(Read Mark 5:25-3425And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, 26And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, 27When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. 28For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. 29And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. 30And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? 31And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 32And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. 33But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. 34And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. (Mark 5:25‑34); Luke 8:43-4943And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, 44Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. 45And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 46And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. 47And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. 48And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace. 49While he yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying to him, Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master. (Luke 8:43‑49)).
WE have, dear reader, in this beautiful narrative, a simple, but striking, illustration of the state in which the sinner is, before he comes to Christ, and what the result is of coming to Christ; so that you will see everything turns upon coming to Christ. You may have gone through all sorts of experiences before you come to Him, but they are of no value whatever. Not one of the questions of your heart, though you may have had many, have been answered till you come to Christ; and all are answered the moment you do come to Him.
Look at this woman, with her incurable malady, of twelve years’ standing. Twelve in Scripture is the number of human completeness. Her case was shown as completely incurable. She had sought all kinds of means of being healed, had gone to all sorts of physicians, but at the end she found herself penniless; not better, but worse, and “could not be healed of any.”
This is your state exactly, my unconverted reader. You have an incurable malady, you are a sinner. Perhaps that does not disturb you very much, you may not be very concerned to hear you are a sinner; but, oh what a solemn thing it is, for “the wages of sin is death,” and “after death the judgment,” where you have to meet God about your sins.
Yes, you will have to say to God about the thing that never caused you any anxiety in your life, and that is your sin. You may have settled up everything with man before you die, but you have still to meet God about your sins. Perhaps you have been awakened to the solemn fact that you are a sinner, and have tried to have this matter put right before God; and, like this poor woman, perhaps you have tried every way but the right way of getting this solemn question of your sins settled; and you know it is not settled yet, for you have not yet come to Christ.
People think there is a certain balm and cure for their disease in becoming religious; and there are not wanting many spiritual physicians, who will tell you, You will be healed by “turning over a new leaf,” and becoming religious; but there is nothing in religion to meet your case, — it is not religion, but Christ that will meet it. You have, perhaps, been trying to be religious for years; you may have said many times over, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins,” but, are your sins blotted out yet? No, you reply, I could not say that. Ah! then, you believe in the possibility of the forgiveness of sins; but that is a very different thing from being able to say, “I believe that my sins are forgiven,” which every true believer is entitled to say.
Take this woman as an example. Had you met her on her way up to Christ, she would have told you, “If I can get only near enough to Christ to touch Him, I believe I shall be healed.” “But are you healed?” you say. “No, but I believe I shall be, if only I can touch Him.” Had you met her, however, half-an-hour after she touched Him, and said, “Are you healed?” she would not have said, “I know I can be, or shall be,” but, “Thank God, I am healed.”
Reader, I ask you, are things right with you? Have you peace with God? Have you pardon, forgiveness, the knowledge of acceptance with the Lord? If you have not been to Christ, you must know you are not right with God. Your conscience tells you that you are not right, though the devil knows well how to give you some soothing syrup. But again I ask you, Have you peace with God? Can you look up, and call God Father?
It is a good thing for the soul when it hears that all that is not Christ is utterly valueless. Twelve years of most earnest efforts to be healed had this woman spent. And at the close of twelve years, what does she find? That she is worse than ever, and more, that she “could not be healed of any.” Have you learned this, that all the physicians of your soul are valueless, and all their prescriptions worse than useless? But in her ease, when she was well-nigh in despair, she heard of Jesus. Blessed hearing! Have you heard of Jesus? Oh, you say, I have heard of Him from my infancy. Then I will ask you another question, Have you come to Him yet?
There are six beautiful points in this woman’s history: ― She heard, she came, she touched, she felt, she confessed, and was confirmed.
1.―Hearing.
“She heard of Jesus.” Tidings of this blessed Saviour reached her, and I tell you now of Jesus,―tell you He is the Saviour’s friend, and He has come down from the heights of glory, that He might unfold the wonderful news of the deep and eternal interest of God in man; that He is so holy, that sin must be judged, but so loving, that He gave His only begotten Son to bear the judgment of sin in His own blessed person, and to save you from its consequences.
This woman “heard of Jesus,” heard of His love. And have you not heard of Jesus? heard that He “came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15))? heard that “as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many” (Heb. 9:27-2827And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 28So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:27‑28))? heard that “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8))? These are the tidings, that the Son of God has come down into this world, and died for the sinner; that the guiltless One has suffered for the guilty, the Just for the unjust; that He has paid down on the treasury bench of eternal justice the price of your redemption, and all you have to do is to come to Him.
2. Coming.
And this woman, “When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind.” I do not think she waited long after she had heard. She had found that her case was hopeless,—that there was no possibility of cure. Every hope had fled, when the tidings came of Jesus, and the Holy Ghost says, “When she had heard of Jesus she came.” She was entirely possessed by two great truths,―1st, that her case was utterly hopeless without Christ; and 2nd, that if only she could get to Him, she would certainly be healed.
Have you ever got to this point, that your case is hopeless? that you are under the judgment of God, and that nothing can ensure your escaping the damnation of hell but your corning to Christ? “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” and it matters not though you have been outwardly moral, for the Christ of God you know not, and you are yet in your sins. You were born in sin, and you have lived without Christ from your infancy, and now you are only so much nearer the pit of hell, ― so much nearer eternity; and oh, what an eternity it must be, if you are Christless!
Oh, if only you were brought to this point, like the woman, to believe on the one hand you are incurable, and to believe on the other the power of Christ. She came to Him; her heart was all alive, her whole moral being was moved. She heard the Saviour was passing near her, on His way to raise Jairus’s daughter, who was dead, and faith sprang up in her heart, and she said, “If I may but touch His clothes, I shall be whole.” That was faith.
3.―Touching
Does your heart wake up to say, “If I may but touch Him, I shall be saved?” That is faith, and do not give it up. Faith always gets the blessed answer from God. You are not asked for tears, or for prayers, but for simple faith in Christ, ―confidence in Christ. This woman wanted to get to Christ, and she came behind in the press. There is always a “press” when a soul wants to get to Christ. Satan makes that, he tries to raise up every possible difficulty; and if you are going to be saved, you must break through the press. Either you must break through the press, and get to Christ; or the pressure will press you down, until you are eternally damned.
This poor woman was determined to get near the Saviour. This one thing filled her heart, “If I may but touch Him.” There is everything in the touch. If you have not touched Christ, you are still a lost soul, though you may be as religious as you like.
Methinks I see the wave of people pressing the woman beck, and Christ passes on, He is not standing still. But again she presses forward, and her finger goes out. She touches Him, and then He stands still, and she stands still; and oh, what a difference “She felt in her body that she was healed.”
4.―Feeling.
Oh, say you, I should like to feel saved. You will never feel, until you have touched. Then you will feel, ―feel liberty, feel joy, feel peace with God. It is first faith, then feeling. Put feelings in their right place, and they are all right. They must come after the faith that trusts Christ, never before. If you have simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, feeling will come after. The Holy Ghost gives beautiful experiences; not that your feelings, or your experiences, are in any way the ground on which you rest.
The moment the woman touched, that moment a change took place. “She felt that she was healed.” Mark, it was “immediately,” there was no delay in the blessing when faith touched the Saviour, nor is there ever.
But the Lord always knows when faith touches Him. So we read, “And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?” He does not do this out of curiosity, but He wants to give her an opportunity of confessing Him, and also the divine assurance that she was healed, and could never again relapse into that state in which she was before. “Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me,” He says, for He feels the touch of faith. Does He look down from heaven today, and see you touching Him, my dear reader? If so, the Lord does not like you to be in anything but the full enjoyment of His love, and what His salvation is; and wishes to assure you, that you can never get back into the state in which you were before you touched Him.
This query of Christ at length brings the woman out of the crowd; in fact, detaches her from the unbelievers around. “And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and, falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately.” There is always trembling at first. The soul trembles, not knowing fully Christ’s grace, and lest also it should lose what it has got. But, though trembling, she declares everything to Him before all. Here then we get.
5.―Confession.
I had a malady, she says, which no one else could heal. Alas, that Christ should be the very last we come to for healing Yet He is the first to meet our case, and to pardon and heal. Many a soul has heard of Christ, and has come to Him; and there has been the touch of faith, and after the faith has come the feeling, but it has failed to own or confess what has taken place, and hence never gets fully clear as to what grace does for its object.
This woman owns publicly what has taken place. She confesses Christ before all, and He confesses her. We have here one of the loveliest confirmation scenes in all Scripture.
6.―Confirmation.
Mark what Jesus says to her, ― “Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.” “Daughter!”
Blessed word of relationship! The moment I trust Him, He acknowledges me. Are you touching Him, but trembling at this moment? He says, “Be of good comfort.” He is acknowledging you. Have you faith in Him? Are you conscious that there is power in Christ, virtue in the blood of Christ, to save you if you come to him? And do you trust Him now? What is His word to you? “Thy faith hath made thee whole.” And what is the next word? “Go in peace, and be whole.” First, He comforts; then He lets you know you are saved, and sends you away in peace.
The Lord lets the believing soul know that its case is entirely altered. He takes up the case, and the one that was lost is saved. The moment you commit your case to Christ, put your guilty soul, with all your sins and all your misery, into His hands, what then? “Thy faith hath made thee whole,” He says. And what more? Is not that enough? Not enough for Christ. He says more, “Go in peace.” The devil may say, “What about the judgment?” Christ says, “Go in peace;” the judgment you should have borne, I have borne for you.
Peace is this, conscious knowledge that there is no question that can be raised between God and me about sin. Every question was settled at the Cross, and “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” He says, “Go in peace.” More, even, He adds, ― “And be whole of thy plague.” That is, you shall never have a relapse, never fall back into the old state you were in. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any (angel, man, or devil) pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:27-2827My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:27‑28)). “I am persuaded,” says the apostle, “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-3938For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38‑39)).
“The gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom. 11:2929For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. (Romans 11:29)), and if He has given you life and peace, He will never take them away.
If you are Christ’s, do not be ashamed to own your Lord. Own Him, confess Him, wherever you are. He will give you the assurance in your heart that you are His, and that He never means to give you up till He has you with Him forever. What a Saviour, and what a salvation! What devoted service and testimony should ours be! The Lord help us to steadily yield it.
“For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:14, 1514For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:14‑15)). W. T. P. W.