"But I was one of those who plotted to take away His life. May I be saved by Him?"
"Every one of you."
"But I was one of those who bore false witness against Him. Is there grace for me?"
"For every one of you."
"But I was one of those who cried out, Crucify Him! crucify Him! and who desired that Barrabas, the murderer, might live, rather than He.
What will become of me, think you?"
"I am to preach repentance and remission of sins to every one of you."
"But I was one of those who did spit in His face when He stood before His accusers; I also was one that mocked Him when, in anguish, He hung bleeding on the tree. Is there room for me?"
"For every one of you."
"But I was one of those who, in His extremity, said, Give Him gall and vinegar to drink! Why may I not expect the same when pain and anguish are upon me?"
"Repent of these thy wickednesses; and here is remission of sins for every one of you."
"But I railed on Him; I reviled Him; I hated Him; I rejoiced to see Him mocked at by others. Can there be hope for me?"
"There is; for every one of you."
Oh, what a blessed "Every-one-of-you" is here! How willing was Peter and the Lord Jesus by the ministry of Peter--to catch these murderers with the word of the Gospel, that they might be monuments of the grace of G.o.d!
Now it is a solemn fact that every one who receives the offer of the Gospel can lock and bolt the door of his heart, and say to the Lord Jesus Christ he refuses to let Him in. But it is also a blessed truth that you can unlock that door and say to Him, "Welcome! thrice welcome, Son of G.o.d, into this heart of mine!" The question is: Will you let Christ come in and save you? It is not a question of whether He is able. Who will open their hearts, and let the Saviour come in?
"There"s a stranger at the door: Let Him in!
He has been there oft before: Let Him in!
Let Him in, ere He is gone; Let Him in, the Holy One, Jesus Christ, the Father"s Son: Let Him in!
Open now to Him your heart: Let Him in!
If you wait He will depart: Let Him in!
Let Him in, He is your Friend; He your soul will sure defend; He will keep you to the end: Let Him in!
Hear you now His loving voice?
Let Him in!
Now, oh now, make Him your choice: Let Him in!
He is standing at the door; Joy to you He will restore, And His name you will adore: Let Him in!
Now admit the heavenly Guest.
Let Him in!
He will make for you a feast: Let Him in!
He will speak your sins forgiven, And when earth-ties all are riven, He will take you home to heaven, Let Him in!"
_Rev. J. B Atchinson_
CHAPTER V.
LAW AND GRACE.
IN his Epistle to the Romans, Paul writes "For as by one man"s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."
Moses was the representative of the law. You remember that he led the children of Israel through the wilderness, and brought them to Jordan; but there he left them. He could take them up to the river, which is a type of death and judgment; but Joshua (which means Jesus--Saviour) led them right through death and judgment--through the Jordan into the Promised Land. Here we have the difference between Law and Grace; between the Law and the Gospel.
Take another ill.u.s.tration. John the Baptist was the last prophet of the old dispensation--the last prophet under the law. You remember that before Christ made His appearance at the Jordan, the cry of John, day by day was, "Repent: for the kingdom of G.o.d is at hand!"
He thundered out the law. He took his hearers down to the Jordan and baptized them. He put them in the place of death; and that was as far as he could take them. But there was One coming after him who could take them into the Promised Land. As Joshua led the people through the Jordan into Canaan,--so Christ went down into the Jordan of death, through death and judgment, on to resurrection ground.
If you run all through Scripture you will find that the law brings to death. "Sin reigned unto death." A friend was telling me lately that an acquaintance of his, a minister, was once called upon to officiate at a funeral, in the place of a chaplain of one of Her Majesty"s prisons, who was absent. He noticed that only one solitary man followed the body of the criminal to the grave. When the grave had been covered, this man told the minister that he was an officer of the law whose duty it was to watch the body of the culprit until it was buried out of sight; that was "the end" of the British law.
And that is what the law of G.o.d does to the sinner; it brings him right to death, and leaves him there. I pity deep down in my heart those who are trying to save themselves by the law. It never has; it never will; and it never can--save the soul. When people say they are going to try and do their best, and so save themselves by the law, I like to take them on their own ground. Have they, ever done their very best? granting that there _might_ be a chance for them if they had, was there ever a time when they could not have done a little better? If a man wants to do his best, let him accept the grace of G.o.d; that is the best thing that any man or woman can possibly do.
But you will ask, What is the law given for? It may sound rather strange, but it is given that it may stop every man"s mouth. "We know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before G.o.d. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin." The law shuts my mouth; grace opens it. The law locks up my heart; grace opens it--and then the fountain of love begins to flow out. When men get their eyes opened to see this glorious truth, they will cease their constant struggle. They will give up trying to work their way into the kingdom of G.o.d by the deeds of the law. They will give themselves up for lost, and take salvation as a free gift.
Life never came through the law. As some one has observed: When the law was given, three thousand men lost life; but when grace and truth came at Pentecost, three thousand obtained life. Under the law, if a man became a drunkard the magistrates would take him out and stone him to death. When the prodigal came home, grace met him and embraced him. Law says, Stone him!--grace says, Embrace him! Law says, Smite him!--grace says, Kiss him! Law went after him, and bound him; grace said, loose him and let him go! Law tells me how crooked I am; grace comes and makes me straight.
I pity those who are always hanging around Sinai, hoping to get life there. I have an old friend in Chicago who is always lingering at Sinai. He is a very good man; but I think he will have a different story to tell when he gets home to heaven. He thinks I preach free grace too much; and I must confess I do like to speak of the free grace of G.o.d. This friend of mine feels as though he has a kind of mission to follow me; and whenever he gets a chance he comes in with the thunders of Sinai. I never yet met him but he was thundering away from h.o.r.eb. The last time I was in Chicago, I said to him, "Are you still lingering around Sinai?" "Yes," said he, "I believe in the law." I have made inquiries, and I never heard of any one being converted under his preaching: the effects have always dwindled and died out. If the law is the door to heaven, there is no hope for any of us. A perfect G.o.d can only have a perfect standard. He that offends in one point is guilty of all: so "all have sinned and come short of the glory of G.o.d."
Paul says to the Galatians: "Is the law then against the promises of G.o.d? G.o.d forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of G.o.d by faith in Jesus Christ."
THE SOFTENING POWER OF GRACE.
So we see that the law cannot give life; all it can do is to bring us to Him who is the life. The law is said to be "a schoolmaster."
Perhaps some of you do not know what a schoolmaster is. If you had been under the same schoolmaster as I was when a boy you would have known. He had a good cane and it was frequently in use. In the little country district where I went to school, there were two parties: for the sake of ill.u.s.tration we may call the one the "law"
party and the other the "grace" party. The law party said that boys could not possibly be controlled without the cane: and they kept a schoolmaster there who acted on their plan. The struggle went on, and at last, on one election day, the law party was put out, and the grace party ruled in their stead. I happened to be at the school at that time; and I remember we said to each other that we were going to have a grand time that winter. There would be no more corporal punishment, and we were going to be ruled by love.
I was one of the first to break the rules of the school. We had a lady teacher, and she asked me to stay behind. I thought the cane was coming out again; and I was going to protest against it. I was quite in a fighting mood. She took me alone. She sat down and began to talk to me kindly. I thought that was worse than the cane; I did not like it. I saw that she had not got any cane. She said: "I have made up my mind that if I cannot control the school by love, I will give it up. I will have no punishment; and if you love me, try and keep the rules of the school." I felt something right here in my throat. I was not one to shed many tears; but they would come--I could not keep them back. I said to her, "You will have no more trouble with me;" and she did not. I learned more that winter than in the other three put together.
That was the difference between law and grace. Christ says, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." He takes us out from under the law, and puts us under grace. Grace will break the hardest heart. It was the love of G.o.d that prompted Him to send His only-begotten Son into the world that He might save it. I suppose the thief had gone through his trial unsoftened. Probably the law had hardened his heart. But on the cross no doubt that touching prayer of the Saviour, "Father, forgive them!" broke his heart, so that he cried, "Lord, remember me!" He was brought to ask for mercy. I believe there is no man so far gone but the grace of G.o.d will melt his heart.
It is told of Isaac T. Hopper, the Quaker, that he once encountered a profane colored man, named Cain, in Philadelphia, and took him before a magistrate, who fined him for blasphemy. Twenty years after, Hopper met Cain, whose appearance was much changed for the worse. This touched the Friend"s heart. He stepped up, spoke kindly, and shook hands with the forlorn being. "Dost thou remember me,"
said the Quaker, "how I had thee fined for swearing?"
"Yes, indeed, I do: I remember what I paid as well as if it was yesterday."
"Well, did it do thee any good?"
"No, never a bit: it made me mad to have my money taken from me."
Hopper invited Cain to reckon up the interest on the fine, and paid him princ.i.p.al and interest too. "I meant it for thy good, Cain; and I am sorry I did thee any harm."