BE it known unto you therefore... that through this Man [Jesus Christ] is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him all that believe are justified from all things.” (Acts 13:38-39.)
These precious gospel words, accompanied with a solemn warning to those who should despise, were addressed by the apostle Paul to his kinsmen after the flesh, and to all that feared God in the Jewish synagogue at Antioch. It was a wonderful message of love and mercy to God’s guilty people. Paul boldly declared that the Man whom Pilate had delivered to the will of the Jews, and whom they had crucified, was God’s Holy One; that He had raised Him from the dead, and that through this very Man, the Man Christ Jesus, the forgiveness of sins was preached.
Precious, precious message of grace! What volumes these blessed words tell of the love of God! He might righteously have swept the whole world with the besom of destruction for the resection and murder of His beloved Son; but instead of that He offers the free forgiveness of sins to all men through this very One, accompanying it with the soul-assuring words, that “BY Him, all that believe are justified from all things.”
Many who heard the joyful tidings believed; others contradicted and blasphemed. (Acts 13:54-48.)
Beloved reader, how have you treated this wondrous message? You need forgiveness as much as any who heard these memorable words. Born in sin, and shapen in iniquity (Psa. 51:5), possessor of a fallen nature, at enmity against God, and that cannot please Him (Rom. 8:7-8), you can never enter the kingdom and glory of God unless your sins are forgiven.
Perhaps you have never felt your need of forgiveness; if so, you will not care for this precious offer of God; but if you have, if you know what it is to tremble as a guilty, lost sinner, oh! listen now, and believe His never-failing Word: “Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.”
You may have tried to overcome sin for many a year, only to find out your own powerlessness; your sins may stare you in the face, and seem too great to be forgiven. Satan may be withstanding you, charging you with such a long, dark catalog of past misdoings and present failure, that your heart sinks in despair; but still the glorious message comes to all, and therefore collies to you: “Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him all that believe are justified from all things.”
Old sinner or young sinner, great sinner or little sinner, rich sinner or poor sinner, it matters not who you are, where you are, or what you have done; none are excluded in the precious words, “BY HIM ALL THAT BELIEVE.” God says “ALL”; not some, but ALL. Mark, not all that try, or work, or strive, or all that make good resolutions, or become religious, or turn over a new leaf. These are Satan’s plans. Cast aside at once all such vain and soul-destroying thoughts. God says, “Believe”; “ALL THAT BELIEVE.”
Reader, do you believe? “All that believe are justified from all things.” Can you, a guilty sinner, say, “Yes, I own I need forgiveness; God is declaring it to me through His Son, the Man Christ Jesus, and I believe it.”
Is this the language of your heart? If so, then, weary one, rest on the Word of Him who cannot lie (Titus 1:2); who has linked in one indissoluble sentence, “By Him ALL that believe ARE JUSTIFIED” (that is, cleared, freed, delivered) “from ALL THINGS.”
How often, when this precious truth has been pressed home upon an anxious soul, has the reply been returned, “I do believe, but I can’t feel it.”
My reader, does this describe your state? Does God say anything about feeling? Does God say we are justified and saved when we feel it? Nay, God says when we BELIEVE; “By Him all that BELIEVE are justified.”
Says one, “Well, hope I am.” Does God say HOPE? Not a word in the text about feeling or hoping; but a plain, positive, unmistakable sentence, “All that believe are.” God says “ARE,” and God means “ARE.”
I press it upon you: God SAYS it, and God MEANS it. Will you take God at His Word?
“I will,” says one. Then ARE You justified? God says so, and therefore you must be. Satan, who is a liar, and the father of it (John 8:44), says you must do, or feel, or something else first. God says, “All that believe” (you believe, and therefore it must mean you) “ARE justified from all things.” Not from some things, but from ALL THINGS, everything you ever did.
Feelings and works will follow faith; but you must believe God first. Believing that you are justified must make you feel happy; but feelings change and fluctuate; the Word of God never does. Therefore it is that resting on the Word of God gives peace and rest to the soul.
Reader, “Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and BY HIM all that believe are JUSTIFIED from all things.
Are You justified?
E. H. C.