Let me now press upon the reader the one truth which has been prominent throughout these pages, viz: that full and eternal justification is at once the blessed portion of every one who trusts in the death of Christ. There was safety to Israel when destruction was all around them, because the blood of the lamb was upon their door-posts. God saw, in that mere shadow, such a type of His own Son's death, that He gave perfect security to every one who put himself within the shelter of that blood. Shall not, then, Christ's own blood be infinitely precious? Shall it not accomplish entire and eternal safety? Make that death your refuge; hide yourself in that safe covert; trust in JESUS, confide in Hem, make His ()Ross to be the place where you see your sins borne away forever; and, notwithstanding all you feel, eternal life, eternal glory, are yours now and evermore.
Having thus briefly attempted to meet certain difficulties, that frequently hinder the peace of troubled hearts, let me earnestly beseech my reader more carefully and diligently to peruse the word of God; to ask himself, as he reads sentence by sentence, " What does this mean?" and to ask God to help him to understand what it means, Let him deal with it as the word of God-as if he heard the voice of JEHOVAH speaking directly to him from heaven.
If JESUS were on earth, would you not, dear reader, go to Him? would you not ask Him to save you? would you not believe His word, if He said to you, " Thy sins are forgiven thee; thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace"? Thus He speaks to you out of the Bible. Hear His voice. Believe what He says command away every doubt and uncertainty, by the authoritative voice of the mighty Savior. He is now at the right hand of God; but still he speaks-speaks from heaven-speaks in the living Word, the Scriptures of truth. And why is He exalted to the throne of the majesty in the heavens? In order to be a Prince and a Savior-to give repentance and forgiveness of sins. His name, JESUS, given to Him at His birth, and again given to Him by God in resurrection, proclaims the blessed truth that salvation is IN Him. Faith in that name is sufficient.
Two gentlemen were lately conversing together upon this momentous subject. One said to the other, after pointing out to Him the mighty work accomplished by Christ on the cross, " Do you need anything more?" The other replied, "Yes, I think I do. I think I must have some work of my own." His friend answered, " Jesus at the right hand of God, is my title, and my only title to salvation. Here are pen, ink and paper, now write me down a better."
The truth is, that Christ in glory is the proof of the complete and all-sufficient value of His death. If a friend becomes surety for me, and is thrown into prison because of my debt, and I afterward meet that friend walking at liberty, I am sure he must have made satisfaction to the full of my debt, otherwise he could not be out of prison.
So the Lord, at the right hand of power on high, is the proof that HE has answered to the full every demand of God against me a sinner. His death is everything or nothing. It is either the entire blotting out and canceling of every charge that can be made against me by a holy, righteous and all-seeing God, or it avails me nothing.
It is said of John Bunyan, that he, was walking one day in a field, under great trouble of soul at the discovery of his own vileness, and not knowing how to be justified with God, when he heard, as he imagined, a voice saying to him, "Your righteousness is in heaven." He went into his house, and took his Bible, thinking there to find the very words which had thus sounded in his heart. He did not discover the identical expression, but many a passage of Scripture proclaimed the same truth, and showed him that Jesus, at the right band of God is complete righteousness to every one that believeth.
(From " The Soul and its Difficulties.")