He who spoke and wrote this message will
be greatly disappointed if it does not lead many to the Lord Jesus. It is sent forth in
childlike dependence upon the power of God the Holy Ghost, to use it in the conversion of
millions, if so He pleases. No doubt many poor men and women will take up this little
volume, and the Lord will visit them with grace. To answer this end, the very plainest
language has been chosen, and many homely expressions have been used. But if those of
wealth and rank should glance at this book, the Holy Ghost can impress them also; since
that which can be understood by the unlettered is none the less attractive to the
instructed. Oh that some might read it who will become great winners of souls!
Who knows how many will find their way to peace by what they read here? A more important
question to you, dear reader, is this—Will you be one of them?
A certain man placed a fountain by the wayside, and he hung up a cup near to it by a
little chain. He was told some time after that a great art-critic had found much fault
with its design. "But," said he, "do many thirsty persons drink at
it?" Then they told him that thousands of poor people, men, women, and children,
slaked their thirst at this fountain; and he smiled and said, that he was little troubled
by the critic's observation, only he hoped that on some sultry summer's day the critic
himself might fill the cup, and he refreshed, and praise the name of the Lord.
Here is my fountain, and here is my cup: find fault if you please; but do drink of the
water of life. I only care for this. I had rather bless the soul of the poorest
crossing-sweeper, or rag-gatherer, than please a prince of the blood, and fail to convert
him to God.
Reader, do you mean business in reading these pages? If so, we are agreed at the outset;
but nothing short of your finding Christ and Heaven is the business aimed at here. Oh that
we may seek this together! I do so by dedicating this little book with prayer. Will not
you join me by looking up to God, and asking Him to bless you while you read? Providence
has put these pages in your way, you have a little spare time in which to read them, and
you feel willing to give your attention to them. These are good signs. Who knows but the
set time of blessing is come for you? At any rate, "The Holy Ghost saith, Today, if
ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. "
I heard a story; I think it came from the North Country: A minister called upon a poor woman, intending to give her help; for he knew that she was very poor. With his money in his hand, he knocked at the door; but she did not answer. He concluded she was not at home, and went his way. A little after he met her at the church, and told her that he had remembered her need: "I called at your house, and knocked several times, and I suppose you were not at home, for I had no answer." "At what hour did you call, sir?" "It was about noon." "Oh, dear," she said, "I heard you, sir, and I am so sorry I did not answer; but I thought it was the man calling for the rent." Many a poor woman knows what this meant. Now, it is my desire to be heard, and therefore I want to say that I am not calling for the rent; indeed, it is not the object of this book to ask anything of you, but to tell you that salvation is all of grace, which means, free, gratis, for nothing.
Oftentimes, when we are anxious to win attention, our hearer thinks, " Ah! now I am
going to be told my duty. It is the man calling for that which is due to God, and I am
sure I have nothing wherewith to pay. I will not be at home." No, this book does not
come to make a demand upon you, but to bring you something. We are not going to talk about
law, and duty, and punishment, but about love, and goodness, and forgiveness, and mercy,
and eternal life. Do not, therefore, act as if you were not at home: do not turn a deaf
ear, or a careless heart. I am asking nothing of you in the name of God or man. It is not
my intent to make any requirement at your hands; but I come in God's name, to bring you a
free gift, which it shall be to your present and eternal joy to receive. Open the door,
and let my pleadings enter. "Come now, and let us reason together." The Lord
himself invites you to a conference concerning your immediate and endless happiness, and
He would not have done this if He did not mean well toward you. Do not refuse the Lord
Jesus who knocks at your door; for He knocks with a hand which was nailed to the tree for
such as you are. Since His only and sole object is your good, incline your ear and come to
Him. Hearken diligently, and let the good word sink into your soul. It may be that the
hour is come in which you shall enter upon that new life which is the beginning of heaven.
Faith cometh by hearing, and reading is a sort of hearing: faith may come to you while you
are reading this book. Why not? O blessed Spirit of all grace, make it so!
This message is for you. You will find the text in the Epistle to the Romans, in the fourth chapter and the fifth verse:
To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
I call your attention to those words,
"Him that justifieth the ungodly." They seem to me to be very wonderful words.
Are you not surprised that there should be such an expression as that in the Bible,
"That justifieth the ungodly?" I have heard that men that hate the doctrines of
the cross bring it as a charge against God, that He saves wicked men and receives to
Himself the vilest of the vile. See how this Scripture accepts the charge, and plainly
states it! By the mouth of His servant Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, He
takes to Himself the title of "Him that justifieth the ungodly." He makes those
just who are unjust, forgives those who deserve to be punished, and favors those who
deserve no favor. You thought, did you not, that salvation was for the good? that God's
grace was for the pure and holy, who are free from sin? It has fallen into your mind that,
if you were excellent, then God would reward you; and you have thought that because you
are not worthy, therefore there could be no way of your enjoying His favor. You must be
somewhat surprised to read a text like this: "Him that justifieth the ungodly. "
I do not wonder that you are surprised; for with all my familiarity with the great grace
of God, I never cease to wonder at it. It does sound surprising, does it not, that it
should be possible for a holy God to justify an unholy man? We, according to the natural
legality of our hearts, are always talking about our own goodness and our own worthiness,
and we stubbornly hold to it that there must be somewhat in us in order to win the notice
of God. Now, God, who sees through all deceptions, knows that there is no goodness
whatever in us. He says that "there is none righteous, no not one." He knows
that "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags," and, therefore the Lord Jesus
did not come into the world to look after goodness and righteousness with him, and to
bestow them upon persons who have none of them. He comes, not because we are just, but to
make us so: he justifieth the ungodly.
When a counsellor comes into court, if he is an honest man, he desires to plead the case
of an innocent person and justify him before the court from the things which are falsely
laid to his charge. It should be the lawyer's object to justify the innocent person, and
he should not attempt to screen the guilty party. It lies not in man's right nor in man's
power truly to justify the guilty. This is a miracle reserved for the Lord alone. God, the
infinitely just Sovereign, knows that there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good
and sinneth not, and therefore, in the infinite sovereignty of His divine nature and in
the splendor of His ineffable love, He undertakes the task, not so much of justifying the
just as of justifying the ungodly. God has devised ways and means of making the ungodly
man to stand justly accepted before Him: He has set up a system by which with perfect
justice He can treat the guilty as if he had been all his life free from offence, yea, can
treat him as if he were wholly free from sin. He justifieth the ungodly.
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. It is a very surprising thing—a
thing to be marveled at most of all by those who enjoy it. I know that it is to me even to
this day the greatest wonder that I ever heard of, that God should ever justify me. I feel
myself to be a lump of unworthiness, a mass of corruption, and a heap of sin, apart from
His almighty love. I know by a full assurance that I am justified by faith which is in
Christ Jesus, and treated as if I had been perfectly just, and made an heir of God and a
joint heir with Christ; and yet by nature I must take my place among the most sinful. I,
who am altogether undeserving, am treated as if I had been deserving. I am loved with as
much love as if I had always been godly, whereas aforetime I was ungodly. Who can help
being astonished at this? Gratitude for such favor stands dressed in robes of wonder.
Now, while this is very surprising, I want you to notice how available it makes the gospel
to you and to me. If God justifieth the ungodly, then, dear friend, He can justify you. Is
not that the very kind of person that you are? If you are unconverted at this moment, it
is a very proper description of you; you have lived without God, you have been the reverse
of godly; in one word, you have been and are ungodly. Perhaps you have not even attended a
place of worship on Sunday, but have lived in disregard of God's day, and house, and
Word—this proves you to have been ungodly. Sadder still, it may be you have even
tried to doubt God's existence, and have gone the length of saying that you did so. You
have lived on this fair earth, which is full of the tokens of God's presence, and all the
while you have shut your eyes to the clear evidences of His power and Godhead. You have
lived as if there were no God. Indeed, you would have been very pleased if you could have
demonstrated to yourself to a certainty that there was no God whatever. Possibly you have
lived a great many years in this way, so that you are now pretty well settled in your
ways, and yet God is not in any of them. If you were labeled
UNGODLY
it would as well describe you as if the sea were to be labeled salt water. Would
it not?
Possibly you are a person of another sort; you have regularly attended to all the outward
forms of religion, and yet you have had no heart in them at all, but have been really
ungodly. Though meeting with the people of God, you have never met with God for yourself;
you have been in the choir, and yet have not praised the Lord with your heart. You have
lived without any love to God in your heart, or regard to his commands in your life. Well,
you are just the kind of man to whom this gospel is sent—this gospel which says that
God justifieth the ungodly. It is very wonderful, but it is happily available for you. It
just suits you. Does it not? How I wish that you would accept it! If you are a sensible
man, you will see the remarkable grace of God in providing for such as you are, and you
will say to yourself, "Justify the ungodly! Why, then, should not I be justified, and
justified at once?"
Now, observe further, that it must be so—that the salvation of God is for those who
do not deserve it, and have no preparation for it. It is reasonable that the statement
should be put in the Bible; for, dear friend, no others need justifying but those who have
no justification of their own. If any of my readers are perfectly righteous, they want no
justifying. You feel that you are doing your duty well, and almost putting heaven under an
obligation to you. What do you want with a Saviour, or with mercy? What do you want with
justification? You will be tired of my book by this time, for it will have no interest to
you.
If any of you are giving yourselves such proud airs, listen to me for a little while. You
will be lost, as sure as you are alive. You righteous men, whose righteousness is all of
your own working, are either deceivers or deceived; for the Scripture cannot lie, and it
saith plainly, "There is none righteous, no, not one." In any case I have no
gospel to preach to the self-righteous, no, not a word of it. Jesus Christ himself came
not to call the righteous, and I am not going to do what He did not do. If I called you,
you would not come, and, therefore, I will not call you, under that character. No, I bid
you rather look at that righteousness of yours till you see what a delusion it is. It is
not half so substantial as a cobweb. Have done with it! Flee from it! Oh believe that the
only persons that can need justification are those who are not in themselves just! They
need that s omething should be done for them to make them just before the judgment seat of
God. Depend upon it, the Lord only does that which is needful. Infinite wisdom never
attempts that which is unnecessary. Jesus never undertakes that which is superfluous. To
make him just who is just is no work for God—that were a labor for a fool; but to
make him just who is unjust—that is work for infinite love and mercy. To justify the
ungodly—this is a miracle worthy of a God. And for certain it is so.
Now, look. If there be anywhere in the world a physician who has discovered sure and
precious remedies, to whom is that physician sent? To those who are perfectly healthy? I
think not. Put him down in a district where there are no sick persons, and he feels that
he is not in his place. There is nothing for him to do. "The whole have no need of a
physician, but they that are sick." Is it not equally clear that the great remedies
of grace and redemption are for the sick in soul? They cannot be for the whole, for they
cannot be of use to such. If you, dear friend, feel that you are spiritually sick, the
Physician has come into the world for you. If you are altogether undone by reason of your
sin, you are the very person aimed at in the plan of salvation. I say that the Lord of
love had just such as you are in His eye when He arranged the system of grace. Suppose a
man of generous spirit were to resolve to forgive all those who were indebted to him; it
is clear that this can only apply to those really in his debt. One person owes him a
thousand pounds; another owes him fifty pounds; each one has but to have his bill
receipted, and the liability is wiped out. But the most generous person cannot forgive the
debts of those who do not owe him anything. It is out of the power of Omnipotence to
forgive where there is no sin. Pardon, therefore, cannot be for you who have no sin.
Pardon must be for the guilty. Forgiveness must be for the sinful. It were absurd to talk
of forgiving those who do not need forgiveness—pardoning those who have never
offended.
Do you think that you must be lost because you are a sinner? This is the reason why you
can be saved. Because you own yourself to be a sinner I would encourage you to believe
that grace is ordained for such as you are. One of our hymn-writers even dared to say:
A sinner is a sacred thing;
The Holy Ghost hath made him so.
It is truly so, that Jesus seeks and saves that which is lost. He died and made a real
atonement for real sinners. When men are not playing with words, or calling themselves
"miserable sinners," out of mere compliment, I feel overjoyed to meet with them.
I would be glad to talk all night to bona fide sinners. The inn of mercy never closes its
doors upon such, neither weekdays nor Sunday. Our Lord Jesus did not die for imaginary
sins, but His heart's blood was spilt to wash out deep crimson stains, which nothing else
can remove.
He that is a black sinner—he is the kind of man that Jesus Christ came to make white.
A gospel preacher on one occasion preached a sermon from, " Now also the axe is laid
to the root of the trees," and he delivered such a sermon that one of his hearers
said to him, "One would have thought that you had been preaching to criminals. Your
sermon ought to have been delivered in the county jail." "Oh, no," said the
good man, "if I were preaching in the county jail, I should not preach from that
text, there I should preach 'This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.' " Just so. The law is for the
self-righteous, to humble their pride: the gospel is for the lost, to remove their
despair.
If you are not lost, what do you want with a Saviour? Should the shepherd go after those
who never went astray? Why should the woman sweep her house for the bits of money that
were never out of her purse? No, the medicine is for the diseased; the quickening is for
the dead; the pardon is for the guilty; liberation is for those who are bound: the opening
of eyes is for those who are blind. How can the Saviour, and His death upon the cross, and
the gospel of pardon, be accounted for, unless it be upon the supposition that men are
guilty and worthy of condemnation? The sinner is the gospel's reason for existence. You,
my friend, to whom this word now comes, if you are undeserving, ill-deserving,
hell-deserving, you are the sort of man for whom the gospel is ordained, and arranged, and
proclaimed. God justifieth the ungodly.
I would like to make this very plain. I hope that I have done so already; but still, plain
as it is, it is only the Lord that can make a man see it. It does at first seem most
amazing to an awakened man that salvation should really be for him as a lost and guilty
one. He thinks that it must be for him as a penitent man, forgetting that his penitence is
a part of his salvation. "Oh," says he, "but I must be this and that,"
—all of which is true, for he shall be this and that as the result of salvation; but
salvation comes to him before he has any of the results of salvation. It comes to him, in
fact, while he deserves only this bare, beggarly, base, abominable description,
"ungodly." That is all he is when God's gospel comes to justify him.
May I, therefore, urge upon any who have no good thing about them—who fear that they
have not even a good feeling, or anything whatever that can recommend them to
God—that they will firmly believe that our gracious God is able and willing to take
them without anything to recommend them, and to forgive them spontaneously, not because
they are good, but because He is good. Does He not make His sun to shine on the evil as
well as on the good? Does He not give fruitful seasons, and send the rain and the sunshine
in their time upon the most ungodly nations? Ay, even Sodom had its sun, and Gomorrah had
its dew. Oh friend, the great grace of God surpasses my conception and your conception,
and I would have you think worthily of it ! As high as the heavens are above the earth; so
high are God's thoughts above our thoughts. He can abundantly pardon. Jesus Christ came
into the w orld to save sinners: forgiveness is for the guilty.
Do not attempt to touch yourself up and make yourself something other than you really are;
but come as you are to Him who justifies the ungodly. A great artist some short time ago
had painted a part of the corporation of the city in which he lived, and he wanted, for
historic purposes, to include in his picture certain characters well known in the town. A
crossing-sweeper, unkempt, ragged, filthy, was known to everybody, and there was a
suitable place for him in the picture. The artist said to this ragged and rugged
individual, "I will pay you well if you will come down to my studio and let me take
your likeness." He came round in the morning, but he was soon sent about his
business; for he had washed his face, and combed his hair, and donned a respectable suit
of clothes. He was needed as a beggar, and was not invited in any other capacity. Even so,
the gospel will receive you into its halls if you come as a sinner, not otherwise. Wait
not for reformation, but come at once for salvation. God justifieth the ungodly, and that
takes you up where you now are: it meets you in your worst estate.
Come in your deshabille [disorder]. I mean, come to your heavenly Father in all your sin
and sinfulness. Come to Jesus just as you are, leprous, filthy, naked, neither fit to live
nor fit to die. Come, you that are the very sweepings of creation; come, though you hardly
dare to hope for anything but death. Come, though despair is brooding over you, pressing
upon your bosom like a horrible nightmare. Come and ask the Lord to justify another
ungodly one. Why should He not? Come for this great mercy of God is meant for such as you
are. I put it in the language of the text, and I cannot put it more strongly: the Lord God
Himself takes to Himself this gracious title, " Him that justifieth the
ungodly." He makes just, and causes to be treated as just, those who by nature are
ungodly. Is not that a wonderful word for you? Reader, do not delay till you have well
considered this matter.
Romans 8:33
A wonderful thing it is, this being
justified, or made just. If we had never broken the laws of God we should not have needed
it, for we should have been just in ourselves. He who has all his life done the things
which he ought to have done, and has never done anything which he ought not to have done,
is justified by the law. But you, dear reader, are not of that sort, I am quite sure. You
have too much honesty to pretend to be without sin, and therefore you need to be
justified.
Now, if you justify yourself, you will simply be a self-deceiver. Therefore do not attempt
it. It is never worth while.
If you ask your fellow mortals to justify you, what can they do? You can make some of them
speak well of you for small favors, and others will backbite you for less. Their judgment
is not worth much.
Our text says, "It is God that
justifieth," and this is a deal more to the point. It is an astonishing fact, and one
that we ought to consider with care. Come and see.
In the first place, nobody else but God would ever have thought of justifying those who
are guilty. They have lived in open rebellion; they have done evil with both hands; they
have gone from bad to worse; they have turned back to sin even after they have smarted for
it, and have therefore for a while been forced to leave it. They have broken the law, and
trampled on the gospel. They have refused proclamations of mercy, and have persisted in
ungodliness. How can they be forgiven and justified? Their fellowmen, despairing of them,
say, "They are hopeless cases." Even Christians look upon them with sorrow
rather than with hope. But not so their God. He, in the splendor of his electing grace
having chosen some of them before the foundation of the world, will not rest till He has
justified them, and made them to be accepted in the Beloved. Is it not written, "
Whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called them he also justified:
and whom he justified, them he also glorified"? Thus you see there are some whom the
Lord resolves to justify: why should not you and I be of the number?
None but God would ever have thought of justifying me. I am a wonder to myself. I doubt
not that grace is equally seen in others. Look at Saul of Tarsus, who foamed at the mouth,
against God's servants. Like a hungry wolf, he worried the lambs and the sheep right and
justify; and yet God struck him down on the road to Damascus, and changed his heart, and
so fully justified him that ere long, this man became the greatest preacher of
justification by faith that ever lived. He must often have marveled that he was justified
by faith in Christ Jesus; for he was once a determined stickler for salvation by the works
of the law. None but God would have ever thought of justifying such a man as Saul the
persecutor; but the Lord God is glorious in grace.
But, even if anybody had thought of justifying the ungodly, none but God could have done
it. It is quite impossible for any person to forgive offences which have not been
committed against himself. A person has greatly injured you; you can forgive him, and I
hope you will; but no third person can forgive him apart from you. If the wrong is done to
you, the pardon must come from you. If we have sinned against God, it is in God's power to
forgive; for the sin is against Himself. That is why David says, in the fifty-first Psalm:
"Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight"; for
then God, against whom the offence is committed, can put the offence away. That which we
owe to God, our great Creator can remit, if so it pleases Him; and if He remits it, it is
remitted. None but the great God, against whom we have committed the sin, can blot out
that sin; let us, therefore, see that we go to Him and seek mercy at His hands. Do not let
us be led aside by those who would have us confess to them; they have no warrant in the
Word of God for their pretensions. But even if they were ordained to pronounce absolution
in God's name, it must still be better to go ourselves to the great Lord through Jesus
Christ, the Mediator, and seek and find pardon at His hand; since we are sure that this is
the right way. Proxy religion involves too great a risk: you had better see to your soul's
matters yourself, and leave them in no man's hands.
Only God can justify the ungodly; but He can do it to perfection. He casts our sins behind
His back, He blots them out; He says that though they be sought for, they shall not be
found. With no other reason for it but His own infinite goodness, He has prepared a
glorious way by which He can make scarlet sins as white as snow, and remove our
transgressions from us as far as the east is from the west. He says, "I will not
remember your sins. " He goes the length of making an end of sin. One of old called
out in amazement, "Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth
by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever,
because he delighteth in mercy" (Micah 7:18).
We are not now speaking of justice, nor of God's dealing with men according to their
deserts. If you profess to deal with the righteous Lord on law terms, everlasting wrath
threatens you, for that is what you deserve. Blessed be His name, He has not dealt with us
after our sins; but now He treats with us on terms of free grace and infinite compassion,
and He says, "I will receive you graciously, and love you freely." Believe it,
for it is certainly true that the great God is able to treat the guilty with abundant
mercy; yea, He is able to treat the ungodly as if they had been always godly. Read
carefully the parable of the prodigal son, and see how the forgiving father received the
returning wanderer with as much love as if he had never gone away, and had never defiled
himself with harlots. So far did he carry this that the elder brother began to grumble at
it; but the father never withdrew his love. Oh my brother, however guilty you may be, if
you will only come back to your God and Father, He will treat you as if you had never done
wrong! He will regard you as just, and deal with you accordingly. What say you to this?
Do you not see—for I want to bring this out clearly, what a splendid thing it
is—that as none but God would think of justifying the ungodly, and none but God could
do it, yet the Lord can do it? See how the apostle puts the challenge, "Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth." If God has
justified a man it is well done, it is rightly done, it is justly done, it is
everlastingly done. I read a statement in a magazine which is full of venom against the
gospel and those who preach it, that we hold some kind of theory by which we imagine that
sin can be removed from men. We hold no theory, we publish a fact. The grandest fact under
heaven is this—that Christ by His precious blood does actually put away sin, and that
God, for Christ's sake, dealing with men on terms of divine mercy, forgives the guilty and
justifies them, not according to anything that He sees in them, or foresees will be in
them, but according to the riches of His mercy which lie in His own heart. This we have
preached, do preach, and will preach as long as we live. "It is God that
justifieth"—that justifieth the ungodly; He is not ashamed of doing it, nor are
we of preaching it.
The justification which comes from God himself must be beyond question. If the Judge
acquits me, who can condemn me? If the highest court in the universe has pronounced me
just, who shall lay anything to my charge? Justification from God is a sufficient answer
to an awakened conscience. The Holy Spirit by its means breathes peace over our entire
nature, and we are no longer afraid. With this justification we can answer all the
roarings and railings of Satan and ungodly men. With this we shall be able to die: with
this we shall boldly rise again, and face the last great assize.
Bold shall I stand in that great day,
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
While by my Lord absolved I am
From sin's tremendous curse and blame.
Zinzendorf
Friend, the Lord can blot out all your sins. I make no shot in the dark when I say this.
"All manner of sin and of blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." Though you are
steeped up to your throat in crime, He can with a word remove the defilement, and say,
"I will, be thou clean." The Lord is a great forgiver.
"I believe in the Forgiveness of
Sins." Do You?
He can even at this hour pronounce the sentence, "Thy sins be forgiven thee; go in
peace;" and if He do this, no power in Heaven, or earth, or under the earth, can put
you under suspicion, much less under wrath. Do not doubt the power of Almighty love. You
could not forgive your fellow man had he offended you as you have offended God; but you
must not measure God's corn with your bushel; His thoughts and ways are as much above
yours as the heavens are high above the earth.
"Well," say you, "it would be a great miracle if the Lord were to pardon
me." Just so. It would be a supreme miracle, and therefore He is likely to do it; for
He does "great things and unsearchable" which we looked not for.
I was myself stricken down with a horrible sense of guilt, which made my life a misery to
me; but when I heard the command, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the
earth, for I am God and there is none else "—I looked, and in a moment the Lord
justified me. Jesus Christ, made sin for me, was what I saw, and that sight gave me rest.
When those who were bitten by the fiery serpents in the wilderness looked to the serpent
of brass they were healed at once; and so was I when I looked to the crucified Saviour.
The Holy Spirit, who enabled me to believe, gave me peace through believing. I felt as
sure that I was forgiven, as before I felt sure of condemnation. I had been certain of my
condemnation because the Word of God declared it, and my conscience bore witness to it;
but when the Lord justified me I was made equally certain by the same witnesses. The word
of the Lord in the Scripture saith, "He that believeth on him is not condemned,"
and my conscience bears witness that I believed, and that God in pardoning me is just.
Thus I have the witness of the Holy Spirit and my own conscience, and these two agree in
one. Oh, how I wish that my reader would receive the testimony of God upon this matter,
and then full soon he would also have the witness in himself!
I venture to say that a sinner justified by God stands on even a surer footing than a
righteous man justified by his works, if such there be. We could never be surer that we
had done enough works; conscience would always be uneasy lest, after all, we should come
short, and we could only have the trembling verdict of a fallible judgment to rely upon;
but when God himself justifies, and the Holy Spirit bears witness thereto by giving us
peace with God, why then we feel that the matter is sure and settled, and we enter into
rest. No tongue can tell the depth of that calm which comes over the soul which has
received the peace of God which passeth all understanding.
We hav seen the ungodly justified, and
have considered the great truth, that only God can justify any man; we now come a step
further and make the inquiry—How can a just God justify guilty men? Here we are met
with a full answer in the words of Paul, in Romans 3:21-26. We will read six verses from
the chapter so as to get the run of the passage:
"But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
Here suffer me to give you a bit of personal experience. When I was under the hand of the
Holy Spirit, under conviction of sin, I had a clear and sharp sense of the justice of God.
Sin, whatever it might be to other people, became to me an intolerable burden. It was not
so much that I feared hell, but that I feared sin. I knew myself to be so horribly guilty
that I remember feeling that if God did not punish me for sin He ought to do so. I felt
that the Judge of all the earth ought to condemn such sin as mine. I sat on the judgment
seat, and I condemned myself to perish; for I confessed that had I been God I could have
done no other than send such a guilty creature as I was down to the lowest hell. All the
while, I had upon my mind a deep concern for the honor of God's name, and the integrity of
His moral government. I felt that it would not satisfy my conscience if I could be
forgiven unjustly. The sin I had committed must be punished. But then there was the
question how God could be just, and yet justify me who had been so guilty. I asked my
heart: "How can He be just and yet the justifier? " I was worried and wearied
with this question; neither could I see any answer to it. Certainly, I could never have
invented an answer which would have satisfied my conscience.
The doctrine of the atonement is to my mind one of the surest proofs of the divine
inspiration of Holy Scripture. Who would or could have thought of the just Ruler dying for
the unjust rebel? This is no teaching of human mythology, or dream of poetical
imagination. This method of expiation is only known among men because it is a fact;
fiction could not have devised it. God Himself ordained it; it is not a matter which could
have been imagined.
I had heard the plan of salvation by the sacrifice of Jesus from my youth up; but I did
not know any more about it in my innermost soul than if I had been born and bred a
Hottentot. The light was there, but I was blind; it was of necessity that the Lord himself
should make the matter plain to me. It came to me as a new revelation, as fresh as if I
had never read in Scripture that Jesus was declared to be the propitiation for sins that
God might be just. I believe it will have to come as a revelation to every newborn child
of God whenever he sees it; I mean that glorious doctrine of the substitution of the Lord
Jesus. I came to understand that salvation was possible through vicarious sacrifice; and
that provision had been made in the first constitution and arrangement of things for such
a substitution. I was made to see that He who is the Son of God, co-equal, and co-eternal
with the Father, had of old been made the covenant Head of a chosen people that He might
in that capacity suffer for them and save them. Inasmuch as our fall was not at the first
a personal one, for we fell in our federal representative, the first Adam, it became
possible for us to be recovered by a second representative, even by Him who has undertaken
to be the covenant head of His people, so as to be their second Adam. I saw that ere I
actually sinned I had fallen by my first father's sin; and I rejoiced that therefore it
became possible in point of law for me to rise by a second head and representative. The
fall by Adam justify a loophole of escape; another Adam can undo the ruin made by the
first. When I was anxious about the possibility of a just God pardoning me, I understood
and saw by faith that He who is the Son of God became man, and in His own blessed person
bore my sin in His own body on the tree. I saw the chastisement of my peace was laid on
Him, and that with His stripes I was healed. Dear friend, have you ever seen that? Have
you ever understood how God can be just to the full, not remitting penalty nor blunting
the edge of the sword, and yet can be infinitely merciful, and can justify the ungodly who
turn to Him? It was because the Son of God, supremely glorious in His matchless person,
undertook to vindicate the law by bearing the sentence due to me, that therefore God is
able to pass by my sin. The law of God was more vindicated by the death of Christ than it
would have been had all transgressors been sent to Hell. For the Son of God to suffer for
sin was a more glorious establishment of the government of God, than for the whole race to
suffer.
Jesus has borne the death penalty on our behalf. Behold the wonder! There He hangs upon
the cross! This is the greatest sight you will ever see. Son of God and Son of Man, there
He hangs, bearing pains unutterable, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. Oh, the
glory of that sight! The innocent punished! The Holy One condemned! The Ever-blessed made
a curse! The infinitely glorious put to a shameful death! The more I look at the
sufferings of the Son of God, the more sure I am that they must meet my case. Why did He
suffer, if not to turn aside the penalty from us? If, then, He turned it aside by His
death, it is turned aside, and those who believe in Him need not fear it. It must be so,
that since expiation is made, God is able to forgive without shaking the basis of His
throne, or in the least degree blotting the statute book. Conscience gets a full answer to
her tremendous question. The wrath of God against iniquity, whatever that may be, must be
beyond all conception terrible. Well did Moses say, "Who knoweth the power of thine
anger?" Yet when we hear the Lord of glory cry, "Why hast thou forsaken
me?" and see Him yielding up the ghost, we feel that the justice of God has received
abundant vindication by obedience so perfect and death so terrible, rendered by so divine
a person. If God himself bows before His own law, what more can be done? There is more in
the atonement by way of merit, than there is in all human sin by way of demerit.
The great gulf of Jesus' loving self-sacrifice can swallow up the mountains of our sins,
all of them. For the sake of the infinite good of this one representative man, the Lord
may well look with favor upon other men, however unworthy they may be in and of
themselves. It was a miracle of miracles that the Lord Jesus Christ should stand in our
stead and
Bear that we might never bear
His Father's righteous ire.
But he has done so. "It is finished." God will spare the sinner because He did
not spare His Son. God can pass by your transgressions because He laid those
transgressions upon His only begotten Son nearly two thousand years ago. If you believe in
Jesus (that is the point), then your sins were carried away by Him who was the scapegoat
for His people.
What is it to believe in Him? It is not merely to say, "He is God and the
Saviour," but to trust Him wholly and entirely, and take Him for all your salvation
from this time forth and forever—your Lord, your Master, your all. If you will have
Jesus, He has you already. If you believe on Him, I tell you you cannot go to hell; for
that were to make the sacrifice of Christ of none effect. It cannot be that a sacrifice
should be accepted, and yet the soul should die for whom that sacrifice has been received.
If the believing soul could be condemned, then why a sacrifice? If Jesus died in my stead,
why should I die also? Every believer can claim that the sacrifice was actually made for
him: by faith he has laid his hands on it, and made it his own, and therefore he may rest
assured that he can never perish. The Lord would not receive this offering on our behalf,
and then condemn us to die. The Lord cannot read our pardon written in the blood of His
own Son, and then smite us. That were impossible. Oh that you may have grace given you at
once to look away to Jesus and to begin at the beginning, even at Jesus, who is the
Fountain-head of mercy to guilty man!
"He justifieth the ungodly." "It is God that justifieth, " therefore,
and for that reason only it can be done, and He does it through the atoning sacrifice of
His divine Son. Therefore it can be justly done—so justly done that none will ever
question it—so thoroughly done that in the last tremendous day, when heaven and earth
shall pass away, there shall be none that shall deny the validity of the justification.
"Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth."
Now, poor soul! will you come into this lifeboat, just as you are? Here is safety from the
wreck! Accept the sure deliverance. "I have nothing with me," say you. You are
not asked to bring anything with you. Men who escape for their lives will leave even their
clothes behind. Leap for it, just as you are.
I will tell you this thing about myself to encourage you. My sole hope for heaven lies in
the full atonement made upon Calvary's cross for the ungodly. On that I firmly rely. I
have not the shadow of a hope anywhere else. You are in the same condition as I am; for we
neither of us have anything of our own worth as a ground of trust. Let us join hands and
stand together at the foot of the cross, and trust our souls once for all to Him who shed
His bloo d for the guilty. We will be saved by one and the same Saviour. If you perish
trusting Him, I must perish too. What can I do more to prove my own confidence in the
gospel which I set before you?
In this place would say a plain word or
two to those who understand the method of justification by faith which is in Christ Jesus,
but whose trouble is that they cannot cease from sin. We can never be happy, restful, or
spiritually healthy till we become holy. We must be rid of sin; but how is the riddance to
be wrought? This is the life-or-death question of many. The old nature is very strong, and
they have tried to curb and tame it; but it will not be subdued, and they find themselves,
though anxious to be better, if anything growing worse than before. The heart is so hard,
the will is so obstinate, the passions are so furious, the thoughts are so volatile, the
imagination is so ungovernable, the desires are so wild, that the man feels that he has a
den of wild beasts within him, which will eat him up sooner than be ruled by him. We may
say of our fallen nature what the Lord said to Job concerning Leviathan: "Wilt thou
play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?" A man might as
well hope to hold the north wind in the hollow of his hand as expect to control by his own
strength those boisterous powers which dwell within his fallen nature. This is a greater
feat than any of the fabled labors of Hercules: God is wanted here.
"I could believe that Jesus would forgive sin," says one, "but then my
trouble is that I sin again, and that I feel such awful tendencies to evil within me. As
surely as a stone, if it be flung up into the air, soon comes down again to the ground, so
do I, though I am sent up to heaven by earnest preaching, return again to my insensible
state. Alas ! I am easily fascinated with the basilisk eyes of sin, and am thus held as
under a spell, so that I cannot escape from my own folly."
Dear friend, salvation would be a sadly incomplete affair if it did not deal with this
part of our ruined estate. We want to be purified as well as pardoned. Justification
without sanctification would not be salvation at all. It would call the leper clean, and
leave him to die of his disease; if would forgive the rebellion and allow the rebel to
remain an enemy to his king. It would remove the consequences but overlook the cause, and
this would leave an endless and hopeless task before us. It would stop the stream for a
time, but leave an open fountain of defilement, which would sooner or later break forth
with increased power. Remember that the Lord Jesus came to take away sin in three ways; He
came to remove the penalty of sin, the power of sin, and, at last, the presence of sin. At
once you may reach to the second part—the power of sin may immediately be broken; and
so you will be on the road to the third, namely, the removal of the presence of sin.
"We know that he was manifested to take away our sins."
The angel said of our Lord, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins." Our Lord Jesus came to destroy in us the works of the devil.
That which was said at our Lord's birth was also declared in His death; for when the
soldier pierced His side forthwith came there out blood and water, to set forth the double
cure by which we are delivered from the guilt and the defilement of sin.
If, however, you are troubled about the power of sin, and about the tendencies of your
nature, as you well may be, here is a promise for you. Have faith in it, for it stands in
that covenant of grace which is ordered in all things and sure. God, who cannot lie, has
said in Ezekiel 36:26:
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take
away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
You see, it is all "I will," and "I will." "I will give,"
and "I will take away." This is the royal style of the King of kings, who is
able to accomplish all His will. No word of His shall ever fall to the ground.
The Lord knows right well that you cannot change your own heart, and cannot cleanse your
own nature; but He also knows that He can do both. He can cause the Ethiopian to change
his skin, and the leopard his spots. Hear this, and be astonished: He can create you a
second time; He can cause you to be born again. This is a miracle of grace, but the Holy
Ghost will perform it. It would be a very wonderful thing if one could stand at the foot
of the Niagara Falls, and could speak a word which should make the river Niagara begin to
run up stream, and leap up that great precipice over which it now rolls in stupendous
force. Nothing but the power of God could achieve that marvel; but that would be more than
a fit parallel to what would take place if the course of your nature were altogether
reversed. All things are possible with God. He can reverse the direction of your desires
and the current of your life, and instead of going downward from God, He can make your
whole being tend upward toward God. That is, in fact, what the Lord has promised to do for
all who are in the covenant; and we know from Scripture that all believers are in the
covenant. Let me read the words again:
A new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your
flesh, and will give an heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 11:19).
What a wonderful promise! And it is yea and amen in Christ Jesus to the glory of God by
us. Let us lay hold of it; accept it as true, and appropriate it to ourselves. Then shall
it be fulfilled in us, and we shall have, in after days and years, to sing of that
wondrous change which the sovereign grace of God has wrought in us.
It is well worthy of consideration that when the Lord takes away the stony heart, that
deed is done; and when that is once done, no known power can ever take away that new heart
which He gives, and that right spirit which He puts within us. "The gifts and calling
of God are without repentance "; that is, without repentance on His part; He does not
take away what He once has given. Let Him renew you and you will be renewed. Man's
reformations and cleanings up soon come to an end, for the dog returns to his vomit; but
when God puts a new heart into us, the new heart is there forever, and never will it
harden into stone again. He who made it flesh will keep it so. Herein we may rejoice and
be glad forever in that which God creates in the kingdom of His grace.
To put the matter very simply—did you ever hear of Mr. Rowland Hill's illustration of
the cat and the sow? I will give it in my own fashion, to illustrate our Saviour's
expressive words—"Ye must be born again. " Do you see that cat? What a
cleanly creature she is! How cleverly she washes herself with her tongue and her paws! It
is quite a pretty sight! Did you ever see a sow do that? No, you never did. It is contrary
to its nature. It prefers to wallow in the mire. Go and teach a sow to wash itself, and
see how little success you would gain. It would be a great sanitary improvement if swine
would be clean. Teach them to wash and clean themselves as the cat has been doing! Useless
task. You may by force wash that sow, but it hastens to the mire, and is soon as foul as
ever. The only way in which you can get a sow to wash itself is to transform it into a
cat; then it will wash and be clean, but not till then! Suppose that transformation to be
accomplished, and then what was difficult or impossible is easy enough; the swine will
henceforth be fit for your parlor and your hearth-rug. So it is with an ungodly man; you
cannot force him to do what a renewed man does most willingly; you may teach him, and set
him a good example, but he cannot learn the art of holiness, for he has no mind to it; his
nature leads him another way. When the Lord makes a new man of him, then all things wear a
different aspect. So great is this change, that I once heard a convert say, "Either
all the world is changed, or else I am." The new nature follows after right as
naturally as the old nature wanders after wrong. What a blessing to receive such a nature!
Only the Holy Ghost can give it.
Did it ever strike you what a wonderful thing it is for the Lord to give a new heart and a
right spirit to a man? You have seen a lobster, perhaps, which has fought with another
lobster, and lost one of its claws, and a new claw has grown. That is a remarkable thing;
but it is a much more astounding fact that a man should have a new heart given to him.
This, indeed, is a miracle beyond the powers of nature. There is a tree. If you cut off
one of its limbs, another one may grow in its place; but can you change the tree; can you
sweeten sour sap; can you make the thorn bear figs? You can graft something better into it
and that is the analogy which nature gives us of the work of grace; but absolutely to
change the vital sap of the tree would be a miracle indeed. Such a prodigy and mystery of
power God works in all who believe in Jesus.
If you yield yourself up to His divine working, the Lord will alter your nature; He will
subdue the old nature, and breathe new life into you. Put your trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and He will take the stony heart out of your flesh, and He will give you a heart
of flesh. Where everything was hard, everything shall be tender; where everything was
vicious, everything shall be virtuous: where everything tended downward, everything shall
rise upward with impetuous force. The lion of anger shall give place to the lamb of
meekness; the raven of uncleanness shall fly before the dove of purity; the vile serpent
of deceit shall be trodden under the heel of truth.
I have seen with my own eyes such marvellous changes of moral and spiritual character that
I despair of none. I could, if it were fitting, point out those who were once unchaste
women who are now pure as the driven snow, and blaspheming men who now delight all around
them by their intense devotion. Thieves are made honest, drunkards sober, liars truthful,
and scoffers zealous. Wherever the grace of God has appeared to a man it has trained him
to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this
present evil world: and, dear reader, it will do the same for you.
"I cannot make this change," says one. Who said you could? The Scripture which
we have quoted speaks not of what man will do, but of what God will do. It is God's
promise, and it is for Him to fulfill His own engagements. Trust in Him to fulfill His
Word to you, and it will be done.
"But how is it to be done?" What business is that of yours? Must the Lord
explain His methods before you will believe him? The Lord's working in this matter is a
great mystery: the Holy Ghost performs it. He who made the promise has the responsibility
of keeping the promise, and He is equal to the occasion. God, who promises this marvellous
change, will assuredly carry it out in all who receive Jesus, for to all such He gives
power to become the Sons of God. Oh that you would believe it! Oh that you would do the
gracious Lord the justice to believe that He can and will do this for you, great miracle
though it will be! Oh that you would believe that God cannot lie! Oh that you would trust
Him for a new heart, and a right spirit, for He can give them to you! May the Lord give
you faith in His promise, faith in His Son, faith in the Holy Spirit, and faith in Him,
and to Him shall be praise and honor and glory forever and ever! Amen.
"By grace are ye saved, through faith" (Ephesians 2:8 ).
Think it well to turn a little to one
side that I may ask my reader to observe adoringly the fountain-head of our salvation,
which is the grace of God. "By grace are ye saved." Because God is gracious,
therefore sinful men are forgiven, converted, purified, and saved. It is not because of
anything in them, or that ever can be in them, that they are saved; but because of the
boundless love, goodness, pity, compassion, mercy, and grace of God. Tarry a moment, then,
at the well-head. Behold the pure river of water of life, as it proceeds out of the throne
of God and of the Lamb!
What an abyss is the grace of God! Who can measure its breadth? Who can fathom its depth?
Like all the rest of the divine attributes, it is infinite. God is full of love, for
"God is love." God is full of goodness; the very name "God" is short
for "good." Unbounded goodness and love enter into the very essence of the
Godhead. It is because "his mercy endureth for ever" that men are not destroyed;
because "his compassions fail not" that sinners are brought to Him and forgiven.
Remember this; or you may fall into error by fixing your minds so much upon the faith
which is the channel of salvation as to forget the grace which is the fountain and source
even of faith itself. Faith is the work of God's grace in us. No man can say that Jesus is
the Christ but by the Holy Ghost. "No man cometh unto me," saith Jesus,
"except the Father which hath sent me draw him." So that faith, which is coming
to Christ, is the result of divine drawing. Grace is the first and last moving cause of
salvation; and faith, essential as it is, is only an important part of the machinery which
grace employs. We are saved "through faith," but salvation is "by
grace." Sound forth those words as with the archangel's trumpet: "By grace are
ye saved." What glad tidings for the undeserving!
Faith occupies the position of a channel or conduit pipe. Grace is the fountain and the
stream; faith is the aqueduct along which the flood of mercy flows down to refresh the
thirsty sons of men. It is a great pity when the aqueduct is broken. It is a sad sight to
see around Rome the many noble aqueducts which no longer convey water into the city,
because the arches are broken and the marvelous structures are in ruins. The aqueduct must
be kept entire to convey the current; and, even so, faith must be true and sound, leading
right up to God and coming right down to ourselves, that it may become a serviceable
channel of mercy to our souls.
Still, I again remind you that faith is only the channel or aqueduct, and not the
fountainhead, and we must not look so much to it as to exalt it above the divine source of
all blessing which lies in the grace of God. Never make a Christ out of your faith, nor
think of as if it were the independent source of your salvation. Our life is found in
"looking unto Jesus," not in looking to our own faith. By faith all things
become possible to us; yet the power is not in the faith, but in the God upon whom faith
relies. Grace is the powerful engine, and faith is the chain by which the carriage of the
soul is attached to the great motive power. The righteousness of faith is not the moral
excellence of faith, but the righteousness of Jesus Christ which faith grasps and
appropriates. The peace within the soul is not derived from the contemplation of our own
faith; but it comes to us from Him who is our peace, the hem of whose garment faith
touches, and virtue comes out of Him into the soul.
See then, dear friend, that the weakness of your faith will not destroy you. A trembling
hand may receive a golden gift. The Lord's salvation can come to us though we have only
faith as a grain of mustard seed. The power lies in the grace of God, and not in our
faith. Great messages can be sent along slender wires, and the peace-giving witness of the
Holy Spirit can reach the heart by means of a thread-like faith which seems almost unable
to sustain its own weight. Think more of Him to whom you look than of the look itself. You
must look away even from your own looking, and see nothing but Jesus, and the grace of God
revealed in Him.
What is this faith concerning which it is
said, "By grace are ye saved, through faith?" There are many descriptions of
faith; but almost all the definitions I have met with have made me understand it less than
I did before I saw them. The Negro said, when he read the chapter, that he would confound
it; and it is very likely that he did so, though he meant to expound it. We may explain
faith till nobody understands it. I hope I shall not be guilty of that fault. Faith is the
simplest of all things, and perhaps because of its simplicity it is the more difficult to
explain.
What is faith? It is made up of three things—knowledge, belief, and trust. Knowledge
comes first. "How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" I want
to be informed of a fact before I can possibly believe it. "Faith cometh by
hearing"; we must first hear, in order that we may know what is to be believed.
"They that know thy name shall put their trust in thee." A measure of knowledge
is essential to faith; hence the importance of getting knowledge. "Incline your ear,
and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live." Such was the word of the ancient
prophet, and it is the word of the gospel still. Search the Scriptures and learn what the
Holy Spirit teacheth concerning Christ and His salvation. Seek to know God: "For he
that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him." May the Holy Spirit give you the spirit of knowledge, and of
the fear of the Lord! Know the gospel: know what the good news is, how it talks of free
forgiveness, and of change of heart, of adoption into the family of God, and of countless
other blessings. Know especially Christ Jesus the Son of God, the Saviour of men, united
to us by His human nature, and yet one with God; and thus able to act as Mediator between
God and man, able to lay His hand upon both, and to be the connecting link between the
sinner and the Judge of all the earth. Endeavour to know more and more of Christ Jesus.
Endeavour especially to know the doctrine of the sacrifice of Christ; for the point upon
which saving faith mainly fixes itself is this— "God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." Know that Jesus was
"made a curse for us, as it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a
tree." Drink deep of the doctrine of the substitutionary work of Christ; for therein
lies the sweetest possible comfort to the guilty sons of men, since the Lord "made
him to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Faith
begins with knowledge.
The mind goes on to believe that these things are true. The soul believes that God is, and
that He hears the cries of sincere hearts; that the gospel is from God; that justification
by faith is the grand truth which God hath revealed in these last days by His Spirit more
clearly than before. Then the heart believes that Jesus is verily and in truth our God and
Saviour, the Redeemer of men, the Prophet, Priest, and King of His people. All this is
accepted as sure truth, not to be called in question. I pray that you may at once come to
this. Get firmly to believe that "the blood of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son,
cleanseth us from all sin"; that His sacrifice is complete and fully accepted of God
on man's behalf, so that he that believeth on Jesus is not condemned. Believe these truths
as you believe any other statements; for the difference between common faith and saving
faith lies mainly in the subjects upon which it is exercised. Believe the witness of God
just as you believe the testimony of your own father or friend. "If we receive the
witness of men, the witness of God is greater."
So far you have made an advance toward faith; only one more ingredient is needed to
complete it, which is trust. Commit yourself to the merciful God; rest your hope on the
gracious gospel; trust your soul on the dying and living Saviour; wash away your sins in
the atoning blood; accept His perfect righteousness, and all is well. Trust is the
lifeblood of faith; there is no saving faith without it. The Puritans were accustomed to
explain faith by the word "recumbency." It meant leaning upon a thing. Lean with
all your weight upon Christ. It would be a better illustration still if I said, fall at
full length, and lie on the Rock of Ages. Cast yourself upon Jesus; rest in Him; commit
yourself to Him. That done, you have exercised saving faith. Faith is not a blind thing;
for faith begins with knowledge. It is not a speculative thing; for faith believes facts
of which it is sure. It is not an unpractical, dreamy thing; for faith trusts, and stakes
its destiny upon the truth of revelation. That is one way of describing what faith is.
Let me try again. Faith is believing that Christ is what He is said to be, and that He
will do what He has promised to do, and then to expect this of Him. The Scriptures speak
of Jesus Christ as being God, God is human flesh; as being perfect in His character; as
being made of a sin-offering on our behalf; as bearing our sins in His own body on the
tree. The Scripture speaks of Him as having finished transgression, made an end of sin,
and brought in everlasting righteousness. The sacred records further tell us that He
"rose again from the dead," that He "ever liveth to make intercession for
us," that He has gone up into the glory, and has taken possession of Heaven on the
behalf of His people, and that He will shortly come again "to judge the world in
righteousness, and his people with equity." We are most firmly to believe that it is
even so; for this is the testimony of God the Father when He said, "This is my
beloved Son; hear ye him." This also is testified by God the Holy Spirit; for the
Spirit has borne witness to Christ, both in the inspired Word and by divers miracles, and
by His working in the hearts of men. We are to believe this testimony to be true.
Faith also believes that Christ will do what He has promised; that since He has promised
to cast out none that come to Him, it is certain that He will not cast us out if we come
to Him. Faith believes that since Jesus said, "The water that I shall give him shall
be in him a well of water springing up into everasting life, it must be true; and if we
get this living Water from Christ it will abide in us, and will well up within us in
streams of holy life. Whatever Christ has promised to do He will do, and we must believe
this, so as to look for pardon, justification, preservation, and eternal glory from His
hands, according as He has promised them to believers in Him.
Then comes the next necessary step. Jesus is what He is said to be, Jesus will do what He
says He will do; therefore we must each one trust Him , saying, "He will be to me
what He says He is, and He will do to me what He has promised to do; I leave myself in the
hands of Him who is appointed to save, that He may save me. I rest upon His promise that
He will do even as He has said." This is a saving faith, and he that hath it hath
everlasting life. Whatever his dangers and difficulties, whatever his darkness and
depression, whatever his infirmities and sins, he that believeth thus on Christ Jesus is
not condemned, and shall never come into condemnation.
May that explanation be of some service! I trust it may be used by the Spirit of God to
direct my reader into immediate peace. "Be not afraid; only believe." Trust, and
be at rest.
My fear is lest the reader should rest content with understanding what is to be done, and
yet never do it. Better the poorest real faith actually at work, than the best ideal of it
justify in the region of speculation. The great matter is to believe on the Lord Jesus at
once. Never mind distinctions and definitions. A hungry man eats though he does not
understand the composition of his food, the anatomy of his mouth, or the process of
digestion: he lives because he eats. Another far more clever person understands thoroughly
the science of nutrition; but if he does not eat he will die, with all his knowledge.
There are, no doubt, many at this hour in Hell who understood the doctrine of faith, but
did not believe. On the other hand, not one who has trusted in the Lord Jesus has ever
been cast out, though he may never have been able intelligently to define his faith. Oh
dear reader, receive the Lord Jesus into your soul, and you shall live forever! "He
that believeth in Him hath everlasting life."
To make the matter of faith clearer
still, I will give you a few illustrations. Though the Holy Spirit alone can make my
reader see, it is my duty and my joy to furnish all the light I can, and to pray the
divine Lord to open blind eyes. Oh that my reader would pray the same prayer for himself!
The faith which saves has its analogies in the human frame.
It is the eye which looks. By the eye we bring into the mind that which is far away; we
can bring the sun and the far-off stars into the mind by a glance of the eye. So by trust
we bring the Lord Jesus near to us; and though He be far away in Heaven, He enters into
our heart. Only look to Jesus; for the hymn is strictly true—
There is life in a look at the Crucified
One,
There is life at this moment for thee.
Faith is the hand which grasps. When our hand takes hold of anything for itself, it does
precisely what faith does when it appropriates Christ and the blessings of His redemption.
Faith says, "Jesus is mine." Faith hears of the pardoning blood, and cries,
"I accept it to pardon me." Faith calls the legacies of the dying Jesus her own;
and they are her own, for faith is Christ's heir; He has given Himself and all that He has
to faith. Take, O friend, that which grace has provided for thee. You will not be a thief,
for you have a divine permit: "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life
freely." He who may have a treasure simply by his grasping it will be foolish indeed
if he remains poor.
Faith is the mouth which feeds upon Christ. Before food can nourish us, it must be
received into us. This is a simple matter—this eating and drinking. We willingly
receive into the mouth that which is our food, and then we consent that it should pass
down into our inward parts, wherein it is taken up and absorbed into our bodily frame.
Paul says, in his Epistle to the Romans, in the tenth chapter, "The word is nigh
thee, even in thy mouth." Now then, all that is to be done is to swallow it, to
suffer it to go down into the soul. Oh that men had an appetite! For he who is hungry and
sees meat before him does not need to be taught how to eat. "Give me," said one,
"a knife and a fork and a chance." He was fully prepared to do the rest. Truly,
a heart which hungers and thirsts after Christ has but to know that He is freely given,
and at once it will receive Him. If my reader is in such a case, let him not hesitate to
receive Jesus; for he may be sure that he will never be blamed for doing so: for unto
"as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." He
never repulses one, but He authorizes all who come to remain sons for ever.
The pursuits of life illustrate faith in many ways. The farmer buries good seed in the
earth, and expects it not only to live but to be multiplied. He has faith in the covenant
arrangement, that "seed-time and harvest shall not cease," and he is rewarded
for his faith.
The merchant places his money in the care of a banker, and trusts altogether to the
honesty and soundness of the bank. He entrusts his capital to another's hands, and feels
far more at ease than if he had the solid gold locked up in an iron safe.
The sailor trusts himself to the sea. When he swims he takes his foot from the bottom and
rests upon the buoyant ocean. He could not swim if he did not wholly cast himself upon the
water.
The goldsmith puts precious metal into the fire which seems eager to consume it, but he
receives it back again from the furnace purified by the heat.
You cannot turn anywhere in life without seeing faith in operation between man and man, or
between man and natural law. Now, just as we trust in daily life, even so are we to trust
in God as He is revealed in Christ Jesus.
Faith exists in different persons in various degrees, according to the amount of their
knowledge or growth in grace. Sometimes faith is little more than a simple clinging to
Christ; a sense of dependence and a willingness so to depend. When you are down at the
seaside you will see limpets sticking to the rock. You walk with a soft tread up to the
rock; you strike the mollusk a rapid blow with your walking-stick and off he comes. Try
the next limpet in that way. You have given him warning; he heard the blow with which you
struck his neighbor, and he clings with all his might. You will never get him off; not
you! Strike, and strike again, but you may as soon break the rock. Our little friend, the
limpet, does not know much, but he clings. He is not acquainted with the geological
formation of the rock, but he clings. He can cling, and he has found something to cling
to: this is all his stock of knowledge, and he uses it for his security and salvation. It
is the limpet's life to cling to the rock, and it is the sinner's life to cling to Jesus.
Thousands of God's people have no more faith than this; they know enough to cling to Jesus
with all their heart and soul, and this suffices for present peace and eternal safety.
Jesus Christ is to them a Saviour strong and mighty, a Rock immovable and immutable; they
cling to him for dear life, and this clinging saves them. Reader, cannot you cling? Do so
at once.
Faith is seen when one man relies upon another from a knowledge of the superiority of the
other. This is a higher faith; the faith which knows the reason for its dependence, and
acts upon it. I do not think the limpet knows much about the rock: but as faith grows it
becomes more and more intelligent. A blind man trusts himself with his guide because he
knows that his friend can see, and, trusting, he walks where his guide conducts him. If
the poor man is born blind he does not know what sight is; but he knows that there is such
a thing as sight, and that it is possessed by his friend and therefore he freely puts his
hand into the hand of the seeing one, and follows his leadership. "We walk by faith,
not by sight." " Blessed are they which have not seen, and yet have
believed." This is as good an image of faith as well can be; we know that Jesus has
about Him merit, and power, and blessing, which we do not possess, and therefore we gladly
trust ourselves to Him to be to us what we cannot be to ourselves. We trust Him as the
blind man trusts his guide. He never betrays our confidence ; but He "is made of God
unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."
Every boy that goes to school has to exert faith while learning. His schoolmaster teaches
him geography, and instructs him as to the form of the earth, and the existence of certain
great cities and empires. The boy does not himself know that these things are true, except
that he believes his teacher, and the books put into his hands. That is what you will have
to do with Christ, if you are to be saved; you must simply know because He tells you,
believe because He assures you it is even so, and trust yourself with Him because He
promises you that salvation will be the result. Almost all that you and I know has come to
us by faith. A scientific discovery has been made, and we are sure of it. On what grounds
do we believe it? On the authority of certain well-known men of learning, whose
reputations are established. We have never made or seen their experiments, but we believe
their witness. You must do the like with regard to Jesus: because He teaches you certain
truths you are to be His disciple, and believe His words; because He has performed certain
acts you are to be His client, and trust yourself with Him. He is infinitely superior to
you, and presents himself to your confidence as your Master and Lord. If you will receive
Him and His words you shall be saved.
Another and a higher form of faith is that faith which grows out of love. Why does a boy
trust his father? The reason why the child trusts his father is because he loves him.
Blessed and happy are they who have a sweet faith in Jesus, intertwined with deep
affection for Him, for this is a restful confidence. These lovers of Jesus are charmed
with His character, and delighted with His mission, they are carried away by the
lovingkindness that He has manifested, and therefore they cannot help trusting Him,
because they so much admire, revere, and love Him.
The way of loving trust in the Saviour may thus be illustrated. A lady is the wife of the
most eminent physician of the day. She is seized with a dangerous illness, and is smitten
down by its power; yet she is wonderfully calm and quiet, for her husband has made this
disease his special study, and has healed thousands who were similarly afflicted. She is
not in the least troubled, for she feels perfectly safe in the hands of one so dear to
her, and in whom skill and love are blended in their highest forms. Her faith is
reasonable and natural; her husband, from every point of view, deserves it of her. This is
the kind of faith which the happiest of believers exercise toward Christ. There is no
physician like Him, none can save as He can; we love Him, and He loves us, and therefore
we put ourselves into His hands, accept whatever He prescribes, and do whatever He bids.
We feel that nothing can be wrongly ordered while He is the director of our affairs; for
He loves us too well to let us perish, or suffer a single needless pang.
Faith is the root of obedience, and this may be clearly seen in the affairs of life. When
a captain trusts a pilot to steer his vessel into port he manages the vessel according to
his direction. When a traveler trusts a guide to conduct him over a difficult pass, he
follows the track which his guide points out. When a patient believes in a physician, he
carefully follows his prescriptions and directions. Faith which refuses to obey the
commands of the Saviour is a mere pretence, and will never save the soul. We trust Jesus
to save us; He gives us directions as to the way of salvation; we follow those directions
and are saved. Let not my reader forget this. Trust Jesus, and prove your trust by doing
whatever He bids you.
A notable form of faith arises out of assured knowledge; this comes of growth in grace,
and is the faith which believes Christ because it knows Him, and trusts Him because it has
proved Him to be infallibly faithful. An old Christian was in the habit of writing T and P
in the margin of her Bible whenever she had tried and proved a promise. How easy it is to
trust a tried and proved Saviour! You cannot do this as yet, but you will do so.
Everything must have a beginning. You will rise to strong faith in due time. This matured
faith asks not for signs and tokens, but bravely believes. Look at the faith of the master
mariner—I have often wondered at it. He looses his cable, he steams away from the
land. For days, weeks, or even months, he never sees sail or shore; yet on he goes day and
night without fear, till one morning he finds himself exactly opposite to the desired
haven toward which he has been steering. How has he found his way over the trackless deep
? He has trusted in his compass, his nautical almanac, his glass, and the heavenly bodies;
and obeying their guidance, without sighting land, he has steered so accurately that he
has not to change a point to enter into port. It is a wonderful thing—that sailing or
steaming without sight. Spiritually it is a blessed thing to leave altogether the shores
of sight and feeling, and to say, "Good-by" to inward feelings, cheering
providences, signs, tokens, and so forth. It is glorious to be far out on the ocean of
divine love, believing in God, and steering for Heaven straight away by the direction of
the Word of God. "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed";
to them shall be administered an abundant entrance at the last, and a safe voyage on the
way. Will not my reader put his trust in God in Christ Jesus. There I rest with joyous
confidence. Brother, come with me, and believe our Father and our Saviour. Come at once.
Why is faith selected as the channel of
salvation? No doubt this inquiry is often made. "By grace are ye saved through
faith," is assuredly the doctrine of Holy Scripture, and the ordinance of God; but
why is it so? Why is faith selected rather than hope, or love, or patience?
It becomes us to be modest in answering such a question, for God's ways are not always to
be understood; nor are we allowed presumptuously to question them. Humbly we would reply
that, as far as we can tell, faith has been selected as the channel of grace, because
there is a natural adaptation in faith to be used as the receiver. Suppose that I am about
to give a poor man an alms: I put it into his hand—why? Well, it would hardly be
fitting to put it into his ear, or to lay it upon his foot; the hand seems made on purpose
to receive. So, in our mental frame, faith is created on purpose to be a receiver: it is
the hand of the man, and there is a fitness in receiving grace by its means.
Do let me put this very plainly. Faith which receives Christ is as simple an act as when
your child receives an apple from you, because you hold it out and promise to give him the
apple if he comes for it. The belief and the receiving relate only to an apple; but they
make up precisely the same act as the faith which deals with eternal salvation. What the
child's hand is to the apple, that your faith is to the perfect salvation of Christ. The
child's hand does not make the apple, nor improve the apple, nor deserve the apple; it
only takes it; and faith is chosen by God to be the receiver of salvation, because it does
not pretend to create salvation, nor to help in it, but it is content humbly to receive
it. "Faith is the tongue that begs pardon, the hand which receives it, and the eye
which sees it; but it is not the price which buys it." Faith never makes herself her
own plea, she rests all her argument upon the blood of Christ. She becomes a good servant
to bring the riches of the Lord Jesus to the soul, because she acknowledges whence she
drew them, and owns that grace alone entrusted her with them.
Faith, again, is doubtless selected because it gives all the glory to God. It is of faith
that it might be by grace, and it is of grace that there might be no boasting; for God
cannot endure pride. "The proud he knoweth afar off," and He has no wish to come
nearer to them. He will not give salvation in a way which will suggest or foster pride.
Paul saith, "Not of works, lest any man should boast." Now, faith excludes all
boasting. The hand which receives charity does not say, "I am to be thanked for
accepting the gift"; that would be absurd. When the hand conveys bread to the mouth
it does not say to the body, "Thank me; for I feed you." It is a very simple
thing that the hand does though a very necessary thing; and it never arrogates glory to
itself for what it does. So God has selected faith to receive the unspeakable gift of His
grace, because it cannot take to itself any credit, but must adore the gracious God who is
the giver of all good. Faith sets the crown upon the right head, and therefore the Lord
Jesus was wont to put the crown upon the head of faith, saying, "Thy faith hath saved
thee; go in peace."
Next, God selects faith as the channel of salvation because it is a sure method, linking
man with God. When man confides in God, there is a point of union between them, and that
union guarantees blessing. Faith saves us because it makes us cling to God, and so brings
us into connection with Him. I have often used the following illustration, but I must
repeat it, because I cannot think of a better. I am told that years ago a boat was upset
above the falls of Niagara, and two men were being carried down the current, when persons
on the shore managed to float a rope out to them, which rope was seized by them both. One
of them held fast to it and was safely drawn to the bank; but the other, seeing a great
log come floating by, unwisely let go the rope and clung to the log, for it was the bigger
thing of the two, and apparently better to cling to. Alas! the log with the man on it went
right over the vast abyss, because there was no union between the log and the shore. The
size of the log was no benefit to him who grasped it; it needed a connection with the
shore to produce safety. So when a man trusts to his works, or to sacraments, or to
anything of that sort, he will not be saved, because there is no junction between him and
Christ; but faith, though it may seem to be like a slender cord, is in the hands of the
great God on the shore side; infinite power pulls in the connecting line, and thus draws
the man from destruction. Oh the blessedness of faith, because it unites us to God!
Faith is chosen again, because it touches the springs of action. Even in common things
faith of a certain sort lies at the root of all. I wonder whether I shall be wrong if I
say that we never do anything except through faith of some sort. If I walk across my study
it is because I believe my legs will carry me. A man eats because he believes in the
necessity of food; he goes to business because he believes in the value of money; he
accepts a check because he believes that the bank will honor it. Columbus discovered
America because he believed that there was another continent beyond the ocean; and the
Pilgrim Fathers colonized it because they believed that God would be with them on those
rocky shores. Most grand deeds have been born of faith; for good or for evil, faith works
wonders by the man in whom it dwells. Faith in its natural form is an all-prevailing
force, which enters into all manner of human actions. Possibly he who derides faith in God
is the man who in an evil form has the most of faith; indeed, he usually falls into a
credulity which would be ridiculous, if it were not disgraceful. God gives salvation to
faith, because by creating faith in us He thus touches the real mainspring of our emotions
and actions. He has, so to speak, taken possession of the battery and now He can send the
sacred current to every part of our nature. When we believe in Christ, and the heart has
come into the possession of God, then we are saved from sin, and are moved toward
repentance, holiness, zeal, prayer, consecration, and every other gracious thing.
"What oil is to the wheels, what weights are to a clock, what wings are to a bird,
what sails are to a ship, that faith is to all holy duties and services." Have faith,
and all other graces will follow and continue to hold their course.
Faith, again, has the power of working by love; it influences the affections toward God,
and draws the heart after the best things. He that believes in God will beyond all
question love God. Faith is an act of the understanding; but it also proceeds from the
heart. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness"; and hence God gives
salvation to faith because it resides next door to the affections, and is near akin to
love; and love is the parent and the nurse of every holy feeling and act. Love to God is
obedience, love to God is holiness. To love God and to love man is to be conformed to the
image of Christ; and this is salvation.
Moreover, faith creates peace and joy; he that hath it rests, and is tranquil, is glad and
joyous, and this is a preparation for heaven. God gives all heavenly gifts to faith, for
this reason among others, that faith worketh in us the life and spirit which are to be
eternally manifested in th e upper and better world. Faith furnishes us with armor for
this life, and education for the life to come. It enables a man both to live and to die
without fear; it prepares both for action and for suffering; and hence the Lord selects it
as a most convenient medium for conveying grace to us, and thereby securing us for glory.
Certainly faith does for us what nothing else can do; it gives us joy and peace, and
causes us to enter into rest. Why do men attempt to gain salvation by other means? An old
preacher says, "A silly servant who is bidden to open a door, sets his shoulder to it
and pushes with all his might ; but the door stirs not, and he cannot enter, use what
strength he may. Another comes with a key, and easily unlocks the door, and enters right
readily. Those who would be saved by works are pushing at heaven's gate without result;
but faith is the key which opens the gate at once." Reader, will you not use that
key? The Lord commands you to believe in His dear Son, therefore you may do so; and doing
so you shall live. Is not this the promise of the gospel, "He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved"? (Mark 16:16). What can be your objection to a way of
salvation which commends itself to the mercy and the wisdom of our gracious God?
After the anxious heart has accepted the
doctrine of atonement, and learned the great truth that salvation is by faith in the Lord
Jesus, it is often sore troubled with a sense of inability toward that which is good. Many
are groaning, "I can do nothing." They are not making this into an excuse, but
they feel it as a daily burden. They would if they could. They can each one honestly say,
"To will is present with me, but how to perform that which I would I find not."
This feeling seems to make all the gospel null and void; for what is the use of food to a
hungry man if he cannot get at it? Of what avail is the river of the water of life if one
cannot drink? We recall the story of the doctor and the poor woman's child. The sage
practitioner told the mother that her little one would soon be better under proper
treatment, but it was absolutely needful that her boy should regularly drink the best
wine, and that he should spend a season at one of the German spas. This, to a widow who
could hardly get bread to eat! Now, it sometimes seems to the troubled heart that the
simple gospel of "Believe and live," is not, after all, so very simple; for it
asks the poor sinner to do what he cannot do. To the really awakened, but half instructed,
there appears to be a missing link ; yonder is the salvation of Jesus, but how is it to be
reached? The soul is without strength, and knows not what to do. It lies within sight of
the city of refuge, and cannot enter its gate.
Is this want of strength provided for in the plan of salvation? It is. The work of the
Lord is perfect. It begins where we are, and asks nothing of us in order to its
completion. When the good Samaritan saw the traveler lying wounded and half dead, he did
not bid him rise and come to him, and mount the ass and ride off to the inn. No, "he
came where he was," and ministered to him, and lifted him upon the beast and bore him
to the inn. Thus doth the Lord Jesus deal with us in our low and wretched estate.
We have seen that God justifieth, that He justifieth the ungodly and that He justifies
them through faith in the precious blood of Jesus; we have now to see the condition these
ungodly ones are in when Jesus works out their salvation. Many awakened persons are not
only troubled about their sin, but about their moral weakness. They have no strength with
which to escape from the mire into which they have fallen, nor to keep out of it in after
days. They not only lament over what they have done, but over what they cannot do. They
feel themselves to be powerless, helpless, and spiritually lifeless. It may sound odd to
say that they feel dead, and yet it is even so. They are, in their own esteem, to all good
incapable. They cannot travel the road to Heaven, for their bones are broken. "None
of the men of strength have found their hands;" in fact, they are "without
strength." Happily, it is written, as the commendation of God's love to us:
When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6).
Here we see conscious helplessness succored—succored by the interposition of the Lord
Jesus. Our helplessness is extreme. It is not written, " When we were comparatively
weak Christ died for us"; or, "When we had only a little strength"; but the
description is absolute and unrestricted; "When we were yet without strength."
We had no strength whatever which could aid in our salvation; our Lord's words were
emphatically true, "Without me ye can do nothing." I may go further than the
text, and remind you of the great love wherewith the Lord loved us, "even when we
were dead in trespasses and sins." To be dead is even more than to be without
strength.
The one thing that the poor strengthless sinner has to fix his mind upon, and firmly
retain, as his one ground of hope, is the divine assurance that "in due time Christ
died for the ungodly." Believe this, and all inability will disappear. As it is
fabled of Midas that he turned everything into gold by his touch, so it is true of faith
that it turns everything it touches into good. Our very needs and weaknesses become
blessings when faith deals with them.
Let us dwell upon certain forms of this want of strength. To begin with, one man will say,
"Sir, I do not seem to have strength to collect my thoughts, and keep them fixed upon
those solemn topics which concern my salvation; a short prayer is almost too much for me.
It is so partly, p erhaps, through natural weakness, partly because I have injured myself
through dissipation, and partly also because I worry myself with wordly cares, so that I
am not capable of those high thoughts which are necessary ere a soul can be saved."
This is a very common form of sinful weakness. Note this! You are without strength on this
point; and there are many like you. They could not carry out a train of consecutive
thought to save their lives. Many poor men and women are illiterate and untrained, and
these would find deep thought to be very heavy work. Others are so light and trifling by
nature, that they could no more follow out a long process of argument and reasoning, than
they could fly. They could never attain to the knowledge of any profound mystery if they
expended their whole life in the effort. You need not, therefore, despair: that which is
necessary to salvation is not continuous thought, but a simple reliance upon Jesus. Hold
you on to this one fact—"In due time Christ died for the ungodly. " This
truth will not require from you any deep research or profound reasoning, or convincing
argument. There it stands: "In due time Christ died for the ungodly." Fix your
mind on that, and rest there.
Let this one great, gracious, glorious fact lie in your spirit till it perfumes all your
thoughts, and makes you rejoice even though you are without strength, seeing the Lord
Jesus has become your strength and your song, yea, He has become your salvation. According
to the Scriptures it is a revealed fact, that in due time Christ died for the ungodly when
they were yet without strength. You have heard these words hundreds of times, maybe, and
yet you have never before perceived their meaning. There is a cheering savor about them,
is there not? Jesus did not die for our righteousness, but He died for our sins. He did
not come to save us because we were worth the saving, but because we were utterly
worthless, ruined, and undone. He came not to earth out of any reason that was in us, but
solely and only out of reasons which He fetched from the depths of His own divine love. In
due time He died for those whom He describes, not as godly, but as ungodly, applying to
them as hopeless an adjective as He could well have selected. If you have but little mind,
yet fasten it to this truth, which is fitted to the smallest capacity, and is able to
cheer the heaviest heart. Let this text lie under your tongue like a sweet morsel, till it
dissolves into your heart and flavors all your thoughts; and then it will little matter
though those thoughts should be as scattered as autumn leaves. Persons who have never
shone in science, nor displayed the least originality of mind, have nevertheless been
fully able to accept the doctrine of the cross, and have been saved thereby. Why should
not you?
I hear another man cry, "Oh, sir my want of strength lies mainly in this, that I
cannot repent sufficiently!" A curious idea men have of what repentance is! Many
fancy that so many tears are to be shed, and so many groans are to be heaved, and so much
despair is to be endured. Whence comes this unreasonable notion? Unbelief and despair are
sins, and therefore I do not see how they can be constituent elements of acceptable
repentance; yet there are many who regard them as necessary parts of true Christian
experience. They are in great error. Still, I know what they mean, for in the days of my
darkness I used to feel in the same way. I desired to repent, but I thought that I could
not do it, and yet all the while I was repenting. Odd as it may sound, I felt that I could
not feel. I used to get into a corner and weep, because I could not weep; and I fell into
bitter sorrow because I could not sorrow for sin. What a jumble it all is when in our
unbelieving state we begin to judge our own condition! It is like a blind man looking at
his own eyes. My heart was melted within me for fear, because I thought that my heart was
as hard as an adamant stone. My heart was broken to think
that it would not break. Now I can see that I was exhibiting the very thing which I
thought I did not possess; but then I knew not where I was.
Oh that I could help others into the light which I now enjoy! Fain would I say a word
which might shorten the time of their bewilderment. I would say a few plain words, and
pray "the Comforter" to apply them to the heart.
Remember that the man who truly repents is never satisfied with his own repentance. We can
no more repent perfectly than we can live perfectly. However pure our tears, there will
always be some dirt in them: there will be something to be repented of even in our best
repentance. But listen! To repent is to change your mind about sin, and Christ, and all
the great things of God. There is sorrow implied in this; but the main point is the
turning of the heart from sin to Christ. If there be this turning, you have the essence of
true repentance, even though no alarm and no despair should ever have cast their shadow
upon your mind.
If you cannot repent as you would, it will greatly aid you to do so if you will firmly
believe that "in due time Christ died for the ungodly. " Think of this again and
again. How can you continue to be hard-hearted when you know that out of supreme love
"Christ died for the ungodly"? Let me persuade you to reason with yourself thus:
Ungodly as I am, though this heart of steel will not relent, though I smite in vain upon
my breast, yet He died for such as I am, since He died for the ungodly. Oh that I may
believe this and feel the power of it upon my flinty heart!
Blot out every other reflection from your soul, and sit down by the hour together, and
meditate deeply on this one resplendent display of unmerited, unexpected, unexampled love,
"Christ died for the ungodly." Read over carefully the narrative of the Lord's
death, as you find it in the four evangelists. If anything can melt your stubborn heart,
it will be a sight of the sufferings of Jesus, and the consideration that he suffered all
this for His enemies.
O Jesus! sweet the tears I shed,
While at Thy feet I kneel,
Gaze on Thy wounded, fainting head,
And all Thy sorrows feel.
My heart dissolves to see Thee bleed,
This heart so hard before;
I hear Thee for the guilty plead,
And grief o'erflows the more.
'Twas for the sinful Thou didst die,
And I a sinner stand:
Convinc'd by Thine expiring eye,
Slain by Thy pierced hand.
Ray Palmer
Surely the cross is that wonder-working
rod which can bring water out of a rock. If you understand the full meaning of the divine
sacrifice of Jesus, you must repent of ever having been opposed to One who is so full of
love. It is written, "They shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall
mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as
one that is in bitterness for his firstborn." Repentance will not make you see
Christ; but to see Christ will give you repentance. You may not make a Christ out of your
repentance, but you must look for repentance to Christ. The Holy Ghost, by turning us to
Christ, turns us from sin. Look away, then, from the effect to the cause, from your own
repenting to the Lord Jesus, who is exalted on high to give repentance.
I have heard another say, "I am tormented with horrible thoughts. Wherever I go,
blasphemies steal in upon me. Frequently at my work a dreadful suggestion forces itself
upon me, and even on my bed I am startled from my sleep by whispers of the evil one. I
cannot get away from this h orrible temptation." Friend, I know what you mean, for I
have myself been hunted by this wolf. A man might as well hope to fight a swarm of flies
with a sword as to master his own thoughts when they are set on by the devil. A poor
tempted soul, assailed by satanic suggestions, is like a traveler I have read of, about
whose head and ears and whole body there came a swarm of angry bees. He could not keep
them off nor escape from them. They stung him everywhere and threatened to be the death of
him. I do not wonder you feel that you are without strength to stop these hideous and
abominable thoughts which Satan pours into your soul; but yet I would remind you of the
Scripture before us—"When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died
for the ungodly." Jesus knew where we were and where we should be; He saw that we
could not overcome the prince of the power of the air; He knew that we should be greatly
worried by him; but even then, when He saw us in that condition, Christ died for the
ungodly. Cast the anchor of your faith upon this. The devil himself cannot tell you that
you are not ungodly; believe, then, that Jesus died even for such as you are. Remember
Martin Luther's way of cutting the devil's head off with his own sword. "Oh,"
said the devil to Martin Luther, "you are a sinner. " "Yes," said he,
"Christ died to save sinners." Thus he smote him with his own sword. Hide you in
this refuge, and keep there: "In due time Christ died for the ungodly." If you
stand to that truth, your blasphemous thoughts which you have not the strength to drive
away will go away of themselves; for Satan will see that he is answering no purpose by
plaguing you with them.
These thoughts, if you hate them, are none of yours, but are injections of the Devil, for
which he is responsible, and not you. If you strive against them, they are no more yours
than are the cursings and falsehoods of rioters in the street. It is by means of these
thoughts that the Devil would drive you to despair, or at least keep you from trusting
Jesus. The poor diseased woman could not come to Jesus for the press, and you are in much
the same condition, because of the rush and throng of these dreadful thoughts. Still, she
put forth her finger, and touched the fringe of the Lord's garment, and she was healed. Do
you the same.
Jesus died for those who are guilty of "all manner of sin and blasphemy," and
therefore I am sure He will not refuse those who are unwillingly the captives of evil
thoughts. Cast yourself upon Him, thoughts and all, and see if He be not mighty to save.
He can still those horrible whisperings of the fiend, or He can enable you to see them in
their true light, so that you may not be worried by them. In His own way He can and will
save you, and at length give you perfect peace. Only trust Him for this and everything
else.
Sadly perplexing is that form of inability which lies in a supposed want of power to
believe. We are not strangers to the cry:
Oh that I could believe,
Then all would easy be;
I would, but cannot; Lord, relieve,
My help must come from thee.
Many remain in the dark for years because
they have no power, as they say, to do that which is the giving up of all power and
reposing in the power of another, even the Lord Jesus. Indeed, it is a very curious thing,
this whole matter of believing; for people do not get much help by trying to believe.
Believing does not come by trying. If a person were to make a statement of something that
happened this day, I should not tell him that I would try to believe him. If I believed in
the truthfulness of the man who told the incident to me and said that he saw it, I should
accept the statement at once. If I did not think him a true man, I should, of course,
disbelieve him ; but there would be no trying in the matter. Now, when God declares that
there is salvation in Christ Jesus, I must either believe Him at once, or make Him a liar.
Surely you will not hesitate as to which is the right path in this case, The witness of
God must be true, and we are bound at once to believe in Jesus.
But possibly you have been trying to believe too much. Now do not aim at great things. Be
satisfied to have a faith that can hold in its hand this one truth, "While we were
yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." He laid down His life
for men while as yet they were not believing in Him, nor were able to believe in Him. He
died for men, not as believers, but as sinners. He came to make these sinners into
believers and saints; but when He died for them He viewed them as utterly without
strength. If you hold to the truth that Christ died for the ungodly, and believe it, your
faith will save you, and you may go in peace. If you will trust your soul with Jesus, who
died for the ungodly, even though you cannot believe all things, nor move mountains, nor
do any other wonderful works, yet you are saved. It is not great faith, but true faith,
that saves; and the salvation lies not in the faith, but in the Christ in whom faith
trusts. Faith as a grain of mustard seed will bring salvation. It is not the measure of
faith, but the sincerity of faith, which is the point to be considered. Surely a man can
believe what he knows to be true; and as you know Jesus to be true, you, my friend, can
believe in Him.
The cross which is the object of faith, is also, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the
cause of it. Sit down and watch the dying Saviour till faith springs up spontaneously in
your heart. There is no place like Calvary for creating confidence. The air of that sacred
hill brings health to trembling faith. Many a watcher there has said:
While I view Thee, wounded, grieving,
Breathless on the cursed tree,
Lord, I feel my heart believing
That Thou suffer'dst thus for me.
"Alas!" cries another, "my
want of strength lies in this direction, that I cannot quit my sin, and I know that I
cannot go to Heaven and carry my sin with me." I am glad that you know that, for it
is quite true. You must be divorced from your sin, or you cannot be married to Christ.
Recollect the question which flashed into the mind of young Bunyan when at his sports on
the green on Sunday: "Wilt thou have thy sins and go to hell, or wilt thou quit thy
sins and go to heaven?" That brought him to a dead stand. That is a question which
every man will have to answer: for there is no going on in sin and going to heaven. That
cannot be. You must quit sin or quit hope. Do you reply, "Yes, I am willing enough.
To will is present with me, but how to perform that which l would I find not. Sin masters
me, and I have no strength." Come, then, if you have no strength, this text is still
true, "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly." Can you still believe that? However other things may seem to contradict it,
will you believe it? God has said it, and it is a fact; therefore, hold on to it like grim
death, for your only hope lies there. Believe this and trust Jesus, and you shall soon
find power with which to slay your sin; but apart from Him, the strong man armed will hold
you for ever his bond slave. Personally, I could never have overcome my own sinfulness. I
tried and failed. My evil propensities were too many for me, till, in the belief that
Christ died for me, I cast my guilty soul on Him, and then I received a conquering
principle by which I overcame my sinful self. The doctrine of the cross can be used to
slay sin, even as the old warriors used their huge two-handed swords, and mowed down their
foes at every stroke. There is nothing like faith in the sinner's Friend: it overcomes all
evil. If Christ has died for me, ungodly as I am, without strength as I am, then I cannot
live in sin any longer, but must arouse myself to love and serve Him who hath redeemed me.
I cannot trifle with the evil which slew my best Friend. I must be holy for His sake. How
can I live in sin when He has died to save me from it?
See what a splendid help this is to you that are without strength, to know and believe
that in due time Christ died for such ungodly ones as you are. Have you caught the idea
yet? It is, somehow, so difficult for our darkened, prejudiced, and unbelieving minds to
see the essence of the gospel. At times I have thought, when I have done preaching, that I
have laid down the gospel so clearly, that the nose on one's face could not be more plain;
and yet I perceive that even intelligent hearers have failed to understand what was meant
by "Look unto me and be ye saved." Converts usually say that they did not know
the gospel till such and such a day; and yet they had heard it for years. The gospel is
unknown, not from want of explanation, but from absence of personal revelation. This the
Holy Ghost is ready to give, and will give to those who ask Him. Yet when given, the sum
total of the truth revealed all lies within these words: "Christ died for the
ungodly."
I hear another bewailing himself thus: "Oh, sir, my weakness lies in this, that I do
not seem to keep long in one mind! I hear the word on a Sunday, and I am impressed; but in
the week I meet with an evil companion, and my good feelings are all gone. My fellow
workmen do not believe in anything, and they say such terrible things, and I do not know
how to answer them, and so I find myself knocked over." I know this Plastic Pliable
very well, and I tremble for him; but at the same time, if he is really sincere, his
weakness can be met by divine grace. The Holy Spirit can cast out the evil spirit of the
fear of man. He can make the coward brave. Remember, my poor vacillating friend, you must
not remain in this state. It will never do to be mean and beggarly to yourself. Stand
upright, and look at yourself, and see if you were ever meant to be like a toad under a
harrow, afraid for your life either to move or to stand still. Do have a mind of your own.
This is not a spiritual matter only, but one which concerns ordinary manliness. I would do
many things to please my friends; but to go to hell to please them is more than I would
venture. It may be very well to do this and that for good fellowship; but it will never do
to lose the friendship of God in order to keep on good terms with men. "I know
that," says the man, "but still, though I know it, I cannot pluck up courage. I
cannot show my colors. I cannot stand fast." Well, to you also I have the same text
to bring: "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly." If Peter were here, he would say, "The Lord Jesus died for me even
when I was such a poor weak creature that the maid who kept the fire drove me to lie, and
to swear that I knew not the Lord." Yes, Jesus died for those who forsook him and
fled. Take a firm grip on this truth—"Christ died for the ungodly while they
were yet without strength." This is your way out of your cowardice. Get this wrought
into your soul, "Christ died for me," and you will soon be ready to die for Him.
Believe it, that He suffered in your place and stead, and offered for you a full, true,
and satisfactory expiation. If you believe that fact, you will be forced to feel, "I
cannot be ashamed of Him who died for me." A full conviction that this is true will
nerve you with a dauntless courage. Look at the saints in the martyr age. In the early
days of Christianity, when this great thought of Christ's exceeding love was sparkling in
all its freshness in the church, men were not only ready to die, but they grew ambitious
to suffer, and even presented themselves by hundreds at the judgment seats of the rulers,
confessing the Christ. I do not say that they were wise to court a cruel death; but it
proves my point, that a sense of the love of Jesus lifts the mind above all fear of what
man can do to us. Why should it not produce the same effect in you? Oh that it might now
inspire you with a brave resolve to come out upon the Lord's side, and be His follower to
the end!
May the Holy Spirit help us to come thus far by faith in the Lord Jesus, and it will be
well!
How can we obtain an increase of faith?
This is a very earnest question to many. They say they want to believe, but cannot. A
great deal of nonsense is talked upon this subject. Let us be strictly practical in our
dealing with it. Common sense is as much needed in religion as anywhere else. "What
am I to do in order to believe?" One who was asked the best way to do a certain
simple act, replied that the best way to do it was to do it at once. We waste time in
discussing methods when the action is simple. The shortest way to believe is to believe.
If the Holy Spirit has made you candid, you will believe as soon as truth is set before
you. You will believe it because it is true. The gospel command is clear; "Believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." It is idle to evade this by
questions and quibbles. The order is plain; let it be obeyed.
But still, if you have difficulty, take it before God in prayer. Tell the great Father
exactly what it is that puzzles you, and beg Him by His Holy Spirit to solve the question.
If I cannot believe a statement in a book, I am glad to inquire of the author what he
means by it; and if he is a true man his explanation will satisfy me; much more will the
divine explanation of the hard points of Scripture satisfy the heart of the true seeker.
The Lord is willing to make himself known; go to Him and see if it is not so. Repair at
once to your closet, and cry, "O Holy Spirit, lead me into the truth! What I know
not, teach Thou me."
Furthermore, if faith seems difficult, it is possible that God the Holy Spirit will enable
you to believe if you hear very frequently and earnestly that which you are commanded to
believe. We believe many things because we have heard them so often. Do you not find it so
in common life, that if you hear a thing fifty times a day, at last you come to believe
it? Some men have come to believe very unlikely statements by this process, and therefore
I do not wonder that the good Spirit often blesses the method of often hearing the truth,
and uses it to work faith concerning that which is to be believed. It is written,
"Faith cometh by hearing "; therefore hear often. If I earnestly and attentively
hear the gospel, one of these days I shall find myself believing that which I hear,
through the blessed operation of the Spirit of God upon my mind. Only mind you hear the
gospel, and do not distract your mind with either hearing or reading that which is
designed to stagger you.
If that, however, should seem poor advice, I would add next, consider the testimony of
others. The Samaritans believed because of what the woman told them concerning Jesus. Many
of our beliefs arise out of the testimony of others. I believe that there is such a
country as Japan; I never saw it, and yet I believe that there is such a place because
others have been there. I believe that I shall die; I have never died, but a great many
have done so whom I once knew, and therefore I have a conviction that I shall die also.
The testimony of many convinces me of that fact. Listen, then, to those who tell you how
they were saved, how they were pardoned, how they were changed in character. If you will
look into the matter you will find that somebody just like yourself has been saved. If you
have been a thief, you will find that a thief rejoiced to wash away his sin in the
fountain of Christ's blood. If unhappily you have been unchaste, you will find that men
and women who have fallen in that way have been cleansed and changed. If you are in
despair, you have only to get among God's people, and inquire a little, and you will
discover that some of the saints have been equally in despair at times and they will be
pleased to tell you how the Lord delivered them. As you listen to one after another of
those who have tried the word of God, and proved it, the divine Spirit will lead you to
believe. Have you not heard of the African who was told by the missionary that water
sometimes became so hard that a man could walk on it? He declared that he believed a great
many things the missionary had told him; but he would never believe that. When he came to
England it came to pass that one frosty day he saw the river frozen, but he would not
venture on it. He knew that it was a deep river, and he felt certain that he would be
drowned if he ventured upon it. He could not be induced to walk the frozen water till his
friend and many others went upon it; then he was persuaded, and trusted himself where
others had safely ventured. So, while you see others believe in the Lamb of God, and
notice their joy and peace, you will yourself be gently led to believe. The experience of
others is one of God's ways of helping us to faith. You have e ither to believe in Jesus
or die; there is no hope for you but in Him.
A better plan is this—note the authority upon which you are commanded to believe, and
this will greatly help you to faith. The authority is not mine, or you might well reject
it. But you are commanded to believe upon the authority of God himself. He bids you
believe in Jesus Christ, and you must not refuse to obey your Maker. The foreman of a
certain works had often heard the gospel, but he was troubled with the fear that he might
not come to Christ. His good master one day sent a card around to the works—"
Come to my house immediately after work." The foreman appeared at his master's door,
and the master came out, and said somewhat roughly, " What do you want, John,
troubling me at this time? Work is done, what right have you here?" "Sir,"
said he, "I had a card from you saying that I was to come after work." "Do
you mean to say that merely because you had a card from me you are to come up to my house
and call me out after business hours?" "Well, Sir," replied the foreman,
"I do not understand you, but it seems to me that, as you sent for me, I had a right
to come." "Come in, John," said his master, "I have another message
that I want to read to you," and he sat down and read these words: "Come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." "Do you
think after such a message from Christ that you can be wrong in coming to him?&quo