God's Chain of Gold
by F. Neil Pohorlak

So we see how securely fastened to God we are. Our salvation from start to finish is with Him and He cannot fail in one word of promise since "God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?"

This is echoed by Paul, who writes, "What, then, shall we assert to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" What is there that can take precedence over the sublime consciousness of a place in God's heart: If He is for us, even those who would be against us, work our weal. No one can be against us. He goes on and gives the reason. "Surely He who spares not His own Son, but gives Him up for us all, how shall He not, together with Him also, be graciously granting us all?"

God's best gift was His only Son Whom He did not spare. Nothing else can compare with Him. Therefore, if God gave His best, think you that He will withhold any good thing from those who have accepted Him Who is the beloved of the Father? To ask the question is to answer it, since the greater includes the less. We can challenge the universe to find a single thing against us for "Who will be indicting God's chosen one? God is the Justifier. Who is the condemner?" Surely it cannot be "Christ Jesus, the One dying, yet rather being roused, Who is also at God's right hand, Who is pleading for our sakes!" Whatever we may be in ourselves, in Him God has justified us. As we allow these words to be apprehended and meditated upon by our spirit, in all our weaknesses and failures, we are still commanded to look forward to the day of judgment with boldness, "For as He is, so are we, in this world."

All judgment has been committed to the Son, the very One Who died for us, and even now, at this very moment, is at the right hand of the Father, pleading for our sakes. Do you know what His plea is? That we are guiltless, spotless, righteous, blameless. Therefore no charge that can even imply guilt in us can stand before Him. God Who is the Judge of all pronounced the verdict in our case: "Not Guilty." Christ Who alone has the right to condemn is our Saviour. Since there is no higher tribunal than His, we need never fear that the Adversary will contest the verdict in another and have the decision of the Supreme Court of the Universe reversed.

Oh how we should praise Him for His wisdom in providing for our failures and mistakes! So Paul naturally asks "What shall be separating us from the love of God in Christ Jesus? Affliction, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?...Nay! In all these we are more than conquering through Him Who loves us." The love of God never lets us go for when "Jesus being aware that His hour came that He may be proceeding out of this world to the Father, loving His own who are in the world, He loves them to the consummation."

What an unlovely group to love!--doubting Thomas, cursing Peter, betraying Judas, thundering James and John, and the rest-- disciples who would shortly forsake Him and flee. Such is His love. The trials and tribulations we are called upon to face and endure are not to be looked upon as though they were an evidence of His displeasure. They are tempered by a loving heart. A deep abiding trust and consciousness of His watchcare over us in the midst of our distresses will enable us not only to endure but to enjoy them.

Paul knows the sweet taste of victory that God can press out of seeming adversities and give His saints to drink in the midst of their sorrows for he says "I take pleasure in my infirmities." Only the grace of God can find and take pleasure in the trials of God. "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor messengers, nor sovereignties, nor the present, nor the future, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Here all the forces of the universe are marshalled and paraded by God: they loom on the horizon, assume gigantic proportions as they draw near. Then as they fade away into the distance, a deep peace falls on our spirits as we realize that not one, nor all of them combined, can come between us and the unconquerable love of our God as displayed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Life may at times lead us far from Him but never beyond the circle of His love. The things that we are called upon to face today perplex us, that which is in the future fill us with fear, but only when we take our eyes from Him Who is the Inaugurator and Perfecter of faith. Everything in the universe is subject to Him. Nothing above or beneath, nothing at all, has the power to break the bond that fastens the humblest and most unworthy saint to His great throbbing heart.

This is more than salvation from sin. This is re- conciliation. This is peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. God's promise is that He will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him. The adversary is subtle, and knowing this, wants you to be looking away from Him to yourself.

The Slanderer wants you to think of how unworthy you are, for, in thinking of how unworthy you are, you cannot be thinking of how worthy He Is!

"It fortifies my soul to know
That though I perish, Truth is so;
That howsoe'er I stray and range,
Whate'er I do, Thou dost not change.
I steadier step when I recall
That if I slip, Thou dost not fall".
                             --A. H. Clough.