“Are you saved?”
“I wish I could say that I am; it is what I should like to be certain about.”
“If that is your sincere desire, and you are willing to be saved in God’s way, you need be in doubt no longer. Do you know your need of a Saviour?”
“I do.”
“Do you truly own in the presence of God that you are a ruined, guilty, helpless sinner?”
“I can say that I am totally unworthy of anything; in fact, I am so unfit that God would not receive me—I am such a sinner.”
“You are the very person whose case God has met; for Scripture says, ‘While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’” (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8).)
“But I have no love to God in my heart.”
“And God does not look for any from you until you have known and believed the love that God hath to you. It is written, ‘We love Him because He first loved us.’ The believer can say it was ‘When we were enemies that we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.’” (Rom. 5:1010For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (Romans 5:10))
“But I am so helpless to do anything that is right.”
“And that is your title to salvation, for, ‘When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.’ In whatever way you look at yourself the death of Christ meets your every need.”
“But I have broken the law of God, and earned its curse.”
“Then what have I to do?”
“Nothing, but believe. ‘The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart.... that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.’ (Rom. 10:8, 98But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:8‑9).) You have only to believe God, and this salvation is yours.”
“But I am afraid I have no faith; in fact, I am sure I have no faith; and ‘Without faith it is impossible to please Him.’”
“Most certainly I do.”
“Then you have faith that ‘God is.’ Now do you think that God would turn away one who is really seeking Him? Does it not say that ‘He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him’?”
“It does say so.”
“Let me point out to you where you are wrong. You make your sins, your merits, your feelings, your faith a saviour, instead of taking God’s word in its simplicity, and resting on the finished work of Christ. The true question is, ‘Did the Lord Jesus die?’”
“Yes, there is no doubt about that.”
“Now the next thing is, ‘for whom did He die?’”
“For sinners.”
“In 1 Tim. 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15) we read, ‘This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.’ If you admit that you are a lost sinner, then you admit that He came to die for you, for He came to seek and to save that which is lost; and, in the end of 2 Cor. 515And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:15)., we read, ‘God made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him’—that is, God put the Lord Jesus in the believer’s place, the place of judgment, and He now gives us a place in Christ in heaven.
“If God says that when we were sinners, ungodly, lawbreakers, lawless, and captives, Christ died for us, by the blood shed on Calvary’s cross propitiation has been made, all God’s claims fully met, and the ground of justification fully established, so that God can now freely justify by the blood of Christ. (Rom. 5:99Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. (Romans 5:9).)
“The question really is, Has Christ died? Is Christ risen? Has God accepted Him? Everything depends upon this. The word of God declares that He died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and He was raised for our justification, and by His one offering on the cross every claim is met.
“Do you want to come into the presence of God? ‘We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.’ (Heb. 10:1919Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, (Hebrews 10:19).)
“Do you feel the need of atonement? ‘It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.’ (Lev. 12:11.)
“Can you not say, ‘All, all I need in Thee I find?’”
“Yes, I do see all these blessed things.”
“Let us now turn to Rom. 10:1313For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:13), ‘Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.’ Now ‘whosoever’ means anybody and everybody, without an exception; and for that very reason it means you. Now, if you say you cannot believe, can you just call upon the Name of the Lord? The feeblest, weakest call is salvation! for He does not say, if you call long, or call loud, or call with certain feelings. It is a simple, unvarnished statement, that leaves no room for a question: ‘Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved’—not hope to be, but the positive, emphatic statement is, ‘shall be saved.’”
Will you set to your seal that God is true, and believe the record simply, solely, and wholly, because it is written in the word of the living God, which liveth and abideth forever? H. N.