“Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop, but a good word maketh it glad” (Prov. xii. 25).
A FRIEND who was about to travel North by the last train from Buchanan Street Station called at my lodgings to bid me “good-bye.” He found me reading a book, and as he had some time to spare I asked him if I should read to him for a short time, and to this he agreed. I knew that for days he had been greatly depressed and anxious about his spiritual state, and I hoped that some relief might come to him while I read. So I read on. The time passed and the clock pointed an approach to train time. I stopped to remind him of this, but by now it was clear that something in the way of light and liberty was coming to my friend. He continued sitting, and so I read on to the close of the section. This happened in Glasgow over thirty years ago, and I cannot now remember whether my friend reached the station in time for his train or not. This I do know, however. He did not seem very worried whether he was in time or not, and that he left me a happier and a much less depressed man. This is what I read to him.
Neophytus: “And truly, sir, you have so declared and set forth Christ’s disposition towards poor sinners, and so answered all my doubts and objections, that I am now verily persuaded that Christ is willing to entertain me, and surely I am willing to come to him and receive him, but alas, I want power.”
Evangelista: “But tell me truly, are you resolved to put forth all your power to believe and so to take Christ?”
Neophytus: “Truly, sir, methinks my resolution is much like the resolution of the four lepers which sat at the gate of Samaria; for as they said, ‘If we enter the city then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; and if we sit still here we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall into the host of the Syrians; if they save us alive we shall live; and if they kill us we shall but die’ (II Kings vii. 4). Even so say I in my heart, if I go back to the covenant of works to seek justification thereby I shall die there, and if I sit still and seek it no way, I shall die also. Now, therefore, though I be somewhat fearful, yet am I resolved to go unto Christ, and if I perish, I perish.”
Evangelista: “Why, now I tell you the match is made. Christ is yours and you are his. This day is salvation come to this house—your soul, I mean. For what though you have not that power to come so fast to Christ and lay firm hold on him as you desire, yet coming with such a resolution to take Christ as you do, you need not care for power to do it, inasmuch as Christ will enable you to do it.
“O, therefore, I beseech you, stand no longer disputing; but be peremptory and resolute in your faith and in casting yourself upon God in Christ for mercy, and let the issue be what it will.
“Yet let me tell you to your comfort that such a resolution shall never go to Hell. Nay, I will say more, if any soul have room in Heaven, such a soul shall, for God cannot find it in his heart to damn such a one.
“I might then with as much true confidence say unto you as faithful John Careless said to godly John Bradford, ‘Hearken, O Heavens, and thou, O Earth, give ear, and bear witness at the great day that I do here faithfully and truly declare the Lord’s message unto his dear servant and singularly beloved John Bradford, saying, John Bradford, thou man so specially beloved of God, I do pronounce and testify unto thee, in the word and name of the Lord Jesus, that all thy sins, whatsoever they be, though ever so many, grievous or great be fully and freely pardoned, released and forgiven thee by the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, the only Lord and sweet Saviour, in whom thou dost undoubtedly believe. And truly, as the Lord liveth He will not have thee die the death, but hath verily purposed, determined and decreed that thou shalt live with him forever.'”
Neophytus: “O sir, if I have as good a warrant to apply this saying to myself as sweet Mr. Bradford had to himself, I am a happy man.”
Evangelista: “I tell you from Christ and under the hand of the Spirit, that your person is accepted, your sins are done away, and you shall be saved; and if an angel from heaven should tell you otherwise let him be accursed. Therefore you may without doubt conclude that you are a happy man. For by means of this your matching with Christ you are become one with Him and one in Him, you dwell in him and He in you, He is your well beloved and you are His. So that the marriage union betwixt Christ and you is more than a bare notion or apprehension of your mind, for it is a special, spiritual and real union; it is a union betwixt the nature of Christ (God and Man) and you, it is a knitting and closing not only of your apprehension with the Saviour but also of your soul and a Saviour. Whence it must needs follow that you cannot be damned except Christ be damned with you, neither can Christ be saved except you be saved with him.
“And as by means of corporal marriage all things become common betwixt man and wife, even so by means of this spiritual marriage, all things become alike betwixt Christ and you. For when Christ hath
married His spouse unto Himself He passeth over all his estate unto her, so that whatever Christ is or hath you may boldly challenge as your own. He is made of God unto you, ‘Wisdom, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.’ And surely by virtue of this near union it is as Christ is called, ‘The Lord our righteousness’ (Jer. xxiii. 6). I tell you man, you may by virtue of this union boldly take to yourself as your own, Christ’s watchings, abstinence, travels, prayers, persecutions, and slanders; Yea, His tears, His sweat, His blood, and all that ever He did and suffered in space of three and thirty years, with His passion, death, burial, resurrection and ascension, for they are all yours.
“And as Christ passeth over all His estate to His spouse, so doth He require that she should pass over all unto Him. Wherefore, you being now married unto Christ, you must give all you have of your own unto Him. And truly you have nothing of your own but sin, and therefore you must give Him that. I beseech you, then, say to Christ with bold confidence, I give Thee, my dear Husband, my unbelief, my mistrust, my pride, my arrogancy, my ambition, my wrath, and anger, my envy, my covetousness, my evil thoughts, affections, and desires. I make one bundle of these, and all my other offences and give them unto Thee. And thus was Christ made to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
“Now then, says Luther, let us compare these things together, and we shall find inestimable treasure; Christ full of grace, life and saving health; and the soul is a freight full of all sin, death and damnation. But let faith come betwixt these two and it shall come to pass that Christ will be laden with sin, death and hell; and unto the soul shall be imputed grace, life, and salvation. Who then, sayeth he, is able to value the royalty of this marriage accordingly? Who is able to comprehend the glorious riches of this grace, where this rich and righteous Husband Christ, doth take unto wife this poor and wicked harlot, redeeming her from all devils and garnishing her with all His jewels? So that you, as this same Luther saith, through the assuredness of your faith in Christ your husband, are delivered from all sins, made safe from death, guarded from Hell, and endowed with everlasting righteousness, life and saving health of this your husband Christ. And therefore you are now under the covenant of grace and freed from the law, as it is a covenant of works. For, as Mr. Ball truly says, at one and the same time a man cannot be under the covenant of works and the covenant of grace.”
Neophytus: “Sir, I do not yet know how to conceive of this freedom from the law, as it is the covenant of works, and I pray you to make it as plain as you can.”
Evangelista: “For the true and clear understanding of this point you are to consider that when Jesus Christ the second Adam had, in
behalf of His chosen, perfectly fulfilled the law as it is the covenant of works, divine justice delivered that bond to Christ who utterly cancelled that handwriting so that none of His chosen were to have any more to do with it, nor it with them. And now you, by your believing in Christ, having manifested that you are one who was chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, His fulfilling of that covenant and cancelling of that handwriting is imputed to you, and so you are acquitted and absolved from all your transgressions against that covenant, whither past, present or to come. And so you are justified as the apostle says, ‘freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus’ ” (Romans iii. 24).
The above is a portion taken from the Marrow of Modern Divinity. The great truth of a sinner’s closing with Christ is presented in a way so satisfying and helpful that I would not take on myself to comment on a single line of it. I would like to indicate, however, the wonderful name given to this chapter by the writer. It is “The believer matching with Christ.” “Matching”: what a wonderful word to use in such a connection. Oh, surely to a soul bent on closing with Christ in the Gospel, it is a soul-thrilling word. Profound and unknowable want, matching with inexhaustible and glorious riches. Surely such a matching could be effected only by Divine grace and love. Yes, and because the maker of it is Who and What He is, such a match is glorious in every part of it.—Penuel.