I HAVE no doubt most of my readers have had some experience in the matter of what are called “Quarterly Accounts.” I was visiting a friend of mine just at the time of the year when these accounts are sent in. My friend asked me if I would call and pay some for him. I was going out, and therefore could do so.
I called at Number One, and said, “A friend of mine owes you an account; must you have it settled?”
“Yes, if it is owing,” he replied.
I said, “Yes, it is, but can you not be merciful, and let my friend off?”
“Well, no; if he has had the stuff, and owes me the money, he ought to pay.”
“Then you mean to have it settled?”
“Yes, if we can get the money.”
“But,” I said, “if I pay it for him, will that satisfy you?”
“Oh, yes,” he replied, “if the account is paid, that will be all right.”
“And my friend will be clear?”
Yes.”
“You owe an account to God; have you been able to settle that? “I then continued.
“I am afraid not,” he replied.
“Do you not know that we are all by nature in debt to God? What makes our case so bad is, that we have no means of meeting His claims; and remember, they are just, and God must have them settled, for God is righteous.”
“I was once in your position,” I added.” I found I could not settle the claims God had against me; but I found that while God was just, yet at the same time He was the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. Now, thank God! I know that all that God had against me has been settled by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
I left him, begging him never to rest till he rested in the only thing that could satisfy the claims of a holy God, the death of Christ.
God’s good news to you is, that―no matter how great be your debt―he that believeth on His Son shall not perish, but have everlasting life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)).
Dear reader! it may be you sometimes think of the time when you will have to face this account, for the Word of God says we must, every one of us, give an account of himself to God (Rom. 14:1212So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. (Romans 14:12)). Man is looked at as a steward, and will be asked to give an account of his stewardship, and he has been found guilty of wasting his Master’s goods.
This is true of man from the first. Read Genesis the sixth chapter and the fifth verse, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” There has been no improvement since this, for if you take Israel as a nation, they were put in the most favored position, ―brought out of bondage the most cruel, and brought into a good land watered with the dews of heaven, and flowing with milk and honey. God, speaking of it as His vineyard, says, it was in a very fruitful hill; He fenced it, and gathered out the stones, planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it; and also made a wine press therein, and looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes (Isa. 5:22And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. (Isaiah 5:2)).
And the further you get in the history of man, the same thing is seen. For when God, in love to this poor world, sent His Son, man said: “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.” And if you read the first and second chapters of Romans, you will see what man is, and what he has done; and Romans 3:10, 12,10As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: (Romans 3:10)
12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (Romans 3:12) says that “there is none righteous, no, not one: they are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
If then you bow to the Word of God, you must see that, by nature, all are lost. A holy God has weighed us in the balances, and found us wanting. Then it is that the love of God shines forth upon this scene of deep moral darkness; for from our side there was none that could help, but God said, “Deliver him from going down to the pit; for I have found a ransom;” and that ransom was His only begotten Son. He, by His death, has satisfied every claim that God had against us; and now God is just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.
Is not this “good news,” that a holy God is just, in forgiving a lost, guilty, unjust steward, that had been wasting his Master’s goods, if he believes in the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Perhaps you say, “Yes, but I must try and do my best to pay.” What can a man do, if he has not got anything to pay with? How can a man do anything if he has no strength? There may be a difference in the amount the two creditors owed―one, five hundred pence, the other only fifty―but in one thing they were both alike, they had nothing to pay with. How was their case met? They were both freely forgiven (see Luke 7:41, 4241There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. 42And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? (Luke 7:41‑42)).
God has found out the way to freely forgive every one that believeth. The debt has been paid by His Son. Jesus has finished the work of redemption, has died upon the cross, “the just lot the unjust, that he might bring us to God;” and now God is saying, not, I will make you pay what you owe, but, I can now freely forgive every one that believes in My well-beloved Son and the work He has finished.
Let me ask, Have you accepted this full and fret discharge from all that is against you? Thank God! there is this one way of clearance, but only this one way. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we 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)). Refuse this one way, and there is nothing for those that reject but the righteous judgment of God, and this you must meet. You will stand before the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-1511And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:11‑15)), and what will you be able to plead? That you had no way to meet the account that was against you? Nay, you will be standing before the very One that came into the world to pay what you and I could not pay, and you would not believe in the work He had finished!
Ah, dear friend! you will be like the man invited to the feast, ―the wedding garment was provided, but he had not availed himself of it. He went in to the feast, in his own dress. But the King came in to see the guests. He saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment. He said, “Friend! how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment?” and he was speechless. Then said the King to the servants, “Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 22:11-1311And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: 12And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. 13Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 22:11‑13)).
May you now accept His offer of mercy, and be saved through believing in the name of the only begotten Son of God!
E. H.