It is with God's hand that the work is done; and for very many reasons
this is a great comfort to us.
First: Because it was God's hand that made the record, he it was who
put down all your sins. He never rested in his work; week after week,
month after month, year after year, the recording work was being done
until your record became blacker than the blackest midnight; and behold
the hand that made the record blots it out.
Second: It was his hand against which you offended. Your sin was
against yourself. It is true it hurt your character, lowered your
self-respect; but more especially was it against God, for you despised
his authority, forsook his service, broke his laws, defied his justice;
you grieved his spirit, and you crucified his Son. And behold it is
the hand against which you committed all these offenses which blotted
out your transgressions.
Third: It is the offended hand which blots them out. It was the hand
that opened the fountains of the deep, and behold the floods came, the
waters above and the waters below clasped their hands and destruction
was everywhere save in the Ark. It was his hand that brought
destruction upon the cities of the plain, consuming them with a mighty
flame, and it was his hand that opened the sea for the children of
Israel and then closed the sea over the pursuing Egyptians. The very
thought of the offended hand makes us tremble, but behold, it is this
hand that blots out all our transgressions.
Fourth: It is the hand of justice that does the work. The same hand
wrote, "The wicked shall not go unpunished," and wrote again, "The soul
that sinneth it shall die," and wrote yet again, "The wages of sin is
death." This hand is stretched forth in our behalf.
I doubt not the question has often come to us, "How can God be just and
be the justifier of them that believe?" In the light of such
statements as these just quoted I am sure it is for this reason--it is
for the offering of the just for the unjust. He made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in
him. A man was needed for such an offering, and Christ became man.
The man required must be born under the law, so Christ came in the
likeness of sinful flesh. The man born under the law must be without
sin, so he was born pure. The man born under the law and without sin
must be willing to die, and so he came saying, "I delight to do thy
will, O God." And the man born under the law, without sin and willing
to die must be able to provide an atonement which would make the
wandering sinner and the love of God one, and so Christ at the command
of God was thus furnished a sacrifice of sufficient power and magnitude
to save the whole world. It is this hand of God that blots out our
transgressions.
Fifth: It is the hand of the Supreme Being that does the work. What a
word of encouragement this is. It was this hand that made the worlds
and hurled them off into space. It was this hand that created man and
made him in the likeness of God. It was this hand that formed the
countless number of angels, and has ever directed their heavenly
movements. It was this hand that wrote the law upon Sinai. And it was
this hand that holds the keys of the kingdoms of heaven and hell. He
blots out our transgressions. From his decision there can be no
appeal. With such a work as this, who shall lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? Would God that justifieth do it, or Christ that died
consent to it? In the light of such a thought the Apostle Paul says,
"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans
8:38-39).