14. WHY DO I REST CONFIDENTLY IN CHRIST?
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This question has been sent me by a friend. I willingly answer it. I begin by saying that if we repose any confidence in Christ at all, the more firmly we do it, the better. Weak faith may be both genuine and saving; but the stronger our faith is, the more is God glorified, and the greater is our peace.
Boasting in an arm of flesh, or relying on an arm of flesh, is very foolish. But we never act so wisely as when we make our boast in the Lord. To glory in the Cross of Christ is lawful, yes, praiseworthy. A strong confidence in the Son of God removes mountains of sorrow and difficulty. Faith cannot be too strong. Confidence becomes presumption only when it is not warranted by Scripture. The more fully and unhesitatingly I credit every word that God has spoken, the more do I act in accordance with sound wisdom. Here are some reasons:
1. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is God over all—blessed forever. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily. He is the true God and eternal life. He has all the perfections of Jehovah. He knows all my wants and weaknesses, all my sin and misery. He knows the malice of my enemies, and the foolishness of my heart. He is of power to subdue my whole nature to Himself, and to defeat the wiles and machinations of my foes. His grace is all-sufficient. His love is infinite. His wisdom cannot be defeated, nor His power resisted. He is God. I cannot trust Him excessively. I rest confidently in Him because He is God, and is fitly adored in heaven and on earth.
2. I rest confidently in Christ because He is man. He has my whole nature, sin only excepted. He has the heart of a brother. He has a feeling of my infirmity. He drank the cup of sorrow to the dregs. He tasted the bitterness of death. He knows what it is to be rejected of men and deserted by God. I have no sorrow to which He is a stranger. He sympathizes with me in all my innocent joys and tastes, as well as in my sufferings and temptations. "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin." Hebrews 4:15
3. I rest confidently in Christ because God the Father approves Him and trusts Him. He prepared Him a body. He gloriously anointed Him, and set Him apart to His work. Twice by an audible voice He declared: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." He stood by Him in all His undertaking. He raised Him from the dead. He set Him at His own right hand. He has committed all judgment to His Son. He is the delight of His Father. It cannot but be safe and wise in me to rest in Him, in whom His Father confides.
4. I rest confidently in Christ because He has never failed to save and support any and everyone that has fled to Him for salvation. Of all who have come short of the heavenly rest, not one put his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. The men who tire and faint and turn away from the holy commandment, never saw the real glory that is in Christ Jesus. To them He never was the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely. They may have said that all their desire and all their hope were in Christ, but they were deceived. Hear the beloved disciple on such people: "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us; but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us" (1 John 2:19).
5. I rest confidently in Christ because He has given me every assurance that I can desire. By word and by deed, by His painful death, and by His present glorious life, I am persuaded He will do all that is for the good of His believing people. Hear Him: "Because I live, you shall live also" (John 14:19). Hear Paul: "He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Rom. 8:32). The promises are great and precious, and almost countless. I know no man who has ever numbered them. "For every one of God’s promises is "Yes" in Him." Nor are they burdened with impracticable conditions. To every humble soul He says: "I will never leave you, nor forsake you."
6. I rest confidently in Christ because I have had a blessed experience of His grace and compassion. Once I was a poor lost sinner, ready to perish. My guilt was fearful. He passed by and said, "Live, for I have ransomed you!" I found pardon and acceptance in His blood and righteousness. I was all defiled, and had an evil heart of unbelief. He took away the heart of stone, and gave me a heart of flesh. I was blind. I saw no beauty in holiness or in Jesus Christ. He anointed my eyes, and I saw His glory, full of grace and truth. I once was afraid of the Almighty, but Christ has given me His spirit, so that I cry, Abba, Father. I once loved sin, some forms of it very much; but by His grace I hate vain thoughts and every false way. I abhor that which is evil. Left to myself I was weak as water. I had no might to do good. But by His grace I can do all things, because He strengthens me. My experience surprises me and delights me.
7. I rest confidently in Christ Jesus because He could not reject any that came to Him without refusing the only reward ever promised Him for all His work and sufferings. That reward was seeing poor lost sinners returning from their sins and wanderings to the Great Shepherd and Bishop of souls. The Scripture clearly teaches that Christ's reward should be that "He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hands;" that "the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads;" and that for all His sufferings God "will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong." Surely I ought to be ready to rely on a Redeemer who has done and suffered all required of Him for my salvation. Having loved His own, He loved them to the end. Will He now cast away the souls He has bought at so great a price? I think not.
8. I rest confidently in Christ, because He is King on the holy hill of Zion, wields a scepter of righteousness, has many crowns upon His head, is actually subduing all His enemies, and is Lord of all to the glory of God the Father; because He is still the Great Prophet, and the way of life, saying: "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly;" and because He is my Great High Priest, who ever lives to make intercession for me. Him the Father hears always. And so He is able to save them to the uttermost, all who come unto God by Him.
For these and many similar reasons I rest confidently in Christ. Nor shall I be disappointed. I look to Him alone. Angels cannot save me. My brother cannot pay to God a ransom for me. I cannot save myself. To whom can I go but to Jesus only? He has the words of eternal life. I will rest in Him only. I will rest in Him confidently and forever, and in Him my rest shall be glorious.
Of course such a one wholly renounces self-righteousness.
I was riding across the State of New Jersey on the old Camden and Amboy Railroad. Just before reaching the eastern terminus we were detained some minutes on a part of the route where the land is very sterile. I had no friend with me. Most of the passengers seemed to be without companions. Various remarks were made as if for the ears of all. At length one gentleman, looking out on the white sands, said, "How is this land like self-righteousness?" Someone replied, "Because the more of it one has, the poorer he is." I thought the riddle good, and the answer excellent. The more self-righteousness one has, the poorer he is.
It strikes me as true, that the poorer one is in moral good, the more self-righteousness he has. In other words, the farther one goes in sin, the harder it is to lead him to a right view of his sins. For more than fifty years I have, as I had opportunity, visited prisons, and conversed freely with their inhabitants. I have attended several unhappy men to their public execution. In all this time I have never heard one frank and full confession of crime. One man admitted that he had killed his wife; but he seemed to excuse himself by saying that he was drunk when he did it. I have never seen a convict who admitted the fairness of his trial, the veracity of the witnesses, and the impartiality of the judge. This is an amazing record. I am greatly surprised at it. Like the lawyer mentioned in Luke 10:29, everyone was "willing to justify himself."
How is this? It may be safely answered that crimes against both person and property terribly harden the heart. But it is also true that the more men sin—the less sense of sin have they, unless God's Spirit very much quickens the conscience. The more men sin, the blinder they are. The farther a man goes into a dark cave, the more dim are his perceptions.
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