The Heart of the Gospel {For God So Loved the World} by A. T. Pierson


Phila	delphia > The Heart of the Gospel {For God So Loved the World} by A. T. Pierson

IV. Now we come to the fourth pair of words, believe and have. You will see how important these words are. If God so loved that He gave, what is necessary on the part of man? Only this, that he should take and have. That is very plain. If God loved you and the whole world, and gave you all that he had to give, all that remains for anybody to do is so to appreciate the love of God as to take the gift that God bestows, and so to have the gift that he takes. Believing is receiving. John, at the beginning of this Gospel, tells us in what sense he is going to use the word believe. That word occurs forty-four times in the Gospel according to John, which is the great Gospel of "believing." You do not find the word repent in it once, but it is constantly repeating believing, believing, believing, and having life. In the twelfth and thirteenth verses of the first chapter, we read: "To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." [John 1:12] "To as many as received... even to them that believe." That little word "even" indicates that to believe is equivalent to receive. You may, in any one of those forty-four instances in this Gospel, put the word "receive" in the place of the word "believe," and still make good sense. For example: "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever" received Him might "have Everlasting Life."

You have what you take, do you not? It is a very simple thing to take what is given to you, and so to have it. That is, practically, all there is in faith. We may make faith obscure by talking too much about it, leading others to infer that there is in it some obscurity or mystery. Faith is very simple: it is taking the eternal life that is offered to you in Christ. If you can put forth your hand and receive a gift, you are able to put forth your will and receive the gift of God, even Jesus Christ, as your Savior.

I heard of an old lady, who was starting on a railway journey from an American station, out of which many trains move, although in different directions. Not having traveled much on the rail cars, she got confused. The old lady I speak of was going up to Bay City, Michigan, and she was afraid that she was, perhaps, on the wrong train. She reached over, and showed her ticket to somebody in the seat immediately in front of her, and said, "I want to go to Bay City. Is this the right train ?" "Yes madam." Still, she was not quite at ease, for she thought that perhaps this fellow-passenger might have got into the wrong train too; so she stepped across the aisle of the car, and showed her ticket to another person, and was again told, "Yes, madam, this is the right train." But still the old lady was a little uncertain. In a few moments in came the conductor, or, as you call him, the guard; and she saw on his cap the conductors ribbon, and she beckoned to him, and said, "I want to go to Bay City; is this the right train?" "Yes, madam, this is the right train." And now she settled back in her seat, and was asleep before the train moved. That illustrates the simplicity of taking God at His word. She did nothing but just receive the testimony of that conductor. That is all; but that is faith. The Lord Jesus Christ says to you, "I love you; I died for you. Do you believe? Will you receive the Salvation that I bought for you with My own blood?" You need do no work; not even so much as to get up and turn around. You need not go and ask your fellowman across the church aisle, there, whether he has believed, and received, and been saved. All that you need to do is with all your heart to say, "Dear Lord, I do take this Salvation that Thou hast bought for me, and brought to me." Simple, is it not? Yes, very simple: yet such receiving it is the soul of faith.

And what is assurance but consciously having what you take? Somebody comes and offers me, tonight, some freewill offering. It costs me nothing. All that I have to do is to take what is given to me, and have it for my own. Faith is the taking, and the assurance is the conscious having; and that is all that I know about it.