Not Far Off
OUR Lord told a certain discreet and courteous lawyer that he was “not far from the kingdom of God.” Whether he ever entered into that kingdom and made his calling sure, we are not informed. But there are a great many like this lawyer, in all our congregations. They are not inside the ark, but they are not far away from its open door.
Every Sabbath these people are at the house of God; their constant attendance shames some irregular “fair weather” church-members. They listen attentively, putting themselves within close range of the arrows of truth. They listen approvingly, and sometimes say to their pastor “that sermon hit me last Sunday.” They put themselves voluntarily within a good atmosphere, where they are surrounded by the presence and the prayers of God’s people. I always have strong hopes of the conversion of any man or woman who will steadily place themselves right in front of a faithful sin-denouncing and Christ-preaching pulpit and keep their ears wide open to the truth.
Yet to all such we would like to say very kindly, you are in a very dangerous position. The Cross of the Crucified Jesus is in full view of your eyes, and his voice of love is constantly falling upon your conscience. Many have been converted close by you. The breeze of heavenly influence has seemed to fan you as it passed so very near to your yet unconverted heart. A single “Lord! I will follow thee,” would have landed you within the kingdom long ago. Your danger is that you will trust to the very nearness to the doorway, and will delay the attempt to enter until it is too late. To miss the door of heaven by an ell, will be your perdition.
When God locked the door of Noah’s ark, and shut the patriarch in, there may have been several of his neighbors within a bow-shot of the entrance. The bare thickness of that door made all the difference between being safe within, or drowning in the devouring deluge. Barely to miss heaven, will make hell more dreadful.
You tell me that your lives are moral. This is right and commendable. I honor you for it. It is better to be moral than immoral — better to be chaste, and honest, and reverent, and benevolent, than to be unclean, profane, knavish, and revengeful. It is better to believe God’s Word than to be a disbeliever. The fewer stains you have to be wiped away by God’s pardoning grace, and the fewer bad habits you have to give up, the better for you. The minister who makes light of your honest moral life, commits a rude blunder, and does shameful injustice to you, and to his own office. If your Divine Lord were on earth, and were to meet you, he might very probably say to you as he did to the polite Scribe, “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.” But he could not say “Thou art in the kingdom.” He could not say “Thou art my disciple.” Jesus never made an obedience to the last five Commandments of the Decalogue a ground of Christian discipleship or of salvation even to you, kind, amiable and honest as you are. He would assuredly say, “Except ye repent, except ye be converted, ye can not see the kingdom of God.” Faith that trusts on him alone for salvation, and not on your own respectable life, and the obedience that follows him, are the indispensable steps to salvation. You admit that you have not taken these decisive steps. Then, however near you are, you are not “in Christ.”
A man may be wrecked within a ship’s length of the light -house. Lot’s wife was not far from Zoar, yet she miserably perished. Near the summit of Mount Washington is a rude cairn of stones that marks the spot where a young lady who was overtaken by the darkness (without a guide), died of exposure and nervous fright! The poor girl was within pistol-shot of the cabin on the “tiptop”; its cheering light was just behind the rocks; jet that short distance cost her her life! So, my dear friend, y-ou may be, at last, picked up dead, just outside the gateway of your Father’s house. While its hospitable door of love stands open, hasten in! You are losing the very best part of this life, and the whole of the life to come, while you so recklessly linger away from Jesus. It will be a terrible thing to be lost — not far from Heaven!