No one gets his true relation to God until he has taken his actual place before Him—that is, not as a man, but as a sinner. The question for everyone that first presses for an answer is: What has God to say to me, a sinner? Well, first of all, He states the counts of the indictment in the simplest terms (see Rom. 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)):
“All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
Two very plain, pungent statements. If all have sinned, I have sinned. If all have come short of the glory of God, I have come short of the glory of God. But I may scorn the statement and perish as a scorner, or ignore it and perish for lack of knowledge. But there it stands; and if I set to my seal that God is true, I henceforth take my place before Him as a sinner who has come short of the glory of God. He created man upright, and he became a sinner; He created man for His own glory, and man robbed Him of it. Herein, then is the case judicially.
Another scripture says, “At that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in, the world” (Eph. 2:1212That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: (Ephesians 2:12)). This states the case morally; the former, positively and judicially; the latter, negatively and morally. Every Gentile is guilty before God, and has robbed Him of His glory; moreover, he is a bankrupt before Him, for he is without Christ, without covenant relationship to God such as Israel had; without hope and without God in the world. Bankrupt indeed!
It has been astutely said that man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. But that being so, we may be thankful that He should drive us to an extremity if it be His purpose to use it as His own occasion to bless us. Let us see, then, what conclusions follow the scriptures we have cited. Take the corollary of the first part of the two. Does God affirm that all have sinned and come short of His glory? Yes, but He instantly adds, “Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood!” (Rom. 3:24, 2524Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (Romans 3:24‑25)).
Does He pronounce us bankrupts as to Christ, as to Israel’s privileges, as to the hope of glory, as to God Himself? Yes, but in the same breath, He says, “But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometime were far off, are made nigh by the ‘blood of Christ!’” So closely does He connect with the bane, the antidote that His grace supplies.
And with what moral vehemence comes from the mouth of God the solemn question propounded in Hebrews 2:33How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; (Hebrews 2:3), “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” Escape what? you may ask. From the eternal judgment of God, I answer. For has He not said (Acts 17:3131Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (Acts 17:31)): “He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness, by that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead”?
Of judgment, then, there is no question. In Romans 3, we read of God taking vengeance; of God judging the world, and of some whose damnation is just. God tells us He has indeed appointed the day for it, and ordained the Man for it—it is fixed and irrevocable. Meanwhile, there is an arrest of judgment, because God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9).
But He has not only appointed a day for judgment, and ordained a Man as judge, but He has also, for all who believe, appointed a day of salvation, and ordained the same Man to be a Saviour. Blessed be God, how rich is His grace! There has been an arrest of judgment, I have said; for, How long has this continued? For nearly 2,000 years! And how does God describe this? Why, in just such a way as to commend to us His love and mercy, because He wants to win us to Himself. He says, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” That is God’s own description of the whole period from the death of Christ, to that fast approaching moment when the Lord shall descend from heaven and take to Himself all those, whether living or dead, Who have believed unto salvation.
Believed on what, do you say. Believed on Him who gave Himself for us; the One who bore our sins in His own body on the tree; the One “who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)). Reader, are you able to speak thus individually and thus personally? How ready men are to generalize. They say, “Yes, we know we are all sinners.” Ah! that will not do. Nor will it do to say, “Yes, I am a sinner.” That goes further, it is true—that is, speaking individually—but that is not speaking personally. The poor publican did not really say in the temple, “God be merciful to me a sinner;” but we find that, when accurately rendered, his words were, “God be merciful to me the sinner!” This is just what is needed for every exercised soul before God, the unreservedly taking his place in His presence as consciously the sinner, whose guilty condition and all-absorbing need is such that it eclipses all else. And, following this, how suitably comes the discovery that He “loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Nothing could be more personal, and, because it is so personal, nothing could be more blessed.
This question, then, is pointedly and powerfully pressed upon our attention: “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?”
It is an already accomplished, and everlastingly efficacious, and infinitely precious salvation which God proffers, and, may I not say, entreatingly presents for your acceptance. Nor can you neglect it with impunity. Ignore it today; stifle your conscience with the plausible intention of giving it attention another day, and tomorrow you may be beyond all remedy forever. “God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:77Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Galatians 6:7)). Think not to sow the wind without reaping the whirlwind. “God is NOT mocked.”
How constantly, how continuously, how unweariedly has He sought your blessing, has He sought for your love; all day long stretching out His hand, so mighty to save, that you might not perish in your sins. But the very fact that it is a day of grace demonstrates that it has its limits. Every day, however long protracted, is followed by night; and O! what a night is before the world, yea, before every impenitent sinner—the blackness of darkness forever! May God grant unto every reader “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ;” for nothing short of this is “God’s great salvation, which is eternally worthy of Himself.”