lives to keep us clean. He once appeared to clear away what we had done, and what we were He now appears before God for us in all His own personal perfection, and what He is in life, beauty, and acceptance, He is representatively for those who are His, i.e., all believers.
3. HIS FUTURE APPEARING.
The third appearing spoken of in the passage we find in vs. 28, “And unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” That clearly refers to the second advent in its widest aspect. When He comes back the second time He will not touch the question of sin with those who believe in Him. He settled that question definitively for them when He came the first time. Now, Himself sinless, and without the sins of others which He bore on the cross, He lives before God, and we are made “accepted in the Beloved.” When He comes back next time He comes not to touch the question of sin, but to show what salvation is in its fullest and most blessed way.
All this came out very clearly that night, but my young friend was more miserable at the close of the meeting than she was at the beginning, because she failed to see that she herself had any personal interest in Christ. Her difficulty was this—was she among the “many” for whom Jesus died? If only she were sure of that, she would be happy. To be assured that she had a personal interest in Christ, and that He had a personal interest in her, was what her soul longed for. We looked at a good many scriptures, but all in vain. At length I said to her, “Now, what is your difficulty?”
“Oh, what I want to be certain of is that Jesus died for me.”
“Well,” I said, “if you saw your name in the Bible would that content you?”
“Yes indeed, if I saw my name in the Bible I should be sure then.”
“And what is your name, my dear girl,” said I.
“Janet Brown,” she replied.
“Just so, and if you saw in your Bible these words, ‘Christ was once offered to bear the sins of Janet Brown,’ you would be content?”
Her eye brightened up as she said, “Oh yes, that would be all I would want.”
“Well,” I said, “if I saw my name in the Bible I should lose my peace immediately.”
“Why?” she earnestly asked.
“Because there might be another man with my name, and ‘I should not be sure whether it was I for whom Christ died, or the other man. Now, supposing your name, Janet Brown, was in the Bible, it could give you no assurance.”
“Why not?” said she, almost excitedly.
“Because I know at least half a dozen girls called Janet Brown. If the Bible said, ‘Jesus died for Janet Brown,’ the question would be, Which of the seven did He die for? None of you could tell which.”
“I see that now,” she said, quite perturbed.
“No,” I replied, “you cannot get peace that way. Do you know how it is that I am quite sure Jesus died for me?”
“How?” she eagerly asked.
“Not because I have seen my name in the Bible, but because I have seen my character. I read there that ‘God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us’ (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)). It does not say in the Scriptures that Jesus died for Janet Brown, but it does say that He died for sinners. Are you a sinner, Janet?’
“A sinner? Oh, a dreadful one,” said she, now weeping profusely.
“Well, for whom did Jesus die?”
“It says He died for sinners,” was her answer.
“True, then if He died for sinners, and you are a sinner, for whom did He die?”
“He died for me—oh, I see it now. Thank God, I see it now; He died for sinners; I know I am a sinner; I am sure Jesus died for me, and for my sins;” and she entered into peace and rest.
That is more than thirty years ago, and I have watched her ever since, and she has been what every Christian should be—simple, earnest, and devoted, and trying to communicate to others in a quiet way what God taught her that night in the Town Hall.
Reader, cease all introspection, look to Jesus in simple faith, rest on Him alone and on what God’s Word says as regards His work for sinners, and you too will have peace and rest. Will you not trust Him now? W. T. P. W.