"I have been seeking salvation for twenty-five years, and I have not found it yet." So said a man to a Christian friend.
Now seeking is very well; but he who seeks with blinded eyes may seek forever without finding. Especially is this true if he seek in the wrong place. This seeker after salvation, earnest as he was, had been seeking in the wrong place and with darkened eyes.
"And there are so many difficulties in the Bible," he added.
"Yes," replied his friend, "difficulties which an archbishop cannot explain. But the gospel of our salvation is simple. God made man; man sinned against God, and so deserved punishment. But God loved man, and sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who became a man that He might suffer for sin and bear its punishment in man's stead. And now since God's Son has borne the punishment due to sin God can righteously forgive sinful man and still be just”
"I have been to church services over and over again, and still I'm not saved," sighed the seeker. He had not heard what had been said to him.
"Very likely. But God does not say going to church will save us. We are saved through belief in Christ. Now, I can't solve all your difficulties, but this may help; at the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus, God the Father said: 'This is My beloved Son: hear Him.' Mark 9:77And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him. (Mark 9:7). So then we are to hear His words. Now turn to John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24). Will you read it?”
"He that heareth My word.”
"Stop a moment. Who was the speaker at the transfiguration?”
"God the Father.”
"Right. And who is the speaker here?”
"Christ.”
"Yes, and what does He say?”
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24).
"Then all depends upon hearing Christ's word, and believing on the Father who sent Him?”
"It looks like it," was the reply.
"Then have you heard? Will you believe?”
In answer to this question, like many another seeker, our friend once more wandered from the Scriptures, and so missed the point.
"My wife was a believer," said he. "I left her in perfect health, one morning. When I came home that night she was ill and soon died." Then tears came as he told the sad story. "She was a believer. I am sure she is now with Christ.”
"You want to go where she is, do you not?”
"That I do," said he.
"She found peace through believing the Lord Jesus who died for her. So must you.”
But the appeals were in vain; the poor man's eyes were still blind to the simple truth. Two weeks later the Christian called upon him again and asked how he was getting on. "Trying to make my peace with God," was the benighted reply.
"Give it up, man; give it up!" cried the Christian. "Peace has been made, peace by the blood of Christ which was shed on the cross. He said, 'It is finished,' and how can you try to make it in the face of His finished work?
"There is a picture on your wall which is complete. If your neighbor, the shoemaker, came along with his knife and began scraping off a bit of the paint, and then your neighbor, the whitewasher, brought his brush to put some color on—fancy such a scene! You would not allow such things in earthly matters.
"Now, Christ says of His work, 'It is finished.' All you can do is admire it, not try to add to it.”
Still the man could not perceive the truth, so he was left to think the matter over until the next visit. Then there was evidently a great change. "How is it now?" said my friend.
In reply the good man sang lustily a hymn learned when he was a boy:
"Not all the blood of beasts
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away its stain;
But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Took all my guilt away.
A sacrifice of nobler name
And richer blood than they.”