NEXT to the consciousness of our existence, the deepest fact in our being is that we are sinners; that we are responsible to God, and that there is within us a conscience which bears witness to the fact of sin, and to the fact of our accountability to God.
The infinitely holy God could never allow the approach of a sinner to Himself on any ground but that which maintains His own righteousness. God’s character as the holy and righteous One must be established; therefore, the sinner’s approach to God must be in God’s own way and no other. Hence, the first question to be settled in each person’s experience, and in every approach to God, is that of sin. Until the question of sin is settled, there is nothing settled.
I have read a very popular book on “Rest.” Beautiful language and beautiful thoughts about the weariness and the burdens of life, and about a rest that is found in yielding up the will to Christ; but from beginning to end no mention is made of the heaviest burden a man can have — the burden of sin, the burden of a guilty conscience; that insurmountable barrier which stands between sinful man and the holy God.
How can there be rest until the burden of sin is removed, until conscience is relieved of the dark, foul, guilty stain of sin? How can there be rest until the heart is assured that sins have been forgiven according to the righteousness of God?
The first rest our hearts can know, the first peace our souls can enjoy, is the rest and the peace we obtain when, ceasing from our own works, we believe on Him who finished the work for us. In the precious blood of the great sin-offering, poured out for us on Calvary, there is rest and peace, and nowhere else.
J. R. C.