By
T. Austin-Sparks
There is no real point in our going round
to the back door, or, in other words, using camouflage, for we do not want to
take anyone by guile. So let us be quite frank, and if the matter is of no
concern to you, or, rather, if you think it to be of no concern to you, just
don't read on. Frankly then, we are going to look squarely in the face this
matter of God's interest in us, and our relationship to Him.
A good many people are seriously thinking
along these lines, and, sooner or later, everyone will do the same. Let us in
the first place take off our blinkers and take in some facts. You know that a
lot of responsible people, governments and officials have come under pretty
severe condemnation recently because, it is said, they refused to believe
facts. For seven years Germany has been most thoroughly establishing Fifth
Column agents and forces in almost every country. But whenever anyone said so
and warned the governments of those countries that it was so, not only was the
suggestion repudiated, but evil intent was disbelieved. Well, the persistently
disbelieved reports have proved true, but this has meant the undoing of a few
countries in a most disastrous way. Then again, if, in 1939, someone had
prophesied that in a little over a year Germany would have overrun and defeated
Holland, Belgium and France, in addition to the number of other European
countries which have fallen to her, such an one would have been ridiculed, if
not put into prison or an asylum as mad or an incurable defeatist. Today we see
those “unbelievable” things as actualities. So it is that the things which had
been reported and rejected have become terrible realities; and things beyond
imagination are facts. The suffering involved is very largely — if not entirely
— due to unbelief.
Surely all this should make us the more
disposed to give some attention to one or two very much more vital matters
which are not lacking in evidences that there is something in them. At least we
should be ready to entertain the suggestion — “supposing they should prove
true.”
To begin with, supposing it should prove
true after all that God did send His Son Jesus Christ into
this world so long ago and determine men's eternal destiny according to their
attitude toward Him, in acceptance or rejection of Him as their Lord and
Saviour? Supposing that it should prove true that man's eternal well-being
rests upon his being able to satisfy God with absolute righteousness as to
nature and conduct, and God saw that “there is none righteous, no, not one,”
but “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”; and so God provided
Himself with His requirements in the person of His Son, and then proclaimed to
men that His Son would be accepted for them if they would believe on Him in one
or two respects:
(a) that He was God's
sinless Son;
(b) that He — in His death — took man's sin and suffered man's
judgment for sin;
(c) that He rose from the dead to be man's representative and
mediator before God?
Then again, supposing it is
true that, after His Son had returned to heaven with this perfect work done for
man, and as man's representative and advocate on high, God did send
His Holy Spirit to make all that good in the heart and life of every man who
will accept His Son as his Lord and his Saviour, so that what is true in heaven
becomes true within?
Finally, supposing it should prove true
that what has been done by Germany in this present world-situation has been
done by another enemy in this realm of so much vaster consequence? You now know
that the reason why the governments and responsible people would not believe
that Germany was plotting and insinuating Fifth Column activities in these
countries was because it was a very part of the whole scheme to deny it on the
part of those very agents. Unbelief was fostered as an important factor in
their success, and so unbelief meant culpable blindness and neglect. You find
it difficult to forgive that when you look at the results. Well, do not be
caught in the same device and guilt in relation to your own eternal well-being,
for multitudes have been lost by an unbelief which would not allow even the
suggestion — “supposing it should prove true.”
Evidence there is in abundance. For many
centuries there has been a line of those who have proved the “supposing” to be
fact on both sides. On one side definite faith in and acceptance of Jesus
Christ as Lord and Saviour in the terms above mentioned has resulted in a real
experience of a new life, peace, joy, assurance, and purpose in being alive:
while rejection of Him has resulted in a consciousness of having missed the
real purpose of life and having — as one man put it — to “take an awful leap
into the dark.”
Here is a true incident. A certain famous
Judge who had been an equally famous Advocate, one day had a man appear before
him on a serious charge. The man made a very earnest appeal to the Judge,
saying that he — the Judge — had years before taken up his case when he was
then in trouble and had secured his discharge. The Judge replied — “My man,
when you came to me years ago I was in a position to be your Advocate. That
time has passed and I am now only able to be your Judge.” God's Son, Jesus
Christ, is now in the position of Advocate and Mediator; the time is coming
when He will be Judge, for it is written — “He (God) has appointed a day in
which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath
ordained; whereof he hath given assurance to all men, in that he raised him
from the dead” (Acts 17:31). But that will be too late!
Our talk has been without sentiment, no
“sob stuff,” but straight from the shoulder. The issues are far more serious
than those of the present world affairs. If you want to settle things, bearing
in mind that God has given the fullest possible evidence in the gift of His Son
that He has a tremendous concern for our salvation, and is wanting to make that
a personal matter with every one of us, just talk to Jesus Christ as you would
to your best friend, and tell Him all about it; and if you do so, believing
that — although unseen — He is a living person, you will have the evidence in
yourself very soon.
Get hold of a copy of Paul's letter to the
Romans and read the first eight chapters. This will put things fairly fully and
clearly before you.
Remember that God has only one ground upon
which He receives or rejects men. That ground is not whether you are a small or
great sinner; that is, a sinner more or less, few sins or many, better than
some and quite as good as some others. No, His interrogation will always be,
“What about My Son, Jesus Christ; what have you done with Him? I appointed Him
to be your Lord, and I gave Him to be your Saviour — What about it? Or rather —
What about Him?”
The difference which is all the difference
of two worlds is whether Christ as a living Person is — by His Spirit —
resident within your heart, or is outside. He leaves the decision to us, but
has left us in no darkness as to how much is bound up with our decision — one
way or the other.
First published by "Witness and
Testimony Publishers."
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