MY DEAR FRIEND, ―... In one sense I cannot say I am sorry to find you passing through such deep soul exercise, for it will probably only end in the deeper blessing. But, from your letter, I fear you are far too much occupied with the reality of your faith and the genuineness of your conversion, and too little with Christ Himself, as the personal Savior whom God puts before your soul.
If a great artist were to send one of his paintings to another for inspection, we should not expect the receiver of the picture to go on talking about his own eyesight, and the like, but to express his judgment as to the merits or demerits of the painting, to the credit or discredit of the artist who executed it. He might treat the picture with indifference, or perchance turn from it with disgust; he might feel constrained to applaud it, or, valuing it very highly, he might, if within his power, desire to possess it; but in both cases it is the painting and the painter’s skill he is thinking of, not of himself or his refined tastes, and the like.
Well, the figure is at best but a beggarly one beside the reality, for God puts CHRIST before you. He has much to say about His blessed, glorified Son, much about the wonderful work He accomplished, and in which you are interested, belonging, as you consciously do, to the class for whom the work was done. He came to save sinners.
God asks you for your verdict, as to the merits of Jesus. Worthy or unworthy? Trustworthy or not trustworthy? What have you to say? What think ye of Christ? Can you from your heart say He is worthy? Even suppose you never reached nearer than the outside of the gates of glory, and only heard, as you stood there, the heavenly choir singing, “Thou art worthy”; could your heart join on the outside what the countless voices of the redeemed were singing inside? If you could, then rest assured that therein lies the secret of your moral fitness for that glory.
Real faith is believing in the worthiness of the provided Savior, with a sense that you are lost without Him. All the merits are on His side, the guilt and need on yours; and this will be the same in principle to the very end.
Do not stop to question therefore, Have I really believed? Am I right in calling myself a Christian, and the like? But rather ask, Is the one who died for sinners really worthy of my heart’s confidence? Can I do without Him, and be at rest?
May the gracious spirit of God direct your heart to that glorified Savior at the right hand of God, wearing upon His blessed brow the certain proofs of what God thinks of His finished work and peerless Person.