Not One That Needs Saving

“Eighty-Three, sir!” said a Hampshire villager, in answer to the question of a visitor as to his age, and his bent back and tottering frame witnessed to the truth of his reply.

But many as had been his years, spent too in a village where the glorious light of full free salvation through Christ alone had long shone, yet this aged one knew not Christ, nor the value of His precious blood, nor the saving power of His blessed name. More than this, he knew not his need of the atoning work of the Son of God, but, resting in his own supposed goodness, he was awaiting with no apparent anxiety the time when he should “give account of himself to God.”

When asked, “Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour?” his confident reply was, “I’ve always paid my way, and been respectable, and done my duty; I’m not one that needs saving.”

So self-satisfied was this poor soul, satisfied with himself while rejecting the only Name in which there is salvation (Acts 4:12). For self he had lived those eighty-three long years, and self was his only object and glory, now that his grey hairs were going down to the grave. Thus this aged sinner refused salvation by the blood of Christ; bold in his own righteousness he dared to think without uneasiness of standing before the great white throne. Poor blinded soul, how awful his delusion, as, captive by the devil at his will, he was hastening down to the pit.

His end I know not. He has gone to his long home, and the mourners went about the streets; but how awful his surprise, if, still refusing the grace of God, he passed away; if, still turning a deaf ear to the urgent entreaty of that loving Saviour, he was ushered into the prison house, there to await the dread judgment of those without Christ, and then to stand before the very One whose love he had refused. What a thought. to see Him then, no longer as a Saviour, but as a Judge; to hear no longer a voice of entreaty, but the dread sentence of eternal punishment in the lake of fire, where the “smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night” (Rev. 19:11).

My reader, are you thinking that you do not need salvation by Christ Jesus? You would not perhaps dare, like the poor Christ-rejecter of whom you have read, to say so. But is it your thought? Are you satisfied with yourself? Oh, that you might see yourself as God sees you. Your righteousnesses, the very best things you have done, are all as filthy rags, and you yourself are as an unclean thing (Isa. 64:6). God in His grace is waiting, but remember that the day of judgment fast approaches. Oh, take now the salvation which God is offering—the best robe—the wedding garment, and then you will have the blessed portion of all those of whom scripture speaks as “in Christ Jesus;” you need fear no judgment, no condemnation, and no separation from His love.

I.Fleming

Scattered Seed 1929, p. 42