The very first sigh on account of sin which is begotten in the
heart of a sinner by the Holy Spirit, is the beginning of an
eternal communion with God.
Among hearers of the Gospel God remembers the sins of those only
who remember not the blood of Jesus.
If God build His glory upon Christ, shall not we build on Him
our hope of salvation?
Do we heartily renounce our own righteousness? and are we looking
only to the atoning blood of Jesus for justification and sanctification?
If so, we are poor sinners saved by grace.
The very commandment of God—"Repent"—shows a dispensation
above the law, and supposes a fountain of grace in the heart
of God. Were there not forgiveness with God, there could have
been no commandment to repent.
As divine justice was honoured by the condemnation and cross
of Christ, the Head, so is the same justice honoured by the salvation
of the members.
The natural man has no apprehension of the Gospel. "What must
I do?" is ever his cry. Man has done his work perfectly—that
of self-destruction. He is wholly bent upon evil, altogether
ruined. Hence he is a fitting object for the Gospel of God.
Unbelief is the height of presumption: it plainly proves that
we are seeking for some cause of God's love in the creature,
which can never be.
It is among the highest provocations the sinner can be guilty
of against God, when, without the blood of Christ sprinkled on
his conscience, he, in will-worship, calls God his Father.
No cup of poison so deadly as that mingled cup of law and grace,
of works and faith, which is presented to men by false teachers,
instead of the Gospel of the grace of God. Yet, alas, do men
gladly receive, and eagerly drink, seeking to satisfy conscience!
To seek healing of soul from duties instead of the blood of Christ,
is taking poison to cure disease.
When we would consider the love of God in Christ, we are as one
approaching the ocean: he casts a glance on the surface, but
the depths he cannot sound.