SOME few months ago, having occasion to visit, with another, some Christians in Russian Poland, we found upon inquiry it was absolutely necessary to procure a passport to cross the frontier. Having duly furnished ourselves, we started on our journey, and arrived in the early morning at the first railway station on Russian territory. The train pulled up, and an official in uniform immediately demanded all passports. After a critical examination, as the hour for the train to start approached, each one’s pass was handed back to him again, and we were allowed to proceed without hindrance to our destination. If anyone had failed to produce a pass, on if in any way it had not been in order, he would have been sent back again into Germany; or if the pass had been a false one, punished. It was absolutely necessary to have a pass in due order, in conformity with the Russian law, and signed by the Russian consul.
One has often thought since how strikingly this illustrates the necessity of a passport to enter the glory of God! It is absolutely necessary, and must be according to the divine order. What is the passport? God’s own testimony concerning His Son. The plain declaration of His Word is, that whosoever believes on the Son, his sins are remitted in His Name, and he has a title in His precious blood to enter glory. Anything short of this is utterly useless. Tens of thousands, instead of following the plain direction of God’s own Word, seek to enter according to their own thoughts. One thinks he will get through on account of his morality, a second on account of his religion, a third on account of his harmlessness, a fourth on account of God’s mercy; and so on. Alas, everyone who trusts to one or all of these together will find, when it is too late, that his pass was not in accordance with the divine order. There is no title to enter the glory of God but Christ Himself. He and He alone is the sure passport to eternal bliss.
To attempt to pass the Russian border without a pass, or with one that was not according to the emperor’s order, were folly. We might have hoped, and buoyed each other up all the way to the frontier, only to and our hopes grievously disappointed as soon as we arrived. A young German, who tried to pass without one, was kept in ward till the return train, and then summarily despatched back again. A pass in order, or no entrance to Russia, is the inexorable law, and admits no infringement. And a pass, according to the divine order, to enter, and dwell in the presence of God, is an absolute necessity; the only alternative is eternal banishment in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:1515And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15)). Have you a pass?
Do you reply, like thousands, I hope so. Your hope is vain. You have or you have not. At any moment you may be called from time into eternity; at any moment you may be put to the test as to whether your pass is in order or not. It is one thing or the other. You are either a true believer on the Son of God, and your sins are blotted out by His most precious blood, or they are not. You may be highly respectable, moral, and religious: your virtues may surpass those of thousands around you; but all these things are no pass for heaven.
We might have pleaded to the Russian officials that we were highly respectable Englishmen, and produced no end of testimonials to our moral and religious character, only to receive the reply, that all that might be perfectly true, but that was not the question. The Russian law is not, that if highly respectable citizens of another country arrive, they shall enter, but whosoever has a passport, according to the law, and signed by a Russian consul. This we had, and hence we passed. If we had not had one, we should have been turned back. So also, if you have the true pass, a present interest in Christ and His precious blood, according to the Word of God, eternally settled in heaven, should the Lord return, or death come, your title will be good, and eternal glory with Christ be your blessed portion.
But without it, or anything short of it, or any other title whatever that you may imagine, there is no entrance there. You must receive Christ by faith in your soul, you must be washed from your sins in His precious blood, you must bow to the written Word of God, or be eternally excluded from the glory. It is Christ and glory, or without Christ and hell; one or the other. There is no middle ground, and every human device is utterly worthless. Satan will do all in his power to blind you to this absolute necessity. It matters not to him what you trust in, so long as it is not Christ. If he can palm a false pass off on you, he will. If he can lead you to trust in yourself, your works, your good life, your religion, your prayers, your church or chapel going, your baptism, your confirmation, your sacrament-taking, in short, anything else but Christ, he will. You may carry any pass you please, so long as it is not the right one. He knows what will pass, and what will not. Blessed be God, it is not too late for you to cast the false pass away, and to obtain a new one according to the divine order. But, alas, how hard it is to persuade people of the necessity of it. Reader, your passport must be Christ Jesus only; the time to secure Him is now.
And what perfect peace is the portion of the one whose passport is in order! As soon as we had procured ours from the British consul at Berlin, and had them counter signed by the Russian consul, we were at peace. We did not merely hope to pass the Russian border, we knew we should. We knew they were in accordance with the Russian law, and we carried them in our pockets in the full assurance that we had a just title to enter, and we were not disappointed.
Now, have you a pass? Is it in order? Can you say from the heart, through grace, I have seen the folly of trusting to anything short of what God says; I rest upon His word; Christ is my Saviour, He died for me, His blood has cleansed me, my title is clear, I am at peace, I know I shall be with Him forever in the glory of God? How happy the soul that can speak, thus! What utter folly, with the clear testimony of God in His own Word in our hands, to follow the thoughts and devices of our own hearts. Persist in so doing, and you will surely reap the fruit of your folly in everlasting despair. The only passport to glory is Christ Himself. Have you received God’s pass?
E. H. C.