THE KING’S' BUSINESS
29*
(1) “If Abraham was willing to offer up his only son,” of course we should be willing to give up, if God asks us to, our son or daughter, or husband, or any one else, but even Abraham was not saved by effering up his son. It was after he was saved that he offered up his son. He was saved by simple faith in God (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3-5). Even if Abraham had not offered up Isaac, he would have been sav ed, but he would doubtless have missed blessing that he might have had. But you , have no reason for supposing that God wishes you to give up your .husband and children. Indeed, God in His Word tells you very plainly that your duty is to your husband and children, and it would take a very clear and definite and remarkable revelation in the face of God’s teaching about the duty of a wifq and of a mother to make it clear that you should leave your husband and children and go to some foreign field. There doubtless have been cases where God has called upon a man to leave wife and children and go to the foreign field. I have a dear friend who has done that very thing, but it was with the hearty consent of his wife and chil dren, and they expect to follow him some time, though he has been separated from them most of the time for the past few years. It is to such a case as that that God refers in the passage which you quote (Luke 18:29, 30) and in similar passages, such as Matthew 10:27; Luke 14:26. Of course, if anybody would be a disciple of Jesus he must deny himself (i. e., say to self, “I don’t know you; I recognize no master but Jesus”.) and take up His cross (i. e., bear the shame and reproach and suffering that may lie in the path of duty, rather than wandering out of the path of duty in order to avoid the shame and suf fering that lie in that path), and follow Christ (i. e., take Jesus and Jesus only as our example) (Matt. 16:24), but bear in mind this verse does not state the way to be served, it states the way in which a saved person becomes a disciple. We are not saved by denying self, or taking up our cross, or doing anything else, we are
and if you have not, just receive Him npw. Indeed,; I would not bother too much ab,out the question whether I had received Him.in the past or not: to be absolutely sure, I would let the past alone, just re ceive Him now and say, “If I never be lieved on Jesus before, I will now.” . Third, It is already indicated in what I have said above, but I want to say it again so- as to make it absolutely clear, that your root difficulty is legalism. You have mixed up law and grace. Thousands of others are doing the same. You have got it into your head that you are saved by doing everything that God tells you to do, and that if you should not do what He tells you to do in everything, or even if you should be uncertain as to what His will was, and through not clearly under standing or knowing His will should not do what He tells you to do, then you would ibe lost. If that were true, pretty much everybody that professes to be a Christian would be lost, for there are cer tainly very few Christians who are not at times uncertain about the will of God and who do not at times wrongly interpret God’s will and, of course, every one of these, according to your theory, would be lost. Let me repeat it in another form, we are not saved by doing God’s will, in going to just the place He would have us to go, and doing the exact thing He would have us do; we are saved on the single ground of Christ’s atoning death and on the single condition of believing in Him who died and rose again. If you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, you will be saved the moment you do it (Rom. 10:9), and you won’t become unsaved by misin terpreting His will some time, and neglect ing to do what it was His will you should have done. It is after we know we are saved because He says so in His Word that we are in a position to understand His will and do it. Fourth. Now I will take up your speci fic questions, though they are really an swered in what I have said.
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