May 16
22
A BELIEVER’S PEACE
Where does a believer find real and genuine peace? On what foundation can we rest and say in truth, “It is well with my soul?” I’ll tell you; it lies in this, that we are justified by faith and not by works. Christ Jesus stood in my place before God. I was guilty with nothing to pay; doomed to hell, and Christ took my place. He died for me! How can I perish? How can I be punished for sins which have already been laid on Christ and for which He has already suffered? God demands of me that I keep His holy law perfectly. I cannot do it. But Christ has kept it for me. He kept it, magnified it, made it honorable in my flesh. What more can God demand of me? I am washed in the blood of Christ; I am risen and seated at His right hand in Christ. You may ask, “How is all this yours?” I reply, “By the grace of God, through the merits of Christ, revealed by the Spirit of God THROUGH FAITH!” God said, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” I do believe, I sincerely believe in Christ; therefore, I have eternal life. Pastor Henry Mahan.
The answer of a good conscience toward God
Bill Green was a faithful member of the church I formerly pastored in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He was retired from secular employment when the church called me to be their pastor. He therefore requested permission to accompany me to conferences and preaching engagements. I gladly consented. He and I spent many hours in sweet fellowship during those trips.
On one such occasion, Bill mentioned his first profession of faith. He was at the time of that profession a very young lad. Bill professed his faith at the end of a certain preacher’s message, and was subsequently baptized upon that profession of faith.
On the occasion of my conversation with Bill, he told me that he whole-heartedly believed and delighted in the gospel and the Jesus I preached. But he also had come to realize that the message he had heard in his youth was diametrically opposed to what I preached, for it was “a different gospel” of “another Jesus” (2 Corinthians 11:4). He also realized that whoever preaches such false doctrine is worthy of being “accursed” (Galatians 1:6-9), and that no one is by such false doctrine saved. He also realized that Christian baptism is “the answer of a good conscience toward God” (1 Peter 3:21), and that his former “baptism” was invalid because in it he had professed and confessed a false gospel of a false Jesus, and that he had since then been saved from it.
Bill therefore requested I baptize him. I gladly consented. He in his baptism gave “the answer of a good conscience toward God”.
Many other persons have had a similar experience. They were nominal Christians (i.e., in name only) when they were blessed by divine grace to hear and believe the gospel of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They therefore become convinced of the invalidity of their former “baptism”. They realize that “the answer of a good conscience toward God” cannot be expressed in a sacrament administered to an infant (Acts 8:36f), or of one believing he is not saved until he is baptized (see Acts 16:30-33), or of one heeding the message of a preacher not sent by Christ (see Jeremiah ch.31, especially vv.1f, 21, 32), or of one relying on the efficacy of his own “freewill” in salvation (see John 1:12; 5:40; 6:63-65), or of one boasting of works he performed to merit salvation (see Ephesians 2:8f), or of one believing baptism to be “the removal of the filth of the flesh” (1 Peter 3:21), or of one believing baptism to be the means of obtaining “a good conscience toward God” (ibid), or of one trusting in “a different gospel” of “another Jesus”. They therefore desire to be baptized – not rebaptized, but Scripturally baptized.
In this baptism they profess “the answer of a good conscience toward God”. Daniel Parks.
Consider Jesus– in His Atoning Blood
“The blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from every sin.” 1 John 1:7
The blood of Jesus is everything. It is the central doctrine of our faith, the present and eternal life of our souls. There is no pardon, no salvation, no heaven but by blood–the blood of the Lord Jesus. Were we to relinquish every other revealed truth, and concentrate upon this one our supreme and lasting study, resolving all our knowledge of the Bible into an ‘experimental and personal acquaintance’ with ATONING BLOOD–as, like a purple thread, it runs from Genesis to Revelation, it would not be a too exaggerated view of this vital and momentous subject. The blood is everything to us–it is everything to God. He provided it, is satisfied with it, beholds it, and when He sees it on the soul, that soul becomes a living and a lovely soul in His sight. May our meditation on atoning blood exalt our views of its dignity, increase in us its power, and endear to our hearts the preciousness of Him who shed it!
The blood of Jesus is DIVINE. It is the blood of God’s Son, the God-man Christ Jesus. In this consists its sovereign virtue. The Divine nature of Christ rendered His obedience and death an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet-smelling savor.
The blood of Jesus is ATONING. It was shed for sin, it has made to Divine justice a full satisfaction for sin, it puts away sin. Is sin your burden, O my soul? Is it for your sins you do moan and weep, and are cast down? Behold, the sin-atoning blood of Jesus; believe, and weep no more. Here is that before which not a sin can stand.
The blood of Jesus is CLEANSING. It “cleanses us.” Oh, this is what you do so deeply need, my soul! Sin-forgiving, guilt-removing, heart-cleansing, conscience-purifying blood. All this is the blood of Jesus to you. Wash in it, and you shall be whiter than snow. “He that is washed is clean, every whit.” And mark the tense of the wonderful words on which this meditation is based–it is the present tense. The blood “cleanses.” It has cleansed, it will cleanse, but, as touching our daily walk as believers in Jesus, we have to do with its present cleansing. In our Christian travel through a sinful world the feet are apt to slide, prone to wander, and are constantly contracting fresh defilement, needing the daily washing in the blood. What a sweet thought, O my soul! that the fountain is open, and the blood cleanses, even now cleanses us, from all sin.
The blood of Jesus SPEAKS. “The blood of Christ that speaks.” Oh, what a voice has the blood of Jesus! What sweetness and majesty, what gentleness and power! It speaks, and the troubled conscience is at rest; it speaks, and the broken heart is healed; it speaks, and the tormenting doubt is hushed; it speaks, and the trembling fear is quelled. It speaks, also, within the veil. The voice of Jesus’ blood is heard in glory, sweeter and louder than the voices of all the minstrels round about the throne. My soul, the voice of Jesus’ blood pleads louder for you in heaven, than all your sins can plead against you on earth.
It is sprinkled blood–that is, APPLIED blood. Therefore it is called, “the blood of sprinkling.” The blood of Jesus practically will not avail us unless applied to the conscience, just as the blood of the Paschal lamb had availed nothing to the Israelite, when the first-born of Egypt was slain, had it not been sprinkled upon his house. And so God said, “When I SEE the BLOOD, I will pass over you.” O my soul! look well to this. Why is it that you are so doubting and fearful? Why are you not walking in a full sense of your pardon and acceptance in JESUS–basking in the sunshine of a present and assured salvation? Is it not because you are stopping short of the applied blood? Oh, come to the blood, the blood of sprinkling! Keep no guilt upon your conscience, no anguish for uncleansed sin in your heart; but wash daily in the precious blood of Christ, which cleanses from ALL sin.
Octavius Winslow.
The Gospel of Joy and Peace in believing
‘Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.’ (Rom. 15:13).
These words of inspiration encourage my weary heart. The gospel of God in Christ is so designed to give God all the glory for the salvation of sinners (1Cor. 1:30-31). But thank God, it is also designed to give to broken, sinful and weary sinners joy and peace through the gospel (Rom. 5:1). Notice this also, it is “joy and peace in believing,” not working, not ceremony and the traditions of men, but by simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we may abound in hope (Heb. 11:6). The Lord Jesus Christ is the whole believer’s hope before God and men (Col. 1:27; 2:9-10; 3:11). This is constantly brought into our heart and thoughts through the power of the Holy Spirit, Who shall take the things of Christ and show them unto us, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you” (John 16:13-15). Tom Harding
Christ made sin for us
2 Corinthians 5:21
Christ our Lord had no sin, knew no sin and did no sin. He was perfect before the law of God (I Peter 2:22; Heb. 4:15). Our sins were reckoned to him. He was identified and numbered with the transgressors and, though he personally had no sin, yet by imputation he was the world’s greatest sinner and was dealt with as such and died under the wrath of God (Gal. 3:13; Heb. 9:28; Rom. 8:32). All of this was done that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ and, by our identification and oneness with Christ justified. Christ, who knew no sin, was made sin for us that we, who have no righteousness, might be made righteous before God in him (Rom. 10:1-4). With his spotless garments on, we are as holy as his Son (Isa. 45:24). Someone said, “The gospel can be summed up in two words – substitution and satisfaction.” Christ, as our Substitute, made full and complete satisfaction for us before God’s holy law and righteous justice. In him we are wholly sanctified, completely and eternally saved.
Henry Mahan.
He Has Made Him Sin
Joe Terrell
For he has made him sin for us, who knew no sin; hat we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 2 Corinthians 5:21)
The Lord Jesus being made sin for us must extend beyond the idea of the imputation of our sin to Him. We would never be made the righteousness of God in Christ as a result of His being merely charged with our sin. No, He must also suffer for those sins. He must not merely bear our sins, but must bear them on the tree of curse and punishment. To bear the sins of someone else and suffer in their place is the very definition of a sin offering, so we understand Paul to mean that the sinless Christ was made a sin offering for sinful us. Paul’s words are essentially the same as the prophet Isaiah in 53.10 of his prophecy, “…you shall make his soul an offering for sin.” In the original Hebrew the word “offering” does not appear, for, in the language of the OT, the word for sin and the word for the offering to put it away are one and the same.
Nor is our being made the righteousness of God in Christ merely an act of imputation. In the case of our being “made” the righteousness of God, the word signifies a change in the very essence of a thing. In being made a sin offering, Christ’s status before God was changed, as the word signifies; but His essence remained unchanged. But, in being made the righteousness of God, our very essence is changed. Christ’s sacrificial death did not make us the righteousness of God in Him, but opened the door to the other works of God’s grace which do, indeed, make us the righteousness of God. Christ’s work for us made possible God’s work in us. Thus, beginning with the New Birth and finishing with our glorification to be like Christ, we are quite literally made into something different from what we were at our natural birth: our nature is changed by God.
When in glory, we shall not be righteous only by a legal act of imputation, but we shall be essentially righteous, even as the Lord Jesus Christ is righteous. And even now, the born again child of God possesses a new nature called spirit – the restored image of God – which is flawless in every respect. It is the beginning of the New Creation and bears the image of the One Who made it. It is incapable of sinning, for it is the offspring of its Perfect Creator. The child of God – who still finds no good thing in his flesh – is yet flawless in his spirit; and in those things the spirit does, he acts without sin.