IT is exceedingly encouraging for a soul, anxious to be saved, to be assured that there is but the solitary one way to heaven. If there were several ways to that happy place of life and love and glory, there would be a danger of missing the right one.
When on earth Christ said―
“I AM THE WAY.”
What a mercy that this one heavenly way is free to all alike, and that, so far as God is concerned, there is not the slightest reason why any should miss that way.
After man had done his worst towards the Lord Jesus, God raised Him from the dead, and exalted Him to His right hand to be “a Prince and a Saviour.” Thus God is, as it were, now in a position to offer faith to all. Therefore those who know their need of being saved, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ get saved. The mischief is that so many people are hindered by trying their own ways instead of God’s one way, and in some instances very earnestly too. But “let God be true!” “He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”
Some people imagine that law-keeping, praying, church going, alms deeds, paying their way, being as good as their neighbor, having their name at the head of the charitable subscription list, and the like, will suffice. We personally know a gentleman today who gave up two thousand five hundred pounds sterling a year of his income to make him feel more fit for God, and, when it did not furnish what he needed, he traveled two hundred miles to specially pray in St Paul’s Cathedral, London, but even this absolutely failed to supply the felt need. He afterward received Christ as his Saviour.
We are not fault-finding, but all such fruitless attempts to reach the heavenly home of eternal joy and rest remind us a good deal of
WHAT THE OLD ROMANS USED TO DO
to secure for their dying friends a free entrance to bliss. It is on record that those heathens placed a piece of money in the mouths of those departing this life, to pay their passage into the better land.
This is borne out by the tomb-rusted coins that have been dug up in corpses.
“All the fitness you require
Is to feel your need of Him!”
The Lord Jesus is a perfect Saviour. He needs no help. He has accomplished a full redemption. He was quite equal to the tremendous occasion, and to Him alone be all the praise! He came on purpose, and successfully, to bridge the distance from man’s ruin on earth to the endless joys of the Father’s house in glory, so that He might have companions there. All who accept Him get into the full benefit of His finished work. To merely know of Christ will not help you. Most people know something about Him, as, for instance, when they read the “year of our Lord” at the foot of public proclamations. But, dear reader, we ask,
Do you REALLY know HIM?
If, by faith, you have accepted Him as your Sinbearer, Substitute, and Glory-Winner, you are as sure of being like Him, forever in glory, as though you were actually there. But if you are still a stranger to that loving Saviour of sinners, remember that “neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved” (Acts 4:1212Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)).
THEN WHY NOT BE SAVED?
J. N.