How often the Gospel worker hears some one say, “I am so sinful that I am afraid the Lord will not accept me;” and even people who have long professed to be Christians, often mournfully wish that they could be sure of their acceptance with God. Now the Lord has given no ground for any such doubts. The question of acceptance is forever settled by what we have just read. Christ has bought us, together with all our sins, and has paid the price. That shows that He has accepted us. Why does a man go to the shop and buy an article?—Because he wants it. If he has paid the price for it, having examined it so as to know what he was buying, does the merchant worry lest he will not accept it?—Not at all; the merchant knows that it is his business to get the goods to the purchaser as soon as possible. If he does not deliver the goods to the purchaser, he is guilty of fraud. The buyer will not indifferently say, “Well, I have done my part, and if he doesn’t care to do his, he need not—that’s all; he may keep the things if he wants to.” No; he will visit the shop, and say, “Why have you not given me what belongs to me?” He will take vigorous measures to come into possession of his property. Even so it is not a matter of indifference to Jesus whether we surrender ourselves to Him or not. He longs with an infinite yearning for the souls that He has purchased with His own blood. “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10. God has “chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,” and so “He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.” Eph. 1:4-6.
“This Present Evil World.”
Christ gave Himself for our sins, “that He might deliver us from this present evil world.” He will take from us that which He bought, which is our sinfulness. In so doing, He delivers us from this “present evil world.” That shows us that “this present evil world” is nothing but our own sinful selves. It is “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” 1 John 2:16. We ourselves make all the evil there is in the world. It is man that has made the world evil. “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Rom. 5:12. We need not try to throw the blame upon somebody else; we ourselves provide all the evil that can possibly injure us.
The story is told of a man whose besetting sin was a violent temper. He would frequently become very angry, but he laid all the blame upon the people with whom he lived, who were so exasperating. Nobody, he declared, could do right among such people. So he resolved, as many others have done, to “leave the world,” and become a hermit. He chose a cave in the forest for his dwelling-place, far from any other human habitation. In the morning he took his jug to a spring near by to get water for his morning meal. The rock was moss-grown, and the continual flow of water had made it very slippery. As he set his jug down under the stream, it slid away. He put it back, and again it was driven away. Two or three times was this repeated, and each time the replacing of the jug was done with increasing energy. Finally the hermit’s patience was utterly exhausted, and exclaiming, “I’ll see if you’ll not stay!” he picked the vessel up and set it down with such vehemence that it was broken to pieces. There was nobody to blame but himself, and he had the good sense to see that it was not the world around him but the world inside of him that made him sin. Doubtless very many can recognize some experience of their own in this little story.
Luther, in his monk’s cell, whither he had gone to escape from the world, found his sins more grievous than ever. Wherever we go, we carry the world with us; we have it in our hearts and on our backs,—a heavy, crushing load. We find that when we would do good, “evil is present” with us. Rom. 7:21. It is present, always, “this present evil world,” until, goaded to despair, we cry out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?” Even Christ found His greatest temptations in the desert, far away from human habitations. All these things teach us that hermits and monks are not in God’s plan. God’s people are the salt of the earth; and salt, no matter how good it is, is of no use if shut up in a box; it must be mingled with that which is to be preserved.
Deliverance.
That which God has promised, He is “able also to perform.” He “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” Eph. 3:20. He “is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.” Jude 24. He gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us, and He did not die in vain. Deliverance is ours. Christ was sent “to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.” Isa. 42:7. Accordingly He cries out to the captives, “Liberty!” To them that are bound He proclaims that the prison doors are open. Isa. 61:1. To all the prisoners, He says, “Go forth.” Isa. 49:9. Each soul may say, if he will, “O Lord, truly I am Thy servant; I am Thy servant, and the son of Thine handmaid; Thou hast loosed my bonds.” Ps. 116:16. The thing is true, whether we believe it or not. We are the Lord’s servants, even though we stubbornly refuse to serve; for He has bought us; and, having bought us, He has broken every bond that hindered us from serving Him. If we but believe, we have the victory that has overcome the world, 1 John 5:4, R. V.; John 16:33. The message to us is that our “warfare is accomplished,” our “iniquity is pardoned.” Isa. 40:2. We have but to shout, as Israel did before Jericho, to see that God has given to us the victory. God “hath visited and redeemed His people.” Luke 1:68. Out of Zion has come the Deliverer, to turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Rom. 11:26. “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!—
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,