Several years ago, as I was leaving a meeting one evening, a lady asked me to go with her to see her sick husband. She said he was quite anxious about his soul, knowing he would soon have to die.
When I entered his room I found him sitting in an easy chair, for he could not lie down without coughing. After a few words about his bodily sufferings, I asked him about his soul: did he think his sufferings would end when his body yielded and death came?
"Well," he said, "I think my chances for getting to heaven are pretty good."
I felt he was not being honest with me, so I said, "Do you believe heaven is a reality?"
He said, "Yes."
"Is it true there is a hell?"
He replied, "Yes, I believe so."
"And you have an immortal soul that will soon be in one or the other of these places forever?"
"Yes," he said earnestly.
"You just now said you thought your chances for heaven were pretty good. You believe heaven is a reality, and hell is a reality, and your precious immortal soul will soon be happy in heaven forever. You must have some reason for it. Will you please tell me what it is?"
His voice was weak and I waited for his answer as it came slowly. It was this: "Well, I've always been kind to my wife and children, and I have not intentionally wronged my fellow men."
"That's all very good," I said. "It is nice to be able to say that; but now tell me, what kind of a place do you think heaven is, and what do they do there?"
"Well," he said, "I think there is no sin or sorrow there. It must be a happy place, and I think they sing there a good deal."
"You see, they are praising their Savior, the One who loved them and died for them. I'll read it again. `Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.'
"Just take notice: they have not a word to say about what they have done. It is all about what HE has done. He loved them and died for them. If you were up there and had got there in the way you say, because you had been good to your family, and so on, there would be one sinner in heaven that had never been washed from his sins in the blood of Jesus. You could not join in the song they sing, could you?"
I waited for an answer. His head had dropped and his eyes were turned to the floor. I shall never, never forget his look as he raised his head and turned to answer me. It was one waking out of a life dream. He was now coming face to face with eternal realities, and his only reply was: "Well, I never thought of that before."
But I said: "God has; and He has written a verse for persons just like you, who are willing to take their chances, as you said, on their good works, and are deceiving themselves by the false hope of getting to heaven in that way.
"I'll read the verse. It is the 4th verse of the 4th chapter of Romans: 'Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.'
"Let me explain: When you were well and could work, you received wages because you earned them.
You were under no special obligations to the man that paid you. You would come home to your wife and say, 'Here is what I made today.' You could talk about what you had done, and what you had got, and you would not have a word to say about the man that paid you.
"That is just what God means by that verse: 'Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.'
"If you could get to heaven by what you have done, there would be no grace about it. You would know nothing of God's love as shown in Jesus. You could not sing 'Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood'; for you would be there without a Savior You would have no song. Do you think you could be happy?"
He was now ready to give up his ground and for the first time frankly owned what his wife had said: he was anxious about his soul and wanted to have the question settled. He fully confessed that in spite of all the good he claimed, he was a sinner and needed a Savior.
He repeated after me: "To―save― sinners!― to― save― sinners!"
"Yes," I said, "To SAVE sinners― not to HELP sinners to be saved, but to SAVE sinners. He is not a helper, but a Savior. God's Word is, 'to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.' Rom. 4:55But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5). And again, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.' Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)."
He did believe. I left him that night, after reading other scriptures to him, with a new hope― not based on what he had done, but believing what God says about what Christ has dome.
I called the next morning to see him. As I entered he looked up with joy in his face and said: "Oh, I'll have a song now. It will be 'Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.' "
Reader, will you be able to sing that song? Or will you have to say, "I am tormented in this flame?" It will be one or the other.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into [judgment]; but is passed from death unto life." John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24).