HOW SHALL I GO TO GOD?

An Ariticle by Horatius Bonar (1808-89)

Famous poet and hymnwriter, Horatius Bonar (1808-89), wrote the following lines, excerpted from one of his evangelistic sermons. In it we catch a glimpse of the sort of Reformation evangelism which, though largely lost, we trust God will renew in our time.

How shall I go to God? It is with our sins that we go to God, for we have nothing else to go with that we can call our own. This is one of the lessons that we are so slow to learn; yet without learning this we cannot take one right step in that which we call a religious life.

To look up some good thing in our past life, or to get up some good thing now, if we find that our past does not contain any such thing, is our first thought when we begin to inquire after God, that we may get the great question settled between Him and us, as to the forgiveness of our sins.

But men think this favor of God is a shadowy thing. "God seems so distant and it seems so difficult and to require such a length of time!" You make that distant and difficult that which God has made simple and near and easy. "Are there no difficulties, do you mean to say?" In one sense, a thousand; in another, none. "How is that? Did not the Son of God put difficulties in the sinner's way when He said to the multitude, 'Come unto Me, and I will give you rest'?" Certainly not; He meant them to go at once to Him, as He stood there, and as they stood there, and He would give them rest. Had you then been upon the spot, what difficulties would you have found? "None, certainly; to speak of difficulty when I was standing by the side of the Son of God would have been folly, or worse."

Did the Son of God suggest difficulty to the sinner when He sat on Jacob's well, by the side of the Samaritan? Was not all difficulty anticipated or put away by these wondrous words of Christ, 'thou woudst have asked, and I would have given?' "But is not my being sinful a barrier to my salvation?" Foolish question, which may be met by a foolish answer. Is your being thirsty a hindrance to your getting water or is being poor a hindrance to your obtaining riches as a gift from a friend? Ah yes, the Son of Man came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. If you be not wholly a sinner, there is a barrier; if you be wholly such, there is none!....

"But must I not quit some of my sins before I can expect blessing from Him?" No, indeed; He alone delivers you from so much as even one sin. If you be not wholly a sinner, you do not wholly need Christ. He does all, or nothing. A half salvation will only do for those who are not completely lost....

"How can I dare believe in the favor of God so long as there is in me no real conversion? I must be changed before He can receive me." That conversion or repetance which you desire can never take place so long as you regard God as a stern and unloving Judge. It is the goodness of God that leads the sinner to repentance. Nothing between him and God! Nothing between him and pardon! No preliminary goodness, or preperatory feeling! He learns the Apostle's lesson, "Christ died for the ungodly:" God "justifieth the ungodly."

"But mustn't the Holy Spirit make me acceptable first?" No, in no wise. You are not justified by the Spirit's work, but by Christ's; nor are the motions of the Spirit the grounds of your confidence, or the reason's for expecting pardon from the Judge of all. The Spirit works in you, not to prepare you for being justified, or to make you fit for the favor of God, but to ring you to the cross, just as you are. For the cross is the only place where God deals mercy with the transgressor.