IN CHRIST

IN CHRIST

The great end of the gospel is, that all the offence has been so removed by the death and resurrection of Christ, that the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit. I stand consciously in the favour of God; I know that God loves me.

The good tidings of God’s grace is that He can be “just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus”, (Romans 3: 26) that He can receive the returning prodigal in the fulness of His love. Consequently, the first sense of the Spirit in our hearts is the love of God shed abroad there.

The great end of grace is that God can make known His great love to us.

Many souls are hindered and delayed by trying to feel happy and sure of their salvation, instead of first being assured of how God is towards them because of the sacrifice of Christ. The gospel is that God receives the returning sinner with the gladness of His heart.

Now comes our side - our enjoyment of God’s grace. When the prodigal was kissed he must own that his father was in full love to him, but he could not enjoy it until he was made fit for his father’s house. The Holy Spirit who first assures you of the heart of God towards you, which is the gospel, is the same Holy Spirit who assures your heart that you are free of ^[p. 227] all the distance between you and God; and you are free of the law of sin and death.

When you are assured by the Holy Spirit that you are personally free of all connected with sin and death, then you “joy in God”, which is the full effect of the gospel.

In John 4 the blessed Lord in speaking to the woman of Samaria proposes the gift of a well of water within; because while the gospel, in terms, might be known, yet no one could really enjoy the grace of God but by the Spirit dwelling in him. One who has in him a well of living water will never thirst; he will know that he has passed out of death into life; that he is “in Christ” - and that, in the sense of heavenly festivity, he has begun to make merry.

When Jonathan was acquainted with David, he not only loved him as he loved his own soul for what he had done, but they made a covenant. They understand one another. Let me say to you, Have you and Christ an understanding? Have you, speaking figuratively, a covenant with Him? Jonathan and David understood one another; there was a bond between them, and Jonathan delighted to make much of David. For us the bond is that He gives us the Holy Spirit. I want you to get to Him, and not to be satisfied with merely having relief.

Have you made acquaintance with the One who shed His blood for you? Do you know Him now as risen from the dead? If you do, He gives you the Spirit of God, so that there is a bond between you and Him. You are established in grace.