The
Victory that Overcomes the World!
"Whoever
is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory
that overcomes the world, even our faith. Whoever overcomes
the world is he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God!"
1 John
5:4, 5.
As your
conscience has been quickened by the Holy Spirit, you have
seen something of the evil of sin, of its power, its guilt,
its woe; and you look upon it with abhorrence. You feel that
sin has separated you from God, that you are in bondage to
the power of evil. The more you struggle to escape, the more
you realize your helplessness. Your motives are impure; your
heart is unclean. You see that your life has been filled with
selfishness and sin. You long to be forgiven, to be cleansed,
to be set free. Harmony with God, likeness to Him - what can
you do to obtain it?
It is
peace that you need - Heaven's forgiveness and peace and love
in the soul. Money cannot buy it, intellect cannot procure
it, wisdom cannot attain to it; you can never hope, by your
own efforts, to secure it. But God offers it to you as a gift,
"without money and without price" Isaiah 55:1. It
is yours if you will but reach out your hand and grasp it.
The Lord says, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool" Isaiah 1:18. "A new heart
also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you"
Ezekiel 36:26.
You have
confessed your sins, and in heart put them away. You have
resolved to give yourself to God. Now go to Him, and ask that
He will wash away your sins and give you a new heart. Then
believe that He does this because He has promised. This is
the lesson which Jesus taught while He was on earth, that
the gift which God promises us, we must believe we do receive,
and it is ours. Jesus healed the people of their diseases
when they had faith in His power; He helped them in the things
which they could see, thus inspiring them with confidence
in Him concerning things which they could not see - leading
them to believe in His power to forgive sins. This He plainly
stated in the healing of the man sick with palsy: "That
you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive
sins, (then said He to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take
up your bed, and go to your house" Matt. 9:6. So also
John the evangelist says, speaking of the miracles of Christ,
"These are written, that you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you might
have life through His name" John 20:31.
From
the simple Bible account of how Jesus healed the sick, we
may learn something about how to believe in Him for the forgiveness
of sins. Let us turn to the story of the paralytic at Bethesda.
The poor sufferer was helpless; he had not used his limbs
for thirty-eight years. Yet Jesus bade him, "Rise, take
up your bed, and walk." The sick man might have said,
"Lord, if You will make me whole, I will obey Your word."
But, no, he believed Christ's word, believed that he was made
whole, and he made the effort at once; he willed to walk,
and he did walk. He acted on the word of Christ, and God gave
the power. He was made whole.
In like
manner you are a sinner. You cannot atone for your past sins;
you cannot change your heart and make yourself holy. But God
promises to do all this for you through Christ. You believe
that promise. You confess your sins and give yourself to God.
You will to serve Him. Just as surely as you do this, God
will fulfill His word to you. If you believe the promise,
- believe that you are forgiven and cleansed, - God supplies
the fact; you are made whole, just as Christ gave the paralytic
power to walk when the man believed that he was healed. It
is so if you believe it.
Do not
wait to feel that you are made whole, but say, "I believe
it; it is so, not because I feel it, but because God has promised."
Jesus says, "What things soever you desire, when you
pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them"
Mark 11:24. There is a condition to this promise - that we
pray according to the will of God, 1 John 5:14, 15. But it
is the will of God to cleanse us from sin, to make us His
children, and to enable us to live a holy life. So we may
ask for these blessings, and believe that we receive them,
and thank God that we have received them. It is our privilege
to go to Jesus and be cleansed, and to stand before the law
without shame or remorse. "There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit" Romans 8:1.
Henceforth
you are not your own; you are bought with a price. "You
were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold;
. . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot" 1 Peter 1:18, 19. Through
this simple act of believing God, the Holy Spirit has begotten
a new life in your heart. You are as a child born into the
family of God, and He loves you as He loves His Son.
Now that
you have given yourself to Jesus, do not draw back, do not
take yourself away from Him, but day by day say, "I am
Christ's; I have given myself to Him;" and ask Him to
give you His Spirit and keep you by His grace. As it is by
giving yourself to God, and believing Him, that you become
His child, so you are to live in Him. The apostle says, "As
you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk
you in Him' Colossians 2:6.
Some
seem to feel that they must be on probation, and must prove
to the Lord that they are reformed, before they can claim
His blessing. But they may claim the blessing of God even
now. They must have His grace, the Spirit of Christ, to help
their infirmities, or they cannot resist evil. Jesus loves
to have us come to Him just as we are, sinful, helpless, dependent.
We may come with all our weakness, our folly, our sinfulness,
and fall at His feet in penitence. It is His glory to encircle
us in the arms of His love and to bind up our wounds, "and
the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin"
1 John 1:7.
Here
is where thousands fail; they do not believe that Jesus pardons
them personally, individually. They do not take God at His
word. It is the privilege of all who comply with the conditions
to know for themselves that pardon is freely extended for
every sin. Put away the suspicion that God's promises are
not meant for you. They are for every repentant transgressor.
Strength and grace have been provided through Christ to be
brought by ministering angels to every believing soul. None
are so sinful that they cannot find strength, purity, and
righteousness in Jesus, who died for them. He is waiting to
strip them of their garments stained and polluted with sin,
and to put upon them the white robes of righteousness; He
bids them live and not die.
God does
not deal with us as finite men deal with one another. His
thoughts are thoughts of mercy, love, and tenderest compassion.
He says, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous
man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He
will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly
pardon… I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions,
and, as a cloud, your sins" Isaiah 55:7; 44:22.
"I
have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, says the
Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and you live" Ezekiel
18:32. Satan is ready to steal away the blessed assurances
of God. He desires to take every glimmer of hope and every
ray of light from the soul; but you must not permit him to
do this. Do not give ear to the tempter, but say, "Jesus
has died that I may live. He loves me, and wills not that
I should perish. I have a compassionate heavenly Father; and
although I have abused His love, though the blessings He has
given me have been squandered, I will arise, and go to my
Father, and say, "I have sinned against heaven, and before
You, and am no more worthy to be called Your son: make me
as one of Your hired servants." The parable tells you
how the wanderer will be received: "When he was yet a
great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and
ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him" Luke 15:18-20.
But even
this parable, tender and touching as it is, comes short of
expressing the infinite compassion of the heavenly Father.
The Lord declares by His prophet, "I have loved you with
an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I
drawn you" Jeremiah 31:3. While the sinner is yet far
from the Father's house, wasting his substance in a strange
country, the Father's heart is yearning over him; and every
longing awakened in the soul to return to God is but the tender
pleading of His Spirit, wooing, entreating, drawing the wanderer
to his Father's heart of love.
With
the rich promises of the Bible before you, can you give place
to doubt? Can you believe that when the poor sinner longs
to return, longs to forsake his sins, the Lord sternly withholds
him from coming to His feet in repentance? Away with such
thoughts! Nothing can hurt your own soul more than to entertain
such a conception of our heavenly Father. He hates sin, but
He loves the sinner, and He gave Himself in the person of
Christ, that all who would might be saved and have eternal
blessedness in the kingdom of glory. What stronger or more
tender language could have been employed than He has chosen
in which to express His love toward us? He declares, "Can
a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have
compassion on the son of her womb? yes, they may forget, yet
will I not forget you' Isaiah 49:15.
Look
up, you that are doubting and trembling; for Jesus lives to
make intercession for us (Rom. 8:34 & Heb. 7:25). Thank
God for the gift of His dear Son and pray that He may not
have died for you in vain. The Spirit invites you today. Come
with your whole heart to Jesus, and you may claim His blessing.
As you
read the promises, remember they are the expression of unutterable
love and pity. The great heart of Infinite Love is drawn toward
the sinner with boundless compassion. "We have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins" Ephesians
1:7. Yes, only believe that God is your helper. He wants to
restore His moral image in man. As you draw near to Him with
confession and repentance, He will draw near to you with mercy
and forgiveness.
"Whoever
is born of God overcomes the world!"
This
meditation is from The Path to Peace, pp. 23-26.
Bible
promises that give confidence that you are forgiven and accepted
by God!
Isaiah 1:18; 44:22; 49:15; 55:7.
Jeremiah 31:3.
Ezekiel 18:32; 36:26, 27.
Mark 11:24.
John 20:31.
Romans 8:1.
1 Peter 1:18, 19.
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