What does it mean to trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ?

The believer can add— And that "God says so." But how may I be sure that I have the right kind of faith? Well, there can be but one answer to that question, namely, Have you confidence in the right Person? — that is, in the blessed Son of God? It is not a question of the amount of your faith, but of the trustworthiness of the person you repose your confidence in. One man takes hold of Christ, as it were, with a drowning man's grip; another but touches the hem of His garment; but the sinner who does the former is not a bit safer than the one who does the latter. They have both made the same discovery, namely: that while all of self is totally untrustworthy, they may safely confide in Christ, calmly rely on His word and confidently rest in the eternal efficacy of His finished work. That is what is meant by believing in HIM. "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life" (John 6:47, emphasis supplied). Make sure of it then, my reader, that your confidence is not reposed in your works of amendment, your religious observances, your pious feeling when under religious influences, your moral training from childhood, and the like. You may have the strongest faith in any or all of these and perish everlastingly. Do not deceive yourself by any "fair show in the flesh". The feeblest faith in Christ eternally saves, while the strongest faith in aught beside is but the offspring of a deceived heart — but the leafy twigs of your enemy's arranging over the pitfall of eternal perdition. God, in the Gospel, simply introduces to you the Lord Jesus Christ, and says, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." You may, He says, with all confidence trust His heart, though you cannot with impunity trust your own. Blessed, thrice-blessed Lord Jesus, who would not trust Thee and praise Thy name!

Well, there can be but one answer to that question, i.e.: Have you confidence in the right person? — i.e. in the blessed Son of God? It is not a question of the amount of your faith but the trustworthiness of the person you repose your confidence in. One man takes hold of Christ, as it were, with a drowning man's grip; another but touches the hem of His garment; but the sinner who does the former is not a bit safer than the one who does the latter. They have both made the same discovery, viz.: that while all of self is totally untrustworthy, they may safely confide in Christ, calmly rely on His word, and confidently rest in the eternal efficacy of His finished work. That is what is meant by believing on HIM. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes on Me HAS everlasting life." (John 6:47).

But here lies the whole secret. There is all the difference between believing about a Person and believing on a Person. Christians believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They believe on Him “to the saving of the soul.” They know Him as a personal Saviour. They are cleansed by His blood. They confess Him as Lord. They are sealed by His Spirit. They are happy in His love.

What is this believing? Believing consists in two things; first there is an accrediting of the testimony of God concerning his Son. God tells you that his Son came into the world and was made flesh, that he lived upon earth for men's sake, that after having spent his life in holiness he was offered up a propitiation for sin, that upon the cross he there and then made expiation - so made expiation for the sins of the world that Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. If you would be saved, you must accredit this testimony which God gives concerning his own Son.

Having explained this much, it follows that the one important question for the soul is, Do I believe God's testimony concerning His Son, and concerning the work He has accomplished? If there is any difficulty in answering this question, then no further progress can at present be made. A very simple test, however, will help to elicit the truth. On what do you rest for acceptance before God? Is it on yourself, your own doings, or your own merits or deservings? If so, you cannot be resting on the work of Christ. But if you own that by nature you are hopelessly undone and lost, and confess that you have no hope apart from Christ and what He has done, then you can humbly say, "By the grace of God I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ."

This, then, is the answer to your question: if you want to be saved, you must believe on God's Son. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." Mark you! it is Christ, you must know. It is the Person of Christ who is the object of belief, the object of faith. Christ, personally, is the object of the soul's faith, and the one who believes in Him gets the benefit of all the work He has done. I do not agree at all with an old woman, in Arran, who said to a friend of mine, who was pressing the gospel on her, "You make far o'er muckle o' that word, believe, believe." That let out a great deal. You cannot make too much of believing. If Christ has not hitherto been the object of your faith, may God give you now to believe on His blessed Son, and you will get what the jailor got. "Thou shalt be saved," is God's assurance to the believing soul.

The moment you turn to Christ, the moment you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that moment you get salvation. The moment the sinner accepts Him, acknowledges Him, and confesses Him, that moment is salvation the present, and eternal portion of the believing one. You get what the jailor got. He got salvation; for, I find: "And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house" (vers. 33, 34). He was told to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I read he believed in God. Why was that? What he had heard led him to see that the blessed Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom he had been told, was really God; that the blessed One, who became Man, that He might die for his sins, and save him, was the eternal, blessed Son of God. Accepting that truth, and believing that truth, in the simplicity of a little child, he believed in God "with all his house." Mark that! Not only he himself, but all his house were marked for blessing. Paul had found his man, but he got a good many besides.

Discovering this, Dr. Johnson, with the humility of a little child, trusted the Saviour and received the assurance from Scripture of his salvation. He clearly recognised that his own so-called good works could not save him. Christ and Christ alone; His atoning death and that alone; faith and faith alone were the means of his blessing—Christ, the glorious Person; His death meeting all God’s claims and setting Him free to offer pardon, forgiveness, salvation, justification and eternal life; faith, the empty hand of expectancy which receives the blessing.

Have you known, dear reader, what it is to receive this great salvation? Have you entered in by the door? Do you know what it is to find yourself in God's presence, through the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ? A believer is one who has accepted Christ for his Saviour, who has entered in through the door. A person may know that Christ is the door, and yet have never entered in. This is the difference between knowledge and faith. Faith takes Christ simply at His word, and enters in. "By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." This is the testimony of Jesus. Is there any room for doubt or fear, when you know that you have entered in by Christ? Surely He delights to save. He casts out none that come to Him. Resting on His word, we have perfect peace; we find ourselves at rest in God's presence.

How simple is this! How striking! How much we learn from it! Throughout the vast mass of profession around us there are two classes, those who have received God's salvation in the accomplished work of Christ, and those who, rejecting Him, build upon the multiplied forms of false or defective religion with which Christendom abounds. God's way of salvation is simple, as simple as it is complete: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Rom. 10:9.) Christ is God's salvation, and, moreover, it is God's estimate of Christ that forms the basis of the believer's peace. It is very necessary to understand distinctly this latter point. There are many who suffer not a little by looking at their faith, instead of at the Object of faith; in fact, by unwittingly making a kind of saviour of their faith. Now faith is only the hand, as it were, that takes hold of the gift of God, just as the hand of a hungry man takes the proffered bread and conveys it to his mouth. If I have my eye off Christ, and begin to examine the amount of my faith, I must of necessity decline, for He is the only One on whom the sinner's eye can rest. Genuine faith never looks at itself, but only at Jesus. A faithful Israelite would not have thought of going out to look at the lintel of his door, nor yet of examining the amount of his faith. No; he simply rested in the fact put before him in those precious words, "When I see the blood, I will pass over." It was not said, When I see your girded loins, your shod feet, your unleavened bread, I will pass over. These things were most needful, yea, essential, but not to save from the sword of the destroyer. To meet this nothing could avail but the blood of the lamb.

Nor can we forbear at this time kindly asking the reader of these lines the same question, If death come, are you ready ? Do not say, Yes, unless your authority is founded wholly on the blood of Christ, and the word of God. Do not look at yourself, your feelings, your experience, good or bad, but look wholly to the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work in His death and blood-shedding on Calvary. Take your true place before God as a guilty, helpless sinner, justly exposed to His condemnation, and approach God by the blood of His Son, and you need not fear; for God delights to welcome, bless, save, and comfort those who thus honour the blood of Jesus Christ His Son. You cannot be saved by works, either wholly or in part, for scripture says, “By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” Happy those, who simply resting before God on the blood of Jesus, can truly say, “My hope is built on nothing less Than Christ my Lord and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus' name; On Christ, the solid rock, I stand, All other ground is sinking sand.”