I RECENTLY received a request for prayer for the gospel, which contained the following appeal: —
“I wish something could be done to wake up the meeting-people to WORK. They will patronize and approve and enjoy and possibly flatter you, but they will not work.”
These words were penned by a well-known, much-used and devoted servant of Christ, who had been preaching the gospel for many years. The pathos of them impressed me as I read them, knowing how true to fact they are in respect of all too many places, and as I thought upon them, I asked myself the reason for the apathy complained of. My mind turned to 2 Corinthians 5 where two motives for earnestness are brought before us and I concluded that the absence of these largely accounted for it.
The Apostle Paul could say, “The love of Christ constraineth us” (verse 14), and if this does not, what indeed will make our lives earnest? Christ’s death for all is brought before us, and believers rejoice in such an all-convincing proof of Christ’s love to them, but the Spirit of God would have us to understand that, if Christ died for all, this fact is absolute demonstration of the solemn truth that all were dead God-wards, in other words that our life in this world was forfeited by sin against God; otherwise, why should Christ have died for all?
As believers, we gladly confess that Christ died for us, but to what extent do we realize. that thereby we confess that we have no right to live to ourselves? This truth is very pointedly brought before us, for we read, “He died for all that they which live should not: henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again” (verse 15). Surely then the sincerity of the confession that “He died for us” is only truly measured by the extent that we live “unto Him,” in the power of the new life―eternal life― which is given to us by virtue of the death and resurrection of Christ.
How hotly we would condemn the ingratitude of one who had been saved from a watery grave by a brave rescuer and who afterward only sheaved a very apathetic interest in the one to whom he owed his life! And yet, does not the complaint at the head of this paper indicate how gross is the ingratitude which is all too general with Christians, on whose account Christ died?
Fellow believer, sit down and meditate on the words, “He died for ME.” Think of what was your state to make so great a sacrifice necessary, think of the sin against God! think of the life without God! think of the hell that lay at the end of it! Then consider the greatness of Him who died for you! of His sufferings in Gethsemane! of the effrontery of His unjust trial! of the agonies of His crucifixion! and above all, of His horror and anguish when He became the sin-bearer! It was what you deserved, what your sins merited. Do you believe it?
Now ponder on the greatness of His love that carried Him through all this for YOU, though the very anticipation caused Him such terrible agony of soul that “His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:4444And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. (Luke 22:44)). As these thoughts lay hold of mind and heart, do we not blush with shame at the selfishness of our lives and the coldness of our endeavor? My fellow-believer, meditate upon these wondrous proofs of Christ’s love until your soul is so filled with and impressed by it that you are constrained to “live unto Him.” Then hearty and active fellowship with the gospel will take the place of mere approval, and you will have the joy of helping to bring souls to Christ.
Then there is another motive brought before us that would constrain us to urge men to turn to God. The apostle tells us in verse 10 that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ: that everyone may receive the things done in the body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”
Solemn enough this is for the believer as he thinks of his life coming into review and only that which is done out of love to Christ receiving approval at that day, but a thousand-fold more solemn for the Christ rejecter, with whom there is nothing good and who will receive judgment for the bad at the great white throne on which Christ sits as judge—He who died for all. No wonder then that the apostle declares that “knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men” (verse 11).
Think of the doom of the one whose heart has been hardened by sin, who has been unresponsive to the pleadings of grace; let the terror of it lay hold of your soul as it did that of the apostle Paul, and you will not be able to refrain from active part and fellowship with those who seek to persuade men.
Does not the supineness complained of point to the fact that belief in this solemn truth has become feeble, that Christians have consciously or unconsciously been affected by the false doctrines of the “larger hope” or “annihilationism,” so that the future of the unconverted causes no horror to the mind. What then do the sufferings of Christ mean? What His cry of anguish, “My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Why should Christ die for all, if damnation is not the future of the unrepentant sinner? Any weakening of the belief in the eternal punishment of the unsaved, must weaken appreciation of the greatness of the work of Christ and diminish zeal for the conversion of others. Hence the Luke warmness of those who might and ought to be fellow-workers in the gospel.
Let us face facts— lack of conviction is the root of the trouble. The love of Christ constrained the apostle Paul to a life of devotion to Christ and His interests, and the terror of the Lord impelled him to persuade men; let us then allow the thought of the doom of the lost, and still more the thought of the love of Christ who died for all, so to fill our souls that at least in our case, no devoted servant of Christ shall be able to complain of our lack of active support as he seeks to tell out the story of grace.
How encouraging would this be to the preachers. The apostle Paul so found it, for he writes, “I thank my God... for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now” (Phil. 1:3-53I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, 5For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; (Philippians 1:3‑5)). May we give heed to the word, “stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:2727Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; (Philippians 1:27)).
A. F. Pollock.