A servant of the Lord while visiting one day in a large town, where the Lord was saving souls, happened to meet a young person who for five months had been in a state of the deepest anxiety.
Many had spoken to her about her soul’s difficulties. She had attended meetings to hear the gospel preached, but still she remained unhappy. At times it seemed as if her mind would give way under the severe mental strain. Seeing him approach the door of her house, she invited him in. He had just come from visiting one who was also in deep distress about her soul’s salvation, and in the course of the conversation happened to mention this.
“O, indeed, sir, I can sympathize with any one like that,” she observed, “for I have been for five months, ever since my last illness, in a similar state. O, if I could only know that I am saved it would be all right!”
“And so you may at once,” he replied; “for Christ has died and risen, and God offers salvation freely to all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you expect to be saved?” he asked. “Is it by doing good works, by praying, or by getting better?”
“No,” she said, “I cannot get better, and my works would never save me.”
“Then do you believe that God is willing to save you as you are, in your sins, helpless, vile, and ungodly?”
“Yes, I believe He is willing to save me just as I am;” and she went on to relate how God had been showing her what she was in His sight. She had been praised by acquaintances for her natural talents, and had been proud of herself in some respects; but she was now convinced that in God’s sight she was only a poor sinner, and that her best state was altogether as vanity.
“Well,” he said, “if you know yourself to be lost and vile, and that God is willing to save you while in that condition, what is there to hinder you believing the gospel, and being saved?”
“I don’t know,” she replied; “but I don’t feel saved, and I should be dreadfully afraid to meet God.”
“Tell me plainly, now,” he continued, “what do you think your salvation depends upon?”
“I believe,” she said, “that my salvation depends upon my acceptance of the work of Christ.”
This reply would to many believers have probably appeared quite sound, but it struck him that the answer seemed to account for this dear woman’s deep distress.
“Ah,” he said, “no wonder, then, you have no peace, such being your idea.”
She seemed astonished, and he continued: “No, your salvation does not depend upon your acceptance of the work of Christ, but upon your believing that God has accepted the work of Christ as a full and complete satisfaction of all your sins from beginning to end.”
Her expression seemed suddenly to change, as though a flash of light from above had entered her soul, and she gazed at him inquiringly. He continued, “It is the creditor that is to be satisfied, is it not?”
“Certainly,” she replied; “thank God for making it all clear to me. I see it all now so plainly. I never looked at it in that way before. I have been thinking whether I accepted Christ properly or not, whether I believed aright, whether I had the right faith, and so on. Sometimes I thought I was saved, and then again I doubted it, and I could not get peace.”
Yes, dear reader, God is satisfied with Jesus, and the work He has accomplished for His own glory, and the sinner’s eternal blessing, who by faith rests on it for salvation.