Not long ago a man opened the door of a bookstore. In the windows he had seen copies of the Bible and books about it. He walked to the back of the store, where the storekeeper was working, and said, “I am from out of town and was told that you might know where one can get a Bible free. Is this the place?”
“What do you want with a Bible?” asked the bookseller.
“I want to read it,” quietly replied the man. “I have never owned anything but a New Testament, and now I want the whole Bible.”
“When you read your Testament, do you pray over it?” the bookseller continued. “Do you realize it is the Word of God and that you need the Holy Spirit to lead you to the right understanding of it?”
The man felt at once that the bookseller was interested in his soul. To explain and assure him that he had not read his New Testament in vain, he said, “I have been a professor of religion for some time.”
“Ah, but that is not necessarily being a child of God,” the salesman urged. “I am anxious to know if you are a child of God.”
“Well, I hope so” was the hesitating reply, “but you know none of us can be sure of that.”
“Are you sure of the judgment?”
“Oh, yes, I am sure of that,” and the man began to look very serious.
“Then do sit down here,” continued the salesman, “and tell me on which side of you is the judgment—before or behind?”
“Oh,” he replied, “it is before me, of course. The judgment is only at the end of the world, and that hasn’t come yet.”
“How do you expect to escape it?”
“Well, I am trying hard to live a Christian life. I try to do what good I can in my poor way, and I do hope in that way to be found worthy to escape judgment and to have eternal life.”
“Now let me tell you my story,” said the bookseller. “I also believe that judgment is at the end of the world. But though the end has not come yet, I can tell you that judgment is behind me. Being sure that it is coming, I anticipated it in my mind. I found that, being a sinner, I was ‘condemned already.’ As I viewed my sins in the light of the ‘great white throne,’ I could only see that all hope for me was over—I was lost. So instead of trying to escape, I pleaded guilty. At the same time, however, I saw that it was for these very sins of mine that Jesus had suffered judgment upon the cross. He, ‘the Just,’ had there suffered ‘for the unjust.’
“But I knew that He was no longer on the cross, but up there in the glory! So I could say, ‘Thank God, the judgment is passed for me. Jesus has passed through it in my place.’ ”
Instantly the man’s eyes brightened and, taking hold of the bookseller’s hand in both of his, he exclaimed earnestly, “I see it! I see it!”
With his free gift of a “whole Bible,” soon off he went, as one who had found a new treasure.
The Lord Jesus says, “He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into [judgment]; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)).
Death and judgment are behind us,
Grace and glory are before;
All the billows rolled o’er Jesus;
There they spent their utmost power.
Jesus died, and we died with Him,
“Buried” in His grave we lay;
One with Him in resurrection,
Now “in Him” in heaven’s bright day.