CAN it be possible? It is not only possible, it is what is true of you, dear unsaved reader.
Your authority for such a statement? God’s infallible Word. Read it: all the world brought in “Guilty before God” (Rom. 3:1919Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. (Romans 3:19)). That includes you. If guilty, you are subject to the judgment of God. Are you indifferent to this solemn fact? Can it be that you have heard of it before, and, spite of it, are seeking after the pleasures of this world, with a view, it may be, of ridding your mind of it? Are you aware that to persist in this means eternal judgment? Why not have it settled? It has to be faced.
You must have to do with God.
Imagine a prisoner before a judge guilty of a dreadful crime. Would he be indifferent to the sentence about to be pronounced upon him? Suppose there was the possibility of a pardon, would he be unmoved, unconcerned?
Nay, how eagerly he would snatch at the faintest prospect of it!
How infinitely more solemn is your position! Brought in guilty before a holy God, and therefore exposed to the awful consequences of that guilt, a judgment only suspended through the long-suffering of God!
God, however, is not now executing judgment on the guilty sinner, who, by pleading guilty, may be justified freely by His grace (Rom. 3:2424Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (Romans 3:24)).
How can God who is holy thus justify you? Because Another has borne the judgment. The Lord Jesus Christ has been to the cross, suffering, the Just for the unjust, that we might be brought to God (1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18)). He has taken the guilty sinner’s place, has borne the just judgment of God against sin, and has thus paved the way for God to come out in the riches of His grace to rebel sinners.
By acknowledging your guilt you may get a full pardon. Such is God’s grace, and though up to the present you may have been indifferent to it, yea, even have despised it, He is still longing to pardon you.
What a blessed exchange!
A guilty sinner under judgment, and only awaiting the execution of it, can, by pleading guilty, not only be pardoned, but be perfectly justified (Rom. 4:24, 25, 5:1). Through the redemption work of the Lord Jesus, which has glorified God, God is now just and the Justifier of him who believes in Jesus (Rom. 3:2626To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:26)).
Dear reader, will you not accept God’s testimony concerning you? He makes no mistake.
But because God is acting in sovereign grace this will not exonerate you if unbelieving. God’s righteousness is unto all, but only upon them who believe (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)). And do not let the devil blind your eyes as to judgment, because it is for the time suspended—your position is one of extreme peril.
Scripture declares (John 3:1818He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:18)) that “he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Beloved reader, do be persuaded in time to give this momentous question your earnest and immediate consideration. The god of this world is seeking to blind your eyes, is doing his utmost to drag you down to hell. Do not let him be successful; accept God’s terms now, for delay is dangerous. The One into whose hands all judgment has been committed will soon be revealed “in flaming fire, taking vengeance upon them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thess. 1:8, 98In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 9Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; (2 Thessalonians 1:8‑9)).
Those who now accept Christ as their Saviour will be with Him in glory above the scene of judgment; while if still unrepentant when He comes, you will be left behind to await that awful devouring judgment which God’s Word describes.