“OH! that I might know that God is willing to save me,” cried a poor suffering woman.
“Save you?” it was replied; “willing to save you? Why, what better evidence can you have of God’s being willing to save you than that of the gift of His own Son, and of the Son’s suffering and death, that He might save you? Free forgiveness, free justification are great favors, but Christ is greater than all these gifts of God, and He embodies all, and in Him, by faith, we have all. How, then, in the face of all these things, and knowing the truth of them, can you dare to doubt the willingness of God to save you?”
“Ah, yes, but then I feel―”
“I see where you are,” it was replied, “you want to make your feelings the warrant of your faith. You are to come and take Christ and His salvation as a free gift, without money and without price;” but if you are to purchase it by feeling how can it be free?
If I were to offer a man a million of money upon the condition that he received it freely as a gift, and then consented afterward to receive but a farthing for it in return, what I gave would not be a gift. The farthing I received would spoil it. So if God gave you salvation upon the ground of, or in exchange for, your good feelings, it would no longer be a free gift. You would be entitled to it, and the purchase-money would be your good feelings. Do not thus insult God, but come now, in your true character as guilty and lost, and stoop down and drink of the water of life freely.
“Honor God by believing His word, and prove that He is willing to receive you, for thus it is that we do prove the willingness of God to receive us, for is it not written, ‘Thy people shall be willing in the day of My power?’ And when we are made willing to be saved by Christ, to doubt whether God will save us is as absurd as it would be for a man who had fallen into a pit, and whose friend was lifting him out, to say, ‘Oh, I wish I could know that my friend was willing to lift me out of this.’”
These words sank into the heart of the poor woman, and led her to see that her very willingness to be saved was an effect of God’s own grace, and proved His willingness to save her, and, by faith, looking away from self and her own feelings, and resting only upon Christ for salvation, she found joy and peace in believing, and received the assurance of her interest in God’s salvation and unchanging love.
Reader, do you wish to know whether God is willing to save you? Examine and ask yourself if you are willing to be saved by Him in His own way, by the acceptance of a full and free salvation in Christ by faith. If so, your very willingness shows that God is willing, for your willingness is but the effect of His own grace. Throw yourself upon the finished work of Christ for acceptance with God, and having done so, believe, upon the warrant of God’s own word, that God has received you, and that His salvation is yours, and assurance, joy, and peace in Christ, shall be your portion both now and forever. W. P. B.