MOMENTOUS words I Dear reader, there is sufficient in this one short sentence to give you present and eternal happiness They are the words of the Son of the Living God, who said. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall never pass away." Have you received them?
When the Son of God speaks, He speaks with authority. And knowing the proneness of our hearts to doubt His word, how gracious to preface them again and again with "Verily, verily (or truly, truly), I say unto you." Every question as to their force, every doubt as to their reality, is thus effectually silenced. Nothing but truth could come from His blessed lips, and yet He takes pains, if I may so speak, to impress the truth of His words upon our unbelieving hearts.
Ponder now, I entreat you, the precious sentence which follows; "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”
It is a message for all. None can say they are kit out or forgotten. "He that believeth" It matters not who you are, or what you have done; the moment you believe, it refers to you. It is not, he that believeth about me, but in me. You might believe all about Christ, and probably you do, and yet be lost. Thousands believe about Him, as they believe about the Duke of Wellington, or Napoleon Buonaparte, or any other great man, but what does that benefit them? There is no virtue in that. Tens of thousands are brought up from infancy to believe the facts of Scripture concerning the Lord Jesus, and His work upon the cross, but believing on Him is a totally different matter. Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
Do you reply, Yes? Then you have everlasting life. The Lord Jesus Christ says so. "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life." Christ Himself is the object of faith; a living Saviour in the glory. He it is who perfectly glorified God, and obtained eternal redemption by dying upon the cross, and rising again. "Once in the end of the world hath he appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Heb. 9:2626For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:26)) And now He says to every one that believeth, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life." Then let me repeat the question again, Dost thou believe on Him?
Do you unhesitatingly reply, Yes, I do? Then everlasting life is yours. There it is in plain black and white in the Word of God. Jesus says so. Have you it? I think I hear someone reply, as thousands do, "I hope I have." Hope you have? Does it say a word about hope? No, there is no thought of such a thing in the passage. Take it just as it stands, if you want the blessing. Ah! I know your thought. It seems too good to be true. Yes, it does; but it is true for all that. God's thoughts and yours widely differ. That you do not deserve it is perfectly true. But God is not blessing sinners according; to their thoughts, or their deserts, but according to His own love, and His thoughts of Jesus and His finished work. Then take Him, dear reader, at His word, "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”
Again, I think I hear you saying, "But I shouldn't like to say I have everlasting life; it seems so presumptuous." What! presumptuous to believe the word of the Lord. Does He not speak the truth, saying what He means, and meaning what Ile says? And it is He who says it, not you. It is for you to believe what He says. If you believe, you have everlasting life. If you have not everlasting life, clearly you do not believe. The two go together. Believing is having. They are inseparable. The Lord put them together. Satan and men would rend them asunder. But let God be true, and every man a liar, saith the scripture (Rom. 3:44God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. (Romans 3:4)). And Satan is a liar and murderer from the beginning (John 8:4444Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (John 8:44)). It is Satan who suggests the doubt. Read the words again. Think over them. Weigh them. Give every word its full force. And may God in His infinite grace lead you to rest upon it. It is a wonderful little verse, and so simple, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life" (John 6:4747Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. (John 6:47)).
There is no vestige of, and no room for, an if, a but, a fear, or a doubt. It is hath, not hopes. Hath, H-A-T-H. Hath, everlasting life. You cannot get away from its plain meaning. Now, how is it to be? Will you go on raising a thousand and one questions, and be miserable; or, will you put your Amen, so to speak, to the Lord's own words, and be happy? Close the book, and go on for the next fifty years in unbelief, and it will not alter the fact. You will go on without the blessing, whilst thousands of others are enjoying it. Rest upon the Word in childlike faith and simplicity, and that precious hath is yours. He that believeth hath. Not hopes, but hath. Hath, hath, HATH. "He that believeth on me HATH everlasting life.”
Everlasting life! “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (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)). Precious, priceless, inestimable gift. Money cannot purchase it. Works cannot win it. Unbelief lives and dies without it. But God gives it now as a free gift to every one that believeth. “He 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 3:3636He 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)). Without it there is nothing but wrath, wrath for ever abiding on you, everlasting punishment (Rev. 20:1515And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15)). But to have it now, is present joy and happiness, and the certain prospect of eternal glory. “He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life " (1 John 5:12, 1312He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 13These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:12‑13)).
And then henceforth it will be your blessed privilege to say with the apostle, "I am (or have been) crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me " (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)).
Once again, ere I close, I would press upon you, beloved reader, in the light of eternity, the momentous importance of receiving these precious words of Jesus now, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”
E. H. C.
“UNDER the law, God was in the holy place, and the unclean must be removed, and the priest and the Levite attend that sanctuary. But in the gospel, God is in the unclean place, seeking the ruined ones.
Jesus is going about doing good; the Stranger from heaven has come where man lay in his blood, and has looked on him and had compassion; has gone and meddled with all that pollution, untouched by it, washed the wounded sinner from his blood, and anointed him with oil (Ezek. 16.). All this He has done, and changed places with the wounded sinner also. For though rich, he has become poor, that we, through His poverty, might be made rich.”
J. G. B.