Our Part in the Healing
By Daniel March
[From "Walks and Homes of Jesus," by Daniel March] We must come to Christ confessing our need. He comes to us as a Saviour, and we shall never receive Him to our hearts until we feel that, without Him, we are lost—utterly and forever. He comes to make us whole, to deliver us completely and forever from the dreadful disease of sin. To derive help from Him, we must feel that to live in sin is death, and to die without a Saviour is endless despair. Our great need, our utterly lost and hopeless state, must be our great argument in applying to an infinite Saviour for help. And we must be truthful and candid in confessing that we are lost in ourselves, and then we shall look the more earnestly to Him for salvation. We must go to Christ sincerely desiring such help as He is prepared to give. His name and His character, His life and His death, fulfil the promise, "He shall save His people from their sins." Such a salvation we must seek in coming to Jesus with sincere hearts. It is not simply rescue from punishment,—it is a holy life, a life of faith, and love, and obedience to God, that we need. This is the healing which the word of Christ alone can give. And every sinner should be ready to say to Christ: "I come to Thee for help, that I may get the mastery of my evil heart, that I may lead a holy life, that I may be made whole from this very hour. I ask no earthly gift. I am willing to toil, to wait, and to suffer all the days of my appointed time of trial and of duty, if at last I may be with Thee, and find my name written in Thy Book of Life." We must look to Christ expecting to find help. We can not overestimate His power or His willingness to grant us pardon, peace, and salvation. He has died for our redemption, and what can He do more to convince us of His desire to save? Inquirers for the way of salvation wait and wonder that they are so long in finding the object of their search, because they do not expect to find it. They are not ready to take the hand which Christ offers them, and walk with Him,—and therefore they are still wandering and in darkness. They are not yet fully resolved to take up the cross at once, trusting that strength will be given them to bear it,—and therefore they are bearing the heavier burden of their own sins. We must look to Jesus as we look to a tried and faithful friend in time of need, confident that our necessities will touch His heart, and that we have only to make known our wants to be sure of His sympathy and support. When Jesus entered the crowded porches of Bethesda, He sought out the most hopeless and wretched of all the impotent multitude, and made that helpless creature whole in a moment, that He might inspire all others with confidence in His power to save. We can not trust such a Saviour too much, or too soon. To be forgiven, to have the dark record of our sins blotted out forever, to be made heirs of eternal life, we need no worth of our own; no human friend can help us; it is in vain to wait for stronger persuasions, or better opportunities, or holier dispositions. We must go to Christ, and to Him alone. We must go to Him just as we are, and with full confidence in His power to save. He has done all for us, just because we can do nothing for ourselves. He is rich enough to answer all our need. He is merciful enough to forgive all our sins. He desires of us nothing so much as that we shall be willing to take the crown of life from His own hands.