“I HAVE a great deal to do before I can expect peace,” or, “I don’t yet feel enough,” or, “I fear I have not repented enough,” or, “I do not love enough,” are expressions one has often heard, and show how entirely such are away from the true ground of peace. These statements are all based on the thought of something being necessary from the creature, and therefore show thorough darkness as to the fact that God has accomplished the work whereby perfect peace with Him alone is secured.
Among the many hindrances to souls having peace with God we may notice―
1. Indifference, or carelessness as to salvation. ―Many do not neglect family prayer, or even the repetition of prayers privately, but are not at all anxious as to present salvation. It may be, dear reader, that this is your case. You have not yet laid to heart the eternally solemn fact that “after death is judgment,” ―that you will have to give account of yourself to God. You have not really considered that you are now rushing onward to “the wrath to come.” Hence it is that you are so unconcerned about your eternal welfare, and so entirely occupied with the present gratification of your natural desires. If so, dear reader, may God deliver you from such carelessness, convince you of your guiltiness in His sight, and effectually warn you to flee from the coming eternal misery, by at once taking refuge in Jesus the only Saviour!
2. Ignorance. ―Alas! how many are perishing, in this land of Bibles, for lack of knowledge. It may be, dear reader, that you are saving within yourself, “I do the best I can,” or, “I am trying to do what I can to save my soul,” or, “I am trying to be good, and am more religious than many.” Ah, my friend, these remarks only show how entirely ignorant you are of God’s way of salvation. Plainly has He declared that it is “not of works, lest any man should boast.” Be assured that it is not by keeping commandments you can be saved, for Scripture says, “By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight.” And again, “To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” (See Rom. 3. 4. and Eph. 2).
3. Not submitting to God’s word, especially such Scriptures as show the utterly corrupt, and incurably bad state of man, as “they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” If this be not firmly held, there will be more or less looking to self-improvement, feelings, or experience for peace, instead of looking away from self to Christ alone, who has “made peace by the blood of His cross.” Unless the soul submit to the divine verdict of what we are in the flesh, how can we give all the glory to God, and take salvation as God’s free gift to us through His Son Jesus Christ? It is then essential for solid and abiding peace with God, that we take our true place before Him, that we allow the divine sentence that “the carnal mind is enmity against God: that it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be; so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Rom. 8.) When this position is taken before God, the soul is taught that God has judged, condemned, and set aside our standing in the flesh in the crucifixion of Christ, and that He has given us a new standing in life, righteousness, and eternal blessing in Christ risen and ascended. So that of such it is said, “Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.” Wondrous truth! Can you, dear reader, rejoice in this blessed testimony of God?
4. Trifling with a guilty conscience. ―You feel the burden of sins; you know you have transgressed God’s truth. The silent utterance of your heavy-laden soul is, “I have sinned against heaven, and before thee.” You are often truly wretched, and think no one so vile as yourself. And yet you foolishly think that by living a holy life for the future you will find happiness and rest. But whoever thinks of getting rid of the burden of old debts by trying if possible not to incur new ones? The thought is preposterous. God is love, but He is also righteous and true. There can be no way of deliverance from the guilt of transgression but by judgment. Resolutions to lead a better life fail. Efforts at amendment prove most disappointing. The self-flattering hopes of getting better only end in the soul consciously feeling worse. All these ways are false, and only trifle with a guilty conscience. God declares that “without shedding of blood there is no remission.” That it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul; and that the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth from sin. It is God then against whom we have so grievously sinned, who has provided peace for the guilty. He is truly “the God of peace,” and now preaches peace, even the forgiveness of sins, through Jesus Christ His Son. “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” (Acts 13:38, 3938Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:38‑39).) Thank God that sins were laid upon Jesus. He “suffered for sins, the just for the unjust.” He, who knew no sin, was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. God thus “condemned sin in the flesh” in His own Son, so that sin is “put away,” and “there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” Sin has thus been so righteously judged, that God Himself has been glorified in the work of atonement; and so true and just has been the condemnation, that God declares, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”
There is no need then to endeavor to cover over or to excuse sin. The blood which cleanseth from all sin has been shed, so that God can now righteously (yes, observe, righteously) forgive all who avail themselves of the virtue of that sacrifice. Look up then to Jesus, dear reader, a Lamb as it had been slain, now in the midst of the throne of heaven, gaze upon Him, remember His death upon the cross for sinners, that “He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace (or which purchased our peace) was upon Him, and with his stripes we are healed,” and you will realize a purged conscience, know what it is to be brought nigh to God, and be constrained to serve, honor, and love Him, because He first loved you.
5. The plague of a sinful nature is, perhaps, after all the most common hindrance to peace in anxious souls. Even after the conscience has found rest from the guilt of actual transgressions, it is the evil within, unknown to anyone else, that so distresses many conscientious and anxious persons. They say, “It is not so much what I have done that fills me with doubt and despondency, as what I am. It makes me truly wretched.” The fact is that an unclean nature is still carried about by cleansed souls. Indwelling sin is in them, though, as to their standing, they are “not in the flesh.” It is impossible that souls can get above the pressure of this evil, unless God’s testimony to the work of the cross be somewhat clearly apprehended. It is not only sin that were borne in Christ’s body on the tree, but He was a substitute for us. “Sin in the flesh,” ―think of those words― “sin in the flesh,” or, if you like, the evil nature, the thing that did the sin, or, as Scripture puts it, “our old man” was crucified in the crucifixion of Christ. Hence, said the apostle, “I am crucified with Christ.” The old nature, therefore, the old Adam standing we were in, has now no place before God. He sees us in another standing altogether. “The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” It is not only then that our actual transgressions have been righteously dealt with in death and judgment on the cross, but our old man, our evil nature, has been set aside by the cross in death and judgment. Hence we are told, “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” And because we still carry about the flesh, we are enjoined to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through (or in) Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 6:6-116Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:6‑11).) The comfort then of the work of the cross is not only that our sins have been put away, but wretched self, our old man, the flesh in which dwells nothing good, has been substitutionally under judgment and death, and thus we are righteously and forever delivered from it. If we allow it, and trust in it, the Father’s rod of discipline may be upon us, but the cross has delivered us from the eternal condemnation that it deserved, and we have the Holy Ghost given to us, not only to unite us with an ascended Head in glory, but as the power of life and godliness, communion, worship, and service.
We wait for Christ, when we shall have the redemption of the body. It is impossible to have abiding peace with God, unless we see that God has delivered us from ourselves, as well as from our sins, by the death of His beloved Son, and given us a new life, a new standing, and made us a new creation in Him risen and ascended. There is no difficulty in getting into the joy of this truth, except through unbelief; no effort is needed, no growth or attainment necessary; it is simply receiving God’s testimony about the work of the cross. When one cried out, “O wretched man,” ―not O my sins, but, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” how did he get deliverance? By simply looking up to God, and taking all thankfully from Him through Christ “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This is faith―receiving all from God, through believing His word about Christ, and His finished work. And what then? He knows, though he is delivered from the guilt and condemnation of the flesh―the old man―he has to go on till the end with the two natures; therefore he adds, “So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” (Rom. 7:24, 2524O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. (Romans 7:24‑25).)
Observe here that he accepts God’s sentence of death upon the old man, so that he disowns it, because he believes that God has judged it and set it aside in death on the cross. He therefore no longer calls it himself, he calls it “the flesh,” and himself he now recognizes as the new nature which alone is able to serve and please God. This is reckoning ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Dear reader! have you really accepted God’s testimony to the death and judgment of your old man in the cross of Christ? and have you therefore the sense in your soul of a new life and standing in Christ in the heavenlies? This is the true ground of peace.