6. “An Earnest Seeker,” Toronto. For fifty years the Lord has been teaching us from His word that New Testament saints have eternal life in the Son. He has not shown us a single text in the Old Testament on the subject; and where He has not spoken, it is wise for us, surely, to be silent. We learn from the words of Jesus, that “He that believeth on him that sent me, hath eternal life.” And again, “He that believeth on me hath eternal life.” These, and many such texts, are connected with faith in the sent Son of God. Yet faith may be taken in a general way as evidence of eternal life. And there it is well to stop, without reasoning about what is not revealed. You say, “If they had life, was it not in Him, of course not manifest until after He had risen; and if they had life, what was it in, if not in Christ (or in the Son).” To have eternal life in the Son is the distinctive privilege of the Christian. No one could be in such a position as to have life in the Son before He arose from the dead. (1 John 5:11, 1211And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:11‑12); John 12:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (John 12:24); Luke 20:3838For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him. (Luke 20:38); John 5:2121For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. (John 5:21).)
May we ask, Have you the blessed certainty that you have eternal life; or is the enemy of your soul seeking, by these questions, to draw you into his net of perplexity and doubt?
We will take a look at his net, after your next question. These are your words: “Will you also show me if, when a soul is quickened, whether the Holy Spirit takes up its abode, or, in other words, is sealed; or whether such an one can be lost, after all; and the difference, if any, between being quickened and born again?”
You may not see it, but this is all the fine, silken web of the spider, of the one cord, or double cord, of the net of the fowler. Texts of scripture even may be spun to make this net for your feet; and the workman used to spin and form the net, may have no idea what he is doing. But what is the enemy’s object with this net r It is to draw you from the gospel, from Christ and His finished work, to the work of the Spirit in you. Important as that is, yet it is not the ground of our relationship with God. He, the Holy Ghost, is the witness of it, and the seal of it. But we are sons of God before He bears witness that we are. “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” (Gal. 4:66And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (Galatians 4:6).)
We must not put life, or quickening, in the place of faith in Christ, or faith in God, who sent and raised Him from the dead. How soon we get away from the gospel into human confusion. What is the gospel God has so signally used in the deliverance of souls these last fifty years? Is it not this that when a sinner believes God, through sovereign grace, he is accounted righteous before God; that he has peace with God, by faith, through our Lord Jesus Christ; that he has access by faith into the everlasting, free, unclouded favor of God; that he is made the righteousness of God in Christ; that he has eternal life, and shall never come into judgment; that he is passed from death unto life; that he is a new creation in Christ Jesus; that old things are passed away, and all things become new, and all of God? All this absolutely and eternally true now of every believer born of God, and thus a child of God. This is the gospel God has so used. Now, if this has been attacked, and theories of quickening and life put in its place, in Canada, it is a sad mistake; and it is a mistake to bring sealing, at the moment of believing, as the remedy. Much may be true of a believer, and yet it may be minutes, or hours, or days, or months, or even years before he enjoys full liberty by the sealing of the Spirit. Let Satan get us away from the certainty of the gospel in the net of reasoning about life and quickening, then he will give you a gentle pull, and he will say, “Are you quite sure you feel you are quickened?” You may say, “I hope so.” That will just suit him. Then he will say, “Ah, that is good; but now examine yourself. Do you feel you are sealed?” Somehow you will say, “I seem to have a little dust in my eyes, I cannot exactly tell whether I am sealed, or not.” Now he gives you a strong pull. He says, “Ah, if you are not sealed, you may be lost, after all.”
We have just heard of a young believer, so harassed by these injurious reasonings, that he left the table of the Lord, in utter uncertainty as to whether he was sealed. Where, in all this reasoning, is Christ? Where His finished work? Where is the certainty that when you are brought to believe God you have eternal life, beyond judgment, passed from death unto life?
May all the beloved saints of God be delivered from this net of human reason, and be restored to the simplicity and absolute certainty of the gospel. Having seen that this net of reasoning draws the eye of faith from Christ, we have no desire to be drawn into its meshes and entanglements. Have you found one atom of good these theories have done in Canada? Is there a particle of food for the hungry souls around? Do these speculations unite the children of God together in bonds of love? When these things come in, when such men arise among ourselves, the apostle says, “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”
7. “H. A.” Blackpool. John 6:4949Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. (John 6:49), no doubt refers to the death of the body. The manna was a figure of the human flesh or body of Christ, the sent One from the Father. But this was not all that was needed. His blood must be shed; and both these truths received in the soul give life. “He that hath the Son hath life.” Not only that Son incarnate, but dead, and risen from among the dead. The body of such an one shall be raised from the dead. But he has now eternal life, and as to that shall never die.
It is by no means certain “that some Christians” deny eternal misery or punishment, and reject the idea of a hell, &c. They are Christians who hear the words of Jesus, and believe God who sent Him. They who deny eternal punishment, do not hear the words of Jesus or believe them. (Matt. 25:2626His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: (Matthew 25:26); John 3:3636He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36); Mark 9:43-4843And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 44Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 45And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 46Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 47And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: 48Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9:43‑48).) These have no just ground for saying they are Christians. How can they be Christians and reject the words of Christ? May the Lord awaken such, and deliver them from the delusion of Satan. A man dying of thirst would neither need a chemist nor an angel to tell him that water was water. A lost sinner does not need a voice from heaven to tell him the scriptures are from God. They meet the thirst of his soul in all its need, and nothing else does.