SIN is an awful reality, and ever since the fall of man has filled the world with misery and sorrow. It is found everywhere, and dwells in every human heart. Sometimes it displays itself in hideous form, and bursts forth in crimes that fill the world with horror. But in every heart it dwells, and manifests its presence by sinful thoughts, as well as words and deeds.
By nature there is no difference, as says the inspired Word of God, “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Grace only it is that makes us to differ. “There, but for the grace of God, goes Rowland Hill,” said that earnest seeker of lost men and women as he beheld a wretched murderer led forth to execution.
Conscience for a time may slumber, but how terrible will be the awakening at the day of judgment for all those who refuse to own their guilt in the sight of a holy God! And, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” Man may cover up his sin from the eyes of his fellow, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom each one has to do.
Four years ago a terrible crime was perpetrated, one of the most cold-blooded murders that has ever shocked the feelings of this generation. For four years the murderer with callous indifference walked over the grave of his victim, a grave which he had dug with his own hands close by his dwelling. For four years that awful secret was locked up within his own breast, but at length, in the government of God, the finger of human suspicion was pointed at him. The prisoner pleaded “not guilty,” but so overwhelming was the evidence against him that he was condemned to death, whilst maintaining his innocence to almost the very last moment of his life.
A scene such as has rarely if ever before been witnessed took place at the scaffold, we are told. With pinioned limbs, bandaged eyes, and adjusted rope, the condemned man stood for one brief moment awaiting the withdrawal of the bolt. Suddenly the chaplain of the prison steps forward, and in earnest tones puts the question, “Are you guilty or not guilty?”
A solemn silence supervened, and again with greater earnestness the question falls upon the ears of that man whose eyes are closed forever to all earthly sights, “Are you guilty or not guilty?”
Firmly and clearly comes the answer, “Guilty,” and in another instant the speaker has entered his eternal abode.
What in that brief moment passed in the soul of the condemned man, God only knows. What led him in that last word of a misspent life to own the guilt that up till then he had sought to cover, we know not. A sudden glance into the future, a sudden and tardy recognition of the fact that he had to do with One from whose presence he could not flee, it may have been—but the law had done its work. The guilty man was condemned, and the just sentence was executed.
Oh, yes, sin is a reality—an awful reality; but with God there is forgiveness. God in grace can do what the law is utterly unable to accomplish. The law can never clear the guilty, a human judge can never justify the criminal; but, wonder of wonders! a holy, righteous God has found a way of justifying the guilty.
All the world, the writer and reader included, has been brought in “guilty before God.” A plea of “Not Guilty” can never avail with Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire; indeed, the sinner’s only chance for eternity is to honestly take the guilty sinner’s place, and claim the sinner’s Saviour.
“I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin” (Psa. 32:5). And again, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
How unlike is this to the law! The law can only condemn the guilty, but a Saviour-God can justify the guilty sinner who believes in Jesus. “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight” (Rom. 3:20), but the sinner who believes in Jesus is justified freely by God’s grace, “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth, a propitiation through faith in His blood.” Yes, a crucified Christ is the propitiation or mercy-seat, that is, the place of meeting between a holy God and a guilty sinner.
“I meet my God in Jesus Christ,
And fear and terror cease.”
Come, then, dear reader, no longer delay to take your place as “guilty before God.” If you would know His saving mercy and justifying grace, come to Him through Jesus Christ, owning your guilt and confessing your sin, and you will not be cast out. The Lord Jesus Christ, by the sacrifice of Himself, has met every claim of God’s righteousness, and exhausted every stroke of His just wrath against sin, and now faith can sing— “The wrath of a sin-hating God With me can have nothing to do, The Saviour’s obedience and blood Hide all my transgressions from view.”
A. H. B.