The salvation of God delivers a man, not only from the guilt,
but the dominion of sin, and brings him into fellowship with
God. This salvation is preached to "every creature" under heaven;
and it leaves without excuse every one who does not receive it.
"What shall I do?" says the sinner. Alas! man _has done_ his
work completely—the work of self-destruction. Christ has wrought
a perfect work—the work of redemption for the salvation of
the inexcusably guilty, the utterly lost.
God justifies the sinner believing. When God pardons, He justifies.
Man may pardon; he cannot blot out. God alone can justify; and
He justifies by Christ, who was made sin for us, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him.
Had the Lord waited ere He came into this world till men knew
their own sickness, then would pride and ignorance have shut
Him out for ever.
God, in self-moved love, sent His own Son to save the lost.
The poor sinner, fleeing to Christ for salvation, cannot possibly
be overtaken by the sword of the avenger, because that poor sinner
is taught by the Spirit of God, and is drawn by God's loving
kindness to the Saviour Christ. Great may be his fear and perplexity;
but he is safe from curse in Christ the City of Refuge. God sees
him already there, while he himself doubts of reaching it.
"How can I be pardoned?" says the poor self-condemned sinner.
"How can I not pardon?" says God. The sinner looks at his sins;
but God looks at His Son's atoning blood. Sinner, do thou likewise.
I was slain and hanged on the cross eighteen hundred years ago
with Christ. (Gal. 2:20.) Did He rise? Yes. Therefore I am risen.
The Christian is a dead and buried man, and also risen. As a
child of Adam, dead and buried; as a child of God, risen with
Christ: the world is crucified to him, and he is crucified to
the world. Satan ever aims to raise the dead, and bury the living.