William Reid continues to speak about our need of Christ. He raised a direct question if the readers are sinners, he exhorted not to be deceived by false religiosity, he warned them of the accountability of their sins, and then he came to the next point as follows:

Fourth, Pardon and Blessings: But there is not only pardon in Jesus, there is every spiritual blessing a ruined sinner needs. “It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell” (Colossians1:19).

A minister, who had been accustomed to consider the gospel extremely simple and intelligible, and having little in it, was struck one day with the expression “The unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8). “The unsearchable riches of Christ,” he said within himself, “I never found, I never knew that there were unsearchable riches in Him!” He became deeply convinced of sin; and, while pacing his room some time afterwards, he was led to contemplate those two passages of Scripture, “Without shedding of blood is no remission,” and “The blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin.” He believed in Jesus and was washed in His blood, and was filled with a “joy unspeakable” [Hebrews 9:22; 1 John 1:7; 1 Peter 1:8]. “I went upstairs and down again (said he), backwards and forwards in my room, clapping my hands for joy, and crying out, ‘I have found Him! I have found Him! I have found Him Whom my soul loveth!’ And for a little time, as the apostle said, whether ‘in the body or out of the body I can hardly tell’ (2 Corinthians 12:2).”

It should not be thought incredible that a minister should thus be preaching salvation to others while lost himself, for we read in the third chapter of the Gospel by John that even the excellent, moral Nicodemus, a master of Israel, had no idea that he required to be “born again.” It was to this ruler of the Jews that Jesus addressed the solemn language, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” If any man might have been sent by the Lord Jesus to work out a righteousness for himself, this man would have been he; but even to him He says, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:3-7).

Fifth, Good works: You may perhaps think, “If I do better, God will pardon me,” but that is a vain thought. He will by no means clear the guilty. No amount of reformation for the present can atone for the sins of the past. The God of inflexible justice has you in custody as a criminal, by law condemned to die, and all your fancied good works are now but prison-house services [works questioned because one is under pressure and scrutiny, and is therefore tempted to act better only in order to gain relief], and can avail you nothing for justification before God. The sentence is passed; and were you, for the present, to give a perfect obedience to all God’s commandments, that would be but duty—and “duty discharges no debt.” If you cling to doing better, as the ground of your pardon and acceptance with God, your damnation is sure. For Scripture says, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isaiah 64:6). “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us” (Titus 3:5). 

But although you can do nothing to merit God’s favor, you need not perish. We declare unto you the “good tidings,” that you may be saved upon the ground of the finished and accepted work of One Who is mighty to save. The holy Jehovah, in sovereign mercy, sent His Son Jesus to be the Savior of the lost! He endured the cross, bore the curse of the Law, made atonement, and opened up a way of access to God’s favor, for the chief of sinners! He put away sin, not sinners. They may be reconciled, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

God will save sinners as an act of free grace, not otherwise; by grace, or not at all. There is a glorious way of “being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:24). The old way of works (salvation through keeping the Law) is closed, and guarded by the flaming sword; but the new and living way of free grace has been opened and consecrated for us by Christ, the only mediator between God and man. If you ask the question, “What must I do to be saved?” the answer is simple and satisfying, for it is that which God’s Holy Word supplies, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Act 16:31).

Although it is utter folly to try to get up a righteousness in which to appear before God, many are doing it. A girl who, at one time, had been very frivolous, but who is now, in her own sphere, first in every good work, and a devoted Christian, when asked by a minister, “What brought you first to think about your soul?” replied, “Amid all my folly I often thought seriously of my soul and of judgment, and often had partial changes toward good in my life; but just as often, in the time of temptation, I fell back, and my convictions were lost. When I recovered them I felt very uneasy, because I knew that with my vain heart I could not appear before God. I tried once very seriously to work out a righteousness of my own, but it was all in vain. I tried it a second time, with the same result, till at last my mind was fixed on the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone, and I saw a glory and a perfection in Him that I wondered I had never seen before. With my whole heart I trusted in the merits of Christ, and I feel my peace growing, and my love to God growing, and I think I could not only live for Christ but die for Christ.”

My dear friend, has this been your experience? Have you seen such an inexpressible glory and perfection in the righteousness of the Savior of the lost, that you have trusted in His merits with your whole heart, and now believe that you “could not only live for Christ, but die for Christ?” Have you had a spiritual conviction of sin, and an evangelical conversion to God? Are you living for self and the world, or for Christ and eternity? Ask yourself seriously, before you read anymore, this all important question, Am I lost or saved?

[At the point, it may be profitable for us to consider the doctrine of the depravity of man. It is also called “Total Depravity of Man,” which is the first of the five TULIP doctrines of Calvinism. The first letter, “T,” represents “total depravity.” It refers to the condition of human fallenness. It explains Ephesians 2:3, “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and we by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” We are the children of wrath by nature. Sin has affected everything in us including our minds, thinking, the body, the will, and the spirit – the whole person. We are dead in trespasses and sins, and, thus, we cannot deliver us from sin and death. Who shall deliver us from the body of this death (Ephesians 2:1; Romans 7:24). By nature, we are strangers to God and all His blessings. Oh, Christ, He is our hope. Continue to read next week.]

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