Here is one rule without an exception.
With one sweeping statement God levels all on one common platform, the religious and the irreligious, the noble and those of meaner birth, profligate and psalm-singing professor, prince and pauper, from the president in his palace to the prisoner in the penitentiary, from the monarch on his throne to the menial in the kitchen, none are exempted. All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
I don’t stop to ask how far you have come short, my reader; that some are more deeply dyed in sins than others is most true.
But sins all have got. And you amongst the rest, and having sinned you have also come short of the glory of God.
Have you really found this out?
I met a man the other day in a small village in the backwoods of Canada, who told me that for years he had thought himself good enough for God. One day he tried to recall all the good deeds he had ever done to assure himself that he had really merited God’s favor. But to his dismay, though he thought and thought and thought no good deeds could he remember, but his sins in black array crowded to his memory; and he found out for the first time in his life that he was a guilty, helpless sinner before God.
Sooner or later you will make the same discovery, friend, either now in God’s day of grace, while the precious blood has cleansing power, or hereafter before the great white judgment throne, when there will be naught but condemnation and the burning lake for you. But, thank God! though the first “all” places you without a doubt as a sinner before God, there is a second which is full of blessing.
It is this, “The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)). Here is the only remedy, the God-provided one. You could bring no price to God by which to purchase exemption from wrath, for sins must meet with righteous judgment.
If this falls upon you it means an eternal hell. Yet no salvation could be procured until this judgment was borne.
It is evident then, you could not procure redemption. “How then can a sinner be saved?” you ask.
Calvary answers that question. There I see the problem solved. The holy, spotless lamb of God bears the judgment due to sinners.
Wrath which would have sunk us into the eternal gloom and woe of the pit fell upon Him there, and on that cross Jesus rendered satisfaction to all God’s righteous claims, and having borne the judgment, and bowed His head in death, the blood flows from His spear-riven side.
That blood can cleanse. It is no use for you to seek remission of sin in any other way, for God says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission” (Heb. 9:2222And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22)).
The work is done. The blood is shed.
And faith in that wondrous work and precious blood will save you. Oh! that I could reach the ear of the blackest sinner out of hell, these are the words I would ring out in his hearing, “The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.”
Yea! were all the transgressions from Adam’s sin downwards laid at your charge, the blood would have power to cleanse even you.
Talk not of your doings; for Jesus said, “It is finished.”
And were you to be placed at God’s bar today and dare to say that you had done your best after such a life of sin as yours had been, and after God had spoken so plainly in His Word about your doings, all heaven would hiss you into hell, and the demons would laugh you to scorn when you reached that place.
That is God’s estimate of your righteousnesses. You may give them another name, and proudly speak of them as good works.
But God is the judge in this matter. It is at His bar you have got to stand, and let Him be true and every man a liar.
No, your righteousnesses are worse than naught. “It is to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Rom. 4:55But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5)).
Then be no longer amongst the company “who, being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:33For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. (Romans 10:3)).
But come as a poor, guilty, helpless sinner, trusting in Jesus alone, and be assured, that “By him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:3939And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:39)).
May this full, free, and eternal justification be yours.
J. T. M.