“ARE you saved, sir?” we asked a gentleman, at the close of a gospel-meeting.
“No, I really can’t say I am, but I would like to be.”
“Why would you? Do you realize you are a lost sinner?”
“Oh, of course we are all sinners.”
“Ah! but that often means little or nothing. Are you a sinner yourself?”
“Well I suppose I am, but I’m not what you could call a bad sinner. I am, I think, rather a good one, I always try to do the best I know.”
“Then, my friend, I fear there is little use seeking to show you the way of salvation. Good sinners, together with honest liars, upright thieves, and virtuous scoundrels are far from being ready to submit to the grace of God, which is only for poor, vile, hell-deserving sinners, who have no merits to build on, no goodness to plead, but who are ready to be saved alone by the work of Another, and that One the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Further conversation but elicited the fact that the gentleman, far from being ready to be saved like that, would, according to his own declaration, rather take “his chances” as he was.
How is it with you reader? Do you fancy you are one of those curious anomalies—a good sinner? or have you learned that you are a guilty sinner, in need of sovereign mercy. If so, it is the glory of the gospel that it proclaims “the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference” (Rom. 3:22). Flee, then, to Jesus; your sins give you title to the blood that cleanseth; your need gives you title to the grace that saves.
Hary
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