A SHORT time ago, as I was speaking to an old man about the work of Christ, and remarking that it was a finished work, he made the not uncommon reply:
“Oh, yes; it’s very true! Christ has done His part; but then we’ve still got to do ours.”
Without stopping to notice the folly of a man who was just reaching the end of a long life of sin talking about doing his part, I replied, “Well, if you have still got yours to do, I have not got mine.”
“How’s that?” he asked.
“Because I have already done it,” I replied.
“You done your part!” he exclaimed with an air of incredulity.
“Yes,” I said; “indeed I have. And do you know what my part was?”
“No.”
“Well, then, I’ll tell you. It was my sins, and nothing else.”
Ah, reader, you and I have done our part. But, blessed be His name, the Saviour did His too, and did it perfectly, though it cost Him the untold agonies of the cross. There the sinless One, being made sin for us, by His atoning sufferings and death, satisfied God, the righteous Judge, fully meeting all His claims. And you have not to do anything, but simply to trust in what Christ has done for you. If you think you still have to do anything, it is because you do not rely upon what He has done. What an insult to Him! But if you, poor sinner, do not think Christ’s work is enough, God does. He is satisfied, and has declared it by raising Him from the dead.
Oh, won’t you let your weary soul, your sin-laden conscience, find eternal rest there — in God’s own satisfaction with the work of Christ?
“Weary, working, burdened one,
Wherefore toil you so?
Cease your doing; all was done
Long, long ago.”
W. H. K.