Is it possible that anyone can be saved now? Is it permissible that any one can be sure of it? These are questions that are important enough to demand an answer from us all. For if it is possible to be saved for eternity now, and Scriptural sanction is given for our speaking assuredly about it, then it is evidently the part of wisdom in all to have this as their own personal experience. God, Who is no respecter of persons, will not extend such assurance to some, and deny it to others who would seek for His salvation.
Mr. Wegener was of German birth. Like a majority of his countrymen, he was industrious, frugal, and conservative. He was a good citizen, a kind, indulgent husband and father, and a member of a German church. As to the matter of salvation, he was content to “leave that to the decision of a merciful God at the Judgment Day,” he would have told you.
Revival meetings in another German congregation, adjacent to the one of which he was a member, being held, his wife was induced by some of her neighbors to attend, and under the solemn preaching of the “Revivalist,” as they called him, was awakened to a sense of her need as a lost sinner. Ere long she had found rest to her sin-burdened soul, in the Good News message of God’s salvation through the finished work of Christ, Who had “died for our sins according, to the Scriptures.” (1 Cor. 15:3-4.) “Delivered” unto death for her offenses, her sins, He had been “raised” for her justification. (Rom. 4:25.) God was satisfied now, not with what she had done; but with what Christ did; and as she heard all this her heart opened to the Gospel, and she proved it, as millions have done, before and since her day, to be “the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” (Rom. 1:16.) Her heart was “filled with joy and peace in believing,” and in her new-found joy she witnessed with no uncertain sound to God’s great salvation, much to the displeasure of her conservative husband, who, in his affection for her, felt assured that she was as good as was needed, without this additional experience of being “saved.”
However, in the providence of God, the family moved their place of residence to a nearby city. Here they found much that was strange and new to them. The rush and crush of busy city life bewildered them. They missed the associates of their former simple life. Mrs. Wegener especially missed the warm-hearted Christians she had learned to love. The big city, with its worldly, pleasure-loving ways, had no charm for her. It seemed as though God was shut out of it all.
To her surprise, however, one day in answering a knock at the door, she found awaiting her a young man who, with a smile, offered her a Gospel paper, saying, “Here is something to read. It is about the Lord Jesus Christ and His salvation. And,” he added, “here is an invitation to some meetings in a Gospel Tent nearby, where you may hear more about it.”
Cautiously she accepted the papers, for she knew there were many religious deceivers abroad, with their soul-destroying teachings of one sort and another, but a few plain questions, which were frankly answered, disarmed her fears, and she rejoiced to find in him a kindred spirit, who knew and loved the Lord Jesus, and was seeking to go by the Word of God.
Naturally, she longed to have her husband go with her to the meetings, and occasionally he would humor her by accompanying her to the tent on a Sunday evening, where he heard of how, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, God could be just, and yet the Justifier of him who believes on Jesus. (Rom. 3:24-26.) One evening the question was asked him, “Are you saved, Mr. Wegener?” His reply was a hasty and evasive, “Yes, yes, I am all right.” “But,” kindly persisted his questioner, “are you sure you are saved?”
Abruptly he turned on his heel and walked away, ending the interview. For the moment it looked as though a mistake had been made in pressing the question, but the sequel showed it was God’s arrangement, for it proved His arrow for the conscience of our friend.
Some days passed by, days of anxiety and exercise for all. Many were praying for him, and, unknown to them, he was in agony, crying to God for himself. God’s arrows were deep in his soul, he was “finding grief and trouble,” with apparently no hope of deliverance. One night, unable to sleep, he arose, and partially dressing himself, he got a light, and, Bible in hand, knelt at a nearby chair, and cried in his distress for God’s salvation and the assurance of it.
Unerringly the Spirit of God guided him from Scripture to Scripture, each one telling the glorious fact that Christ had died for his sin, and on believing, even trusting Him, eternal life would be his portion. Here he rested, for God’s Light had shone in, Christ was his Saviour, and He was enough for Time and Eternity. He was saved! Yes, saved and sure of it.
One Sunday night, months after the memorable night of his deliverance, he listened to an earnest address on the love of God and of Christ, First, it was world-wide (John 3:16); second, it was a love embracing the Church (Eph. 5:25); third, it was the individual “He loved me.” (Gal. 2:20.)
When the service closed, he arose with tears of joy streaming down his cheeks, as he grasped the preacher’s hand and cried out, “Oh, that love of God! that love of God! and to think it was for me!” “Twice did he return to express his feelings thus, and at last with his beloved wife and daughter, who had accompanied him, he went home. Little did we know we would see him no more on earth, or that the One Whom he had trusted, and Who had given him to know His salvation, was ere twenty-four hours had gone by, to call him up higher! But so it was.
Early next morning while at his work, some of his fellow-workmen saw him stagger, and rushing to his assistance saved him from falling. But they could do nothing more. To him “sudden death meant sudden glory,” as it does to all who are “in Christ.” He was now “with Christ, which is far better.” Yes, “absent from the body and present with the Lord.”
One question, my friend, ere you lay this paper down. How would such a call find you? Are you saved and sure if it? Be very clear about this. Your eternal weal or woe is at stake. A mistake may — nay, will—mean the loss of your soul forever!
“Hark! Hark! Hark!
‘Tis a message of mercy free,
O sinner, thy crimson sins are dark,
But Jesus hath died for thee.”
T.D.W.M.