/The answer to the lonely misery of sin is the life-giving gioì
T JL here is no possibility of divine life in the human soul apart from the knowledge of the person of Christ. This is the heart of the Christian message and that which exalts it above the level of mere religion. It is also the explanation for the fact that many have a clear, precise knowledge of the work of Christ in His earthly life and death but are still as hopelessly lost as if they never had heard of Him. C h ris tian workers especially should be clear on this. There is such a tendency in these days to simply explain, as we term it, “the plan of salvation,” without ever really presenting to the seeking soul the One who alone is the Way of salvation. We may describe in Spirit-given power the cross and all its wondrous effect upon the blight ing, blasting, damning sin of man. We may speak of the finished char acter of that work as forever settling the question of sin and bringing about, by the Word, the positive conviction that God is no longer holding men’s sins against them. But unless we see men bow to the Lordship of Christ and discover Him pe rsona lly themselves, we have left them where we found them—dead in trespasses and sins. Life is the great essential to the banishment of death. Christ, in His person, is that life which is so des perately needed: His work but clears the ground for communicat ing His life. Perhaps an old illus tration will make this clear. A sol dier is struck down in battle with a bullet through his heart. He is brought in to a first-aid tent, dead. Before the body is sent to the rear for burial a surgeon removes the bullet. Now it was the bullet that caused death, but does the removal
of it bring life? How wonderful if it were true! No, though the cause of death is removed the state of death continues. Nothing but the miraculous impartation of new life can end the siege of death. The analogy is clear. Sin is the bullet that has lodged in the heart of humanity. Death with its help lessness and hopelessness and cor ruption is the result. On the cross Christ removed that bullet, thereby “reconciling the world unto him self, not imputing [men’s] tres passes unto them.” Men need to know this, for the removing of that bullet, the settling of the question of sin, was necessary before life could be imparted. But though sin is settled the state of death continues. Only life can end it and that life can only come through the knowledge of Christ’s person. “He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life.” It is that simple. We have heard Christian workers say to someone, “Do you believe that Christ died for your sins?” And the answer was, “Yes, but it doesn’t seem to work for me; I’m still not saved.” To which the reply was made, “The trouble is, you’re just believing with your head, not your heart. You have an intellect ual conviction of the truth, but it has never gripped your heart. You must believe with the heart to be saved.” Is that true? Yes, it is, but
it is not the seeker’s fault but the worker’s! He has only presented that which is grasped by the head, not the heart. Reason can understand the logic of substitutionary atonement. The cross is a fact of history, an object of knowledge, and as such it makes its appeal to the mind. But the person of Christ is appre hensible only by the heart, by the emotions of the soul. I can under stand the multiplication table with my mind; I apprehend my friends through my emotions. Let me but experience the wonder of contact with His person and my whole heart leaps in response. Belief is no longer merely of the head, cen tered in His work, but now it is both head and heart, moved by the glory of His person. Does this not explain those very troublesome passages, such as in Hebrews, where the line between apostates and true believers seems so difficult to distinguish. Why is this so? Because both are believers in Christ! Both have fully accepted His work on behalf of their sins. Hebrews 10:10 speaks of true be lievers as “sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” And in the same chapter a later verse describes an apostate as one who “hath counted the blood of the covenant, where with he was sanctified, an unholy thing.” Both have benefited by the death of Christ, both have believed in it. How then can we explain the dif ference in their destinies—between “having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus” on the one hand, and “a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation” on the other? The answer is found in an addi-
A bout the A uthor Ray C. Stedman was born in North Dakota in 1917. He became a Christian in a Meth odist camp meeting at the age of 10 and is now the pastor of the Peninsula Bible Church, Palo Alto, Calif.
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