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Joy!
("The Preciousness of Faith" by Octavius Winslow)
Christian, your joy will be in proportion to
the
directness and simplicity with which your faith
deals with Christ, looks to Christ, lives upon
the fullness of Christ, rests in His complete
salvation, and draws all its evidences and
hopes from Christ.
Nothing can kindle this holy joy in the heart
but a believing view of what the Lord Jesus
is, and what He has done.
It is only a sense of full pardon, of free
justification, of gracious adoption, of the
hope of glory, that can awaken joy in the
soul of a believing sinner.
What joy can there be in the heart of a convicted
felon, or of a condemned criminal, or of a convict
paying the sad penalty of his crime in lonely exile,
toil, and degradation? None whatever!
But convey to him a free pardon, unbar his prison,
break his manacles, and let him go free; restore
him to his country, his family, his home; and
bruised and broken though his heart is with a
sense of guilt and shame, yet you have awoken
in its sad chambers the sweetest chimes, and
joy, entrancing joy, thrills and swells in his bosom.
Such is a picture of a soul cleansed from the
guilt of sin, and freed from condemnation of
the law by a believing acceptance of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The moment that Christ is received
into the lowly, penitent, and believing heart;
the instant that Christ is seen paying the great
debt, suffering the penalty, enduring the
condemnation; a joy springs up in the soul
such as never thrilled an angel's heart!
You are freed from servitude, delivered
from hell and on your way to heaven to
spend your eternity forever with the Lord!
Christ's joy can only remain in you,
and your joy be full, when in childlike
faith you look directly, and only and
constantly to Christ.
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