THE Lord has given His very best gift from heaven for that which is most unlovely on earth, for, " He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
“Christ died for the ungodly.”
“Ungodly!" What a title! and yet it is the title of every human being" under the sun. "There is no exception to it. Born in sin; children of wrath by nature; made sinners by the disobedience of one man; possessors of deceitful hearts; and enemies, too, of God—all, all possess by nature, the title of" ungodly," a title given by the unerring word of the Living God.
But all possess this title by practice as well by nature, for "there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." "All we, like sheep, have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way." "There is none that doeth good, no, not one." As the tree is known by its fruit, so is a man known by his acts. "Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right." That all have, therefore, sinful natures and sinful hearts is manifested in the life of everyone, even of the amiable and moral, as well as in the openly wicked and godless. All have lived "without God," all have minds at "enmity with God," "all have sinned," therefore all are under condemnation.
How slow men are to understand and to acknowledge these facts! How slow to take the common ground assigned to them by God's faithful word! Truly "the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So, then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God." The law has tested the very best and most religious sample of mankind (the Jews), and proved it to be utterly bad. "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it says to them who are under the law (the Jews), that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." "All the world," therefore, stand in the sight of "the Judge of all the earth," on the same ground, and in the same position, as the sample taken therefrom.
Thus, dear unsaved reader, you, as part of the world, are like one who, condemned to death, is awaiting the day of his execution, for, having sinned, you are "guilty before God," and "condemned already." The sentence of "death passed upon all men" (Rom. 5:1212Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (Romans 5:12)) is passed upon you, and as "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after that the judgment," so your death, if you "die in your sins," will not be the mere crumbling of your body to dust, but the eternal separation of body and soul (Luke 12:55But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. (Luke 12:5)) from Him, in whose presence there is fullness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Man will not—cannot, cease to exist, being in direct relationship to God as His offspring Acts 17:2929Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. (Acts 17:29)), and possessed of a "living soul’—the result of the Lord God breathing into his nostrils the breath of life. This manner of communicating life was performed towards man alone, who was thereby rendered a partaker of that which proceeded directly from God. The Scriptural meaning of death, morally, is not, therefore, a ceasing to exist, but separation from the INFINITELY, ETERNALLY HOLY God, and is the consequence of sin which, of necessity, separates from Him who is the only Source and Giver of life. God, moreover, is INFINITELY, ETERNALLY RIGHTEOUS, SO that not only must divine holiness expel sin, but divine justice must punish it, for God can by no means clear the guilty. At the awful tribunal of Rev. 20.—the Great White Throne—the unpardoned sinner will be judged "according as his works shall be" by Him who "shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”
But not only is God infinitely holy and infinitely just, He is likewise INFINITELY MERCIFUL—"A just God and a Savior." All His attributes are equal, they could not be otherwise. It was His gracious will that a way for the sinner be made back to Himself; so, in the greatness of His love, "He devised a means whereby His banished ones be not expelled from Him" (2 Sam. 14:1414For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him. (2 Samuel 14:14)). "He gave His only begotten Son," who, "though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we, through His poverty, might be made rich." "Obedient unto death," He was "made sin;" and, by "enduring the cross," and upon it, drinking to the very dregs the bitter cup, the forsaking of His God (Psa. 22:11<<To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.>> My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? (Psalm 22:1)), satisfied all the requirements of divine justice in regard to sin. Having "put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself," He rose again, and is set down "at the right hand of the Majesty on high"—a sure and certain proof that all is fully done, and that now, for every believing sinner, “GRACE REIGNETH THROUGH RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
The ground on which God can bless the sinner having been laid, viz., the death and resurrection of Christ, "the grace of God brings" (Titus 2:1111For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, (Titus 2:11)), a "common salvation" within the reach of "whosoever will" accept it—"common," because, like "the righteousness of God" (Rom. 3:2222Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: (Romans 3:22)) it is "unto all," although it only benefits those who receive it. To such it is an "eternal salvation," for it bestows upon the recipient thereof the blessed gift of "eternal life" (Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)). This is not a mere eternal existence which even the devils and the damned possess; but a capacity of knowing and enjoying God forever. "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:33And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3)). O sinner! "Acquaint now thyself with God, and be at peace," for ere long "the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God" (2 Thess. 1:7,87And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 8In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: (2 Thessalonians 1:7‑8)). But, remember, that in order to know God you must come to Him by Christ, who said, "No man cometh unto the Father but by Me (John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)), and to come to Christ you must own your condition as a sinner-a lost sinner, for" He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance; "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost;" "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
But more-this salvation is a "Great Salvation." It plucks the sinner as a brand from the burning; delivers him from everlasting woe; brings him to the everlasting God; places him securely in the everlasting arms, and gives him to drink freely of the refreshing streams of "the living water," whereof, if a man drink, "he shall never thirst.”
My reader, CHRIST is this Salvation. One of old could say, "The Lord is my Light and my Salvation." Aged Simeon testified to God (when, in the Temple, he took the infant child Jesus in his arms), "Mine eyes have seen Thy Salvation." The Savior who ate "with publicans and sinners," entered the house of Zacchæus the chief among the publicans, with these words "This day is Salvation come to this house." And, from the throne of God in heaven, the repentant and believing sinner may hear, by faith, the voice of the Risen and Glorified Christ saying to him, "I am thy Salvation.”
Oh! surely, "where sin abounded grace did much more abound," for God "hat h made Him (Christ), who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)).
Sinner! Repent and believe the Gospel!
N. L. N.