Now we come into the third section of William Reid’s message, The Nearness of Jesus. “Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22). 

First, Jesus is near! Dear Friend, three thousand years ago a man, who was as terribly perplexed as you or any person could be, said, after recounting all the sources of his perplexity, “It is good for me that I draw near to God” (Psalm 73:28). How much more may an anxious and perplexed sinner say, “It is good for me that God has drawn near to me,” for that is the great outstanding fact of the Christian revelation.

God has not maintained that distance from us sinners which He might have kept; but on the contrary, He has appeared among us in “the man Christ Jesus,” Who is Emmanuel “God with us;” and He is Emmanuel as He is Jesus. He is “God with us” for the express purpose of saving us from our sins. “He was manifested to take away our sins;” and He was seen by men to be a real Jesus, so near, that when He had a helpless sinner placed down right before Him, He could say to him as he lay there on his couch of sickness, “Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee” (1Timothy 2:5; Matthew 1:23; 1 John 3:5; Matthew 9:2). 

We should not think of “God our Savior” (Titus 3:4) as far removed from us, for He is indeed very near. He was very near to the men among whom He lived when He was on earth, for they saw Him with their eyes, heard Him with their ears, handled Him with their hands, sailed with Him in the same boat, walked with Him on the same road, sat with Him at the same board, and slept with Him under the same roof. And He is really as near to you now as He was to the men of His own day. He is not so near to physical sense, but quite as near to faith. What He was then by His living person, He is now by His gospel, the written Word. He was a man, and went about among all sorts of men. In Him dwelt all fullness of blessing (Colossians 1:19), and He dispensed His good things freely as the needy applied to Him. He came on purpose to help all who felt their need of Him.

And what He was then He is now by the word of His grace. He is as near to anyone as is the passage of His Holy Word which a man lets into his mind by his eyes or his ears. Wherever the revelation that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” gets into a man’s mind, there is He. And when Jesus is thus shining in upon the heart through the medium of the Word, if “the spirit of faith” is acting so as to render it sensitive, there will be an indelible impression of Him produced (1 Timothy 1:15; 2 Corinthians 4:13). 

Second, what the Scriptures say: “Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above), or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead). But what saith it? The word is near thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith which we preach, 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” (Romans 10:6-9). “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). “…the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus…” (1 Peter 5:10).

“Unto you is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). 

“The God of all grace” assumed our nature and “dwelt among us” as one “full of grace and truth.” The Savior has come so near to those He means to save, that there is a birth-relationship between them; for, as they “are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself took part of the same.” The leading idea of redemption is the doing away with that which has created the moral distance between us and God. Atonement by the blood-shedding of Jesus is received by us as that by which God and we are made at one. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” And “now, in Christ Jesus,” those who were by nature and by transgression “far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace.” His gracious doings and sufferings have removed all cause for remaining at a distance from God, as if He were not gracious; and the manner of His doing all He did when on earth is calculated to annihilate at once the moral distance which is felt to exist between poor, needy sinners and Himself (Hebrews 2:14; Romans 5:11; 1 Peter 3:18; Ephesians 2:13).

The God Whom we have given just cause for being offended with us, is still in Christ reconciling sinners unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. And when we take into our consideration all that He has done, and all the manifestations of His grace and good will to men which He has shown, and the striking manner of His acting towards the needy ones who came to Him when on earth, we cannot avoid coming to this conclusion: the grand underlying thought of His mission to our world was to reveal the Father, so as to inspire the alienated children of men with the fullest confidence in Him.

When we read the four narratives of the life of Jesus (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and hear the conclusion of the whole matter, as given by the Holy Ghost in the memorable words “These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name,” surely we cannot help saying, “All things are ready,” the way of life is open, Christ is drawing near, “let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith” (John 20:31; Matthew 22:4; Hebrews 10:22). All this is very precious, and full of consolation to the awakened and inquiring sinner. The Savior is ever near to you; “for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.” “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh” (1 John 1:2, 4:2). He is “the Lord our righteousness”, and by faith you may claim Him as yours, to meet all your needs, and say with confidence as you embrace Him, “in the Lord have I righteousness and strength” (Jeremiah 23:6; Psalm 71:16). He has “power on earth to forgive sins;” for not only is He the God of grace, but He has once for all “appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” As another has truthfully said, “Forgiveness is brought near and sure to the soul the word of faith to the heart and to the mouth this annihilates distance, and makes pardon a present blessing” (Matthew 9:6; Hebrews 9:26). 

Third, Jesus still speaks to us. “Jesus has come down to act in grace among men, without the intervention of a medium. The sinner and the Savior are brought face to face; God is not, therefore, to be sought for as at a distance, under the hiding of ceremonies, or within the cloisters of temples. The blessed Savior is walking abroad among our necessities in marvelous condescending grace;” so near that any sinner has but to lift his eye, and, lo! “a lamb as it had been slain” is before him (Revelation 5:6), and he may hear the voice of Jesus saying, “thy sins be forgiven thee” (Matthew 9:2).

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