A WRONG idea prevails today. It is that something must be added to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, in order to fit the soul for the presence of God.
The Word of God declares that that sacrifice alone, without any addition whatsoever on our part, appropriated by faith, places the soul before God in peace and joy and full assurance. Hence we read that “being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:11Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1)).
Yes, thank God, we have peace with Him! Only think of the idea, the false and blasphemous idea that we should or could add anything to the value of Christ’s sacrifice!
But how do we know that it is sufficient, or that God requires no addition?
Simply because “God raised him from the dead!”
And His resurrection is proof of one thing at least, viz., that God is fully satisfied with what I may call the payment which our Lord Jesus made on Calvary.
“If Christ be not raised... ye are yet in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:1717And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. (1 Corinthians 15:17)); but, conversely, if Christ be raised, ye are not in your sins.
What a blessed contrast!
Now, God is most desirous that the infinite worth of this sacrifice should be known and accepted.
If the devil can take from its value, or detract from what has been well called its “solitary dignity,” and thus fling souls into darkness and hopeless legal effort, he certainly will.
Think, dear reader, “sin,” “all sin,” “cleansed,” “by blood,” “the blood of Jesus Christ,” “the Son of God”! I beg of you to weigh these words; to view them singly and together; to admit that you are a sinner for whom that blood was shed; and to make your own the cleansing, therein stated, from all your sins.
Having done this, you are put at once in the enjoyment of peace with God. How blessed! What satisfies the creditor pacifies the debtor!
Let me illustrate. I had occasion, the other day, to pay a small account to a Roman Catholic tradeswoman. I placed the bill, and the payment in full, on her counter. She receipted the bill, but placed a wrong date upon it. Noticing the mistake, she at once corrected it, saying that she would not have asked for repayment of this account. That I quite believed.
But in order to lead to higher thoughts, I said―
“Would you not have asked for half?”
“Oh, no,” she replied.
“Nor a quarter?”
“No, no,” she reiterated.
“Nor even a tenth?”
“No, never,” she rejoined.
“My one full payment suffices?”
“Yes, it is all I want,” she said.
“Now, in spiritual matters, do you not think that the payment made for sin by our Saviour when He died on the cross is quite enough, and that God requires no further payment?” I asked her.
“Oh! but we must be sorry and penitent for our sins,” she said.
“Quite true,” I replied,” only notice that our penitence cannot add to the payment. Thus, sorrow for my indebtedness to you could not affect, in, anyway, the settlement of your charge.
That could alone be done by an equivalent in money. It is money and not sorrow that pays the debt.” I then quoted the wonderful verse (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)) before given, to which she said, “Very beautiful.” And it is a beautiful verse; but how easy to admire a divine truth without admitting or adopting it.
Many admire the beautiful life of Jesus and idolize His cross as well, who, at the same time, have never owned His authority nor accepted His salvation.
The supplementary “good works” of the Protestant, and the “continuation of the sacrifice” in the Roman Catholic mass are equally an insult (however pious the intention) to the completeness of the sacrifice, and a denial of the resurrection of Christ in their full and blessed justifying power. He was raised for our justification (Rom. 4:2525Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25)).
To work from salvation is a very different thing from working for it. The blessed Lord did this in the throes and agony of Calvary, when “he was made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him,” so that, thus freed from every load, we might work out our own salvation in the expression of that same beautiful life that He lived when here below.
God calls Christ’s blood “precious”; and, dear reader, see to it that you attempt not to add anything to its atoning value.
J. W. S.