You are always preaching and writing that the vilest and most unworthy are welcome to come to Christ. But what of those that do not feel so very vile?" a Christian woman once said to me. This is a most important question in regard to a class of people very difficult to reach.
She told me that a friend, after having heard a preacher of the Gospel describe the awful state of unsaved people and give a solemn exhortation to be saved immediately, said, with great surprise, "But what is it all about? I feel as happy as a bird." She really could not understand That anything the man had been saying had any reference to her.
Such people never did anything very bad. They have been brought up under all the influences of a Christianized society. They never knew vice in its open nakedness. They never felt anything at all very evil in their hearts. They have never been face to face with. God, nor taken God's idea of sin. In short, they know not the God revealed in Scripture. I do not mean that they are idolaters or infidels in the popular sense of these words. They know a god that is a sort of being for pulpit use, a being that is to be addressed as a matter of course and of religious duty, at times of particular solemnity. They have a few ideas, derived from various sources, of a being called God, but of the God of Holy Scripture they have no conception. The God who judges sinners they do not know; of God's estimate of sin they have never heard.
But let me be distinctly understood as to this most important matter. Let us imagine a man wandering on the top of some high cliffs. A bright, warm sun is overhead, and a soft, green carpet of grass is beneath his feet. He feels very happy and gay, but he is going nearer to an awful precipice! He is happy, but he is blind. We call, we shout to him to stop. He turns round and says, "What is it all about? I feel as happy as a bird," but onward still he goes. Would it not be love on our part to go and take hold of him and earnestly tell him that a fearful precipice lies a yard before him?
Dear friend, this is where we see you. I have in my mind at this moment an accomplished young lady, amiable, kind, and dutiful, surrounded by all that can make life happy—one who has her neat Bible or prayer book, who is seen most regularly and religiously in her seat in church or chapel every Lord's day, who takes great interest in deeds of charity, visits the poor, and is very happy. No one ever dared to say to such an one, "You are on the broad road that leadeth to destruction." It would be considered highly improper so to do. Perhaps this silent page may be before your eye, and now it would say to you what has been so long unsaid, "Stop! are you ready to meet God? Where shall you spend eternity?" If you were separated this moment from all the dear friends around you, and all those happy scenes, and that comfortable home, and standing before God, what would you have to say? I wish to write a little of what He thinks of you. I am not to write about what your parents, your friends, your pastor, or spiritual adviser think of you. They may think most highly of you—and most justly, too, as you may be everything that could be desired from a human point of view. But I wish to place before you what God your Maker thinks of you—yes, of you yourself, whoever you may be. The more refined, cultivated, educated, and wealthy you may be, the more would I be in earnest to get your attention. You may be a princess or an empress, but one word expresses God's estimate of you, and that word is—"SINNER."
A rich lady one day, when she heard a person speaking of all as sinners, said with great surprise, "But ladies are not sinners!"
"Then who are?" she was asked.
"Just young men in their foolish days."
I have not the slightest doubt but that this is a very common idea, though seldom expressed. A lady who had heard some one preaching this kind of truth, called on him and said, "Do you mean to say that I must be saved just as my footman?"
"Most certainly."
"Then I shan't be saved."
Poor lady! that was her business, and this was her fatal decision. My reader, I not only wish to tell you that you are a sinner—you, educated, amiable lady—but that in God's sight you are just the same as the vilest profligate, just the same as that man you heard about who was hanged for murdering his wife. This is most terrible, but it is true. I remember once saying it to a young man who was not like you, but who knew that he was very bad. He said, "I believe all are sinners, but I don't believe that all are the same."
"Well, we have only one authority to refer to, and it is within your reach. Will you take your Bible, and remember one thing, that it is God who speaks? Turn now to Romans 3:22, 2322Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:22‑23). We read, Tor there is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.' This is what God has said."
"Well," said my friend, "I never saw that before." "But it was there although you never saw it."
And now, dear reader, you who are happy and amiable, this is the one thing I wish to tell you from God, "There is no difference." This is what you never could and never can feel; it is a thing for which you must take God's word. As it is God with whom you have to do, I beseech you not to listen one moment to any that would take you from His truth. He says, "there is no difference." He has proved that the lawless Gentile or heathen and the lawbreaking Jew or religious person are equally guilty, and that not one among either the outwardly profane or the outwardly decent is found righteous or good before Him. Of course, there are differences in heinousness or degradation of sins. I need not stop to speak of this; we all know it. I wish to tell you what you and I do not by nature know; namely, that there is no difference as to where we stand before God. The one question is, guilty or not guilty. There are no degrees as to the fact of guilt. "He that offends in one point is guilty of all," and nothing less. He that offends in all points is guilty of all, and nothing more. Therefore, while there are differences among offences, there is no difference as to guilt. Therefore, all men in the world —and you included—have been brought in guilty before God.
Look at the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. The moment he crossed his father's threshold with his pockets full of money and a respectable dress on, he was as really guilty, as really a sinner, as when he was among the swine in his rags. He was more degraded when keeping swine, but not more guilty. In fact, his degradation and husks were his greatest mercies, for these led him to see his guilt. A full pocket and a respectable appearance are the worst things a guilty sinner can have, as these lead him to think that he is rich and increased with goods and has need of nothing, when in God's sight he is wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I do not ask you, "Are you a sinner?" in the common use of that word because you for whom I write are not. You mean by sinner, one who is very wild, profane, disobedient, and lawless. This is as men speak of sinners. God, however, says that there is no difference. The only thing I ask you is this, Have you offended in ONE point—not one point of open sin, but one point in thought or word? You confess to at least one point. God asks no more. If you have offended in one point, you are guilty of all. Man would neither think this nor say it. But God says it. Suppose that your life were like a book that you have written, and there was in it only one small blot just like a pin point, but all the other leaves were Perfectly clean, and you came and presented it before God. He would put it beside all the blackest lives that were ever lived, the blackest histories of the vilest murderers, thieves, and harlots, and over this collection would be written these words, "There is no difference."
You have offended in one point. It is not a question of being a great sinner. It is this question, "Are you as perfect as the Christ of God, the perfect man?" If you had lived for fifty years without committing one sin or having one wrong wish or thought, and just then you had an evil thought, and afterwards lived another fifty years and died at the age of one hundred, with only this one evil thought (not even a word or an action), when you came to stand before God in judgment, He would put you beside all the offscourings of the earth, men who for a hundred years never had a good thought, and He would say, "There is no difference."
Of course you think this is very hard, but it is true. God will never ask your opinion whether it ought to be so or not. He has in grace already told us what He will do. You and I, not knowing absolute holiness, cannot understand or appreciate such a judgment. We could never feel that every one's guilt is the same in God's sight. But God says it, and there the matter ends. If you wish to go on, risking your chance of escaping Hell on the possibility that God has told lies and that these words, "there is no difference," are perhaps not quite true, then the judgment day will declare it to you. I would rather advise you to believe God, against your own ideas and opinions, and simply because He has said it, to proceed as if in His sight "there is no difference" between those we call great and little sinners. .
"I cannot believe that all are so bad," said one, after I had been saying, "There is no difference."
"But," I added, "the Bible says, 'there is no difference.' "
"But some must be greater sinners than others."
"Oh, yes. Most certainly. Great offenders are recognized in the Bible—he that owed fifty and he that owed five hundred pence—but as to guilt, God says, `there is no difference.' "
"Well, I cannot see it," continued my friend.
"But it is in God's Word, whether you see it or not, and it is sufficient that God has said it, for His Word is truth."
Let me give an illustration. Let us suppose that a bill had been displayed in town, saying that recruits were wanted for Her Majesty's Life Guards and that none would be enlisted but those who Were tall, and measured not under six feet in height. Let us suppose that many of the young men in the town were anxious to serve in this regiment, and John meets James and says to him, "Well, I've more chance than you, for I am taller than you." They stand back to back and measure themselves with one another, and, indeed, John is taller than James. There continues to be much measuring in the town before the day that the recruiting sergeant comes.
They measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves .among themselves, but they forget one thing—that not only tall men, but men at least six feet tall are wanted. One man at last says, "Well, I've measured myself with every man in the town, and I'm the tallest man in it." What he says might be quite true. But will even he be found qualified?
The trial day comes. Each is measured, from the man who is five feet six inches, to the very tallest, who we will suppose is five feet, eleven and three= quarters inches. The sergeant cannot let him pass. He is short. He must take his place among the very shortest of those wanting to get into the Life Guards. He is the tallest man in the town, but he is short of the standard, and "there is no difference" from the very shortest. He is excluded from the Life Guards. "There is a difference" in 'height, but not in qualification.
Thus it is with every sinner. He may be good or bad in the sight of men, but "there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." If any man could say, "I have come up to God's standard," then there would be a difference. But "come short" is written on every man's brow; therefore there is no difference.
Was Adam or Eve the more to blame? This might afford material for a long discussion, and at the end, the heinousness of their crime would be to us a matter of opinion. I have no doubt there might be some shade of degree as to heinousness, but one thing is sure—if their offences were not equally heinous, they were equally driven out. The cherubim that turned every way with the flaming sword separated both equally from the tree of life; there was no difference.
When the rain began to fall and the waters to rise after Noah had entered the ark, the people who had their houses high up as they heard the screams of the drowning, might have been pitying the poor people who built low down in the valley. By and by the water sweeps above the little hills, and then those on the high hills, in turn, congratulate themselves upon their high-built villas. But the water still rises; it enters their ground-floors. They rush out of their grand mansions or hovels—for there was no difference—and flee to the tops of the very highest mountains to find respite only for a few moments. "All the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth . . . and every man: all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground." Under that judgment flood there was no difference. Look across the wide, level sea, and consider the thousands of caves and stupendous mountain chains that it hides, the plains and valleys, the dens of seaweed and the fortresses of rock. The level sea rolls equally over all, and there is no difference. Drunkard and respectable lady, the hoary-haired sinner and the infant at the mother's breast—all were under that fearful flood, for there was no difference. If you had been there, do you think you would have been an exception? You may be able just now to get anything that money can buy. Could money have saved you then? Princes and beggars, strong men and weak, bad and good, were all equally swept away. There was no difference. It has happened already, you see, and it will happen again—not with water, but with fire.
When "Jehovah rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Jehovah out of heaven," there was no difference. All were equally destroyed; very bad and very good shared the same fate. This fearful, unprecedented shower falling out of Heaven—brimstone and fire—took everyone by surprise, and destroyed every dweller there. "He overthrew those cities and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities." There was no difference.
When Israel was sheltered in the house of bondage from the destroying angel's hand, "it came to pass at midnight, that Jehovah smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon." Judge and prisoner alike found themselves face to face with death. In the palace and in the hovel the voice of mourning was heard; not one of all the doomed first-born escaped. These first-born might have been beautiful, amiable, educated, and accomplished, or they might have been vile, degraded, ignorant, and hardened; yet there was no difference. It is with this God that you and I have to do.
When Jericho's walls fell flat before the appointment—the ordinance—of God in righteous judgment "they (the Israelites) utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old." The strong man and the feeble woman, the active young man and the decrepit old, were equally slain by the edge of the sword. There was no difference.
The flaming sword of the cherubim, the flood of waters, the deluge of fire, the angel of death, and Joshua's sword—all preach to you and me with calm, decided voice, "There is no difference." These things were written for us that we might know what we may expect, so that we might not leap in the dark. Nothing will happen which has not been told us.
A Christian man could never get a young lady to think about eternity until he quoted this text, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." That word "forget" seemed to haunt her. May it haunt you, dear reader! It is not necessary for you to deny God's existence, to mock at Him, to despise Him, to reject Him, to neglect Him; all you have to do is to forget God. Do you know the God who says, "There is no difference"? Have you forgotten that He identifies you with all descended from Adam? Have you forgotten the God who drove our parents out of Eden, placing a sword crying for blood? Cain soon forgot; Abel remembered. Have you forgotten the God who swept away all in the days of Noah? Have you forgotten that He is the Judge of the living and the dead, and there is a day coming when there will be no difference? In the judgment of the living, "all the goats are equally on the left hand —there is no difference." In the judgment of the dead, "the dead, small and great stand before God"—small and great sinners, young and old, king and serf, peer and peasant—"and whosoever was not found written in in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire," for "there is no difference." Your name may have been written on the communion roll of any or all the churches, or it may have been written in the sheets of the Newgate conviction book for murderers, but "there is no difference." The lake of fire levels all distinctions. There may be—there are—many and few stripes; there may be—there are—great and small cups full of wrath, but every cup, be it great or small, is full. The lake of fire—fearful thought—rolls its hideous sea of wrath and torment in one surging wave over all that have not been enrolled in the one book of life. In Hell, and perhaps only there, for the first time, you will believe that "there is no difference." Every one believes it there.
Let me ask you to look at another picture. Three men are hung on three crosses. If you look at them, you will see that "there is no difference." If you listen to what they are saying, you will hear one at the one side mocking Him who is in the center and the one on the other side saying, "Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, but this man hath done nothing amiss." The one in the center is saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Those suffering "justly" and He that did' "nothing amiss" equally suffer, for "there is no difference." Those needing forgiveness and He who prays for their forgiveness are under the same doom, for "there is no difference." Who are they? Those on either hand are two malefactors, or thieves, who die by the condemnation of their law. He in the center was proved innocent, and He is the Judge of the living and the dead. Of his own free will He has taken the load of sin upon Him, and, under sin, He cannot be cleared. Spotless, pure, and holy though He was, He cannot escape. God can by no means clear the guilty. "He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin." He is under our guilt, and "there is no difference" between Him and the thief He must suffer. Dear reader, doesn't this explain why an innocent, amiable, virtuous, and accomplished lady is on the same level before God as a drunkard and a murderer? Here is God's perfect Son—yea, the very God-man—on the same level with malefactors, not for Himself, but for us. God became man, and gave Himself for our sins. This satisfaction that the innocent made for the guilty is offered to you, and you may freely have it, for "there is no difference."
If the vilest sinner in this world should read this—an outcast from all society, one who has lost all friends and all self-respect, the tottering drunkard coming out of his delirium tremens—I tell you as from God, this Christ is offered to you as God's love-gift. You may reckon Him yours, and proceed as if He were yours as truly as I or any other person in this world does so. You have as much right to claim Him as we, for "there is no difference" in God's sight.
His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood avails for me.
Thus, my friend, for whom especially I write this, you have to take the lost sinner's place, for God says, "there is no difference." As I have said before, I know this only from God's Word. You have been as happy as a bird all of your life, but you forget to find out what God thinks about you. I have tried to show you this from the Bible. I do not ask you if you feel it, for I am sure you never could. Nor could anyone feel all the catalogue of sins in Romans 1 and 3 true of him individually, but God knows us better than we know ourselves, and this is His estimate of us.
From the same word, and therefore on the same authority—and on none other—I tell you that God has given you Christ. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." I do not say that you are to feel that Christ is yours any more than I asked you to feel all the indictment true against you. You are to believe that Christ is yours, as you believe the black accusation against you is yours, only on the authority of God.
I once asked a woman, "Do you feel that you are condemned?" •
"Yes," she said.
"Now," I answered, "that is absurd. You may know and feel you are guilty, but you can only believe you are condemned, because you know you are condemned on the authority of the judge who has pronounced the sentence."
On God's authority, and on it alone, I know I am "condemned already." And on the same authority alone I know that Christ is for me—me individually. Just because I accept God's estimate of myself, I have a right to accept God's estimate of His Son for me. I believe the record that God gave of His Son to lost sinners. It seems very humble to say I am too great a sinner, or something similar, thus comparing myself with other sinners, but the humbling bit is that "there is no difference."
All are "condemned already," but only those who believe it reap the advantage of this. Advantage! What advantage can there be in knowing I am condemned already? Much, because only they who believe themselves condemned can claim a Saviour. And now the "righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all." It is offered, in the person of Christ, equally unto every person in this world, but is only "upon all them that believe: for there is no difference; for all have sinned." "All," in Rom. 3:9,9What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; (Romans 3:9) are said to be "under sin." In verse 22, all believing ones are said to be under righteousness. It is "upon all them that believe." Righteousness is altogether and forever outside of every man's attainment, for it must be perfect, and all have sinned. Read Rom. 3:19-2619Now 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. 20Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24Being 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; 26To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:19‑26). "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." God has proved us all equally by nature and practice "under sin." He now has placed all of us who believe "under grace."
Thanks be unto God, my dear friend, though you began reading this, not knowing yourself as God knows you, you may now, on God's authority, where you are, without moving, claim Christ "the righteousness of God" as yours and may rise to tell others like yourself what God thinks of us and what God has provided for us. It is in love that He will not let you alone. If we are to be "before Him" for ever, we must be "holy and without blame . . . in love." It is only "in His Son" that this can be.
Virtuous or vile, decent or indecent, rich or poor, receive and rest upon God's Christ now as He is so freely offered you. Then you may believe (not feel) that your sins are in the depths of the sea, that the shoreless ocean of the love of God flowing through a crucified Saviour has rolled over your millions of sins, and you can triumphantly say, as you look at that ocean covering all that is against you, "there is no difference."
If any one is to be kept out of Heaven for the believer's sins, that one must be Christ, as "He bore our sins." God laid on Him our iniquities.
Clad in the skins of God's own making (type of the righteousness of God), Adam and Eve were equally clothed; there was no difference.
Shut in by God's hand into the ark of gopher wood, "Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark." But they all, great and small, man and beast, bird and creeping thing, lion and worm, were equally saved, floating nearer and nearer heaven the higher the judgment waters rolled, for there was no difference.
Under the shelter of the sprinkled blood every house of Israel was safe even in Egypt, and all equally rejoiced around the roasted lamb, for there was no difference.
Under protection of the scarlet line all who were found -in Rahab's house were equally safe when all in Jericho were destroyed, for there was no difference.
None of all those enrolled in the Lamb's book of life can be cast into the lake of fire. They shall never see the second death, for in that book there is no difference; once there, they are perfectly safe for ever. God's salvation of lost sinners must always be through judgment. We must accept His ordinance. What was there in skins of beasts, an ark of gopher wood, a few drops of blood, a red cord, or in a certain book? They are God's ordinance, God's perfect way. It will matter little what we think will condemn or save; let us accept God's thoughts for both. God has written out our character. Read Rom. 1:29,29Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, (Romans 1:29) "Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful." Gal. 5:19,19Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, (Galatians 5:19) "Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like."
But I hear some one say, "That is the character of a heathen."
"Yea, friend, it is thine—these are what characterize thy heart. They may be kept wider, but they are all there in germ, though not necessarily developed into transgression."
"Nay, all these are not in my heart."
"Well, I'm sorry to hear it."
"Why?"
"Because only this character will be received at Calvary. Only what God has written about us will be accepted by Him. Coming to Calvary, acknowledging this, we shall hear His voice saying, 'I, even I am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins,' and all are gone for ever."
Why doesn't every one believe that his heart is desperately wicked? Because it is deceitful above all things, and cannot bear to hear the truth spoken about itself.
Accept the character God has given to you, and accept the Saviour He has provided for you.
Thou just and holy God,
Before Thee who can stand?
Guilty, condemned, all waiting wrath
In judgment from Thy hand.
One sin deserves a hell,
A death that ne'er shall die;
Our sins like sands on ocean's shores
In millions 'gainst us lie.
Thou God of truth and grace,
We praise Thee for Thy way
By which the guilty may draw near—
Their guilt all put away.
Thy Christ, who bled and died,
Up to Thy Throne has gone;
Himself Thy love-gift we accept,
We rest on Him alone.
We praise Thee as Thy sons
Before our Father's face,
As o'er our every sin now rolls
The ocean of Thy grace.