The One Divine Way

“He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” You see that is very different from simply making a lip confession of Christianity; that is a very different thing from turning over a new leaf, joining a church, being baptized, or something like that. “As many as received him” means just this, that the poor sinner comes to the place where he gives up all hope of saving himself, and says, “O Christ, come in and dwell with me alone.” No one ever invited Him to enter who was disappointed. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”
Is your heart’s door bolted against Him? Have you lived up to the present moment with Christ outside? Will you open the door?
You say, “How can I receive Him? I cannot see Him. In what way can I receive Him?”
“As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” Do you believe on His name? What does it mean to believe on His name? It means to put your trust in Him. His name speaks of all that He is. “Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). John Hambleton used to say, “There are just five letters to our English word, Jesus, and they mean just this: Jesus Exactly Suits Us Sinners.” We are poor, lost, guilty men and women, but He is the holy One, God’s blessed Son, and He went to Calvary’s cross and died for us, bore our sins in His own body on the tree, and now God says, “Will you receive my Son? Will you trust Him? Will you believe on His name?” If you will, He will save your precious soul, and will give you the right to call yourself a child of God. No one has that right unless he is born again. Peter says, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.... And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” (1 Peter 1:23, 25).
What is it then that you need to believe in order to be saved? “Repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). What is the gospel? It is God’s “good news” about His blessed Son. He tells us that “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3,4). And again: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10:9, 10).
The sinner who addresses you was once hurrying down in his sins to a lost eternity, but when Jesus called, he came to Him, put his trust in Him, and He saved his soul forty years ago. He is waiting now to save you. There is no reason why you should go on longer without settling this vital matter. When I write to you about being saved by believing, I do not mean that you are simply to credit the gospel story in an intellectual kind of way, and go right on in the same life; but if you realize you are a lost sinner, and want to be saved from the guilt and power of your sins, I beseech you to yield to His entreaty, and put your trust in the One who died for you. God will work the miracle of regeneration in your soul, and you will know that you are born again. “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”