Your Next Move
In our last lesson we saw how God could be both a holy Judge
and a loving Father to those that believe in Jesus" (Romans
3:26). By passing the maximum penalty against sin that His
holiness could demand and by paying that penalty Himself,
God satisfied the claims both of His justice and His love.
We also learned that nothing can be added to the finished
work of Christ on Calvary's cross. Salvation must be
received as a gift by the sinner because it cannot be
earned. In addition we learned that when a person receives
Christ as Saviour and Lord, a new kind of life is imparted
by God-spiritual life. Spiritual life is something far
different from moral life. It is not something that can be
evolved, but it is received in a moment, bringing the
regenerated person into the very family of God.
Salvation Is More Than A Cold Contract
Have you received the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour?
Knowing these facts that, according to Ephesians 2:1, you
are "dead in trespasses and sin," that you believe Jesus
Christ gave His life in your place, and that by receiving
Him as your Saviour; means you may have eternal salvation
and can then go on living your life as you please, You are
most certainly wrong!
A wealthy man loses all his money, and rather than sacrifice
his social position, he agrees to give the hand of his
daughter to a rich man for a significant sum of money. At
first she refuses vehemently, because she despises the man,
but when her father shows her the expediency of the
marriage, that it is his only hope of being saved from utter
want, she consents, and goes through the marriage ceremony.
According to the law of the land she becomes the rich man's
wife. But does her heart really belong to her husband?
Surely not!
You see it now, don't you? The Lord desires a true love
relationship. When a man and woman would be truly one, they
receive each other into those innermost recesses of their
hearts in a deep, true way, a way that cannot fully be
expressed in words. The wife tries to please the husband and
the husband tries to please his wife. Similarly Christ
desires a true love relationship with us.
We all have that innermost recess of our beings which is
sacred to us, where emotions stir and that no one else could
possibly understand, but Jesus Christ, God's Son, does and
because of His love for us, He claims the right to enter.
The love He has shown by His death on the cross for us
entitles Him to that place. Will I withhold it?
Christ Deserves My Love
When I think that Christ's love for me was so great that He
left His Father's glory and came to earth, becoming truly
human to suffer and die in my place so that I could have
eternal life, my heart softens toward Him.
If, I lay sick and helpless in a burning building, and a
friend rushes in to save me, and wrapping me in blankets
carries me out but in the process he was burned and scarred
about the face and arms, wouldn't my heart go out to him?
God knows it would.
And now I am face to face with my Saviour. I see Him
suffering in the garden of Gethsemane in anticipation of His
death on the cross for me. I see Him in Pilate's judgment
hall, the soldiers striking Him in the face, saying,
"Prophesy, who smote thee?" I see them crowning His holy
brow with a crown of thorns and smiting Him on the head with
a reed. Bleeding and bruised, He is taken from judgment to
Calvary. As he is lifted up to die between two thieves, with
great spikes through His hands and feet, the people gather
around to mock and revile Him, though He is pouring out His
life to redeem them. Then I begin to understand what
self-sacrificing love really means as I hear Him cry,
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
But if we enter sympathetically into those physical
sufferings of Christ until tears streamed down our cheeks,
and that was all, we have failed miserably to comprehend the
true significance of the cross.
The Supreme Sacrifice
We read in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that "He [God] hath made him
[Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin." Come with me, I
plead with you, with bowed head and humble heart. Let us, if
we may, enter into the soul suffering of Christ the Son, and
of God the Father, as that Holy One, who loathed sin more
than we would loathe leprosy, and was "made sin for us."
If the higher the development of the physical organism the
greater the capacity for pain, then the higher the
development of the moral character, the greater the capacity
for soul-suffering.
Have you ever heard of a venerable old gentleman, justly
proud of his honored name - a man who would sooner lose his
right hand than use it to do a dishonorable deed? His son
and heir goes astray, and in a drunken brawl murders someone
- and the old man walks no more erect, his head is bowed in
shame, and soon his soul - suffering brings his gray hairs
in sorrow to the grave.
If that is possible (and it is possible even for us to feel
the disgrace of a greater sin than we are used to) - think
what sin must be like in all its awfulness to an absolutely
holy God! Now we understand why, in the garden of
Gethsemane, Christ turns in loathing from sin and cries out
in the agony of His soul, "My Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as
thou wilt" (Matthew 26:39). Yet in spite of that agonized
cry from Gethsemane, "God so loved the world, that he gave
his only begotten Son" to be "made sin" for us, "that
whosoever believed in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life" (John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
Action Must Follow
Now do you understand why, if I would retain any ideal of
manhood, or any nobleness of character, I dare not reject
One who has endured so much for me? My intellect has
reasoned it all out; my emotions have been deeply stirred;
and now they both appeal to my will for a decision. To be
true to my God and myself and my eternal future I have only
one course open, and I must take it. Today Jesus Christ is
my personal Saviour and my Lord.
Because of His love for me, because of the way He has
blessed me here, and because of my assurance of a gracious
hereafter, my heart's desire is that you might share in the
blessings I enjoy. Christ has done all. He has borne the
penalty of your sin; He has been raised by the power of God;
now He presents Himself to you. Will you accept Him as
Saviour and Lord?
You may be saying: "It seems so mysterious, the mystery of
it baffles me." I do not ask you to understand the mystery
of it. I cannot understand its mystery myself, nor can any
Christian in this life. I am asking you to rejoice in its
fact. Electricity remains a mystery. We have discovered many
of the laws which govern it, but we cannot tell what it
really is. You and I do not worry about the mystery of
electricity as we make use of its benefits. You must have
known men and women who accepted Jesus Christ as their
Saviour and were so changed as to be new creatures in
Christ. Will you let these facts that you have seen for
yourself influence you? Yes, it is just as simple as
switching on an electric light.
Come, saying, " O God, I cannot understand the mystery of it
all; I cannot understand why You care for me enough to send
Jesus Christ to bear the penalty of my sins; but, with all
my lack of understanding, I am willing, and I do yield to
You absolutely. I trust in the fact of Christ's death for
me, and the promise that You made in John 3:16, that
whosoever believed in Him shall not perish, but have
everlasting life."
Just as you leave the mystery of electrical current with the
engineer, and take the benefits of light to yourself, so
leave the mystery of salvation with God, and take the
infinite benefits of a personal Saviour to yourself. Yield
to Him now. He wants to come into your life. Say, and mean
it, "I am yours, Lord Jesus; yielded to you, body, soul and
spirit and You are mine."
Ashamed Of Christ?
Now for the last but most important point. If you open your
Bible to Romans 10:9, you will read,
"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believed unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believed on him shall not be ashamed."
If you have accepted Christ. Go and tell someone, do not be
ashamed to confess Him. Why should you be?
Suppose I had been convicted of a capital crime. But, while
awaiting execution, the governor of the state gave me a full
pardon and put me on the state payroll so that I owed him
both my life and my livelihood. What would you think if,
when the governor entered the office where I worked, I
turned my back on him and refused to recognize his presence?
Or if, hearing two men slandering the governor, I remained
quiet for fear of being thought partisan? If such rudeness
and reluctance are inexcusable relative to a fellow human
being, how can the refusal to acknowledge the Son of God,
who has granted me eternal life at such cost to Himself, be
tolerated?
If you have already accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your
own Saviour, perhaps even while studying this course,
occasions will arise when you will meet Him face to face in
the presence of those who despise Him. Will you be ashamed
and look the other way, or will you honor Him in both work
and deed as your Lord and Saviour? If you have really
accepted Him, you must, and you will, acknowledge Him.
The Soldier's Choice
I was talking to a young soldier about accepting the Lord
Jesus Christ, but like most men, he tried to evade the
straight issue with the promise, "I'll think it over,"
"Harry," said I, "let me illustrate. Suppose you are out
with the boys some night raiding the enemy's position, and
on the way back you get hit. Bill Smith stops long enough to
pick you up and carry you back, and for his trouble he gets
two bullets in the back. You are both taken to a hospital.
Two months later the doctor comes along, helping a man who
limps badly and moves with evident difficulty.
"They stop at your bedside, and the doctor says, `Harry, I
want to introduce you to Bill Smith, the man who risked his
life to save you,' and you fold your arms and say, `I don't
know whether I want to meet him today or not. I'll think it
over.'
"You wouldn't say that, Harry, would you? You would grab him
by the hand and try to tell him something of the gratitude
you felt. I want to introduce you now to the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Man from glory, who not only risked His life,
but sacrificed it, to save you, and you propose to turn your
back on Him and say you'll think it over."
"No," he said, "I'll accept Him"; and together we knelt
while he told the Lord that he there and then accepted Him
as his personal Saviour.
Are you "thinking it over," or have you faced the issue
squarely and decided right?