WG-10-11. "WHERE ART THOU?”

11. "WHERE ART THOU?”

IF, then, one admits the truth of God into his heart, which every man may do if he will, the real state of the world’s affairs will be made plain to him; and he will understand from the drift of those affairs, as well as from the revela­tion of God in the Scriptures, the end to which the world is hastening. His concern will then be to know if God has a remedy.

Manifestly, our knowledge of God’s remedy can come only through revelation; and again we are confronted by the fact that, if the Bible be not God’s written word, we have no revelation, and consequently no remedy. The inquiry, therefore, cannot be pursued except upon the assumption that the Bible is God’s revelation to His creature, man. If that Word be true, then we know that God began immediately after man’s departure to seek his recovery; and the unfolding of the Divine plan of redemption is most satisfying to the regenerated mind and heart. The very first words of Him whose holy law had been broken and whose love had been suspected and spurned, reveal Him as seeking His fallen creature. “Where art thou?” is the question; and from that moment to the present we have the redemption of man proclaimed as the purpose of Jehovah, to be fulfilled in the person of the Eternal Son, who in the fullness of time came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luk 19:10). He came also to destroy the works of the Devil (1Jn 3:8); and since man learned his way from the Devil, we are not surprised to learn that God’s ways are very different: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith Jehovah” (Isa 55:8).

Accordingly, He bids us no longer to contemplate self, but to contemplate Him—“looking unto Jesus” (Heb 12:2), to “consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus” (Heb 3:1), and to look “not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen” (2Co 4:18). He bids us to cease from the vain attempt at the improvement of the old nature, which cannot be made fit for the presence of God, but is hopelessly corrupted and doomed to death, and offers instead to all who believe on Him a new nature, “born not of corruptible seed, but of in­corruptible” (1Pe 1:23); for “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2Co 5:17). He bids us cease from the futile attempt at supplying our own deficiencies and covering ourselves with our own righteousness; for Christ is of God made unto us righteousness (1Co 1:30). He would have us all, as did His servant Paul, count all things that the world can offer us as refuse, in order that we may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of our own, but that which is from God by faith, that we may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto His death (Php 3:8-10). In one word, God’s remedy for the havoc wrought by the first Adam is Christ, the last Adam, in whom all the purposes of God in the creation of man will be fulfilled, and in whom all the promises of God are Yea and Amen (2Co 1:20).

God assures us that He Himself has undertaken and accomplished the work of redemption, and that our part is, not to work, but to believe and accept the work done for us. For justification is, “to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly” (Rom 4:5); or, as else­where stated by our Lord Himself: “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent” (John 6:29). The original sin was unbelief and distrust. Eve disbelieved in her heart. Hence belief with the heart is the turning point of man’s conversion (Rom 10:10). Man must turn with his heart to God and confess the crucified and risen Savior. More than this is not required for salva­tion, but less will not serve.

It is possible, alas! to have an intellectual comprehension of all this, and yet not be united with Christ by the Spirit of God. One may arrive at the conclusion, upon examination of the conditions within and around him, that the record of Genesis is, indeed, that of an actual historical event. He may even thereby become satisfied that the Scriptures are inspired throughout; and yet he may have no real knowledge of Christ, and may belong wholly to this perishing world. For saving faith is of the heart. One must be brought by the Spirit of God under conviction of sin (the sin of unbelief), and be born again by acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Savior, and as the one and only way of coming to the Father. The foregoing pages have not been written for the purpose merely of vindicating the historical character of the third chapter of Genesis. To con­vince the intellect of the reader as to this would be of no advantage, unless the conviction goes further and reaches his heart. The best and most convincing of human arguments affords no certainty to the mind and no peace to the soul. One may to-day be persuaded by argument to give intel­lectual assent to a doctrine, and begin to doubt its truth to-morrow when the steps of the argu­ment that wrought conviction slip from his memory. The Word of the Living God alone can impart absolute conviction and afford a permanent basis for certainty. When belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, is wrought in the heart by the operation of the Holy Spirit, faith comes to abide eternally; for it is accompanied by such a work of grace, such conviction and light, and such manifestations of Divine Presence and power, that the heart necessarily surrenders itself with full confidence to His keeping.

“I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28).

Nevertheless, an appeal to the reason should not be in vain; for, as the result of intellectual conviction, one may be induced to act upon the truth which has been intellectually apprehended. The object of these pages, therefore, is to rouse the indifferent and callous soul to action—to the making of a choice between Satan’s world and God’s, between the way of life and the way of death. “Behold,” says Jehovah, “I set before you the way of life and the way of death” (Jer 21:8). You have a will, my friend, and you have the power to exercise it in this matter. If persuaded in your mind of the truth of God’s Word, or if only partly persuaded, call upon Him! Say, "Lord, I believe: help Thou mine unbelief!" Ask Him to show you whether these things be true, to give you His Holy Spirit according to the promise (Luk 11:13), and to reveal the Lord Jesus to you, not only as the Savior of the world, but also as the Savior of your individual soul. Ask Him for faith, which is not, as many seem to suppose, believing something without foundation, but is the very “evidence of things not seen (Heb 11:1), evidence of the highest value because proceeding from God Himself.

“Where, then, is the seat of faith? Not in the intellect, which sees the logical connection or the historic evidence; nor in the imagination, which recognizes the beauty and organic symmetry, and reproduces the pictures; not in the conscience, which testifies to the righteousness and truth of the revelation: but in a something which lies deeper than these, in which all these center, and to which all these return. It is with the heart, as Scripture teaches, that man believeth. There, whence are the issues of life—emotional, intellectual, moral, spiritual—in that secret place to which God alone has access, God’s Word as a seed begets faith, God’s Word as a light kindles light, and the man becomes a believer” (Saphir).

Such is the nature of saving faith, which all may have who will seek it from the Author of faith, and which they only who possess it can comprehend. We cannot impart our faith to another, but we can witness to God who gave it, and can tell to others how they may obtain" a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ" (2Pe 1:1).