BELIEVETH . . . What then must one do to open the floodgates of God’s love upon his soul? Ah, my friend, you can do nothing, for God has done it all. The condition, if condi tion it be, is that you merely believe. Believe what? Well, God has set forth some tremendous facts about man’s condition. He states that we are sinful and utterly helpless in our sin. We are hopeless and condemned before Him1. But God, because of His love toward us, has provided a way of salvation. This way is through His love gift, His well-beloved Son. Jesus Christ has come, loved, died and risen again; and by His death pardon, new life and all that goes with it, are ours. God earnestly desires that we shall believe this. It isn’t a mere head belief that God wants. You are not to believe on Christ as you would on Julius Caesar or Abraham Lincoln. Rather, it must be a deep, deep heart belief which embraces your whole being. It must be a decision to trust God on this basis for time and eternity. It must be a reliance upon Him for your every need. It must be a reception of the Lord Jesus Christ forever into your heart and life. Belief is the very opposite of doing. It is the absolute antithesis of good works. Rather, it is trusting in the finished work which Christ has already done. It is staking your faith forever on the sacrificial offering of the Lamb of God on the cross of Calvary. IN HIM . .. A most delightful chapter of this greatest love story is the tender revelation of God’s love for His Son, the Lord Jesus. God is exceedingly anxious that we should love His Son too, not in a dutiful or perfunctory sort of way, but deeply and wholeheartedly. To bring this to pass, God has wrapped up all the marvelous parts of His love gift to us in one perfect package, the person of His Son. You have all that God desires to present to you when you accept His Son. Our acceptance of Jesus Christ includes the glory of His deity. The Son of God is also truly God, coequal and coeternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. But the Son of God is also the Son of Man. He who is truly God also became the Man most wonderful. He lived in the world and was tempted in all points as we are. Christ is altogether lovely in His person and work. However, the focal point of our love must always center in His death. This is the supreme demonstration of love. Christ Jesus, who knew no sin, upon whom sin had no claim, became sin for us. He took our place and bore our penalty. When you understand this, you will love Christ above all other things in time or eternity. We must not place love’s confidence in any other thing, not in rituals, or good works, not in church membership or baptism or respectability. God saves upon one basis only—that we love and receive His beloved Son. SHOULD NOT PERISH . . . The magnitude of God’s love story will never be fully realized until we peer into the terrifying depths from which we have been saved. We can never measure God’s love until we view what would have been our most certain doom. Without God’s intervention we should have perished eternally. What is it to perish eternally? It is not the easy answer of cessation of existence, not annihilation; but a never-ending existence, separation from God and from all Christians. It is a conscious continuance in abysmal darkness, terrifying aloneness, agony, torment and bitter memories, a separation forever from light, from life and from love. To consider this makes one shudder. You must understand that it is not a question of whether or not the world is to be condemned when it stands before the last judgment. Sinners already stand condemned. Sin’s wages are death, and those wages are PAGE EIGHT
already earned. What alone remains is the execution of the sentence from which there is no appeal. Ah, friends, the story of love fs that for those who accept God’s bountiful mercy they shall not perish. We are fully, completely, perfectly, eternally saved from this terror. The claims of sin are paid forevermore. We are free because the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God’s love, has made us free. BUT HAVE . . . Do not think that God’s love story must have a sequel to show a happy ending. Do not think that God’s benevolence must wait until death to present its blessings. For those who receive the gift of God’s heart, their unbounded happiness begins that instant. All those glorious bounties which God purposes we shall have become ours at the time we receive His Son. Our names are immediately entered in God’s family register. Of course the result is peace in our heart. We are now members of God’s family. Now we have forgive ness of sins. We are now possessors of life eternal and joy supernal. We may now lift our heads and walk like sons of God. This is one of God’s love secrets. You see, God’s love plan is not a partnership arrange ment. It is not God’s working part, and our working part. Rather, it is God’s doing it all. It is God’s work and not ours. So the continuance and permanence of the bless ing rests upon God’s faithfulness and not upon our behaviour. God also graciously grants the witness of the. Spirit in our hearts. The blessed Occupant of the temple of our life will fill and thrill us as we meditate on God’s love and goodness. We will find ourselves resting more and more in the glorious and eternal assurances which God has given us in His great love letter. EVERLASTING LIFE . . . Here is the soul thrilling climax of the love story. To those who will receive Christ, God gives the quin tessence of all gifts, everlasting life! What in earth or heaven can be found to compare with never-ending life? This is graciously given in order that as eternity fol lows eternity, we may continue to enjoy the unspeak able blessings God has prepared for those who will accept His love. Life here below does not in the slightest degree rep resent that life above. There all trace of sin is to be forever removed. No longer .shall sorrow reign, and tears flow. No more shall hearts be broken, and bodies wracked with pain. The familiar sights of today shall not be seen there, for heaven contains no hospitals or prisons, no cemeteries or asylums. Many new glories shall be there, not only the streets of gold and gates of pearl, but the very presence of God among His loved ones, and the never-ending com panionship of those whom we have loved long since and lost awhile. We shall see Jesus too. We shall lpok into His face eternally. We shall walk with Him by sight. We shall satisfy our souls through His beauty. Never shall we part from Him whom' our soul loves. Everlasting life including all this may be ours now, not at death’s door, but when one receives the gift of God’s love. This is the truth of God. What else in all of life compares with the supreme fact that God loves you? What else is so important to your heart as that Christ died for you? The question of all questions is: Will you accept the Gift of God’s love? Will you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your own personal Saviour? If you will, then right now lift your heart to God in prayer, telling Him that you accept the Gift of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that this moment you receive Him into your heart and life as your Saviour. T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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