The Believer's Safety

A young minister was in the habit of visiting an aged Scotch woman in his congregation who was familiarly called “Old Nanny.” She was bedridden and rapidly approaching the end of her “long and weary pilgrimage,” but she rested with undisturbed composure and full assurance of faith upon the finished work of Christ.

One day this minister said to her, “Now, Nanny, what if, after all your confidence in the Saviour, and all your watching and waiting, God should suffer your soul to be lost!” Raising herself on her elbow, and turning to him with a look of grief and pain, she laid her hand on the open Bible before her, and quietly replied, “Ah, dearie me, is that a’ the length you hae got yet, man?”

“God”, she continued earnestly, “Who would hae the greatest loss? Poor Nannie would but lose her soul, and that would be a great loss indeed, but God would lose His honour and His character. Haven’t I hung my soul upon His ‘exceeding great and precious promises’? and if he brak’ His word, He would make Himself a liar, and a’ the universe would rush into confusion.”

This anecdote reveals the true ground of the believers’ safety. It is as high as the honour of God; it is as trustworthy as His character; it is as immutable as His promises; it is as broad as the infinite merits of His Son’s atoning blood.

“The Scripture saith,” or, in other words, God saith in the Scripture, “whosoever believeth on Him [that is, on Christ] shall not be ashamed.” Mark the vast extent of this blessed declaration, “whosoever believeth.” The word “whosoever” goes like the light over the entire surface of our globe, and it includes within the ample and urgent invitations of the gospel every member of the human race.

There are many who fear that they do not belong to the elect, or that they are not embraced in the plan of redemption, and hence they long to have some direct and personal evidence of the willingness of God to forgive and save them; but surely here is full warrant for the faith of every sinner.

The most illiterate, the most degraded, and the friendless, as well as the intelligent, the virtuous, and the honoured, among the sons of men, are invited and exhorted and commanded to believe on Jesus Christ, for “whosoever believeth shall not be ashamed.”

This Divine proclamation is not only a good way, but unquestionably the best way that could be devised, to encourage the doubting and hesitating sinner to trust in the promises of God; for if there had been a better way, certainly it would have been adopted.