IT gives great rest to the heart of a sinner to know that the grace of God and the blood of Christ meet him just as he is and where he is.
A sinner does not need to be anything but what he is, in order to know and enjoy the sweetness of divine grace, and the cleansing power of the blood of the cross. All efforts to be anything but just what I am, can only ha\ e the effect of hiding from my view the light of the Dayspring from on high, which has visited us, as sinners, in the darkest depths of our moral ruin. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." (1 Tim. 1:15.)
There are three expressions used in the Scriptures to set forth the truth as to a sinner's state before God.
1. “Look not upon me, because I am black." (Song of Sol. 1:6.)
2. “Behold, I am vile." (Job 11:1.)
3. “Woe is me, for I am undone." (Isa. 6:5.) Here, then, we have the plain truth of Holy Scripture in reference to ourselves: "black"; “vile”; and "undone." Our character, "black"; our nature, "vile"; our condition, "undone.”
There is no use in seeking to make it out otherwise. Such is the plain teaching of God's holy word respecting the writer and the reader of these lines; the plain truth as to our character, our nature, and our condition.
Let us repeat the words: "black," "vile," and undone." These are very humbling words.
Man's proud heart does not like them. But they are God's words; and if we do not, from the very inmost depth of our souls, own the truth of this, it is only because we do not see ourselves as God sees us. All who do not see and ow n this are wrapped in the shades of ignorance, enveloped in a mantle of self-conceit, or clad in the rags of their own righteousness.
Now, I want the reader to cast aside the “rags,”
to put off the "mantle," to rise above the "shades," and to see and own, clearly and fully, that he verily is as viewed in that light w here all are seen to be what they really are, "black," "vile," and "undone.”
This is a grand point in the history of the soul.
Very many, from not being thoroughly grounded in this, pursue a zigzag, up-and-down course all their clays. They have not laid hold of the truth of God as to their character, nature, and condition. They have not begun w here God begins; namely, at the very lowest point. They have not fixed the steady, intelligent, earnest gaze of faith upon the sacrifice of the cross, as God's own remedy clear, full, and entire, for their own very character, nature, and condition, as laid bare in the searching light of the divine presence. They have not traveled to the utmost limit of nature's ruin. They have not viewed it as a dead, worthless, judged thing, wholly and forever gone, as regards any confidence in it, or expectation from it. They think there is still something to be done with it, something to be done by it, something to be got from it; and, inasmuch as their thoughts respecting it are never realized, and never can be, they are always in a state of uncertainty as to their acceptance before God.
Intimately connected with this failure in learning the reality of nature's ruin stands another thing, namely, failure in apprehending the reality of God's grace. If divine grace deals with my sins, what must it do? Assuredly, it must put them away. This is what divine grace must do, because it is divine. If divine righteousness were to deal with my sins, it would condemn them.
I have both the one and the other in the cross of Christ. There divine righteousness dealt with my sins; and there divine grace reigns toward me as a sinner. "Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. 5:21.) The grace which forgives me is as perfect and as divine as the righteousness which condemns my sin. Nay, more, when the eve of faith rests upon a risen Christ we see that God is not only gracious, but righteous, in accepting as righteous the most ungodly sinner that simply trusts in the blood of Jesus. The entire question of sin and righteousness was gone into, and finally settled, between God and His Christ, on the cross; and when the sinner believes this, he has peace, peace as settled as the work of the cross could make it.
That which must ever produce uneasiness of conscience and anxiety of heart, is the thought that perhaps, after all, there is something between me and divine righteousness which has yet to be settled. This will yield mental anguish and soul-torture just in proportion to my earnestness and sincerity. And hence it is that many truly converted, divinely quickened, godly souls, looking at themselves, and not seeing that the whole question of sin and righteousness has been finally settled, that every divine claim has been answered, that sin has been condemned, that their old man with his deeds has been crucified and set aside forever, and, finally, that a risen Christ in glory is the full definition of what they are before God, are filled at times with terror, doubt, and uneasiness.
I say "at times," for it may be that occasionally they enjoy gleams of sunshine, that at intervals they experience a respite from the terrible workings of legality; and their renewed affections getting, for the time being, occupied with Christ and heavenly things, their whole souls are drawn out in earnest aspirations; and they feel as though they could, now, "read their title clear to mansions in the skies," and they fondly hope that the days of their mourning are ended. But, alas! soon again, the mists and vapors rise around them; the dark shadows of legalism settle down upon them; and they are ready to say that their past joys were all vain and delusive, and that they doubt if they have either part or lot in God's salvation.
Should the above be, in any measure, descriptive of my reader's condition, I would earnestly entreat him to draw nigh once more, and, in the clear light of divine revelation, GAZE UPON THE SACRIFICE. Therein he will see, not an attempt to whiten the blackness of his character, to improve the vileness of his nature, or amend his undone condition.
Oh! no; in the cross he will see God's full salvation erected on the clearly discovered ruins of "ALL FLESH." (Gen. 6:13.) On the cross, the whole question was settled. There was nothing left undone.
Where is the proof? I look down into yonder tomb, where the Victim lay, and I see it empty.
I look up to the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, and I see it filled. Filled by whom?
Filled by the One who hung on the cross, and lay in the tomb. What does this tell me? It tells me that all is done; sin condemned and put away; everlasting righteousness brought in, and secured to the believer; the law magnified and made honorable; God glorified in the putting away of my sins, as He could have never been in the punishment thereof; Satan thoroughly vanquished; marvelously foiled by his own weapons; death robbed of its sting, the grave of its victory.
Such are the wondrous utterances of the vacant sepulcher and the occupied throne.
Then, as to the mission of the Holy Ghost; what did He come to do? Was it to whiten, by His blessed operations, nature's blackness, to improve its vileness, or amend its undone condition? Nay. What then? He came TO TELL OF THE SACRIFICE; to point to a crucified and risen Saviour; to declare that all was clone; to apply, by His resistless energy, "the word of God" to the hearts and consciences of sinners, and so wake them up from nature's death and darkness, and introduce them into the life, light, power, and blessedness of the "new creation," wherein "all things are of God." (2 Con 5:17, 18.)
It is well to see this; well to see that no energy, operation, or influence of the Holy Ghost could whiten my blackness, improve my vileness, or amend my condition. "If any man be in Christ" he is not whitened, improved, or amended "flesh," but a "new creation." (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15.) This makes a vast difference. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. (John 3:6.) If I am looking for any improvement in my nature, I am looking for what I shall never find. I am sowing the wind to reap the whirlwind. Hopeless labor! But, if I simply hearken to what the Holy Ghost tells me about Christ; if I believe on the name of the only begotten Son of God; if I believe, through grace, the record which God has given of His Son, then have I eternal life; I am born of God; I am "a new creation." I am no longer looked at as being in the nature, condition, or guilt of the old Adam, but as being in Christ, possessing His nature, standing in divine righteousness, and accepted in all the acceptableness of God's beloved Son. My old nature, with all its guilt and all its liabilities, came to its end in the death of Christ, who, as risen again from the dead, is the measure of what each believer is in the divine presence. (Let the reader look carefully at the following scriptures, which prove all that has been stated: John 1:12, 13; 3:5-8; 5:24, 25; 6:10; 20:31; Acts 13:39; Rom. 5:1; 6:6; 7:5, 6; 8:9; 2 Cor. 5:17-21; Eph. 1:6; Col. 2:10; 1 John 3:1; 4:17.)
This makes the whole matter very clear. The believer is no longer to be occupied with the expression "Just as I am." He can now say, "Just as Christ is"; for "as He is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17.) This is wonderful! But it is worthy of God. He could not have His child in any other condition before Him. Nothing lower than this could satisfy the infinite love of His heart. And, moreover, it is to the glory of His grace that we should be in His presence, in all the perfectness of His own beloved Son; "Complete in Him, which is the Head of all principality and power." (Col. 2:10.) No human, no angelic mind could ever have conceived such love as this. It could only have had its source in the bosom of God. That one who is "black," "vile," and "undone," should have all his blackness, vileness, and ruin put away by the cross, and he himself linked with a risen, ascended, and glorified Christ in heaven, is what only God Himself could have planned, accomplished, and revealed. But thus it is, and all that is needed in order to enter into, and abide in, the joy and comfort thereof, is an artless faith in God's pure record, in the word which is settled forever in heaven. (Psa. 119:87.)
May God the Holy Ghost, by the application of the truth as it is in Jesus, strengthen the foundations of personal faith, give full deliverance from the dreadful workings of legality, and lead forth the people of God in that sacred liberty wherewith Christ makes His people free. (Gal. 5:1.)
Do any inquire, Can God love sin? All answer, No. Can He love the sinner? Many hesitate to answer fearlessly. But what does Scripture say? God commendeth His love in not sparing His own Son. He thus commends, proves, makes manifest, His love by Christ dying for sinners, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. (Rom. 5:8; 8:32; 1 Peter 3:18.)