Justice Satisfied
By C.H. SPURGEON
"Just, and the justifier of him which believeth in
Jesus."—Romans 3:26.
"Just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness."—1 John 1:9.
WHEN THE SOUL is seriously impressed with the conviction of its guilt, when
terror and alarm get hold upon it concerning the inevitable consequences of its
sin, the soul is afraid of God. It dreads at that time every attribute of
divinity. But most of all the sinner is afraid of God’s justice.
"Ah," saith he to himself, "God is a just God; and if so, how
can he pardon my sins? for my iniquities cry aloud for punishment, and my
transgressions demand that his right hand should smite me low. How can I be
saved? Were God unjust, he might forgive: but, alas! he is not so, he is
severely just. ‘He layeth justice to the line, and righteousness to the
plummet.’ He is the judge of all the earth, and he must do right. How then can
I escape from his righteous wrath which must be stirred up against me?"
Let us be assured that the sinner is quite right in the conviction that there
is here a great difficulty. The justice of God is in itself a great barrier to
the salvation of sinners. There is no possibility for that barrier to be
surmounted, nor even for it to be removed except by one means, which shall this
day be proclaimed unto you through the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. It is
true that God is just. Let old Sodom tell you how God rained fire and brimstone
out of heaven upon man’s iniquity. Let a drowning world tell you how God lifted
the sluices of the fountains of the great deep, and bade the bubbling waters
spring up and swallow up man alive. Let the earth tell you; for she opened her
mouth when Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rebelled against God. Let the buried
cities of Nineveh, and the tattered relics of Tyre and Sidon, tell you that God
is just, and will by no means spare the guilty. And direst of all, let hell’s
bottomless lake declare what is the awful vengeance of God against the sins of
man. Let the sighs, and groans, and moans, and shrieks of spirits condemned of
God, rise in your ears, and bear witness that he is a God who will not spare
the guilty, who will not wink at iniquity, transgression, and sin, but who will
have vengeance upon every rebel, and will give justice its full satisfaction
for every offence.
The sinner is right in his conviction that God is just, and he is moreover
right in the inference which follows from it, that because God is just his sin
must be punished. Ah, sinner, if God punish not thy sin, he has ceased to be
what he has always been—the severely just, the inflexibly righteous.
Never has there been a sin pardoned, absolutely and without atonement, since
the world began. There has never been an offense yet remitted by the great
Judge of heaven, until the law has received the fullest vindication. You are
right, O convicted sinner, that such shall be the case even to the end.
Every transgression shall have its just recompense of reward. For every
offence there shall be its stroke, and for every iniquity there shall be its doom.
"Ah," now says the sinner, "then I am shut out of heaven. If God
be just and he must punish sin, then what can I do? Justice, like some dark
angel, strides across the road of mercy, and with his sword drawn, athirst for
blood and winged to slay, he strides across my path, and threatens to drive me
backwards over the precipice of death into the ever-burning lake." Sinner,
thou art right; it is even so. Except through the gospel which I am about to
preach to thee, justice is thine antagonist, thy lawful, irresistible, and
insatiable enemy. It cannot suffer thee to enter heaven, for thou hast sinned;
and punished that sin must be, avenged that transgression must be, as long as
God is God—the holy and the just.
Is it possible, then, that the sinner cannot be saved? This is the great
riddle of the law, and the grand discovery of the gospel. Wonder ye heavens! be
astonished O earth! that very justice which stood in the sinner’s way and
prevented his being pardoned, has been by the gospel of Christ appeased; by the
rich atonement offered upon Calvary, justice is satisfied, has sheathed its
sword, and has now not a word to say against the pardon of the penitent. Nay,
more, that justice once so angry, whose brow was lightning, and whose voice was
thunder, has now become the sinner’s advocate, and itself with its mighty voice
pleads with God, that whosoever confesses his sin should be pardoned and be
cleansed from all unrighteousness.
The business of this morning shall be to show, in the first place, according
to the first text, how justice is no longer the sinner’s enemy—"God is
just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth;" and then, in the
second place, that justice has become the sinner’s advocate, and that "God
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness."
But here let me utter a caution; I shall speak this morning, only to those who
feel their guilt, and who are ready to confess their sin. For to those who
still love sin, and will not acknowledge their guilt, there is no promise of
mercy or pardon. For them there remains nothing but the fearful looking for of
judgment. "He that being often reproved hardeneth his heart shall suddenly
be destroyed, and that without remedy." The soul that neglects this great
salvation cannot escape; there is no door of escape provided for it.
Unless the Lord has now brought us to feel our need of mercy, has compelled us
to confess that unless he gives us mercy we must righteously perish, and unless,
moreover, he has made us willing now to be saved on any terms, so that we may
be saved at all, this gospel which I am about to preach is not ours. But if we
be convinced of sin and are now trembling before the thunders of God’s wrath,
every word that I am now about to speak will be full of encouragement and
consolation to you.
I. First, then, HOW HAS JUSTICE BEEN PUT
ASIDE? or rather, HOW HAS IT BEEN SO SATISFIED THAT IT NO LONGER STANDS IN THE
WAY OF GOD’S JUSTIFYING THE SINNER?
The one answer to that is, Justice has been satisfied through the
substitution of our blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. When man sinned the
law demanded that man must be punished. The first offense of man was committed
by Adam, who was the representative of the entire race. When God would
punish sin, in his own infinite mind he thought of the blessed expedient, not
of punishing his people, but of punishing their representative, the covenant
head, the second Adam. It was by one man, the first man, that sin entered into
the world, and death by sin. It was by another man, the second Adam, who is the
Lord from heaven, it was by him that this sin was borne; by him its punishment
was endured; by him the whole wrath of heaven was suffered. And through
that second representative of manhood, Jesus, the second Adam, God is now able
and willing to forgive the vilest of tile vile, and justify even the ungodly,
and he is able to do so without the slightest violation of his justice. For,
mark, when Jesus Christ the Son of God suffered on the tree, he did not suffer
for himself. He had no sin, either natural or actual. He had done nothing
whatever that could bring him under the ban of heaven, or subject his holy soul
and his perfect body to grief and pain. When he suffered it was as a
substitute. He died—"the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to
God." Had his sorrows been personally deserved they would have had no
efficacy in them. But inasmuch as for sins not his own he died to atone;
inasmuch as he was punished, not for any guilt that he had done or could do,
but for the guilt incurred by others, there was a merit and an efficacy in all
that he suffered, by which the law was satisfied, and God is able to forgive.
Let us show very briefly how fully the law is satisfied.
1. Note first the dignity of the victim who offered himself up to
divine justice. Man had sinned; the law required the punishment of manhood. But
Jesus, the eternal Son of God, "very God of very God," who had been
hymned through eternal ages by joyous angels, who had been the favourite of his
Father’s court, exalted high above principalities and powers, and every name
that is named, he himself condescended to become man; was born of the Virgin
Mary; was cradled in a manger; lived a life of suffering, and at last died a
death of agony. If you will but think of the wondrous person whom Jesus was—as
very God of very God, king of angels, creator, preserver, Lord of all—I think
you will see that in his sufferings, the law received a greater vindication
than it could have done even in the sufferings of all the men that have ever
lived or ever could live. If God had consumed the whole human race, if all the
worlds that float in ether had been sacrificed as one mighty holocaust to the
vengeance of the law, it would not have been so well vindicated as when Jesus
died. For the deaths of all men and all angels would have been but the deaths
and sufferings of creatures; but when Jesus died, the Creator himself underwent
the pang, it was the divine preserver of the world hanging on the cross.
There is such dignity in the Godhead, that all it does is marvellous and
infinite in its merit; and when he stooped to suffer, when he bowed his awful
head, cast aside his diadem of stars to have his brow girt about with thorns; when
his hands that once swayed the sceptre of all worlds were nailed to the tree;
when his feet that erst had pressed the clouds, when these were fastened to the
wood, then did the law receive an honour such as it never could have received
if a whole universe in one devouring conflagration had blazed and burned for
ever.
2. In the next place, just pause and think of the relationship which
Jesus Christ had towards the great judge of all the earth, and then you will
see again that the law must have been fully satisfied thereby. We hear of
Brutus that he was the most inflexible of law-givers; that when he sat upon the
bench he knew no distinction of persons. Imagine dragged before Brutus many of
the noblest Roman senators, convicted of crime: he condemns them, and without
mercy they are rent away by the lictors to their doom. You would admire
certainly all this justice of Brutus But suppose Brutus’ own son brought before
him—and such was the case—imagine the father sitting on the judgment-bench and
declaring that he knew no distinction whatever, even of his own children.
Conceive that son tried and condemned out of his father’s own mouth. See him
tied up before his father’s own eyes, while, as the inflexible judge, that
father bids the lictor lay on the rod, and afterwards cries, "Take him
away and use the axe!" See you not here how he loves his country better
than his son, and he loves justice better than either. "Now,"
says the world, "Brutus is just indeed." Now, if God had condemned
each of us one by one, or the whole race in a mass, there would certainly have
been a vindication of his justice. But lo! his own son takes upon him the sins
of the world, and he comes before his Father’s presence. He is not guilty in
himself, but the sins of man are laid upon his shoulders. The Father condemns
his Son; he gives him up to the Roman rod; he gives him up to Jewish mockery,
to military scorn, and to priestly arrogance. He delivers up his Son to the
executioner, and bids him nail him to the tree; and as if that were not enough,
since the creature had not power of itself to give forth all the vengeance of
God upon its own substitute, God himself smites his Son. Are you staggered at
such an expression? It is scriptural. Read in the fifty-third chapter of
Isaiah, and there you have the proof thereof:—"It pleased the Lord to
bruise him: he hath put him to grief." When the whip had gone round to
every hand, when the betrayer had smitten him, when Pilate and Herod, and Jew
and Gentile, had each laid on the stroke, it was seen that human arm was not
powerful enough to execute the full vengeance: then did the Father take his
sword, and cry, "Awake! O sword, against my shepherd, against the man that
is my fellow," and he smote him sternly, as if he had been his enemy, as
if he were a common culprit, as if he were the worst of criminals—he smote him
again and again, till that awful shriek was forced from the lips of the dying
substitute, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani,"—my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? Surely, when God smites his Son, and such a Son, when God
smites his only begotten and well-beloved, then Justice has more than its due,
more than itself could ask, Christ himself did freely give!
3. Furthermore, if you will please for a moment to consider how
terrible were the agonies of Christ, which, mark you, he endured in the room,
the place, the stead of all poor penitent sinners, of all those who confess
their sins and believe in him; I say, when you mark these agonies, you will
readily see why Justice does not stand in the sinner’s way. Doth Justice
come to thee this morning, and say, "Sinner, thou hast sinned, I will
punish thee?" Answer thus—"Justice, thou hast punished all my sins.
All I ought to have suffered has been suffered by my substitute, Jesus. It is
true that in myself I owe thee a debt greater than I can pay, but it is true
that in Christ I owe thee nothing; for all I did owe is paid, every farthing of
it; the utmost drachm has been counted down; not a doit remains that is due
from me to thee, O thou avenging justice of God." But if Justice still
accuse, and conscience clamour, go thou and take Justice with thee to
Gethsemane, and stand there with it:—see that man so oppressed with grief, that
all his head, his hair, his garments bloody be. Sin was a press—a vice which
forced his blood from every vein, and wrapped him in a sheet of his own blood.
Dost see that man there! canst hear his groans, his cries, his earnest
intercessions, his strong crying and tears! canst mark that clotted sweat
as it crimsons the frozen soil, strong enough to unloose the curse! dost see
him in the desperate agony of his spirit, crushed, broken, bruised beneath the
feet of the Justice in the olive press of God! Justice, is not that
enough? will not that content thee? In a whole hell there is not so much
dignity of vengeance as there is in the garden of Gethsemane. Art thou not yet
satisfied? Come, Justice, to the hall of Pilate. Seest thou that man
arraigned, accused, charged with sedition and with blasphemy! See him taken to
the guard-room, spat upon, buffetted with hands, crowned with thorns, robed in
mockery, and insulted with a reed for a sceptre. I say, Justice, seest thou
that man, and dost thou know that he is "God over all blessed for
ever?" and yet he endureth all this to satisfy thy demands! Art thou not
content with that? Dost thou still frown? Let me show thee this man on the
pavement. He is stripped. Stand, Justice, and listen to those stripes, those
bloody scourges, and as they fall upon his devoted back and plough deep furrows
there, dost thou see thong-full after thong-full of his quivering flesh torn
from his poor bare back! Art not content yet, Justice? Then what will satisfy
thee? "Nothing," says Justice, "but his death." Come thou
with me, then thou canst see that feeble man hurried through the streets! Seest
thou him driven to the top of Calvary, hurled on his back, nailed to the
transverse wood? Oh, Justice, canst thou see his dislocated bones, now
that his cross is lifted up? Stand with me, O Justice, see him as he weeps, and
sighs, and cries; see his soul-agonies! Canst thou read that tale of terror
which is veiled in that flesh and blood? Come, listen Justice, whilst
thou hearest him cry, "I thirst," and whilst thou seest the burning
fever devouring him, till he is dried up like a potsherd, and his tongue
cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst! And lastly, O Justice, dost thou
see him bow his head, and die? "Yes," saith Justice, "and I am
satisfied; I have nothing that I can ask more; I am fully content; my uttermost
demands are more than satisfied."
And am I not content, too? Guilty though I am and vile,
can I not plead that this bloody sacrifice is enough to satisfy
God’s demands against me? Oh, yes, I trust I can,
"My faith doth lay its hand, On that dear head of thine, While like a
penitent I stand, And here confess my sin."
Jesus, I believe that they sufferings were for me; and I believe that they
are more than enough to satisfy for all my sins. By faith I cast myself at the
foot of thy cross and cling to it. This is my only hope, my shelter, and my
shield. It cannot be, that God can smite me now. Justice itself prevents, for
when Justice once is satisfied it were injustice if it should ask for more.
Now, is it not clear enough to the eye of every one, whose soul has been
aroused, that Justice stands no longer in the way of the sinner’s pardon? God
can be just, and yet the justifier. He has punished Christ, why should he
punish twice for one offence? Christ has died for all his people’s sins, and if
thou art in the covenant, thou art one of Christ’s people. Damned thou canst
not be. Suffer for thy sins thou canst not. Until God can be unjust, and demand
two payments for one debt, he cannot destroy the soul for whom Jesus died.
"Away goes universal redemption," says one. Yes, away it goes,
indeed. I am sure there is nothing about that in the Word of God. A redemption
that does not redeem is not worth my preaching, or your hearing, Christ
redeemed every soul that is saved; no more, and no less. Every spirit that
shall be seen in heaven Christ bought. If he had redeemed those in hell, they
never could have come there. He has bought his people with his blood, and they
alone shall he bring with him. "But who are they?" says one.
Thou art one, if thou believest. Thou art one if thou repentest of thy sin. If
thou wilt now take Christ to be thy all in all, then thou art one of his; for
the covenant must prove a lie, and God must be unjust, and justice must become
unrighteousness, and love must become cruelty, and the cross must become a
fiction, ere thou canst be condemned if thou trustest in Jesus.
This is the way in which Justice ceases to be the enemy of souls.
II. The second text says that not only can God be just, but it says
something more: it says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Now,
if I understand this text, it means this: that IT IS AN ACT OF JUSTICE ON GOD’S
PART TO FORGIVE THE SINNER WHO MAKES A CONFESSION OF HIS SIN TO GOD. Mark! not
that the sinner deserves forgiveness: that can never be. Sin can never merit
anything but punishment, and repentance is no atonement for sin. Not that God
is bound from any necessity of his nature to forgive every one that repents,
because repentance has not in itself sufficient efficacy and power to merit
forgiveness at the hand of God. Yet, nevertheless, it is a truth that, because
God is just, he must forgive every sinner who confesses his sin. And if he did
not—and mark, it is a bold thing to say, but it is warranted by the text—if a
sinner should be led truly and solemnly to make confession of his sins and cast
himself on Christ, if God did not forgive him, then he were not the God that he
is represented to be in the Word of God: he were a God unjust, and that may God
forbid, such a thing must not, cannot be. But how, then, is it that Justice
itself actually demands that every soul that repents should be pardoned? It is
so. The same Justice that just now stood with a fiery sword in his hand, like
the cherubim of old keeping the way of the tree of life, now goes hand in hand
with the sinner. "Sinner," he says, "I will go with thee. When
thou goest to plead for pardon I will go and plead for thee. Once I spoke
against thee: but now I am so satisfied with what Christ has done, that I will
go with thee and plead for thee. I will change my language I will not say a
word to oppose thy pardon, but I will go with thee and demand it. It is but an
act of justice that God should now forgive." And the sinner goes up with
Justice, and what has Justice got to say? Why, it says this: "God must
forgive the repenting sinner, if he be just, according to his promise." A
God who could break his promise were unjust. We do not believe in men who tell
us lies. I have known some of so gentle a disposition, that they could never
say "No;" if they were asked to do a thing they have said,
"Yes." But they have never earned a character for it, when they have
said "Yes," and afterwards did not fulfil. It is not so with God. He
is no tender-hearted being who promises more than he can perform, and no
forgetful one who promises what afterwards shall slip from his memory. Every
word which God utters shall be fulfilled, whether it be decree, threatening, or
promise. Sinner! go to God with a promise in your hand.—"Lord thou hast
said, ‘He that confesseth his sin, and forsaketh it, shall find mercy.’ I
confess my sin, and I forsake it: Lord, give me mercy!" Don’t doubt but
that God will give it you. You have his own pledge in your hand; you have his
own bond in your keeping. Take that pledge and that bond before his throne of
mercy, and that bond never shall be cancelled till it has been honoured. You
shall see that promise fulfilled to the uttermost letter, though your sin be never
so black. Suppose the promise you take should be this. "Him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out." "But," says the Law, "thou
art one of the greatest sinners that ever lived." "Ay, but the
promise says, ‘Him that cometh,’ and I come, and I claim the fulfillment of
it." "No, but thou hast been a blasphemer." "I know it, but
the promise says, ‘Him that cometh,’ and I come, and blasphemer though I am, I
claim the promise." "But thou hast been a thief, thou hast deceived
thy neighbour, and thou hast robbed men." "I have, but the promise
says, ‘Him that cometh to me I will in no wise case out;’ I come, and I claim
the promise. It does not say anything at all about character in the promise: it
says, ‘Him that cometh,’ and I come, and if I be black as the devil,
nevertheless God is true, and I claim the promise. I confess all that can be
said against me. Will God be untrue, and send a seeking soul away with a
promise unfulfilled? Never!" "But," says one, "you have
lived many years in this way; your conscience has often checked you, and you
have resisted conscience often: it is too late now." "But I have the
promise, ‘Him that cometh,’—there is no time stipulated in it—‘Him that
cometh;’ I come, and O God, thou canst not break the promise!" Challenge
God by faith, and you will see that he will be as good as his word to you.
Though you are worse than words can tell, God, I repeat it, as long as he is
just, must honour his own promise. Go and confess your sin, trust in Christ,
and you shall find pardon.
But, again, not only did God make the promise, but according to the text man
has been induced to act upon it; and, therefore, this becomes a double bond
upon the justice of God. Suppose you made a promise to any man, that if such a
thing was done, you would do something else, and suppose that man were to do
something quite contrary to his own nature, quite abhorent to himself; but he
did it nevertheless, because he expected to get great blessings thereby, do you
mean to say you would tempt a man to do that, and put him to vast expense, and
care and trouble, and then turn round and say? "There I shall have nothing
to do with that promise: I only promised to make you do so-and-so, now, I will
not fulfil my engagement." Why the man would turn about and call you base
to make a promise to lead him to do something and then not fulfil your
promise. Now, God has said, "If we confess our sins and trust in
Christ, we shall have mercy." You have done it; you have made the most
abject and sincere confession, and you do declare that you have no trust but
the blood and righteousness of Christ. Now, on the faith of the promise you
have been led into this state. Do you imagine when God has brought you through
much pain and agony of mind to repent of sin, to give up self-righteousness,
and rely on Christ, he will afterwards turn round and tell you he did not mean
what he said? It cannot be—it cannot be. Suppose, now you were about to engage
a man to be your servant, and you say to him, renounce such a situation, give
that up; come and take a house in the neighbourhood where I live, and I will
take you to be my servant." Suppose he does it, and you then say, "I
am glad for your own sake that you have left your master, still I will not take
you." What would he say to you? He would say, "I gave up my situation
on the faith of your promise, and now, you break it." Ah! but it never can
be said of Almighty God, that, if a sinner acted on the faith of his promise,
then that promise was not kept. God ceases to be God when he ceases to have mercy
upon the soul who seeks pardon through the blood of Christ. No, he is a just
God, "Faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness."
One more aspect of this case. God’s justice demands that the sinner should be
forgiven if he seeks mercy, for this reason: Christ died on purpose to secure
pardon for every seeking soul. Now, I hold it to be an axiom, a self-evident
truth, that whatever Christ died for he will have. I cannot believe that when
he paid to his Father the price of blood, and groans and tears, he bought
something which the Father will not give him. Now, Christ died to purchase the
pardon of sin for all those who believe on him, and do you suppose that the
Father will rob him of that which be has bought so dearly? No, God were untrue
to his own Son, he would break his oath to his well-beloved and only begotten
Son, if he were not to give pardon, peace, and purity to every soul that comes
to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh, I would that I could preach it as
with a tongue of thunder everywhere, God is just, and yet the justifier of him
that believeth. God is just to forgive us our sins, if we confess them; just to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
III. Now, to close. I must just enter into some little
EXPLANATION OF THE TWO GREAT DUTIES THAT
ARE TAUGHT IN THE TWO TEXTS. Tile first duty is faith—"believeth in
Christ;" the second text is confession—"if we confess our sins."
I will begin with confession first. Expect not that God will forgive you until
you confess; not in the general confession of a prayer book, but in the
particular confession of your own inmost heart. You are not to confess to a
priest or a man, unless you have offended against him. In that respect, if you
have been an offender against any man, be at peace with him and ask his pardon
for aught you have done against him. It is a proof of a noble mind when you can
ask pardon of another for having done amiss. Whenever grace comes into the
heart it will lead you to make amends for any injury which you have done either
by word or deed to any of your fellow-men; and you cannot expect that you shall
be forgiven of God until you have forgiven men, and have been ready to make
peace with those who are now your enemies. That is a beautiful trait in
the character of a true Christian. I have heard of Mr. John Wesley, that he was
attended in most of his journeyings by one who loved him very much, and was
willing, I believe, to have died for him. Still he was a man of a very stubborn
and obstinate disposition, and Mr. Wesley was not perhaps the very
kindest man at all times. Upon one occasion he said to this man,
"Joseph, take these letters to the post." "I will take them
after preaching, sir." "Take them now, Joseph," said Mr. Wesley.
"I wish to hear you preach, sir; and there will be sufficient time for the
post after service." "I insist upon your going now, Joseph."
"I will not go at present" "You won’t!" "No,
sir." "Then you and I must part," said Mr. Wesley. "Very
good, sir." The good men slept over it. Both were early risers. At four
o’clock the next morning, the refractory helper was accosted with,
"Joseph, have you considered what I said—that we must part?"
"Yes, sir." "And must we part?" "please yourself, sir."
"Will you ask my pardon, Joseph?" "No, sir." "You
won’t?" "No, sir." "Then I will ask yours, Joseph!"
Poor Joseph was instantly melted, and they were at once reconciled. When once
the grace of God has entered the heart, a man ought to be ready to seek
forgiveness for an injury done to another. There is nothing wrong in a man
confessing an offense against a fellow-man, and asking pardon for the wrong he
has done him. It you have done aught, then, against any man, leave thy gift
before the altar, and go and make peace with him, and then come and make peace
with God. You are to make confession of your sin to God. Let that be humble and
sincere. You cannot mention every offense, but do not hide one. If you hide one
it will be a millstone round your neck to sink you into the lowest hell. Confess
that you are vile in your nature, evil in your practice, that in you there is
no good thing. Lie as low as ever you can at the footstool of divine grace, and
confess that you are a wretch undone unless God have mercy upon you.
Then, the next duty is faith. Whilst thou art lying there in the dust turn
thine eye to Christ and say. "Black as I am, and hell-deserving as I
confess myself to be, I believe that Jesus Christ died for the penitent; and
inasmuch as he died, he died that the penitent might not die. I believe thy
merits to be great; I believe thy blood to be efficacious; and more than that,
I risk my eternal salvation—and yet it is no risk—I venture my eternal
salvation upon the merit of thy blood. Jesus, I cannot save myself. Cast
the skirts of thy blood-red atonement over me. Come, take me in thins arms;
come, wrap me in thy crimson vest, and tell me I am thine. I will trust in
nothing else but thee. Nothing I can do or ever did shall be my dependence. I
rely simply and entirely upon thy mighty cross, upon which thou didst die for
sinners."
My dear hearers, as to any probability of your being lost after such a
confession and such a faith, I assure you there is neither possibility nor
probability thereof. You are saved; you are saved in time, you are saved in
eternity. Your sins are forgiven; your iniquities are all put away. In this
life you shall be fed, and blessed and kept. Remaining sin within you shall be
overcome and conquered; and you shall see his face at the last in glory
everlasting, when he shall come in the glory of his Father, and all his holy
angels with him. "Whosoever believeth on the Son of God hath eternal life,
and shall never come into condemnation." "He that believeth on the
Lord Jesus and is baptized, shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be
damned."
And now in conclusion, I have tried to tell out simply and plainly the story
of how God’s justice is satisfied, and has become the sinners friend, and I
look for fruit, for where the gospel is simply preached it is never preached in
vain. Only let us go home and pray now, that we may know the Saviour. Let us
pray that others may know him too. If you are convinced of sin, my dear
friends, do not lose a moment. Go to your chamber as soon as you get
home, shut to your door, go alone to Jesus, and there repeat your confession,
and once more affirm your faith in Christ; and you shall have that peace with
God which the world cannot give, and which the world cannot take away. Your
troubled conscience shalt find rest: your feet shall be on a rock; and a new
song shall be in your mouth, even praise for evermore.
"From whence this fear and unbelief?—
Hast thou, O Father, put to grief
Thy spotless Son for me?
And will the righteous Judge of men
Condemn me for that debt of sin, Which, Lord, was charged on thee?
Complete atonement thou hast made,
And to the utmost farthing paid Whate’er thy people owed;
How then can wrath on me take place
If shelter’d in thy righteousness, And sprinkled with thy blood?
If thou hast my discharge procured,
And freely, in my room, endured The whole of wrath divine;
Payment God cannot twice demand,—
First, at my bleeding Surety’s hand,
And then again at mine.
Turn, then, my soul unto thy rest!
The merits of thy great High Priest
Speak peace and liberty:
Trust in his efficacious blood;
Nor fear thy banishment from God,
Since Jesus died for thee."