A DYING Christian was visited by a friend, who quoted for him various texts of Scripture illustrative of God’s faithfulness to His promises.
When he had gone, the dying man remarked, “Texts like those do not give me so much comfort as, ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son’ (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)); or, ‘He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?’ (Rom. 8:3232He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32)). Plain doctrinal statements exhibiting the heart of God are more sustaining to me than mere promises. I like to get into contact with the LIVING PERSON.”
Yes, it is GOD HIMSELF that the heart needs to know, whether in living or in dying. Let the writer speak of Him as he and thousands of others have personally found Him.
Was my case as a sinner so desperate that nothing but the sacrifice of a spotless victim could atone for my sin? It was God Himself who provided the Sacrificial Lamb. Hence the word of John the Baptist, when his eye rested upon Jesus here below: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (compare Gen. 22:88And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. (Genesis 22:8); John 1:2929The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)).
If an awakened conscience charged me with being guilty before God, no words could describe my comfort when I discovered that the very God I had sinned against was prepared to justify me, and that He could, through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, do so without abating one atom of His righteousness, ungodly though I was (Rom. 4:5; 3:275But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5)
27Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. (Romans 3:27)).
Was I sold under sin and utterly unable to meet my own case? It was God who said, “Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a Ransom” (Job 33:2424Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. (Job 33:24)).
Was my heart so defiled by sin that no effort of mine could remove one of its crimson stains? Then God came forward as my Cleanser, saying, “come now, and let us reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa. 1:1818Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18)). Peter had to learn by his vision that “what God hath cleansed” is not to be despised, but is “clean every whit.” For “the blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7); Acts 10:1515And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. (Acts 10:15)).
Was death the wages of my sin? It was God who proclaimed Himself to be the Giver of eternal life; and in Him who exhausted sin’s judgment and rose forever beyond it, that gift is mine. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)).
Did I find it utterly impossible to make my heart love God as I ought to love Him? God not only commended His love toward me by the death of His Son, but sent His Spirit into my heart that I might be made joyfully and abidingly conscious of that love (Rom. 5:6,86For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)
8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)).
Was the bitter cry wrung from me, “O wretched man that I am I who shall deliver me?” as with groans of despair I discovered what I still was according to the flesh, even after conversion? The blessed answer to that cry was this: “I thank God through Jesus Christ.” It was God who broke my fetters in the death of His Son, and set me in liberty before Him in the life of His risen Son. (Rom. 7:24, 25; 8:224O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. (Romans 7:24‑25)
2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)).
But more. In the perplexity and burden of earthly care I am invited to spread all my requests before this same blessed God, with an assurance that the very peace of God Himself shall garrison my heart and mind through Christ Jesus.
Do I sigh to be free from all that binds my spirit downward? He stands before me as “the God of hope,” and holds out the blessed prospect of perfect conformity to the likeness of His own beloved Son. And lest I should be tempted to look at myself in order to discover some goodness of my own, as a merit for obtaining that glory, His Spirit reminds me that it is “the God of all grace” that has called me to it (1 Peter 5:1010But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. (1 Peter 5:10)).
With such a God before the soul, it is no wonder that the dying man, we have referred to, found such comfort in coming into contact with the heart of this LIVING PERSON.
The reader will have noticed that all that God is has been expressed in Christ. There, and there only, can we really know Him. Christ is our Sacrifice and our Ransom. Christ is the means of our cleansing, and the proof of God’s love.
We know experimental deliverance through Him.
We stand clear of condemnation and enjoy true liberty in Him.
We shall be eternally glorified with Him.
What think you, my reader, of such a Saviour?
Will you not fly to His open arms while you have the opportunity, and not wait till, by the hand of death, you are forced into His presence? Will you not let Him gratify His desire to forgive and bless a repentant sinner by coming to Him with the full confession of your own sinfulness?
One word more. To refuse His grace is to defy His judgment; and who shall do that and prosper? Your time is short. As surely as the last month of another year has been reached, your last opportunity will be reached one day, your end will come. Oh! wake up at once. “Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee” (Job 22:2121Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee. (Job 22:21)).
GEO. C.