When I returned home one Lord's Day after a Gospel meeting, a young woman who was evidently in great distress was waiting. With trembling lips she greeted me with the question: "Sir, how can I approach God?”
"Are you anxious about your soul?" I asked in reply.
"I have been reading my Bible this afternoon," she said, "and I feel convinced as never before that I am a vile, guilty sinner, unfit for His presence.”
"Fine," said I. "The Holy Spirit is working with your soul, and by the written Word has shown you something of your real condition as a sinner against God. By that same Word you can also know that God loves sinners, though He hates sin; for He says in 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) that:
“‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'
"My young friend," I continued, "if you believe what God says, be assured that you can find access into God's presence only through the blood of Jesus, His Son. But she sadly shook her head and soon left.
A few days later I met her again. In tears she still bewailed her hell-deserving condition. She said: "I know that Jesus died for sinners; but I cannot find a way to approach God for myself.”
In this state she continued for some time, and it became quite evident to me that, though she talked about Jesus, she did not know who Jesus was. That He, as God's dear Son, was truly, "God manifest in the flesh," had not been revealed to her. It was my task, therefore, to help her see by the Scriptures that, though Jesus as man was "made of a woman," yet He was truly the Son of God. It was as God's Son that Jesus was sent by the Father to do that mighty work on Calvary God and Man in one Person.
To help her see more clearly, I told her that Jesus said, "No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6). "Hence," I added, "the way to approach to God is only through Jesus, the Son of God, crucified, dead, buried, and risen. He is now at the right hand of God; and we have this most gracious assurance: 'He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.'" Heb. 7:2525Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25).
We then knelt and I earnestly prayed that she might be enabled, by the Holy Ghost, to come to God by Christ. Her whole soul seemed to cry out for the peace of God, and I knew she could find it only by way of the cross of Christ.
When we rose from our knees her tears were gone, and a smile had displaced the gloom from her countenance. She said: "I am happy now, sir!”
"What makes you happy?" said I.
"Oh, sir, during that prayer a bit of Scripture came into my mind, and it has brought sweet comfort to my soul. It seemed as if God spoke to my heart. It was something about, Tor Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God'." 1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18).
"Can you really approach God?" said I.
"Oh, yes, sir. I can approach God now without fear through Jesus, His Son.”
This is the substance of my conversation with this young woman, and it is related because it may meet the need of some others similarly exercised, who, knowing something of God's holiness and their sinfulness, are saying, "How can I approach God?”