“I DON’T think God will ever accept me,” said a poor woman, sobbing as if her heart would break in the misery of her soul, when two of the Lord’s servants called to see and speak with her.
“No, that He won’t,” replied one of them.
This unexpected rejoinder stopped the flow of tears at once as she looked at him, the very picture of astonishment. “He won’t accept me?”
“No, it is too late; He has accepted Another on your behalf.”
And forgetting for the moment herself and her penitential tears, which she seemed to think apparently were to be a great help, at least in her salvation, she listened with intense eagerness to the tale of God’s grace flowing out to poor helpless sinners, rejected after the flesh, on the ground of the finished work of Christ, and the acceptance of that blessed Man in the glory of God.
No troubled soul can get quit of its misery till it apprehends that. It is as natural as to breathe the air for the heart of man to think that something must be done, that in sonic form or way, morally or religiously, he must improve himself, if he is to be accepted of God. And all are very slow practically, even if they accept it doctrinally, to leave themselves out of court (if one may so put it) altogether in this momentous matter. “I” has such a very big place in the calculations of our poor deceitful hearts.
Two things, speaking broadly, are absolutely necessary for a soul to be truly happy in the sense of acceptance before God, and before they can go on to apprehend and enjoy all that His grace so richly bestows. Firstly we need to be justified, and secondly to be set free. God desires that we should have both peace and liberty. And both come to us through Christ. In the Old Testament it was a question of law-keeping to be acceptable with God on the earth. That day is past. Christ is the end of law. God has been glorified in Him, and by Him, and has glorified Him (John 13:31, 32, 17:4). After many hundred years of patient dealing with fallen man, it was fully demonstrated that he was utterly incorrigible, and in the death of Christ, God brought him judicially to all end, and set him aside once and forever. He was proved to be a hopeless good-for-nothing, both root and branch, after the flesh, worthless before God. So in infinite mercy He gave that man up, and brought him to an end, but introduced another Man, Jesus, His Son, our Lord.
The grave question of sin has been gone into and settled forever to the eternal glory of God. In His great love to the world He sent His Son. And He, the holy Lamb of God’s providing, offered Himself through the eternal Spirit without spot, was accepted, made sin, and judged as sin on the cross. He cried out, “It is finished,” and gave up the ghost. His precious blood was shed. He went into the grave. God raised that Man to highest glory. He is seated and crowned in His presence this day as the accepted Man. God has been glorified in that Man, and finds His heart’s joy in Him.
Now, on the ground of these accomplished facts, God is ready this moment to freely pardon and justify every one that believeth. Not that one, who, ignoring that God has given up fallen man in the flesh, still in his blindness and folly seeks to establish his own righteousness, but everyone who accepts God’s verdict against him, and submits to His righteousness. Every one (reader, why not you?) who, mistrusting himself, believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, and takes God at His word. He says to everyone who believes, that his sins are forgiven for His name’s sake, and that by Him he is justified from all things (1 John 2:1212I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. (1 John 2:12); Acts 13:3939And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:39)). God is just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. “Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 4:25,25Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25) vs. 1). It is all through Him, and not through you.
Moreover, through this same blessed, accepted Man, there is not only justification, but acceptance and liberty. It was only recently that the writer of these lines met with the case of one who, though rejoicing in the forgiveness of sins in youth, being won to Christ in the affection of a young heart, confessed many years afterward to have gone through great ploughings of conscience, and only just to have come into liberty. There are thousands of souls on all sides who pass through similar experiences. The gospel not only meets what I have done, but what I am. To be happy each must learn not only what it is to be justified through Christ, but what it is to be in Him before God. God forgives and justifies every believer, but does not accept us after the flesh. He has rejected us and accepted Christ. And to be happy, each soul must learn that experimentally. Each must learn that he has been crucified with Christ (Gal. 4:2020I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you. (Galatians 4:20)), and has died with him, and that he lives henceforth before God in Him. It is by learning our acceptance in Him, and not in ourselves, that we come into true liberty and are happy.
You may have some knowledge of the finished work of Christ, and have received some measure of blessing thereby, and yet, if still in any way seeking for good in yourself, you can only remain more or less in bondage and misery. But when we learn how utterly futile all our efforts are, and accept God’s verdict against ourselves, crying out, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” and thank Him through Another, Jesus Christ our Lord, liberty follows. We are made free (Rom. 8:22For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)). And if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed (John 8:3636If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. (John 8:36)).
You may go on for weeks, or months, or years even, self-occupied, and making miserable efforts to improve the flesh, the first fallen man, and this in multitudinous forms and ways, but there can be but one only result—misery. God has accepted another Man, the sinless, Holy One, who bore the judgment on Calvary. He has rejected you and accepted Christ. He bore the whole judgment of sin, died to it, and lives to God (Rom. 6:1010For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. (Romans 6:10)). He sits in glory, the accepted Man. And God gives the Spirit to everyone who believes Him and is justified, that we may be in Him. And when we, by the same Spirit, reckon that we have died to sin with Him, and live to God in Him (Rom. 6:1111Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:11)), we know and enjoy the blessed truth that He has accepted us in Christ, on the other side of death. But on this side, after the flesh, He will never accept either you or me or anyone else. So, and only so, do we enter upon liberty.
May He in His rich grace give you, dear reader, poor rejected one as to your own righteousness, to realize what it is to be justified through and accepted in the risen Christ, the triumphant, crowned, and coming Saviour, seated in highest glory at the right hand of God. Unto Him, and unto Him alone, be all the glory and all the praise in the salvation of any and every poor lost sinner who believes on His blessed and all-glorious name.
“He bore on the tree the sentence for me,
And now both the Surety and sinner are free.
Accepted I am in the once-offered Lamb,
It was God who Himself devised the plan.
Hallelujah! Thine the glory!
Hallelujah Amen!”
E. H. C.