My dear young Friend,
.......If only simple faith were in exercise, there could be no difficulty. Trouble of soul arises from mixing faith and feelings, and that is just what you are doing. It is a common mistake. You acknowledge, that “as a guilt”, lost sinner, you are looking to Jesus as your Saviour; that you do believe in Him, but you want to feel it more within yourself: you own that you are not happy.” No, and you never can be happy, so long as you are looking partly to Jesus, and partly to yourself. You must learn to look only to Jesus, and to have faith in the Word of God, as to what Christ has done for us. Then you will have peace and rest on the ground of His precious blood shed for us, and He, Himself, will be the abundant joy of your heart.
Will you look at Eph. 1:7, and let us go over it together? “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” Now, you will observe, that here it is said, “We,” believers, have redemption and forgiveness now. These blessings are our present possession in Christ. “In whom,” mark, “ we have” not we hope to have, but, “ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Nothing can be plainer: “only believe.” In Christ, all who truly believe in Him as their Saviour, have, at this present moment, “eternal redemption,” full and everlasting forgiveness.
Now, look at the way in which these blessings are secured to us. “His blood”—the precious blood of Jesus, and that alone. And if you think of the standard, by which they are measured, your heart must be at rest forever, “according to the riches of his grace.” We are blessed according to the value of the blood of Jesus, and the riches of God’s grace.
Take another passage: (Rom. 5:1) “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Here, again, the same form of expression is used, “we have.” It is a present reality to faith. “We have peace with God.” The believer can truly say, “I know that my peace is made with God, and that nothing can ever disturb it. It rests on the eternal efficacy of the blood of Jesus, by which my sins were all put away on the cross. He “made peace by the blood of his cross.” (Col. 1:20.) Again, we read, that He, Christ Himself, is our peace, and “My peace I give unto you.” (Eph. 2:14; John 14:27.) From these texts it is quite clear, that Christ and His people stand on the same ground, before God, as to this great blessing, PEACE. Christ Himself is their peace. Well, we know that He can never lose His peace, therefore, they can never lose theirs. True, I admit, they may lose the enjoyment of it, and they may fail, practically, to exhibit it; but they can never lose the thing itself. This is a point in which many make a great mistake, who speak of peace as if it were a mere feeling—a certain state of mind. Now, we can understand a person feeling peaceful in his own mind, but the mind may soon change, and where is the peace then? No: there is much more than a mere feeling of the mind in the expression “Peace with God.” The finished work of Christ is the alone foundation of true, settled, solid peace in the sight of God. The believer is set in the presence of God, in virtue of that finished work, without his sins. He is at home and happy there.
Christ died: then I am clean;
“Not a spot within.”—
God’s mercy and love!
“Not a cloud above.”
‘Tis the Spirit, thro’ faith, thus triumphs o’er sin;
“Not a cloud above”— “not a spot within.”
Ever, most affectionately, yours,