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YOUR BIBLE AND YOU<br />
54<br />
G l o r i o u s S a v i o r<br />
“He heaved a deep sigh as he said, ‘Alas, I am not one of them, and never shall<br />
be, and I cannot enter there.’<br />
“By and by there came another band equally lovely in appearance and equally<br />
triumphant, robed in white. They passed within the portals, and again the<br />
shouts of welcome were heard.<br />
“ ‘Who are they’ he asked.<br />
“ ‘They are the goodly fellowship of the apostles’ was the reply.<br />
“ ‘Alas,’ he said, ‘I do not belong to that fellowship either.’<br />
“Still he lingered in the hope that he might yet go in; but the next multitude<br />
was the noble army of martyrs, and he could not go in with them nor wave<br />
their palm branches.<br />
“At last he saw a larger host than all the rest put together marching and singing<br />
melodiously. In front walked the woman who was a sinner and the thief<br />
who died on the cross. As he looked he saw there Manasseh, and many like<br />
him, and as they passed nearer to enter the gate he could see clearly who<br />
they were and he thought, There will be no shouting about them.<br />
“But to his astonishment it seemed as if all heaven was rent with sevenfold<br />
shouts as they passed in. And the angel said to him, ‘These are they that were<br />
mighty sinners, saved by mighty grace.’<br />
“ ‘Blessed be God,’ he cried. ‘I can go in with them.’ ”<br />
So can you! So can I! So can anybody who is willing to accept God’s gracious<br />
offer of salvation through Jesus.<br />
And there’s nothing to pay for it. It is absolutely free. This greatest gift of<br />
Heaven comes to you “without money and without price.”<br />
Thank God we are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that<br />
is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). We are “accepted in the beloved. In whom we<br />
have redemption through his blood, the f<strong>org</strong>iveness of sins, according to the<br />
riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:6, 7).<br />
Says Paul again, “God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved<br />
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ…<br />
: that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his<br />
kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith;<br />
and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:4-8).<br />
Those who think they must do something to win God’s favor and bring His
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