Christ as the Soul's Trustee

“TTTHEN” Dr. James W. Alexander was about breathing his last, a friend by his bedside repeated the words “I know in whom I have believed.” The dying man, with that scholarly accuracy that always distinguished said: “No; it is ‘I know whom I have believed.’” The original Greek of this glorious passage is even stronger than our translation. A good rendering of it would be: “I know whom I have trusted, and am persuaded that he is able to keep the trust which I have committed to him unto that day.”

In these days it is a painfully perplexing question: “Whom can I trust?” So many investments which were thought to be perfectly safe have turned out to be well nigh worthless, so many “securities” have proved insecure, and so many men regarded as incorruptibly honest have snapped like pipe-’ clay, under the strain, that confidence in almost every body and every thing is sorely shaken. For the ultimate reliance in every bank, life insurance company, or other corporation is on personal integrity. The only assets that can make any of them reliable are capacity and conscience. Ability and honesty are the only two sureties that can make assurance sure in every thing that appertains to pecuniary or political trusts.

While hearts are aching with disappointments over losses and shattered confidences, it gives me great joy to point to one Trustee who has never broken his word, never defaulted in his promises, never lost what was committed to his keeping. An old captive in Nero’s prison felt a glow of ecstacy that warmed his aged fingers when he wrote to his son Timothy: “I know whom I have trusted.” He knew still more. He knew that a day of martyrdom was just at hand, and beyond that a day of judgment. For both days, severe and searching as they would be, the old hero was ready.

He had put his soul in trust with his Saviour, and felt no more uneasiness than he did about the rising of the morrow’s sun. The same assurance that Paul had you and I may have. Let me give a few good reasons for making Jesus Christ the trustee of our souls.

I. Every one of us has an undying soul, of infinite value. That soul is by nature guilty, and the wages of actual sin is death. It is idle for the sinner to talk about being condemned in the world to come. God’s Book declares that he is “condemned already.” On the back of this declaration comes another one, that no sinner can save his own soul. “Neither is there salvation in any other” than in Christ Jesus. Now, then, since you and I are actually condemned for our actual sins, and since it is impossible to deliver ourselves from the guilt and doom of these sins, the most vital question to us in the universe is: “Who can save us?” To answer that question is the chief purpose of that book which is called Gospel or “good tidings.” Since I can not save myself, whom shall I trust to save me?

The Son of God answers this question of questions by saying: Trust me! Two things I need to know, and two only. Is he able? and is he willing? The answer to the first one is that he is divine, and that means that he is omnipotent. He declares that he is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto him, and that none who do come shall in no wise be cast out. In fact, he sums up the whole matter in this one golden sentence: “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hands.7’ When he speaks of “them,” he refers to those who trust him and follow him.

So much for what Christ says. Now what has he done? He has actually laid down his life as a ransom for you and me. He has borne our sins in his own body on the cross. He has made an atonement for our sins, so that God may be just, and yet may pardon our sins for Chrises sake. If the Bible teaches any thing, it teaches all this. Christ’s atonement satisfies the holy God you and I have sinned against. He tells us so. That is enough. You and I have nothing to do but take him at his word. If you and I accept literally this declaration of God, and if we honestly entrust our souls to the atoning Saviour, and then are lost forever, it will clearly be no fault of ours. We have a right to hold the Lord Jesus responsible for our everlasting welfare. No responsibility that I can exact from the Cunard Steamship Company for a safe passage to Europe can compare with the responsibility laid upon the Son of God for the salvation of my soul. Their powers are limited; but his power is unlimited. He promises to “keep that which I entrust to him “; and if I do just what he bids me, then the whole question of my salvation or of my utter perdition rests entirely on the atoning Son of God. I can not more literally entrust a valuable package to an express company, and expect them to deliver it at its destination, than I entrust my immortal soul to the keeping of Jesus Christ, with the expectation of finding it safe “at that great day.”

II. But I expect other things from Jesus, if I make him my trustee, besides my final salvation from the woes of hell. I expect present protection and help. He says that he is “able to keep me from falling.” The pathway of daily life has many slippery places. Hundreds are falling, to their own wounding and to their shame. But I never yet have heard of a good man having fallen when he was trying to do Christ’s will and trusting on Christ’s help. Every fall, without one exception, came from venturing upon sinful ground or from venturing upon self-support. The moment that Peter trusted Peter, he sunk; the moment that he trusted Christ, he found the waters like granite under his feet. When a genuine Christian sins, he finds forgiveness. That is what is meant by being “preserved blameless.” When he reaches

Heaven, he will sin no longer, and then he will be “presented faultless:1 Christ’s blood washes away the blame here. In Heaven he shall walk in white, for into that pure atmosphere shall enter nothing that defileth.

The limits of this brief article do not allow me to recount all the priceless blessings which flow from trusting Jesus. If you make him your trustee, you can roll burdens over on him when they become too heavy for you. Not your work; for that you alone can perform. But the issue of it you can leave to him. I am responsible for the discourses I preach and the life I live; but not for the conversion of a single soul. That is Christ’s office, not mine. He is the trustee of every Christian’s labors. If our Brother Moody enters cultured and fastidious Boston with this firm conviction, he can “laugh at the shaking of the spear” of boastful infidelity.

What a delightful peace this complete trust in Jesus brings! There are many anxieties that make us “He awake” in this world of perils and disasters. “To-morrow morning I will go and draw that deposit out of the bank,” says the wakeful merchant, whose suspicions have been aroused as to its safety. But the true believer can lie down and sleep serenely. His deposit for eternity is secure. There is no torture more intense than distrust. The wife who doubts the love of him to whom she has plighted her all, the mother who fears that the son of her bosom is deceiving her, feel the pangs of a purgatory every hour. Half of the sorrows which the professed Christian feels arise from his wanton, wicked distrust of Christ. When I trust a faithless fellow-creature, it is his fault if I am deceived. But when I suffer from foolish uneasiness about what I have committed to Jesus, the fault is all my own.

While writing these lines a young friend has come into my room to seek counsel in regard to her soul. I addressed to her this one decisive question: “Do you honestly desire and strive to avoid sin, and are you willing to do what Christ commands you?” She modestly answered: “Yes.77” Can you trust

Jesus as an atoning Saviour with your soul? “To this she firmly responded: “I can.” Then I said to her: “Your loving Master’s voice is to you, Daughter, go in peace. Thy faith hath made thee whole.” She went home lightened. She seemed to know whom she was trusting, and that he would keep the precious, immortal trust until the great day.