August 1

PART III.—John 10:7.

IF Christ be the only door, then how desirable is it that we see how we stand connected with him. Let us inquire, then, as to our knowledge of Christ as the door. Have we right views of our necessity of such a door? Have we felt our distance from God, and have we perceived the glorious adaptation of Jesus in his person and work to bring us nigh to him? Have we beheld in Jesus the very object adapted to our spiritual need, in whom there is a fulness of grace to meet all our exigencies and supply all our wants. Jesus cannot be the door to us unless we know him, for this is life eternal, to know the true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. Let us also ascertain as to our approach to God by this door. Have we come to him and believed in him, availed ourselves of his merits, trusted in his mediation, and thus obtained forgiveness of sins and peace with God? If we have used Christ as the door, then are we no longer without, no longer at a distance, no longer condemned; but now are we reconciled to God, and by the testimony of the Holy Spirit to our spirits, we know that we are the sons of God. Then, let us ascertain also as to our estimate of this door Do we value it above all things? for to them that believe Christ is precious, precious always, yea, superlatively precious. If we value this door, we shall extol it by our lips of sanctified praise, and by lives of ardent love and holy obedience to Christ. How necessary it is that we constantly avail ourselves of this door. We cannot hold intercourse with God for a moment but through Christ, and God cannot behold us with complacency except when he beholds us in the face of his anointed one. Then Christ is emphatically our life and salvation, and the life that we live must be a life of faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us.