THE WARRANT OF HOPE

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 16, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 44.

THE WARRANT OF HOPE.

We use the word hope in its largest sense as including our salvation. The finished work of Jesus Christ is the only ground of hope for a sinner. Nothing in himself or of himself can afford him aught with which to appear before God justified. His sins, according to the gospel, are no bar to his salvation; and, on the other hand, his righteousness, of whatever kind or degree, is no basis on which he can be accepted of God. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to the sinner who believes. Therefore he is never to look to himself, much less in himself, to find that whereon he may rest in hope, but to God, as God has revealed himself in Christ Jesus for our salvation.

The next question which confronts the inquirer after salvation is how he may know that the salvation which is in Christ avails for him. Multitudes have no doubt that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of all men so far as he is God's gift to the world; but they do not take hold of the truth for themselves. Even many Christians who have as a definite act of faith accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour and are seeking conscientiously to order their lives according to the expressed will of God, are not sure of their salvation. No question is more frequently asked by the average Christian when the matter comes up than this: "But how may we know that we are saved?" Surely so great a matter as our salvation is not left to conjecture on the part of believers. We are struck with the fact in reading the New Testament that there is never a doubt either expressed or implied of the salvation of those who believed in Jesus Christ. Indeed, the New Testament glows and throbs with an assurance on the part of those who speak for Christ and represent him to the world, that is simply wonderful.

Where, then, are we to find the sure warrant of our salvation? Certainly not in ourselves, any more than we are to find the ground of it there. Yet it is as habitual for Christians to look in and to themselves for assurance, as it is for sinners to look in and to themselves for the ground of their acceptance. Some turn back to a time when they think they were converted, and will tell you of the wonderful experience they had at that time. This to them is the warrant of their assurance. Others will tell you of their con-

scious communion with God, of the wonderful answers to prayer which they have had. Others appeal simply to an assurance which they feel in themselves that they are saved; again, others tell us of the "Spirit of God witnessing with" their "spirits that" they "are the children of God;" others will point to the growth in grace that has marked their Christian life, or appeal to their love of the brethren; and so on, and so on, to the end of the chapter. Now, there is no doubt that in these experiences there is a measure of proof that the persons who enjoy them are the subjects of God's good and saving grace; but in none of them is there a clear warrant for hope, and nothing could possibly be worse for an inquiring sinner or a believer than to put himself to the task of trying to realize or have these experiences in order to an assurance of salvation.

There is but one warrant of our salvation, and that is found in the word of God. In that word there is a record of God's purpose of grace toward sinful man, of the way in which he has accomplished his gracious will toward us by sending Jesus into the world, who took our sins and by his voluntary death put them away; after which he arose from the dead and passing through the heavens appeared in the presence of God and obtained eternal redemption for us. This same word not only tells us the conditions on which this great salvation is made over to us, but binds God by his word and oath to save eternally every sinner who honestly accepts his grace. John closes his Gospel with these words: "These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name." The word of God is an oath-bound word, that in both word and oath (the two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie) "we might have strong assurance who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us." That word, bound with an oath which God swore by himself, secures to every believer the salvation which Jesus wrought out. In like manner any sinner may come and claim the utmost grace of the warrant of the word. What the deed relating to a house is to the holder of the deed, the word of God is to the man or woman who has rested on Jesus for salvation. Just as the man who holds a deed would not appeal to his feelings or to his worthiness or to the memory or the day and incidents in connection with his original possession of the property in question for a confirmation of his title, but to the deed itself, so the believer does not appeal even to spiritual experiences for the warranty of his hope, but to the word of God, which is the written deed of gift to him through the Lord Jesus Christ.

The witness of the Holy Ghost himself is delivered through the word, as the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews saith: "Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us; for after that he had said before," then he refers to what the Holy Ghost had written before in the prophecy of Jeremiah: "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."

Nothing is more important for us to know and do than to regard the word of God as being finally authoritative in all matters of our relationship to God, and to take it at its face value and trust it implicitly. When our Lord said: "He that heareth my word and believeth him that sent me hath everlasting life," we may be staggered at the simplicity of this statement and wonder how so great a thing can be; but it is not for us to hesitate before the word of him who says: "Verily, verily, I say unto you." So again when the apostle says in Romans 10: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved," it would be the rankest unbelief and the worst presumption to question this abounding promise. Let us remember always that our warrant of hope is found only in the word of God. "If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. . . . And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. . . . These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." 1 John 5, 9-13.—Independent.