No. 1.
The True Ground Of Peace.
My DEAR —, —From your friend’s letter, I judge she is looking for a ground of peace with God in the state of her own heart. This she will never find. She must learn, not only that there is no good in herself, according to Romans 7:18,18For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. (Romans 7:18) but that IF SHE COULD fairly reckon herself morally blameless, that would be no ground for peace, and would not really give it, because she is already a sinner. “He that judgeth me is the Lord,” and the question for every soul is, How can a man be just with Him? To this end our goodness avails no more than our badness. It is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that made atonement more than eighteen hundred years ago; and faith in His blood is that which justifies, as it is written (Romans 3:2525Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (Romans 3:25)), “Whom God hath set forth a propitiation through faith in His blood.” Faith is that which appropriates Christ, makes Him our own in all the efficacy and excellency that belong to Him; so that, “being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:11Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1).) It is not merely that the believer has it, but that in no other way whatever, either wholly or in part, can peace with God be known. Neither is peace yet to be made; for He made peace by the blood of His cross, and faith accept it.
The love of the world is a great hindrance to many souls; and wrong thoughts too about human nature. Man was made upright at the beginning, but he is fallen and corrupted. He has lost his first estate, and Satan, who effected his ruin, has blinded men’s eyes to that terrible fact, and become himself the god of this world.
There are remaining traits of what man originally was, so that the apostle James can speak of him as being still made in the image of God; but in spite of these, man is at enmity with God, and does not like to retain the knowledge of God, and judging God by his own heart, he thinks it is God who is at enmity with aim, than which no lie of Satan has taken a deeper root in men’s hearts. This enmity to God is the condition of every unconverted human being; of the most refined and highly educated, the most sensitive, kind, benevolent, and self-denying, as well as of the most debased and immoral. The difference between the two is only like that between a lovely, placid, sweet looking corpse and a most revolting one: both are equally dead, dead in trespasses and sins. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ makes all the difference, and such as have it live. “If one died for all, then were all dead. And He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.” (2 Corinthians 5:14, 1514For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:14‑15).)
Your friend needs in this way to realize her own personal ruin to be utter and absolute. I do not suppose she denies the doctrine of the fall; but like thousands of others, who are more conversant with current and defective teaching of Christendom than with that of the Scriptures, she does not seem to have apprehended that Christianity does not profess to repair and to restore man’s sinful nature, but to give the believer A NEW ONE. The Son of God Himself “was made in the likeness of men,” but sinless, in order that He might bear the judgment of God due to man’s sin, and give to the believer a new being in life eternal, in connection with Himself on the other side of death and judgment in resurrection. No training, educating, or reforming the nature we have from Adam can over fit it for God, or bring the soul nigh to Him; but if any man be in Christ, it is a new creation; he is taken out of the old by being crucified with Christ, and belongs to the new. The old is passed away and all is new, and everything belonging to the new is of God. There is nothing of Satan. This is the standing that faith puts the believer into. All is brightness, all is peace. Peace with God, the peace of God, and the God of peace Himself are ours in Christ through faith in His blood. Let your friend know this, and I pray the Lord to give her the peace she needs.