BELIEVERS are told to give thanks to the Father, who hath made them “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col. 1:1212Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: (Colossians 1:12)). Now herein is a marvelous thing. I was wont to be taught that believers are, at their death, made perfect in holiness, and then immediately pass into glory; but here I am told that they are made meet for the heavenly inheritance while yet living!
It is not that they are justified in a moment, when they believe, which is true, and are then sanctified, by degrees, until they are fit for heaven, ―but they are made meet just now, and do not require to wait for death. If death should come, good and well, it finds them prepared; for they depart, and are with Christ, which is “far better” than being here (Phil. 1:2323For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: (Philippians 1:23)); absent from the body, they are “present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:88We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8)). The blessed truth is, that whether they are sick or well, whether they live or die, they are in a state of completed readiness, whenever the Lord sees fit to call them to enter upon, and be partakers of, the inheritance of the saints in light. Mark these words, “in light;” not in darkness, where imperfections might be hid; but “in light,” where they could be easily detected.
But in their case there are no imperfections, for they are “complete in Christ” (Col. 2:1010And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: (Colossians 2:10)), they are “God’s workmanship” (Eph. 2:1010For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)); and so they are fit, at any moment, to pass into heaven, and dwell with that holy God who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and who cannot look upon evil. But here the question of Nicodemus comes in:
“How can these things be?” Does not the Bible say that “there is none righteous, no not one?” Yes, it says that; and, moreover, what it says is true.
But it is also true―and oh, how blessed is the truth― “that the blood of Jesus Christ, his [God’s] Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” Note these precious words, oh unsaved soul! How are they to be understood? Just as they read. And what do they teach us?
A most marvelous truth of unspeakable blessedness, even this, that the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin. But you say, I am only repeating the same words again without giving any interpretation. Precisely so; and what is more, if you were to put that question to me half a hundred times, I would repeat my answer fifty times, and each time I would give you all the explanation that was required, for the words “the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin,” mean simply that the blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Now do not, I pray you, permit yourself to be puzzled by a very simple matter. The question before us is, How can a sinner, steeped in sins, be fitted for heaven? In all probability your answer would be, By prayer, and repentance, and good works; things which, in themselves, are unquestionably good. Your thought, in short, is, that you yourself require to do something―perhaps you scarcely can tell what―in order that you may be made fit. But that is not God’s thought. It is the Father that makes us meet for the inheritance; it is the blood that cleanseth; in other words, it is God that fits the sinner for heaven, not the sinner that fits himself. What the sinner has to do, is to trust in the work of Another. In the matter of salvation the activities are all upon the side of God, the sinner is only a receiver. The man going down to Jericho who fell among thieves, and was left wounded and half dead, is a type of the sinner.
The good Samaritan who came to him, where he was, and poured oil and wine into his wounds, is a type of Christ, whose activities are the activities of love; as for the wounded man, he was simply the passive recipient of that love. Hence the completeness of the work, and the consequent meetness of the believer for heaven. The work which saves him, is the work of God. The magnitude of the blessing leads to the wondering exclamation, What hath God wrought! But note yet farther, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” What a description of the efficacy of the blood that cleanseth It can remove sins, though they be as scarlet or as crimson.
But let me illustrate. An English papermaker was giving a lecture on the art of papermaking. On the wall behind him, there was fastened a quantity of dirty-looking rags, of divers colors, and alongside of them a quantity of beautiful white paper. How strange, to think that it was out of such filthy material that the paper was manufactured!
But is it not stranger, that it is out of yet more unpromising material that God makes saints, fit to be partakers of His own nature, and inmates of His dwelling? And yet He does it. “All our righteousnesses,” says the Bible, “are as filthy rags” (Isa. 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)); and God takes us, washes us from our sins, and makes us white as snow, and that too though He compares our sins to colors which human skill cannot eradicate.
After skewing, by experiment, how colors are extracted from rags, the lecturer said, that perhaps some of his hearers had wondered why blotting-paper was so often made red, and thought it was because that color was better fitted than any other to dry the ink; but the simple reason was, they could not help it. Frequently they had quantities of soldiers’ cast-off scarlet uniforms sent to them, and these they made into red blotting paper, because they could not extract the dye without injuring the fiber, scarlet being indelible.
“Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” What no art of man can do, the blood of Christ can accomplish, and that in a moment. The thief upon the cross turned to the dying Saviour, saying, “Lord, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom,” and immediately his scarlet sins were cleansed, he became white as snow, and so made meet, by the cleansing blood, to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light; he passed, from the cross to Paradise, in that same hour.
Reader, are your sins yet uncleansed? H. M.