“Dit is die wil van my Vader: dat elkeen wat die Seun sien en in Hom glo, die ewige lewe sal hê…” (40).
Die groot en bekende Engelse prediker en skrywer van meer as `n eeu gelede, C. H. Spurgeon, se preke tussen 1855 en 1917 is in 62 volumes saamgevat. Uitgegee deur Pilgrim Publications. Elke volume bevat een jaar se preke. Omdat ek so baie van die kansel af oor Spurgeon se preke gepraat het, het `n gemeente vir my `n aantal van sy preekbundels as `n geskenk gegee. Ek het self `n paar bygekoop, sodat ek nou sy volumes tot by nr.34 het. Ek probeer elke twee, drie dae een van sy preke lees. Verlede week lees ek “Seeking for Jesus” oor Johannes 6:24 in vol.16 (1870). Die vekondiging van die weg van saligheid het my weer getref en ek wil vir vandag se oordenking net enkele paragrawe aanhaal. Die hele preek is van blds. 469 – 480.
Ek gee Spurgeon se eie woorde. Ek kan dit nie vertaal reg weergee nie.Hy begin sy preek met die woorde: I shall apply the words before us to those who really and spiritually seek Jesus, seek him as Jesus – the Saviour who saves his people from their sins.” Hy probeer soekende mense oorhaal om te glo en Jesus te vertrou en so te weet hulle is gered. “I am glad that Jesus is the object of your search, for nothing else is worth seeking, for: salvation from sin and hell should be the first object of our soul’s desire.”
Hy maak `n verrassende, maar waar, opmerking, oor die soeke na Jesus vir redding: “The seeker after Christ remains disobedient to the great command of the gospel. If he were obedient to the great gospel precept, he would at once cease to be a seeker, and become a happy finder. What is the command of the gospel? ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.’ Christ is not an object for seeking, he is not far from any of us. He is not so much to be looked for as looked at. Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. A prayer will reach him, a wish will find him, a groan will pierce his heart – do but confide in him, and he is yours. The way for me as a sinner is simply this, that I, being a sinner, do now put my trust in Christ Jesus the subsitute for sinners. The way of salvation is that I accept him for what God had send him forth, namely, as the atonement for my sin, in which I place my sole reliance. I trust him, and I obtain thereby the blessed results of his sufferings – I am in fact thereby saved. Stand not by the fountain’s brim, but wash in it and be clean. Jesus is not to be discovered as a secret, he stands before thee openly. Behold his hands and his feet, mark well his riven side, and as thou lookest, trust, and henceforth he is all thine own. To believe in Jesus, as we say again, and again, and again, is simply to trust in Jesus, to take God at his word, to take Christ for what God says he is, namely, the atonement, the satisfaction for sin, the Saviour of sinners, and thank God – thou art saved.”
Die Heilige Gees wek uit hierdie versekeringe uit God se woord, geloof in ons harte en dan skenk Hy die nuwe lewe uit Jesus se opstanding in ons hart en bring in ons die versekering van saligheid. “…julle het die Gees ontvang wat julle tot kinders van God maak en wat ons tot God laat roep: ‘Abba!’ Dit beteken Vader. Hierdie Gees getuig saam met ons gees dat ons kinders van God is” (Rom.8:15,16).
“Here, vandag glo ek Jesus is my Redder en U is my Vader.”
