(Being an answer to a correspondent written years ago.)
YOUR kind letter reached me in due course. I am glad to know that my little booklet, The Witness of the Spirit, gave you some pleasure, though it may have failed to meet all your spiritual difficulties. And if I deal with some of these in my present letter I am hardly sanguine enough to believe that it will clear them all away, though I shall be thankful if it removes any of them.
It was a great pity that in your earlier years you fell into the mistake of supposing that conversion meant our becoming holy all at once. Such is not its meaning. Indeed, it does not mean our becoming holy at all. Conversion is very strikingly described in Acts 26:18,18To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. (Acts 26:18) where the first step in it is likened to an opening of the eyes. Now this figure of speech is still in common use among us and we know very well what it means. If we say that our eyes have been opened as to some one’s character, we wish it to be understood that our thoughts concerning him have undergone a complete change. It is precisely the same in reference to conversion. Our eyes are opened and our self-complacency is immediately broken up. But this opening of the eyes leads to other things. The soul turns from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. And then it is that we receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified. Nor are we left in the dark as to the means. It is, as the Lord Himself says, “by faith that is in Me.”
Now, in looking back, many truly converted persons have doubted, at times, whether their conversion was real because they did not find in themselves the holiness they looked for. The happy change they expected did not come, nor is it coming even now. To their dismay they realize that their old and evil nature remains as it ever was, and so they are sorely tempted to believe that their conversion was nothing more than an empty dream. It may have been thus with you, and perhaps it is so still. But it cannot be too earnestly insisted upon that no holiness on our part, however great the measure of it, can give us any just ground of confidence towards God. Could we become as holy as the angels that stand before His throne it would be very great presumption indeed to believe that our sins were forgiven and our acceptance with God assured because of that. Holy self is no more to be trusted than sinful self. To rest our hopes on such a ground is but to build on sinking sand.
Now the gospel of God addresses itself to me as a sinner, unholy and unthankful. It speaks to me as one who has been weighed in the balances and found wanting. It does not ask me to be, good, to be holy, to love God and to serve Him in order to inherit its priceless blessings. But it tells me of Christ, the Son of God, once slain but now alive again and in glory. It bids me believe in Him, and it assures me that in believing I shall receive immediate forgiveness of sins and be relieved from every charge of guilt. Do you beg to be told in what passages of Holy Scripture all this is found? I answer, in Acts 10:4343To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. (Acts 10:43) and 13:38, 39.
I may be asked, How can such things be? and, Who is this Christ and what has He done that simple faith in Him should yield us so much blessing? In replying I would speak of His eternal glory with the Father before all worlds, and pass on to tell the story of Bethlehem and of Calvary, of the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father, yet stricken and forsaken of God when on the cross of shame and woe. And I would further tell how He endured all this that the throne of the Majesty in heavens might be vindicated from every suspicion of indifference to evil. Oh, how loudly does Calvary declare the utter impossibility of sin escaping the judgment of God! But now, by reason of that great Offering, the forgiveness of sins is preached to men, no matter how many and great those sins may be. There is full remission through the blood—and God is just and the Justifier of him who believes in Jesus (Rom. 3:2626To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:26)).
In all this there is nothing about our holiness, nothing even about the work of the Holy Spirit in our conscience and heart, essential though it be in its time and place.
But there is a further thing. And now I crave your earnest attention. What about me, the sinner? Forgiveness I have, through grace, and I know it. But myself—the guilty man whose corrupt nature no grace can ever change—what is to be done with him? Why, he too has come under, the judgment of God in the person of Christ in the hour of His death upon the cross. Therefore it is said in Romans 6:66Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Romans 6:6) “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him.” We have died with Christ. His death is not only the putting away of our sins, but the ending of our life’s history as of Adam’s stock. And now we are no longer “in Adam,” but “in Christ,” and possess a new life, altogether distinct from the old, a life of which Christ is the blessed Source. And “if any man be in Christ,” what then? A new creation! (2 Cor. 5:1717Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17))— not the old made better, for that it never can be. It is indeed a new creation.
And so we can look up into heavenly glory and see Christ there, no longer the Bearer of our sins, for He has borne them and put them away forever. He is there in the cloudless and everlasting favor of God. And we are “in Him,” accepted in the Beloved, far, far removed from the reach of all condemnation, free from it even as Christ Himself is free; and the favor in which He, is rests on us likewise. This is blessedness indeed!
Nor is this all. Christianity gives us an Object to displace self in all its insidious forms and to close our hearts against the allurements of the world. It is Christ in glory. Beautifully is this set forth in Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” The Son of God, the eternal Lover of my soul, enters into my life, engages my affections, and thus controls and molds me. Oh, what a blessed thing it is to have Christ now filling our vision, the Christ of the Scriptures, whose glory makes every page of that wondrous book glow with a beauty that is all its own! The heart now delights in Christ, not for what it gets from Him, but on account of what He is in Himself. And as we search the Scriptures and meditate upon them prayerfully, joyously, and with the Holy Spirit as our Teacher, beauty after beauty becomes unveiled, and we learn with Paul to count all else but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. This is happiness! This is life!
Do you really think that if we had the assurance of forgiveness and of our acceptance with God we should have nothing then to pray for? Why, this is but the beginning of our praying and praising life. The God whom we know in Jesus Christ our Lord reveals Himself under the tender name of Father, whose interest in us is so great that He numbers the very hairs of our head. ‘He encourages us “in everything” by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving to make our requests known unto Him (Phil. 4:66Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. (Philippians 4:6).) “In everything.” Mark well those words. There is nothing that concerns us, be it little or great, that we may not pray about. And we are bidden to cast all our care upon Him, for He careth for us (1 Peter 5:77Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. (1 Peter 5:7)). Prayer is one of the sweetest Christian privileges. Surely it is an amazing thing that creatures such as we should have access at all times to the living God, to whom we may present our fervent supplications without fear of being rebuked for coming too often or for asking too much!
And if our prayers are not always answered in the way we wish: if in His perfect love and wisdom He sees that it would be better for us not to have the thing we crave: should we therefore cease to pray? God forbid! This would betray a sadly rebellious spirit, and show that we believed our will to be wiser and better than His. But if in prayer we have confidence in His love, then are our hearts and minds guarded about on every side by His own peace. He knows, He loves, He cares. There the heart rests and sings its song of praise.
I close this letter with the earnest hope that you may soon enjoy the liberty wherewith Christ sets His people free. If you think we can help you further, do not hesitate to write again.
W.B.