IN a small town in the South of England some gospel addresses were recently given, which God graciously blessed to many.
Just before leaving there, I called on a young woman who had been interested. She at once said: “I am so glad to see you, for I want to ask you a question. When I go to your meetings and hear things said which seem so clear and simple, I always come away happy, and if any one asked me if I were saved, I should at once say, ‘Yes.’ But in a day or two something in my daily circumstances tries me, and I lose my temper. Then all my joy goes, and leaves me as miserable as possible. Now I want you to tell me if I am really saved.”
Seeing me take a Bible from my pocket, she said, “Oh, you always go to the Bible for everything.”
“Yes,” I replied, “I want you to rest, not on my word, but God’s.”
Turning to John 6:47,47Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. (John 6:47) “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life,” I asked, “Is that verse true of you?” Immediately she responded, “Yes, I do believe.” “Then have you everlasting life?” I asked.
Reading the verse again, she said, “Yes.”
“How do you know it?”
“That verse says so.”
“Exactly,” said I; “you have now answered your own question from the Word of God.”
“But why am I so often miserable?”
“Used you to become miserable when you lost your temper before you were converted?”
“No, it never troubled me then.”
“Quite so. Your being miserable when you fail proves that you are a child of God, instead (as you thought) of proving you are not one.
What you need to see is the difference between
Salvation and Communion.”
“Whatever do you mean?” she asked.
“Why, just this. Salvation depends on two things which never change—
the Work of Christ and the Word of God.
The former saves us, and the latter assures us we are saved. Here is a work which is eternal because perfect, and perfect because eternal—a work which the Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross when He said—
It is finished.
Nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it. Hence nothing can alter our salvation. ‘For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified’” (Heb. 10:1414For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. (Hebrews 10:14)).
As born into this world we receive Adam’s fallen evil nature, which hates God and loves sin. If left to ourselves we wander further in nature’s darkness, and nothing but the power of God can reach us. When we are “born again,” a new nature is communicated to us (see John 3:66That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3:6)) which loves God and hates sin.
Having believed the gospel of our salvation, the Holy Spirit, who was sent down from heaven at Pentecost (see John 14:16, 2616And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; (John 14:16)
26But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. (John 14:26); Acts 2), takes up His abode in our bodies (see 1 Cor. 6:19, 2019What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. (1 Corinthians 6:19‑20)), and we are sealed by that Holy Spirit of God unto the day of redemption (Eph. 1:13, 4:30).
Brought into this new place of relationship, we learn that God is our Father (Gal. 3:26, 4:6), and it is our privilege to walk as His children in the enjoyment of His perfect love, which the Holy Spirit gives us to know by unfolding the word which speaks of Christ, the Father’s gift.
God is our Father; Christ is our Saviour; and the Holy Spirit is our Comforter.
When you fail, instead of looking up and enjoying the sunshine of His love, you look within and find your heart is as God said, “deceitful above all things” (Jer. 17:99The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)).
Disappointed and distressed, you say: “It is no use trying. It is all over with me. I am lost after all.”
What has happened? Has the work of Christ changed and the Word of God altered? No!
You have changed.
Communion NOT salvation is broken. Communication is interrupted. What you need to see is how this can be restored.
This verse speaks of believers, and the confession here is not that of a sinner going to God as a Judge and being forgiven, but a child going to the Father because of the existing relationship.
It does not tell us to ask for forgiveness, but “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive.”
Confession is really more than asking for forgiveness. For instance, a boy runs to his father and says: “Father, I have broken the window. I am so sorry. You will forgive me, won’t you? I will not do it again. You will forgive me, won’t you, father?”
But the father wisely asks, “What were you doing when you broke it?”
“I threw a stone at my brother. It missed him and went through the window.”
The whole truth is now out. Nothing covered up. Not only the effect, but the cause. We need to confess not only what we have done, but why we did it, and judge both the fruit and our evil hearts—the root from whence it all springs. The word then is: “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness. The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from ALL sin” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)).
To confess our sins in the Father’s ear (which is always open to His children), and not be sure we are forgiven, is to deny that God is faithful and just, and call in question the precious blood of Christ in its abiding efficacy.
Salvation can never be lost, because it depends on Christ’s work. The joy of salvation, which is communion, maybe lost in a moment, because that depends on our walk and ways.
To be a happy Christian two things are necessary, viz., the Word of God, and prayer. Read the Word frequently, and pray often. When you fail (as, alas, we so often do), do not wait until you retire to rest at night, but confess it at once, whether you are in your business or walking through the street, or you will miss the joy of the Father’s love all the day.
The precious truth was new to her, but in simple faith she believed God’s Word. Seeing her eternal security in Christ and everlasting relationship with the Father, also the gracious provision He has made for His failing children, her heart was filled with joy and found its rest in His love.
Tidings have recently reached us that she is now “absent from the body and present with the Lord.”
She waits with Him, above all the trials and failures here, for that bright resurrection morning so soon to dawn, a morning without clouds, when the blessed Saviour Himself will come to raise the sleeping saints, change the living ones, and having fashioned all like unto His own body of glory, will introduce us into the Father’s house—never to offend His, eye or grieve His heart again—but according to the Father’s eternal purposes and counsels, to answer fully to His own infinite, ineffable love (1 Thess. 4:16, 1716For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16‑17); Phil. 2:20, 2120For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state. 21For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. (Philippians 2:20‑21); Eph. 5:25, 2725Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; (Ephesians 5:25)
27That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:27)).
A. T. P.