IT sometimes happens that souls are kept in uncertainty as regards the question of peace with God, because they do not see the difference between these two things. They are occupied with the unfinished work of the Holy Ghost in them, instead of resting in simple faith on the finished work of Christ for them.
“It is finished” were the last words of the dying Saviour as He bowed His head and gave up the ghost. Then “Peace unto you” were the words of the risen Saviour when He appeared amongst His assembled disciples as the Victor over death, over judgment, and over every enemy. A completed atonement by His blood lays the basis for a profound and unchanging peace. What brings peace to the troubled soul is to rest by faith on a work done entirely outside ourselves, done by another for us, done so completely that God has shown out before the whole universe His satisfaction with that work by raising His own Son from the dead and crowning Him with glory and honor at His own right hand. We never can get peace by looking within; but simply by looking without; faith rests on an object outside ourselves―on Christ―and He is sufficient.
But when we know what it is to possess “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” we can then learn that there is an unfinished work constantly going on within the believer―a work which will go on as long as he is down here. When just about to die, the Lord Jesus told His disciples that He would send them another Comforter, even the Spirit of truth, to take His place, to abide with them forever, and to dwell in them. And so it is the blessed work of the Spirit to teach, to instruct, to guide into the knowledge of the truth. It is by the Spirit the love of God is shed abroad in the Christian’s heart: the Spirit it is who bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And, further, there is within the believer the constant warfare between the flesh and the Spirit; for―
Thus the work of the Spirit within us will go on as long as we are in this world; teaching, guiding, instructing, reproving us if necessary, so that we might walk in a manner pleasing to God, and enjoy the heavenly portion we have in Christ.
But this work of the Spirit within us, absolutely essential as it is in its place, is not the ground of the Christian’s peace with God and assurance of salvation. Christ has “made peace by the blood of His cross”―this is a finished and completed work to which nothing can be added, and it is the simple and all-sufficient basis of the soul’s rest and assurance.
On the other hand, the work of the Holy Ghost within us is incomplete and continuous.
He has always some new lesson to teach us; some reproof to bring home to us, it may be; some fresh instruction for the soul’s blessing and growth; some new and undiscovered ray of the perfection and glory of our Lord Jesus to illuminate for our joy, so that we may make progress as long as we are here.
F. G. B.