It is customary, especially in Scotland, for many to wish their friends well at the outset of a new year and to express the desire that they shall experience a “Good New Year.” Opinions differ as to what is thereby intended. National custom incites, in many cases, but a natural and superficial desire for the well-being of others, which is just of the earth earthly, and values above all else happiness of a worldly nature, health and temporal prosperity, without regard to the spiritual happiness, prosperity and health of the soul, provided for in the riches of the Covenant of Grace.
On the other hand, those who have been savagely taught that the redemption of a guilty soul is infinitely more precious than gold, yea, much fine gold, do desire that their friends and fellow-sinners around them, would be blest, primarily, “with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephes. i. 3). For this lies at the very basis of a gracious expectation of a good year, and especially a good eternity. We cannot have even one good day in this world, in the highest sense, apart from the blessed fact of our sin-ruined souls being redeemed through the blood of Christ, and the forgiveness of sins being sealed upon our consciences, according to the riches of God’s grace and through faith. And those thus favoured with the forgiveness of their sins, do by reason of this, come to fear God. “There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared” (Ps. cxxx. verse 4). They reverence His holy Name, tremble at His Word graciously, desire to honour Him in all their ways, hope in His mercy revealed in the sufferings of the Saviour, and seek grace and power to crucify the flesh and to love, worship and serve the God of their salvation.
And it is said of such: “It shall be well with them that fear God” (Eccles. vii. 12). It shall be well with them, although none of the children of men around them, should wish them well. Jeremiah, for example, was in his generation as “a speckled bird,” surrounded on every hand by evil-doers, who wished him anything but well. Nevertheless, it was well with the weeping prophet. God was his friend and portion. However extended or brief their days may yet be in the world, this shall not affect adversely their spiritual welfare in any way. Their times are wholly in the hands of Him who ruleth and reigneth for them and in them. He knows the way that they take and the days they require yet to be in the wilderness, ere they are ready for the heavenly country. On their side, they know not what a day may bring forth; on God’s side, it is His work in their souls that shall determine their fitness for departure from time. Inasmuch as the good work of the Holy Spirit is being carried on in their souls, through the Word of Truth; they are thereby enabled to die more and more unto sin, to discern increasingly the glory and preciousness of Christ Jesus and to live unto righteousness. Therefore it is indeed well with them now, as this is a work which shall be perfected and issue in their being conformed to the image of their Redeemer. In the process they may be heard exclaiming, “O! wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. vii. 24), and also, “Christ is all” (Col. iii. 11). And whatever tribulations they shall still experience, however sharp, prolonged or peculiar these may prove to be, the Father of Mercies shall over-rule all trials and chastisements for good to their souls, in the exercising of Covenant love toward them. And none of these things shall be able to separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, as they are united to God in Christ by unbreakable bonds. They shall never perish, but through tribulation shall they enter the Kingdom. When they come to the valley of the shadow of death, with its darkness, solemnity and testing circumstances and realities, the Lord shall be with them. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me” (Ps. xxiii. 4). And as they bid farewell to all that appertaineth to this vain world and are separated from the Church on earth, they shall be led through the valley into the presence of God their Saviour, where there are pleasures for evermore. Because a Three One God is for them and engaged on their behalf, to secure their everlasting salvation, therefore none can jeopardise their salvation and security. God’s love, unchangeableness and faithfulness, the mediatorial offices of His eternal Son, and the power and grace of His Holy Spirit, are all divinely devoted to this glorious end, that “It shall be well with them that fear God.”