At the close of a gospel meeting, a woman in great distress of soul remained to speak with me.
"Will you tell me what is troubling you?" I asked.
"O, sir," she said, "there is something more wanted.”
"Indeed! what is it?" I inquired.
"Well," she said, "I really trust in Jesus, I know that He died for me, but something more is wanted.”
"You are sure that Jesus died for you?" I asked.
"Yes, I am sure of it.”
"And that He is able to save you?" "Yes, I am sure of that.”
"Do you think that He is willing to save you?”
"O, I know that He is willing," was her earnest reply.
"And you tell me that you really trust Him as your Savior?”
"Yes," she said, "I do; but I am not happy; something more is wanted.”
"There is nothing more wanted to make you safe," I replied. "If you have really believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are as safe as He can make you. Not one poor sinner who trusted in Him was ever lost. But it is one thing to be safe and another thing to be sure about it. What you need is to have assurance, and this you may have on the authority of the Word of God.”
"Now here we have God's unchanging truth. He says, 'All that believe are justified.' Are you a believer?”
"Yes, I am," she answered.
"Then what does God say about you?" I asked.
"I'm justified," she answered with a sigh of relief.
"How do you know?" I queried. "It says so there," was her reply.
"Then do you want anything else?”
"Nothing more now, sir; that's enough" was her emphatic answer, as she saw for the first time, on the authority of God's Word that she belonged to the justified company, because she was one of the "all that believe.”
Thank God! His Word is true, and upon the authority of God's Word, every believer may say, "I'm justified.”
I quoted those same words to a young fellow who was longing to have peace with God.
"Let me look at the verse," he said, "I never saw it like that before.”
Slowly he read the verse over, and then rubbing his eyes as the light broke into his soul, he said, "Praise God, I'm justified.”
"How do you know that?" I asked.
"Why, 'The Book' says so," was his triumphant reply. Yes, the Book that never lies says, "By Him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses.”
Well might we praise God.
"What does justified mean?" said a hardheaded but conscience-stricken miner to me on one occasion.
"The man who is justified stands in God's sight as clear of all his sins as is Jesus the Savior.”
Placing his finger on the verse in my Bible, he asked, "Do you mean to tell me that if I believe that verse I shall be clear of my sins like that?”
"No," I answered. "What I say is, if in simple faith you look to Jesus for pardon and salvation, what that verse says about `All that believe' will be true of you.”
"I see that, and I thank God for it," was his happy response.
God's Word is reliable. You may safely rest in what it asserts, beloved, anxious soul.