February 3

For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. - 2 Timothy 1:12.

THE apostle, in the prospect of that day, deposited something in the Redeemer’s hand. Let us inquire what this deposit was. It is evident it was something personal, and something in which he acted as a believer. And it is not necessary to exclude any thing from the transaction, but principally we are to understand the eternal concerns of the soul. And if this required any confirmation, it may be derived from Stephen the Protomartyr, who, when he was dying, said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit;” and from the experience of David, who in an hour of danger said, “Into thy hand I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, Lord God of truth.” The act means, therefore, simply believing.

Various are the views given us, in the Scriptures, of faith in the Son of God. When the sacred writers spoke of faith, they never placed it before the people in the nakedness of metaphysical abstraction. They described rather than defined, and exemplified rather than described. One thing we may observe, that in all their representations of faith they made it to have to do immediately and expressly with the Lord Jesus. But then they held forth this faith as clothed in attributes and varied in its actings. Sometimes this faith was a “coming” to Christ -sometimes a “fleeing” to him-sometimes a “receiving” him -sometimes a “trusting” in him-and here a “committing” of the soul into his blessed hands; this is the evidence, this is the consequence, of real faith; and there is no one single term that enters so fully into the nature of saving faith, as confidence or trusting in Christ. The apostle’s representation of faith here will remind us of several things. The committing our eternal all into his hand implies, in the first place, conviction. The man before was deluded by error and blinded by ignorance, but now the eyes of his understanding are opened. Now he is convinced of the value of his soul, and sees that the worth of it is beyond all comparison, according to the language of our Saviour:- «”What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” He is now convinced of the danger of the soul: it is ready to perish,-not as to the physical destruction of its being or powers, but as to the destruction of its welfare, its happiness, and its hopes. And now, too, he is convinced of his inability to save his own soul; he sees and he feels that he cannot atone for his offences-that he cannot furnish for it a justifying righteousness in which to appear before God-that he cannot renew and sanctify it, without which it can never enter into the kingdom of God.

And this act implies also, Secondly, A concern for its security and welfare. His language now is, “How shall I come before the Lord, and bow before the high God? What must I do to be saved?” Before it was chiefly, “What shall I eat? and what shall I drink? or wherewithal shall I be clothed?” But a man who is acting as Paul did always, “against that day,” he would be ready to say, “It is of little importance what becomes of this poor body: let the worms devour it, let flames consume it, let the sea engulf it, let wild beasts feed upon it, provided my soul is safe in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

The act of committing the soul to Christ also implies application to the Redeemer for the purpose of salvation. O thou Restorer of the human race! let this ruin be under thine hand. O thou heavenly Physician, heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee. O thou Refuge from the storm, and Covert from the tempest, oh, receive and shelter me.

Fourthly, It implies submission. The man is resigned to his method of salvation. This committing of the soul to his hands is as much an act of resignation as it is of application; and it is absolutely necessary; for, though the Lord Jesus is ready to undertake our case, we should remember one thing:-that he will have the whole management of it, or he will have nothing to do with it. And a convinced sinner is brought to this; who is brought to say, “Lord, I yield to thy pleasure; I must indeed be saved: but, O Lord, I am not come to dictate nor to prescribe; make known thy will, and I acquiesce.”