A few years ago a young man lay dying. His sufferings of body were not small, but they were as nothing to those of his mind. Life, health, existence, lay, as it were, behind him, all past and gone forever. And what lay before him? Eternity, a fathomless, boundless, endless eternity. To be spent how? Where? With whom? Like the man ha the iron cage in Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress,” A—’s cry was, “Oh! eternity, eternity! How shall I grapple with eternity?” And were his fears unreasonable and unmeaning? Was it the fever of sickness shortly to end in death that raised such thoughts in his mind? Surely not. “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus, to whom our Lord addressed these words, was a man to be respected and esteemed in every way, but heaven would have been no heaven to him, the presence of the Lord no rest or delight as he then was when he came to our Lord.
And so it was with poor A—. He longed for heaven, for happiness, as so many do, but unlike many he had become fully conscious that happiness was not to be found in heaven, in the Lord’s presence for him, until he had first experienced the power of the precious blood of Christ in cleansing him from all sin.
Some servants of the Lord heard of his state, and visited him. They told him over and over the story of God’s redeeming love through Christ. How God hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we, as forgiven, may become the righteousness of God in Him; that out iniquity and sin, no matter how deep, can never outreach the atoning efficacy of the blood of the One who is able to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by Him. But poor A―heard them not. “How shall I come and appear before God?” was still his cry. “Oh, that I only knew my sins were forgiven!”
A―had a Christian brother, who witnessed with deep anxiety, and yet with thankfulness, the sense of sin, the conviction of his lost state before God, that possessed his soul. This brother went to a devoted servant of the Lord who lived in the same town―one who had brought the message of divine love to many a perishing soul―and told him of his brother’s extreme anguish of soul, and dying state of body. Mr. D— at once went with him to his brother’s bedside, went as the ambassador of God, fully expecting the Lord to bless His own word to this poor sin convicted soul: went not to leave that dying bed till the poor thirsty one had freely drunk of the water of life, never to thirst again.
“I come,” said Mr. D—, “to tell you that ruined, lost, hell-deserving as you are, peace has been made for you, fully, equitably, and forever made through the blood of the cross. It is on Christ God’s eye is now fixed, and not on you; on. His one, great, and all-sufficient atonement, and not on your sins. His blessed word says to you today, ‘But thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back’ (Isa. 38:1717Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. (Isaiah 38:17)). Now, observe all this has been done by the Lord Himself, and therefore we may Conclude well, sufficiently, and fully done, completely to meet every requirement which God’s holiness and righteousness could demand. It has been done in love, mark that, ‘but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it.’ When you were dead in trespasses and sins, all unlovely indeed, He loved you! Do you think He loves you less now? And what has been the proof of His love? That He has delivered your soul from the pit of corruption. And the proof that the deliverance has been full and complete is seen in that He has cast all your sins behind His back. All, all; not one now meets His eye.”
“Oh, that is lovely, beautiful, good news for poor wretched me to hear,” said poor A—, “but still, you see what is behind the back may be brought face to face with one again, and where, oh where should I be then?”
“My dear A—, the Lord can never go back from His own word. He says Himself, ‘Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.’ It is the inspired expression of God’s mind and will to man, immutable and unchangeable as Himself. He must make good His word. Hear what that word says to you today, ‘He will turn again; He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities: and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea’ (Mic. 7:1919He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:19)). The fathomless sea of God’s love in Christ now rolls forever over your sins and iniquities.”
“Oh! Mr. D—, your message of God’s salvation is like life from the dead to me; but still, the sea will yet give up the dead that are in it; they will all rise from its depths once more. And oh! my sins, my sins! what if they should be dragged up too! I want, oh! I do want you to show me they no longer exist before God, and cannot therefore reappear. That they have passed from His memory, that God has, as it were, forgotten them. I know nothing can go beyond Scripture, but show me a Scripture that declares this.”
“Here, then, it is. Not my word to you, or the word or thought of any created intelligence under the sun: God’s word, through His Scriptures of truth, reveals Him saying to you as you are, now, today, ‘I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.’ (Isa. 43:2525I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. (Isaiah 43:25).) ‘For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.’ (Jer. 31:3434And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:34).) It is God who acts and speaks thus. For His own sake He no longer remembers your sins; they are no more in His remembrance than if they had never existed; for He has forgiven your iniquity, and therefore, through forgiveness, remembers your sin no more. This is enough to satisfy God; has been enough to satisfy every poor lost sinner who has ever come to Him through Christ; and oh! surely, surely it is enough for you to rest your soul on forever.”
“Enough, enough; ten thousand times enough! Now I know my sins that He has cast behind His back can never be brought face to face with me again. My sins that He has buried in the depths of that sea of love can never, no never, be dragged back to sight again, for they are blotted out, unrecorded before Him. Forgotten! Oh, that is the word for me! What God forgets, why need I remember? and He declares to me, ‘I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.’”
“No more:” what a word! And what an experience was poor A—’s now. Though the sufferings of his mortal frame only increased till
“His ruined body lay
A worn-out fetter that the soul
Had burst and thrown away,”
his peace of soul proved unshaken and unclouded to the end. For he read his title to the rest that remaineth to the people of God written in blood, and profoundly endorsed by One who weighs actions to the uttermost farthing. And having fully proved the reality of the truth of God to go down to the very depths of his own great need and fully meet it, and witnessed of its supreme blessedness to others, the ransomed spirit of A— calmly took its departure from his worn-out body till the morning of the resurrection, and now finds its rest and its heaven in the glorious presence of the One who forgave his iniquity and remembered his sin no more.
Does this paper command the attention, even for a few moments, of one careless and unsolicitous of the salvation that is in Christ Jesus; of one
“Too giddy and too gay to wait
On the sad theme, his everlasting state;
Sport for a day, and perish in the night,
The foam upon the water not so light.”
Do you credit the little narrative you have just read? I hope so, for it is true. And if true, in what position are you? You do not, like poor A—, stand before God sin-convicted, though you have quite as much reason to be so as he. You do not share his intense shrinking from entering an unknown, unending eternity.
It were well for you that you did.
Oh, unconverted soul, God has not cast your sins behind His back. The pit of corruption is what awaits you. What words, the pit of corruption, where the very misery of life is the experiencing a death that is undying! Your sins have not been buried by Him in the depths of the sea. They all are before Him, unhidden and unburied, and they will yet be brought face to face with you, for God has not forgotten them. He does not say of them, “I will remember them no more.” They are fast in His memory, though they may have slipped yours.
Have you ever given one moment in all your life to consider what is the great object of your creation and existence in this world? Have you ever thought, has the idea ever crossed your mind, that God has some one great aim or object in it? If not, do you know such a question is worth consideration. Christ gave Himself for you, for the joy of saving your soul, of appropriating you to Himself. He endured the cross, despising the shame, that He might redeem you to God through His blood; that you might be His while here below, and shine forever and ever in His image and to His glory, through that atoning work by which God can righteously forgive your iniquity and remember your sins no more.
R. B.