Friday, February 24, 2012

The Daily Cross

And Jesus said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. *Luke 9:23* Our believing on Christ comes with a cross. The cross mentioned here is the difficulty we will face every day when we avow our faith in Jesus Christ to this evil world. Can you bear that? Are you willing to take Christ, cross and all? The chief business of a disciple of Christ is to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. With purpose of heart we need to put our feet down in the footprints of the despised Crucified Christ. We need to take up a decided position on the Lord's side. Our cross is the reproach and troubles which come to us by following Jesus in our daily lives. When you take up the cross, you will lose the world's praises and have to renounce and defy public opinion. It is your highest wisdom to be a follower of Christ. When any man chooses to follow Christ, he will give up his sinful pleasures, sinful companions, and vile habits; and he immediately be met with the world's ridicule, contempt, scorn, and hatred. The true disciple will face the jeering of his old friends; his name will be cast out as evil. *Matthew 10:38* *Matthew 16:24* *II Timothy 3:12*
Ridicule and rebuke will come to us for Christ's sake. We will be sneered at, misrepresented, and avoided. You will have to face a perpetual jeering in the workplace, the cold shoulder, innuendoes, avoidances of your company, snide remarks, dark hints, enduring the world's hiss and whispers. Only grace can enable us to take up the cross of difficulty. Many are afraid to be thought of as one of those vulgar, backward people who trust and follow Jesus. Human nature doesn't want to lose the respect of the ungodly world. Christians must expect to bear the opposition, persecution and ridicule of worldly men; it has always been so, and it always will be so. When you turn away from the world, and accuse them of being wrong and lost, the world will resent you for it. Your motives will be misrepresented by people who ought to support you.

If you publicly and decidedly come out on the Lord's side and become a follower of the Crucified, you will suffer shame and be shunned in respectable society. Nothing may actually be said to you, but there will be a very clear indication that your company is not preferred. They will begin to look down upon you with disdain. Your witnessing for Christ may be met with profanity and threats. The world hates to be told frankly and plainly that they are sinners deserving hell, and that they in need of the Blood Atonement of Jesus Christ. The simple utterance of the Gospel stirs up the ungodly, and they will have nothing further to do with you. You will lose face with the world as you follow in Savior's footsteps. *Matthew 16:24-25* The worldling will attack you with harmful abuse and lying detraction and slander. Your beliefs will be misrepresented, and your words will be twisted. All these things are needful so we may know more of the Lord Jesus, and become more like Him.

The world cannot tolerate a thoroughly earnest Christian who endeavors to propagate his faith and disseminate the Gospel, who will not leave sinners to perish, who bothers lost souls, and steadily witnesses for the Truth. Many will despise you if you seek to spread the good news of Christ crucified for sinners. Christ was despised of men here on earth, and now He is still despised in us. Do not expect the world to understand you, for it did not understand your Savior. Your actions and words will be misrepresented, and your motives will be ridiculed. *John 15:19* If you belonged to this world, its dogs would not growl and bark at you. The religious hypocrite cannot live without the world's smile, approval and fellowship. Mixing in loose company, lewd things, anything that has to do with the gratification of vile passions of the carnal nature - these things must be given up, come out from it, give it all up, cast it behind you. Shun vice, seek virtue. Human nature loves ease of body, indulgence of tastes, the joy of being seen and admired, being significant, and grasping at power and position. This world has no use for the real Jesus Christ of the Bible. When you live for Jesus Christ, you will be wronged, you will lose the friendship of some you esteemed. You will have to sacrifice some connections and give up some standing or position which you once coveted.

After we are born again, sin begins to vex and plague us. Satan begins to tempt and inject blasphemous thoughts, and urges us to doubt the existence of God and His faithfulness, goodness and mercy. Worldly friends begin to annoy and tempt you to continue to run with them. Old companions give you the cold shoulder, because they begin to see something strange and different about you that doesn't suit their tastes. They will ridicule you and say your Christian conduct is fanaticism, hypocrisy and pride. The world jests at true virtue and jeers at sincere piety. There are some parents that have no liking for the things of God and their children which are converted will have a hard time of it. Some Christians are cut out of their family's wills and ostracized. Be a follower of Christ, give up all that you are and all you have, to be forever His. Have faith in God. The moment you clear come out for Jesus Christ, the world will blacklist you from that day on.

The world thinks a Christian is a worthless and strange person. Your old companions will laugh at you; they think their sinful activity will last forever, and that their sin will go unpunished. But mark it down, God will get the last laugh. *Psalm 2:4; Psalm 37:13; Proverbs 1:26* Leave your old, worldly associations behind, and come over to the Lord's side. The world is accustomed to vent their sharpest jokes upon the Bible, Christ, and Christians. A disciple of Christ is a learner, he sits at Jesus' feet and learns of Him in the Scriptures. The disciple is also a follower of Christ who desires to be like Jesus in thought, word, and deed. A disciple is a man who is willing to bear reproach, to be scoffed at, to be ridiculed, and taunted for righteousness' sake. A disciple is one who is willing rather that men sneer at him as a hypocrite, and braves the cold shoulder of the company he would otherwise have enjoyed, and all because he must and will follow the mind of Christ and the direction and leading of God's Spirit. A disciple seeks God's smile, not man's.

The world dismisses the Gospel with a sneer. Get ready, when you bring up Jesus Christ, it is like turning a light on in a dark room. The light of the Gospel upsets men who are enjoying the darkness of their sin. Take courage, take up your cross daily, and follow Christ. When you publicly confess Jesus Christ, the world will turn their back on you, and you will turn your back on the world, and live nearer to Jesus. The friendship of the world is enmity to God. Some in your workshop may meet you with loud laughter and bitter scorn. A Christian is a marked man. The moment a man becomes a Christian, the world points him out in the workshop; they jeer at him morning to night. They swear as much as they like, use filthy talk, and blaspheme God's name, till you feel sick at the language you hear, but if a fellow workman chooses to live clean, and behave himself decently, then he is the laughter of the workshop. Christians often keep their faith a secret, in order to escape a few sneers and win the world's vain smiles. Thin-skinned professors faint when society gives them the cold shoulder.

Your past friends may abhor you, people may frown at you, and falsely accuse you, and spread rumors about you. The world laughs and sneers at the Gospel as an absurdity. Worldly men will bring against you false and malicious statements designed to injure your reputation and testimony. Rejoice in the fact that you are ridiculed and reviled for Christ's name. The world will try to magnify and hold up your imperfections to ridicule you. About the best thing that happens to a Christian is when worldlings cut his acquaintance. The world does a good thing for the child of God when it casts him out. Outside of the world's house is the safest place for the Christian. We must go forth unto Christ without the camp, bearing His reproach. Sins must be given up, evil practices and habits must be forsaken, and we must endeavor to follow the pattern of the Savior's holiness and humility.

The world's shafts, stabs and slanders will always come at the witnessing Christian. Jesus asks us to patiently endure the scoff and hiss of the world, the laughter and taunts of the infidel, and the scorn and reviling of the atheist. The world's laughter at the Bible cannot alter the divine absolute truth of the Scriptures, and their jests cannot avert their inevitable doom in the Lake of Fire. A smiling world is worse than a frowning one. Care little for the world's praise or flattery. The early Christians were treated as the offscouring of the world, and the very scum of mankind. Separations take place between close friends because of Christ. A Christian man's foes are often them of his own household. You will be neglected by your old friends, threatened by your parents, and forsaken by who once counted you to be good. Christianity requires dying to self, and self doesn't just lie down and die.

Reproach for Christ's sake is the greatest honor that can possibly happen to a Christian. Disgrace for Jesus shall be your honor, and scorn and shame for the Gospel's sake shall be your highest glory, write them not down for loss, but for gain. We must be willing to suffer for Jesus' sake earthly loss, scoffing, the cold shoulder, cutting jests, sarcasm and sneers. Worldly gain, comfort, and honor will be lost if you are a soul-dier of the Cross. The genuine Christian will often be the object of hatred to those who loved him before. You are everybody when you think the world's way, but you will be a nobody in the world's eyes, when you begin to think and live Jesus' way. As long as you will buy them a drink, you are cool, but as soon as you have done with their ways, they will have nothing for you but curses and kicks. You will be despised and shunned. Your old friends will become your foes and forsake you. They will begin to hate you more than they loved you before. When you joined in their partying and drinking you were a fine fellow, but now they rate you as a fool and slander your character. Their dislike of you is a badge of your discipleship to Jesus. Some folks will point the finger of scorn at you on the street, they will point you out in order to try and cut you out in order to try and get you to forsake your walk with Christ. The world does all of this because a Christians clean testimony and sincere witness condemns and convicts and makes them very uneasy in their sinful and doomed state.

Your cross may be to forsake an evil occupation, a loss of income, to break off with worldly companions, or to leave some sinful habit. Taking up your cross is sometimes facing your family, friends and old companions with the Gospel. Be prepared - you may suffer loss of friendships. If you have to lose anything, in any way, for Christ's sake, in order to be His conscientious disciple, that is your cross. To give up some pleasure or habit which is not pleasing to the Lord is taking up your cross. For some their cross is loneliness, slander, persecution, disgrace, criticism, insults, scorn, sneers, frowns, losses, opposition, grinding poverty, or a sickly body prone to pain. A cross could be an ungodly spouse or an unthankful child. There is a skeleton in every household, and a crook in every lot.

Taking up our cross is mortifying the deeds of the body through the Spirit, putting off the old man, making no provision for the flesh, abstaining from the appearance of evil, and seeking to walk in the Spirit, and not to grieve Him. People will cut your acquaintance, and worldlings will scowl at you for bringing up Jesus, and sin, and Hell around them. Taking up our cross is a humble acquiescing to God's will, a yielding to our lot in life, and a patient willingness and submission to divine Providence. Taking up our cross is being satisfied with God and finding our significance in surrendering to Him in our daily lives.

Faith Is (4)

Saving faith is made up of three things - knowledge, belief, and trust. Gospel Faith comes from the word of God. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. You must first hear in order that you can know what is to be believed. A measure of knowledge is essential to Faith. Search the Scriptures, seek ye out of the book of the Lord and read, listen, learn, seek to know God in Christ. The Gospel talks of free forgiveness, change of heart, adoption into God's family. The man Christ Jesus is the only Mediator between God and men. The atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the center of the target at which saving Faith aims. The blood of Christ is the point in which saving Faith mainly fixes itself. To know Christ is life eternal.

Believe that God is. Free Justification by faith is the grand truth. Firmly believe this - Christ's bloody Sacrifice is completely and fully accepted by God. Whosoever believeth in Jesus is not condemned. The last ingredient of Bible Faith is full trust in Christ Himself. Commit your immortal soul to the merciful Incarnate God - Jesus Christ, the dying and living Savior. Rest all your hope on His gracious Gospel. Repose on His atoning blood, accept His perfect Righteousness, and all will be well with your soul. Genuine Faith always leads to sincere repentance and an abhorrence and forsaking of your sins. Trust is the root of saving Faith. Lean with all your weight upon the Finished Work of Jesus Christ. Simple, unquestioning faith is the very best way to come to Jesus. Joyful submission, childlike confidence in the Savior's Finished Work. A little child reposes on his mother's bosom, he reposes entirely to her care.

Faith begins with knowledge, faith then believes actual Bible facts of which it is sure. Faith stakes its eternal destiny upon the truth of revelation found in the Holy Bible. Faith stakes everything on the truth and promises of God. Faith is simply believing that Christ is what He said He is, and that He will do what He has promised to do, and Faith expects this of Him. Jesus is God in human flesh, the sinless Savior, who made a sin-offering on your behalf, He bore your sins in His own body on the tree. He rose from the dead, and now He ever liveth to make intercession for us. Christ will do what He has promised. If you come to Him, He will not cast you out. Look to Jesus for free pardon, justification, preservation, and eternal glory. Believe Jesus is what He said He is, and that Jesus will do what He says He will do. Simply rest upon His promises.

Faith is simply clinging to Christ with helpless dependence. With all your heart and soul, cleave to Jesus for dear life. Cling to Jesus, when you can do nothing else, this is the very soul of real Faith. Faith depends upon Christ and follows Him. A blind man trusts to a guide who has sight. Likewise trust yourself to Christ, He will never lead you the wrong way.

The great object of true living Faith is Christ Jesus Himself. Faith is a simple, humble reliance upon the Precious Blood; genuine conversion through real faith in Christ's Blood Atonement. A most childlike confidence in Christ alone. *Faith in His Blood* is the essence and sum of true godliness - the root of the matter. Childlike delight in God. Trust, love, service, delight in the Savior. Faith is trusting wholly upon the person, work, name, merit, blood, and power of the Son of God. This is Faith: *Acts 16:31; John 1:12*. Trust yourself with Jesus Christ. To believe God is to worship Him. Faith is oxygen to the soul. Genuine daily godliness is heart-work; it requires thought, care, sincerity, prayerfulness, and watchfulness. Faith in Christ is the main thing. Faith is a childlike trust in the Great Shepherd. Trust to God, rely upon the Atonement of His Son. Faith is an empty cup being placed under Christ, the flowing fountain. Faith is the taking, appropriating, and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ into one's soul. Have done with your doings, renounce your self-righteousness.

Free Justification, Full Redemption, Irreversible Acceptance, Infinite Love, and Boundless Grace is available down at the feet of Jesus Christ. Faith in His name is key. The only way to obtain the Lord's blessing is Faith. Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust. Faith Him, do not doubt Him. Faith is the only channel by which we can draw life from Jesus. He that believeth in Me hath everlasting life - that is it. Faith is an empty-handed receiver taking Jesus Christ freely. Faith ascribes all the glory of his Salvation to Jesus only. The root of holy living is Faith in the Blood of Jesus Christ.

Faith Is (3)

Simple faith in Jesus Christ justifies the ungodly. Where there is true Faith in Jesus' Blood, there is Salvation. Faith rests wholly and entirely upon the Son of God, looking to Him for Everything. Genuine faith trusts Christ for pardon of sin and victory over sins. Faith is leaning, depending, relying upon God manifest in the flesh (I Timothy 3:16). As a key hangs upon a nail, likewise hang your helpless soul on Jesus. Faith is giving up all self-reliance and self-dependence, and the resting of the soul upon Jesus Himself. Our faith is fixed on Him, our affection is drawn to Him, our hope is bent toward Him. Be content to simply trust to the Savior. The Savior has never disappointed a trusting sinner. Trust yourself with Jesus now.

Lean hard with all your weight upon the mercy of God in Christ Jesus - That is Faith. Oh for more Monday-Saturday faith, more household faith, more workplace faith, more private and public day-to-day faith. Believe God's testimony about Jesus Christ, and then trust yourself with Jesus Christ, and Salvation is yours instantaneously. Faith is a self-denying Grace, and never dares to boast. Simply believe God's words, humbly trust Christ to save you from the love of sin. Faith glorifies God, not human nature. Faith is the starting point and the ending point of Salvation. All scriptural Faith is created by the Holy Ghost. Come what may, fix your faith in God.

This is certain - to live unsaved and unforgiven is a very dangerous condition. A single drop of real Faith in your heart will set you to praying and seeking Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus, give me eternal life now. Lean upon the mercy of God in Christ Jesus - that is Faith. Make Him your sole hope and confidence. Trust yourself with Jesus now - that is the one demand of the Gospel. Believe on Jesus and live. Trust alone in God's Son for your eternal salvation. You need to look the matters between between God and your soul squarely in the face. Rest on Christ at once (Matthew 11:28-30). Stop practicing and loving sin. Believe God's testimony about Jesus Christ, and trust yourself with Jesus Christ, and salvation is yours on the spot. Trust yourself in the hands of the great Substitute. Hope in the Father's mercy, hope in the Savior's blood, hope in the Spirit's quickening.

The devil makes lost people feel saved, and he makes saved people feel lost. Place your Faith in Jesus Christ, believe the infallible word of God, confide in His infallible Son. This is Faith - the complete trusting of your soul to Jesus Christ - God manifest in the flesh. The simple act of believing in Jesus Christ is the way to New Jerusalem. The only thing which can save a sinner is simple faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. A childlike, receptive, expectant faith in the living Savior is essential. Faith is the simple act of trusting Jesus Christ, and faith is self-denying, self-abhorring. Faith is trusting Christ daily. Pure unquestioning confidence in Christ Jesus. Simple-hearted, honest, trustful, helpless, loving reliance on the Lamb of God. Glorifying God on beds of sickness, bearing pain with patience, blessing God through it all. God only uses our littleness (John 3:30). Simple trustfulness in the Precious Blood is the way of safety. Faith is determination, dedication, and discipline for the glory of God.

Faith Is (2)

Sin is an exceeding great and evil thing that will damn your soul, and the Blood of Jesus Christ is an exceeding precious thing that is able to save your soul unto the uttermost. Blessed is the man that closes with the Blood of God's Son. Now understand the Gospel: Whosoever believes on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. Salvation by grace through faith in Christ's atoning Blood is as plain as the nose on your face. Jesus Christ gave Himself to die for our sins, that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have Everlasting Life. All men are sinners. Salvation from sinning against God is only found in Jesus' bloody Sacrifice. God is Just and the Justifier of the sinner that believes in Jesus.

Think much of Jesus Christ - the Lord anointed, the Savior. Read about Him, study His person, His finished work, His character, His Cross, His Blood, His Resurrection, His Intercession. The Cross creates Faith. Looking to the Lamb of God is the way to get Faith. Read the Bible carefully and prayerfully with the eye of Faith, with the aid of the Holy Ghost. Think seriously and often about the way of Salvation by Jesus Christ. Trust heartily in Him. Trust is the essence of saving Faith. Not just believing Gospel facts, but trusting to a living Person who was crucified for your sins, and then rose again from dead, and is now alive forever more. Jesus becomes your Substitute when you trust Him. Salvation lies in the simple act of trusting in the risen Savior. Faith says, "I will follow Christ, for He is the greatest, the wisest, and the best."

Your faith must be fixed on Christ's atoning blood. Childlike repose on the Savior. Childlike, contrite, sincere faith and trust in Jesus. You cannot trust yourself, and trust Christ too. Believe only in Jesus, and not in yourself, and His Righteousness will be yours. God imputes His Righteousness to sinners who believe on His Son, without works. Come now and rely upon Jesus, and His Righteousness is yours. Salvation is by Jesus Christ, and received by Faith alone, bestowed as a Free Gift upon the unworthy. Christ must be received as divine Charity, or not at all. *John 6:47* H-A-T-H spells, got it. *I John 5:12* If you take Christ into yourself by Faith, He can never be taken from you. When you breathe in air, the air is yours. When you swallow down water, the water is yours. You need to swallow down the Gos-pill by faith. Faith swallows down Christ spiritually into the starving, thirsting soul. Receive Christ Himself down into your heart, and Christ is yours forever.

Believe on Jesus now, trust yourself with Him. Have done with all other confidences. Make this your testimony - Jesus is all my Salvation. Trust in His power and blood to save your soul. Leave feelings and doings behind; fix your faith in what Jesus did for sinners, just like you. Take God at His word. What is your ruling passion? True faith in God turns a man as a rudder turns a ship. Faith in Jesus is the sure sin-killer. Faith is the root grace that cleanses the heart of sinful man. The beginning of Faith is looking unto Jesus now. Look away from everything else, and Trust to Jesus' Blood and Righteousness. None but Jesus can help my guilty soul. Single eye, single hope - Christ is All. Looking unto Jesus is the way. Study well the sin-bearing Lamb of God. True faith is the operation of the Spirit of God. The Gospel puts man down where he belongs, and lifts Jesus Christ up where He belongs. Faith is the lifeline directly to Jesus Christ Himself.

Trust Jesus, and then Avow your faith in Christ, that is, Come out and declare openly and frankly and boldly that you belong to Jesus Christ - tell your family and buddies and strangers about your faith in Jesus Christ. True faith is every-day faith. Childlike, gentle, grateful, obedient faith in the pardoning Savior. Avoid all appearance of evil, separate from all that Christ disapproves of. Live out-and-out for Jesus Christ. Love and obey God practically in your daily life. By the grace of God and for the glory of God, endeavor to avoid all your sins privately and publicly.

Faith Is (1)

What is it to believe in Jesus? First, the firm and cordial assent to scriptural Gospel truth. God sent His Son, born of a Jewish virgin woman, to die in the place of guilty men. God the Father laid on Jesus the iniquities of us all. He bore the punishment due to our sins, and was made a Curse for us. True faith is a sincere belief of scriptural truth. Heartily believe the Gospel: Isaiah 53:5-7. The grand doctrine of Substitution - II Corinthians 5:19-21. God ordained to save sinful men by a substitutional sinless, bloody Sacrifice. Sin was punished in the person of Jesus Christ, and now mercy is extend to the guilty. Give hearty assent to Jesus offering Himself up to suffer in our place. Agree with all your soul and mind to God's way of free salvation by simple faith in Jesus' atoning blood.

Second, Accept the Sin-Bearer for yourself. You have committed personal and actual sin against God. You are lost by the sin of first Adam, you must be saved by the Righteousness of Another, which must personally accept and appropriate for yourself. Jesus has offered a bloody Atonement, and that Atonement becomes yours when you accept it by putting your trust in Jesu alone now.

Third, there must a personable trust. First, comes assent to the truth, then acceptance of that truth for yourself, and then a simple trusting of yourself wholly to Christ Jesus, as your Substitute. The essence of faith is trust, reliance, dependence on the Blood and Righteousness of Jesus Christ. Cast away every other confidence of every sort, save confidence in Jesus' Precious Blood. Jesus satisfied God's divine justice by enduring the wrath of God on the Cross. Jesus took all the punishment that was due to our sin at the end of our days. Look alone to Jesus' finished work who God has set forth to be the Propitiation for human sin.

Faith in Jesus Christ's Blood alone brings immediate salvation. Receive Christ freely, trust yourself with Him now. Look to His dear wounds. What is it to believe on Jesus Christ? It is just this: it is to trust yourself with Jesus now. Faith in God is true wisdom - childlike confidence in the word of God. Constant trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Childlike confidence in Christ crucified. Stop living impulsively in the motions of sin. True faith is always praying faith.

Saving faith is the work of the Holy Ghost, not you. All your sinful life will laid bare at the Judgment. True saving faith concerns itself with the person and work the Lamb of God whom God raised from the dead. Childlike gratitude, adoring love, holy obedience, and trembling at God's words. Childlike trust in Jesus alone. Trust your soul with Him. The Holy Spirit's first work in any sinner is the withering of all human hope and righteousness. The awful withering of the Spirit of God dries up vain human glory. The merits of Christ is only gotten by faith in His Blood, so keep to that. Confide in Christ abundantly, constantly. Be done with self-saving. Confide alone in the Son of God - the bleeding Sin-Bearer for guilty man. Quit your self-righteous struggle against God's Son, and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Real faith trusts Jesus Christ when it cannot trace Him. You need to faith God, when you can't find Him.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

The Old, Old Story

Nothing in the world shows you the deep depravity of human nature, than when a man rejects Jesus Christ, a sinless man who died for his sins. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Jesus died directly in your place as your Substitute. Christ suffered for your sins, the Just for the unjust. Christ is the Just One, and you are the unjust one. You are so bad that God Himself had to become a man and shed His blood and die in your place in order to save you. Jesus bled, suffered, and died in your place. Christ's bloody death was an Atonement for your transgressions against God. You must understand that you are a sinner, justly condemned to die and go to Hell. Your judgment is sound. Your godless behavior deserves the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:15).

Your main problem is that you love what is bad - bad habits, bad people, bad music, bad language, bad thinking. By nature, you hate what is good, and love what is bad. You have become reprobate, unable to distinguish what is good and bad. You rejoice to do evil, and delight in wickedness and perversity of evil. You have no concern or charity toward others that can never pay you back. The Gospel irritates you because it wants to get rid of your sin. Your attitudes are rebellious, and your natural appetites are filthy. You have rejected Christ and spiraled downward into darkness. Ask yourself - What do I like to watch, linger around, talk about, read, listen to, and look forward to? You relish in your sin as if it were a sport that excites you. You give approval and applause to those that practice sin. You're a full-blown sin-ner - you long to participate in, listen to, and watch those things which are offensive to God.

One of the main things that keeps many a man from believing on Jesus Christ, is that he has a self-righteous idea of himself. This is exceedingly common with human nature. The man thinks that he is not as other men are, and even though he doesn't tell you, he is very proud of himself. He doesn't say it, but at the bottom of his heart, he is convinced that nobody is worthy of greater respect than he is. He has been scrupulously honest, he works hard, he brought up his family the best he could, paid his bills, obeyed the authorities, and set a good example in his own way. He is a good fellow in his own eyes, for he is generous to the poor, and gives time and money to his church.

This kind of self-made man will not believe the Gospel, for the Gospel tells him that he is fallen, that his Christ rejection is wicked, and that his past sins are so many that God has already condemned him forever (John 3:18); and that he must escape from that condemnation, or he must go to Hell. The Gospel tells him there is no salvation except by pure grace through faith in the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, apart from human merit. The Gospel denies that he has any merit. The Gospel pulls off all of his self-made garments in which he boasts, and makes him stand naked before the divine justice of God, and the self-righteous man does not like that at all. The man says, "No! I will not be treated this way, the Gospel destroys my character. I'm the boss of me. I will take my chances and not believe the Gospel, but hope still to be saved by my own natural goodness." The man doesn't understand that the spiritual Law judges his thoughts, desires, and imaginations as sinful. His self-righteousness holds him back from Christ.

If you died today and went to Hell, God would be perfectly within His rights to condemn you. You've earned death and Hell. You've worked at it all your life; the wages of your sins against God is Death. You have it coming. You are a terrible rascal in the sight of God. It is so difficult to find a guilty sinner in America today; self-righteousness is a damnable thing. The reason why any man ever gets saved, is because he finally realizes that he's not good enough to get to heaven by his own righteousness. You justly deserve to go to Hell, because you think you don't need God's Son, Jesus Christ. Now understand - An innocent Sufferer died in your place.

A bad man knows a clean woman, when he sees one. You know an innocent man when you see one. Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God, was Innocent, and He died in your stead. Homicide is when you kill a man, Infanticide is when you kill an innocent baby, Regicide is when you murder a king, and Deicide is when you kill your God. Your sins killed God manifest in the flesh on Calvary's Cross (Isaiah 53:5-6). What can wash away your sins? Nothing but the Blood of Jesus (Romans 5:9; Colossians 1:20). Blood is pumping through your body right now, and it is giving you physical life; and God's Blood (Acts 20:28) is the only thing that can give your immortal soul eternal life after your body dies. Jesus was the innocent Substitute who bore your sins in His own body and paid the price due to divine justice for your sins. Jesus was hurt for you; your sins caused His pain, suffering, and death.

Self-righteous religious ego-maniacs wind up in Hell where they belong. Human nature wants to be somebody and feel significant. Only the Substitute satisfied the demands of the Law and Divine Justice. The Law says someone has to die for your sin. It can either be you, or it can be Christ, you choose. Jesus' Blood paid all that the Law demanded and fully satisfied all the claims of God's divine justice. Please don't die and go to Hell when you don't have to. A guilty conscience makes cowards of us all. Skepticism, indifference, carelessness, infidelity, thoughtlessness cannot quieten a troubled conscience. God gave you a conscience, a built-in alarm system, that alerts you to your dangerous state, similar to a smoke alarm in your home. Men reject Christ because of the fear of man, loving and holding to sin, and procrastination.

You've never done anything to merit Christ's Substitution for you. God must give you a break you don't deserve, or you will perish. Human nature thinks it can get to heaven by doing something to earn it. None can keep alive his own soul. If you try to help Christ out, you will die in your sins. Look only to the bloody Sacrifice of Christ - the Great Sin-Bearer. Give yourself up to Jesus now, on the spot. Your sin and guilt will remain on your soul until you repent, forsake your own righteousness, and trust completely to the *Blood* of Jesus Christ. Whatever you may be trusting besides Jesus Christ, drop it. Jesus died in your place, trust Him without delay.

O God, I know I am a lost and guilty sinner, I know I can't help save myself, I want to be saved from sinning against You, and here and now, You helping me, the best way I know how, from my heart, I trust and receive Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, as my personal Savior from divine justice and the love of sin, I trust only to His atoning blood for the free forgiveness of all my sins, and from now on, I want to be counted on His side.

Nothing to Pay

God must and will save your soul if you trust His Son's Finished Work. Bring nothing to Christ, but your sinfulness, come empty-handed. No money, no price, nothing to pay. Jesus only asks that you take everything, all gratis, from His hand. Don't put on anything but Christ, or anything with Christ. None but Jesus - must be your motto. He who has 'nothing to pay' gets all his debts cancelled instantly and forever by His Best Friend. Jesus Christ so loved sinners that He built the Red Cross Hospital. All patients received there must be sin-sick and bankrupt. Salvation is all of grace, and the sole channel of grace is the Lord Jesus Christ, who lived, loved, bled, died, and rose again from the dead for our salvation. Perish every thought of human pride, let Christ be magnified. The free favor of God is what you need most.

The Gospel must be received freely, gratis. The Lord doesn't bargain or barter with bankrupt sinners, you can never deserve God's mercy. You can't make yourself fit for God's Salvation. Come to Christ for everything you need. Don't try to impress Him with your puny dead works. Your own efforts only reveal your self-righteous rebellion and pride. Come and take freely what Christ provides. Death came through Eve's eye and mouth, but salvation comes through the ear. All God's mercy to a sinner is all gratis, that is, free for the taking. God never sells;He always gives. He asks no payment from you. Only divine grace can pardon such heinous sins as yours. Jesus is our Ransom, Substitute and Sin-Bearer. He suffered for us what God's wrath and justice demanded of us. God punished Christ instead of you. If you trust Christ's payment, then God can no longer punish you, you are clear, free to go. Christ paid all your debts, the receipt is given, you debts are all gone. God's divine justice has no claims on you.

You cannot earn eternal life. Salvation must be all Gratis. You must received the forgiveness of sins as a penniless beggar by God's free mercy down low at Christ's pierced feet. You must receive and take everything freely from the hand of the Crucified Savior. Lie down utterly undone and ruined before Jesus. Your next stop will be the Judgment, prepare to meet thy God. Only Precious Blood can make Atonement for your guilty soul. No one is neutral on the Blood of Christ. You are either going to Heaven through it, or to Hell without it. Every lie that you ever told came from the devil. You have a lying and lustful heart. If you reject the Blood of Jesus Christ, you are doomed for sure. Eternity is forever. Where will you spend it? The wages of sin is death. Sin kills your soul. It's not what you can do, it's what Jesus has done. The fig leaves of self-righteousness might hide your sins from each other, but not from God.

God has never changed His mind about sin, He still abhors it. God burned Sodom to the ground because of sin. Human nature says, "Well, I've done the best I could, and that should be good enough, I'm just as good as most people, if God let's anyone into heaven, He'll surely let me in." But the best you have done will not do the job. Without the shedding of Blood, there is no remission (forgiveness of sins). Poor sinner, you cannot be saved by any of your merits, works, penance, preparation, or feelings. Jesus alone must save you as a work of gratis mercy, not because you deserve it. Salvation is free, gratis, all for nothing. Salvation is through eternal Love, through mercy alone, not of human merit. Your own righteousness is such an abominable thing to God, that it will surely damn you as your greatest profanities would; and the best thing for you to do with it is to bury it, and run away from it. Free grace is the glory of the Gospel. Grace is absolutely free, undeserved, given by God, because He delights in Mercy. Nothing else will satisfy real, convinced, awakened sinners. A real sinner knows salvation by himself is hopeless, he is shut up in a condemned cell, nothing he can do can possibly reverse his death sentence from divine justice.

You have nothing to pay, Jesus frankly forgives sinners, that is the only way. Bible Salvation is everything for nothing, pardon for free, Christ for free, Heaven for free. The Great Physician has none but gratis patients, He never charges you a thing for His services. The gifts which the God of all Grace grants to sinful men are beyond all price, He doesn't barter or haggle with self-righteous men, but makes His eternal blessings free as the air we breathe every day. To a thirsty man, the sound of a bubbling fountain is music. To a hungry man, the smell of a home cooked meal makes his mouth water. And to a convicted heart and guilty soul, free pardon is the best news he has ever heard. "Freely" means salvation is an absolute gift. Sinners can neither purchase, procure, earn, or produce salvation by their own efforts, sacrifice, or service. Salvation is only given to us sinners, not because we deserve it, but because we need it. We are empty, and Jesus fills us; we are hungry, and Jesus feeds us; we are naked, and Jesus clothes us; we are Guilty, and Jesus forgives us. No preparation or payment is required, simply confess you are guilty and need Jesus' Blood, desire to have Him, and take Jesus by trusting to His Precious Blood now. That is all.

The Crucified One

If you would be saved from divine justice and the love of sin, your salvation must come wholly and entirely from Jesus Christ Himself, the bleeding Incarnate God. View Him sinner, sweating in the garden of Gethsemane. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was seized by Roman guards, Judas betrayed Him, and then Pilate with corrupt justice gives Him over to the ravenous Pharisees to be crucified. See the red drops of blood as they fall from His dear face. Oh see Him sinner, see Him in Pilate's hall all alone surrounded by His howling enemies. View Him being scourged and the streams of bloody gore as they run down His lacerated shoulders and back. See Him upon the Cross, view His head, marked with wounds by the thorns that pierced His temples and scalp. His face was swollen, bruised, emaciated and marred. Look into His dear face, marred with sorrows for you.

Look into His eyes shedding tears for you. See the spit still in His beard, the vile spit of His cruel mockers. They blindfold, slap, and crown Him with thorns. The compassionate Lamb of God crowned with thorns. See His eyes filled with hot tears, eyes of mercy and pity. Look at His hands that bled, His lips that spoke words of mercy, love and pity toward His enemies. They strip Him naked, they rail on Him and seek to spite Him. He wept, groaned, bled and died especially for you. Look at His hands, view them as they stream with blood. See His hands that were always full of compassion and blessing nailed to the Cross. The motley crew that was assembled around the little hill of Calvary taunted Him. See His dear face marred more than any other man. His head bows upon His bosom in the extreme agonies of death. Listen to His cries from the Cross. Sinner, your Hope is in Him who died for the ungodly. Your soul's healing is only in His wounds. Your Salvation is His death and doom. His enemies were are all about Him hunting Him to His grave. Mark His unutterable misery, the indescribable agony. Only divine love can blot out sin and saves from eternal death.

Faith is the gift of Christ, go now and find it in His veins. Go to a private place, sit down and by Faith view Christ dying on the tree, and your soul shall live. Think much of the blood of Christ. Jesus was a real man on a real Cross. The blood of Jesus Christ must be all your Redemption. If you would be saved, you must must put your trust only in His sufferings for you. Swift as the sparrow pursued by the hawk, fly fast poor sinner to God's Dear Son. Think much of His goodness in dying for His enemies, His kindness in forgiving rebel sinners. O sinner, cast your guilty soul on Jesus.

The Gospel trumpet sounds out sweet and clear today - Come and welcome, come and welcome, come ungodly sinners come. None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good. Only trust in Jesus' blood and your soul shall live forever. Christ with His wounded hands, His pierced side, He was full of tenderness and mercy to sinners. You may refuse and reject Him today, but you shall not escape Him at the Judgment. Come now and bow at His feet, look up now into His dear face, say, "I trust you Jesus, and nothing else. I trust you now, save me now, for I am sinful and lost. Please have mercy on my poor through your precious blood."

Doctrines, feelings, creeds, dogmas cannot forgive your sins. You need a Person to trust to. You must deal personally with the person of the Living Redeemer - Christ Jesus the Lord. Put your immortal soul into the keeping of that Man who is also God. Rely only on the power of His arm, the power of His blood, the love of His heart, the power of His intercessions, the certainty of His promises, rest on His mercy alone. Let His bleeding love melt you into Repentance.

Let Calvary be the death of your sins. Men always find fault with hell, because they are going there; their conscience reminds them of their sinful past and warns them of the wrath to come. Repentance is the hatred of the sinful thought and deed itself. Stand at the Cross a minute, see His wounds, and the blood coming from them. See the traces of agony in His dear face. His lovely face was marred, see the unknown anguish He endured for guilty, lost and ruined rebels. Gaze upon the Crucified Creator, embrace Him, kiss His feet, look into His dear face. His bloody death is life eternal. His blood is your free pardon. The bleeding love of Christ constrains me. Holiness and purity should be our noblest aspiration.

Seek after Jesus will all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and He will save you. Rivet your eyes upon the Lamb of God, take Him to be your Savior, He is the choicest of all subjects for godly meditation. Sit still for a while and look up into His dear face. Let His love drive you closer to Him. Let the prevailing and besetting sins in your life make you look into His dear face. Clasp Him and never let go of your hold. The great price of divine Pardon is God's Precious Son - The Crucified One. Don't try to find rest anywhere but in Him. Sit still at His feet. Bring all your sins, fears, doubts, despair, anxiety, burdens and cares to Him. Christ will save you. Sit still and remember what He has done for you, what He is doing, and what He is going to do. Go straight away to the Cross, go where the Savior carried the great load of our sins upon Himself, and bore the consequences, so He could set us free forever. Look up to Jesus by simple childlike faith, view the bleeding wounds which He received on our behalf. In the Cross, in the Cross, be my glory ever. Christ is All.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Christ Instead of Me 7

By the Atonement of God's dear Son, God has made a way by which He can satisfy all the claims of His inflexible justice, and yet bestow His mercy upon the guilty. Preach the Gospel, not morality. The Gospel is so good that nothing else can equal it. The Glad Tidings of mercy for the guilty through the atoning blood of Christ Jesus. *Acts 16:31* Proclaim Christ crucified and bid sinners to trust His Precious Blood alone for free, irreversible justification. We glory in the Cross, for it is the best and highest truth. The Gospel brings free and full forgiveness to the penitent sinner. Your hope must be in the Bleeding Savior, and in Him alone. Shut your eyes to everything but Christ Jesus whom God has set forth to be a Propitiation for human sin. Jesus Christ standing in the sinner's place. God punished the sinner's guilt upon Christ instead of upon the sinner, and now all that any sinner is bidden to do is to trust Christ to save Him.

The wonderful transfer of all my sins to Jesus has been made by means of Imputation through childlike faith in the Blood of Jesus Christ. He has taken all the consequences of my guilt, and bore them all, and removed them forever. Jesus took this sinner’s place, He was despised and rejected of men, His own disciples, forsook Him, hid their faces from Him. The soldiers spit in His face, they bowed the knee and hailed Him with mockery. They put Him to the death of a heinous criminal, He received the most shameful place on Calvary – the center of the three crosses. *John 3:16-18* Give much earnest thought to this truth - God incarnate in Christ Jesus bleeding and dying for human sin.

Tell all sinners this – Jesus came to this earth to be the Substitute for sinners. His holy life is our Righteousness, His suffering and death is our complete Atonement; He appeased the wrath of God for all our sins. Good resolutions, good works, oh no, God's says, "when I see the blood, I will pass over you." Human nature thinks the Cross is ridiculous and foolish. Blood is repulsive, and so is sin; we shrink from it. The Cross of Calvary is where my Salvation was accomplished. Substitution – one of the richest words in the human language. Christ standing in my place, that I may stand in Christ’s place. Christ on the cross for me; Christ in the grave for me; Christ risen for me; Christ in heaven interceding for me.

To believe is to trust. Tell them all this – That Jesus is God Incarnate; that the Almighty became a Jewish man, that He suffered in the sinner’s place, whosoever believes in Him shall not be punished, because God punished Christ instead of me. Christ bore God’s wrath instead of me. His Substitution was for me, and it will save me, but if you believe not, you have not part in Christ. Put all your trust on Jesus. Flee from everything else to the wounds of Christ, who suffered in the sinner’s place, and to the Cross where He was made a Curse for us, so we could receive the blessing.

God made Jesus to be Sin for us. God put our sins on Jesus Christ. God lifted our sins from us to Jesus. God treated Him as if He were the sinner, which He never was, and never could be. God left Him as if He would had left a sinner. God smote Him as if He would have smitten a sinner. That which was due to us for our sins was exacted and put upon Jesus Christ. He was made a debtor for our sin debts, and He paid them in full with His life-blood. He was the Surety for our sin debt, and He smarted for it. When Justice came to smite the sinner, Justice found Jesus in the sinner’s place, and smote Him without relenting, He took the whole weight of divine wrath upon His innocent soul. Jesus Christ died without any sin of His own, yet He died a penal death, because our sins were counted as His. He took upon Him our iniquities as though they were His own, and then being found in the sinner’s place, He suffered, as if He has been the sinner, the wrath that was due for our sins, He took upon His soul.

You are a sinner, lost and undone; Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost. To do this, He had to take the sinner’s place, to bear the sinner’s guilt, to suffer the penalty that the sinner deserved to suffer. He was wounded for our transgressions. His blood was shed for you, rest your soul’s salvation upon His great work. Come to the Cross now, and trust Christ as your Substitute and Savior. Great grace, terrible wrath, the Lord is terrible against sin, but tender to the sinner. To do right, God must punish sin. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, bowed His head in death in the sinner’s place and bore the wrath of God on account of our sins.

We have thousands upon thousands of iniquities, and have transgressed the Law in every way. When we trust Christ's Finished Work, God no longer imputes these sins to us. God sets them to the account of Another, who stood in the sinner’s place, and was made to be Sin in the sinner’s place. Christ stood in your place, you can now stand in His place. The wounds that sin has made in your soul can be perfectly cured by the blood of Christ. If you apply anything but the blood of Christ, it will only poison and worsen your sin sores. Sin is truly killed when we look to Christ bleeding on the Cross. Nothing can kill sin but beholding the Lamb of God and trusting to His Righteousness.

Man cannot afford the medicine that cures the sin-sick soul. The most desperate disease is sin, and poor ragged human nature can never weave a garment fine enough (without spot) to cover the soul’s nakedness. Nothing can cover the soul of man but Christ’s perfect Righteousness. Religion’s robe must be unraveled and stripped off, before the Righteousness of Christ can be put on. Whatsoever man puts on, Satan will strip off, and leave the soul naked and open to the wrath of God. All that man can do in his own strength can never mortify and put away sin. Fall down before Christ’s majesty, love, and grace. Isaiah 2:17 Look to Christ truly, see pure grace, pure righteousness, in Him every way infinite, far exceeding all our sin and misery. I Corinthians 2:2 Only Christ’s Righteousness can bring you into acceptation with God. Christ is the Rock higher than self-righteousness, Satan, and sin. Psa 61:2-3; I Cor 10:4; Psa 81:16 Close with Jesus for justification. Stand only upon the Rock of Ages.

Put anything of your own to Christ and you spoil everything. When you believe and come to Christ, you must leave behind your own righteousness, and bring nothing but your sin (O that is hard!). You must leave behind your holiness, sanctification, duties, resolving, humblings; bring nothing but your wants and miseries, else Christ is not fit for you, nor you for Christ. Christ will only be a pure Redeemer and Mediator, and you are an undone sinner, or Christ and you will never agree. It is the hardest thing in the world for self-righteous human nature to take Christ alone for your Righteousness; that is, to acknowledge and submit to Christ’s Righteousness alone. Whatever comes in, when you go to God for acceptation, besides Christ, is antichrist, bid it be gone, make only Christ Righteousness your Refuge. Faith comes from a thorough sight of sin, a troubled conscience. Christ is my Ransom and Righteousness. Untried faith is uncertain faith.

Believing, there must be a clear conviction of sin and the merits of the blood of Christ. Christ is willing to save you, if you are a sinner. Satan charges sin upon our conscience, we charge sin upon Christ. That is gospel-like. That makes Him Christ. To take and trust Christ’s Righteousness alone, His Blood alone for salvation, that is the sum and total of the gospel. Nothing but Christ, Christ alone, for righteousness, justification, sanctification, and redemption. Self-righteousness and self-excellency hinder Christ from coming in, and till Christ comes in, guilt will not go out.

When guilt rises in us, only Christ’s blood can allay it. Make Christ your peace, not duties and tears. Look to Christ first, then do as much as you will for Him. Stand with all your soul’s weight upon Christ’s Righteousness. Take heed of having one foot on your own righteousness, and another on Christ. Christ must sit on the throne on grace in your conscience, or there is nothing but guilt, terrors, suspicions, and your soul will hang between hope and fear. See your sin’s utmost vileness and the utmost hell of your own heart. Take Christ and make Him your Advocate and you shall find Him Jesus Christ the Righteous. In all your doubtings, fears, and storms of conscience, look at Christ continually, do not argue with Satan, he desires no better, go straight to Christ, He will answer for you.

It is Christ’s office to be our Advocate (I John 2:1). His office is to answer the law, as our Surety (Hebrews 7:22). His office is to answer justice, as our Mediator (Galatians 3:20; I Timothy 2:5). He is sworn to the office (Hebrews 7:20-21). Put Christ upon it. If you attempt to do anything yourself, as satisfaction for sin, you renounce Christ the Righteous, who was made sin for us. II Corinthians 5:21 You must be a poor sinner stripped of self-righteousness. Believe Christ’s willingness to save you and that will make you willing. If you cannot believe, put Him upon it. Philippians 2:13 May your sin make you look more at Christ, and less at yourself. Waves and billows of temptations are not to drown you, but to push you off yourself and onto the Rock – Christ.

Christ is our temple, sacrifice, altar, high priest – none can come to Him but sinners, and only His blood can be brought as an offering. Your sin may be great in your eyes, do not despair, hope still, when the clouds are blackest, even then look to Christ. His precious blood speaks reconciliation (Col 1:20), cleansing (I John 1:7), purchase (Acts 20:28), redemption (I Peter 1:18), purging (Heb 9:13-14), remission (Heb 9:22), liberty (Heb 10:19); justification (Romans 5:9), nighness to God (Eph 2:13). Psalm 85:8 God speaks grace, mercy, and peace. Look upon Christ first, not sin. In every duty look to Christ, before duty, to pardon; in duty, to assist; after duty, to accept. Without this it is all careless, carnal duty. Do not legalize the gospel, nothing remains for you to suffer. Don’t make Christ a half-mediator. Human nature attempts to bear part of your sins, and make part satisfaction for yourself, but it is all vanity.

Consider Christ – look not at your duties, workings, qualifications. Look only at Christ’s merits, or it will cost you your soul. The merits of Christ alone without your works must be the foundation of your hope. Christ only can be the hope of glory. Col 1:27 When we come to God, we must bring nothing but Christ with us. Any ingredients of efforts of your own will poison and corrupt faith. He that builds upon works and doings at all, knows not the merits of Christ. If you believe in Christ, you must renounce your goodness as dung and dross. (Phil 3:7-8) Privileges, baptism, obedience, sanctification, duties, tears, repenting, resolvings must be forsaken; nothing but Christ must be held up. Your workings and self-sufficiency must be destroyed. You must take all out of God’s hand freely. Christ is the gift of God (John 4:10). Faith is the gift of God (Eph 2:8). Pardon is the free gift of God (Rom 5:16). Eternal life is the free gift of God (Rom 6:23). Human nature storms, frets, and rages at his, that all is a gift, and that man can purchase nothing with His doings and duties, that all human workings are excluded and of no value in Heaven.

Human nature contrives a way of salvation that puts it into the hands of man to sell it. Christ only gives salvation freely. Human nature always attempts to set up a way to purchase salvation by doing, and that abominates the merits of Christ. Human nature will do anything to be saved, rather than simply go to Christ and owe all to Him. Christ will have nothing from you, but human nature always thrusts its own filthy rags upon Christ. The merits of Christ and infinite satisfaction made by His death is the only way.

Christ Instead of Me 6

God Himself devised the plan of Substitution; He demanded the full penalty of sin and divine justice to fall on an innocent Sacrifice. This was clearly intended to clear guilty sinners. Jesus suffered and paid for my sins with His own blood. God laid our sins on Jesus that He might never lay it upon us. The sinner who was once guilty is no more condemned, because Another has taken upon Him the condemnation to which he was exposed. The Lord Jesus Christ came voluntarily under the Law, obeyed the Law, fulfilled the Law, satisfied the Law, and now His Righteousness can be freely imputed to the believer. While Christ stands in the sinner’s place, the trusting sinner stands in Christ’s place. God looks upon Christ as though He is a sinner, and punished Him in the sinner’s place, so now, the Lord looks upon the trusting sinner as Righteous, even though He has no righteousness of His own. God loves Him, delights in His perfect beauty, as he is covered with the robe of the Redeemer’s Righteousness. We are free from sin for Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree, and the Righteousness of Christ is ours by Imputation. Without any works of our own, we are justified according to the Righteousness of Faith.

This is the wonderful exchange - The putting of Christ where the sinner was, and of the sinner where Christ was. Now the court of Heaven says to me, “Not guilty, absolved, acquitted - Case dismissed!” Faith in God’s dear Son has set you free indeed. God only forgives sinners because Jesus stood in the sinner’s place, and He puts the sinner into Christ’s place. The great plan of salvation by Substitution, by Atonement, by sinless Sacrifice. Satisfied, delighted, Jesus is all my salvation and all my desire.

Buy this truth, buy this wisdom, and sell it not. Christ instead of me. Jesus the Offended One in the offender’s place, yielding Himself to God’s vengeance. He that believeth in Him is not condemned, justified from all things, Acts 13:38, no condemnation, Romans 8:1, John 5:24. Now God doesn’t not impute our sins to us. They have been imputed to Another, who stood in sinner’s place, and bore the sinner’s guilt, and put it all away by His own suffering and blood. Our sinful deeds are transferred to Christ’s account, and His perfect holiness is transferred to our account. Guilt and guile are removed. We lay hold on the Substitute, and find peace with God. This blessedness comes to our sinful soul by grace alone.

Imputed means Charged. Heaven begins below when a poor sinner has his sin covered and heart purified from guile. Christ’s self-denying love, He loved His enemies, He loved such sinful creatures as we are, who could do Him no good, He was infinitely glorious, we were despicable and opposed to Him. He loved me and gave Himself for me. Out of pure affection, He came to earth, to dwell in a stable, nurse from a woman, a feeble infant, selfless life, died on a cruel Cross of scorn. There the Faultless One bears all our faults, because of our sins He was nailed and pierced, His back was scourged. God the Father forsakes Him not for any sin He had done, but because He was guilty of loving sinners. He dared to put Himself in the poor sinner’s place to bear the wrath of God. Look at Him, His face covering with spit, His back all bleeding from the Roman scourge. Bleeding love and dying love, this allures sinful men. God says, “I did all this for you, I lived for you, I died for you.” This wins the sinner’s affections.

The guiltiness of the guilty He took upon Himself on Calvary's Cross. Christ is the real sinner’s Savior. If a man is not a sinner, Christ has no salvation for Him. You must take the sinner’s place. Your cry must be, “God be merciful to me a sinner, save my guilty soul for Jesus’ sake!”, or God cannot save you. Confess your own guilt, confess your sins, God Himself put Christ into the sinner’s place through love to us, Christ stood in the sinner’s place, God treated Him as if He were actually the sinner. The Father’s wrath burns against human sin in Christ, God poured out His wrath on Christ just as if He was guilty, God smites Him. Jesus died the death we deserved, that we might live forever. God hates sin, I deserve His wrath, the convicted sinner’s thought, my sin is personal and actual and not like Christ’s, imputed. The awful guilt of sin provokes divine wrath. Jesus took our sins upon Himself and was put in the sinner’s place. He suffered the sinner’s doom, which was death. He paid our Ransom, the debt is paid in full. He bore the full penalty due to my sin. He satisfied all the claims of the law of God.

Jesus says, “I have borne the penalty that was due to sin, I have stood in the sinner’s place, I have suffered and fully satisfied the claims of divine justice on the sinner’s behalf, I have paid the sinner’s debt, so the Law can let him go free." *Isaiah 53:5* He was wounded for our transgressions. The great Sin-Bearer has suffered in the sinner’s stead, the sword of divine justice smote Jesus, He stood in the sinner’s place, and willingly bore the sinner’s penalty. Now, that human sin has been punished upon Him, God can be just and the Justifier of the sinner that trusts in His Son. The Lord Jesus took the sinner’s place, passed under the penalty, the sentence of death which the sinner deserved. Jesus willingly stood in the sinner’s place, you must rest in the reconciliation He has made. Jesus took your place. Your debts are put down beneath His name, and through them all is drawn the blood-red mark of His atoning sacrifice, canceling all of them, clearing the sinner.

God meets the sinner only on these terms, that whatever your guilt may be, He lays it at Christ’s door, makes Him to be Sin for you, and then, He puts you into Christ’s place, and makes you to be “the Righteousness of God in Him,” and so He saves you. God is only satisfied with the work of Christ. To God the debt was due, it is now discharged. *Romans 8:1* Christ stood in my place, I stand in His place; Christ was rejected, I am accepted. I am blessed, because He was cursed. I am accepted in the Beloved, because He endured my wrath on my account. You’ve never known anything worth knowing till you understand and trust this marvelous truth.

Jesus stood in the sinner’s stead and suffered in the sinner’s place. Get this truth into your mind, read-mark-learn-digest the Savior was wiling to suffer, even to die, to stand in the sinner’s place, He was reckoned as the sinner, the sword of divine justice He received, He endured the great terrors of wrath of God for our sins. We believe in the literal substitution of Christ for sinners. Christ stood in the sinner’s place. He suffered what was due to the sinner, even the curse and wrath of God. Sinners that trust Him have no sin laid to their charge. It is a maxim of all courts of justice that the Law cannot first punish the Substitute, and then punish those in whose place He stood. Every honest man admits that a debt once paid, is settled forever. Christ paid the debt that the sinner owed to infinite justice; it is forever blotted out and our debts to divine justice are expunged.

This is the joy of joys, God’s good news to guilty sinners. This is the glorious truth; Christ has made our sins cease to be. “There shall be none.” It is heaven on earth to really know your sins are forgiven. This man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever... Are you trusting in Him? You don’t need social security; you need eternal security. Jesus died for me and all my sins are gone because He was punished in my place. My wickedness was charged and transferred to Him, and He put it away forever, and now Christ’s merits are reckoned as my merits.

Substitution is the center of the Gospel; the sinner in Christ’s place and Christ in the sinner’s place, our debts to God paid by Christ, the chastisement of our peace laid upon Him, we have peace through His chastisement, Christ was both God and man, He took upon Him human sin and guilt, you have to take the sinner’s place before you can take Christ’s place. He suffered for your sin, His pure and most precious blood is able to take away all sin and blasphemy. The blood of Christ can make you clean, the drunkard, harlot, dope fiend, thief, and murderer.

Tell them all – whosoever believeth in Him is not condemned. The Eternal One stood in our place, suffered in our stead. The Infinite became an infant, the God who became man, that He might die in man’s place, His blood atonement is of infinite value. God bore my sins in His own body on the tree. God bled for me on Calvary, that I might live with Him forever, Christ was smitten instead of me, He was truly God as well as man.

Christ Instead of Me 5

Jesus endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself, the evil words and deeds. But still His pulse throbbed for them, His heart was still warm with love, in agony of spirit He prayed for them, His heart welled over for sinners, they wickedly and willfully pierced His hands and feet. Jesus was the Friend to sinners His whole life through. He was fond of sinners, He made His grave with the wicked, He was numbered with the transgressors. God’s sword of justice must fall on someone. The awful force of divine wrath fell on Jesus. Christ put Himself into the sinner’s place, and then, as if He had been the sinner, though He did no sin and in Him is no sin; He suffers, bleeds, and dies, the very veins of God were emptied.

The God-man literally suffered for me. He endured the torments of hell, suffered the eternal wrath of God. When it comes to sin trouble, you must get your help from God. The public school and news media want God erased completely out of your mind. The eternal wrath of God was condensed into a cup. Herein is love...God commendeth His love, greater love hath no man than this...The Savior died, buried, He rises again, and then spent 40 days proving His love for sinners. The one thing that is needful for eternal life is trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot be perfect, you have done much wrong, but he that believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ has His sins forgiven.

You know the story: Christ came down from heaven and took the sins of the whole world upon His shoulders. Freedom is liberty to do right. God came forth to smite the sinner. Justice said, “Where is the guilty sinner?”, and Christ came and stood in the sinner’s place, and God’s sword went through the Savior’s heart. Why? That the sinner might go free. Christ was the Substitute for you. If God punished Christ, He will never punish you. If Jesus Christ paid your debts, you are acquitted forever. Rest only upon Christ’s sinless blood Atonement, and you are a saved soul on the spot.

God’s infinite love and wisdom devised the plan to save sinners. The eternal Son of God became a man, God’s divine nature dwelt in its fullness in the Mediator, Christ Jesus the Lord. Justice burned and blazed within Him, and cast Him into a bloody sweat. Salvation is not by what you bring to Christ, but what you take from Him. You are to be a receiver first, and then you give yourself to God: you come empty, having nothing but your sin and misery, and as empty, undeserving sinners you receive His fullness.

The plan of salvation, the only plan, you must obtain God’s love and mercy and holiness by receiving it through the Mediator, Jesus Christ. Be aware of your need, don’t be ignorant of the Gospel. Why halt ye between two opinions? Why do you hesitate? Stop dilly-dallying with your immortal soul. This is the safe way, the only way which is open to you this very moment. Needy sinners never think of putting your righteousness side by side with the divine Righteousness of Christ, never mix your works with Jesus' blood. Christ wants nothing from you, come and take everything from Him. Put not off this matter, today, hear His voice, harden not your hearts, hasten now to the place where God Himself will meet with you – the Cross. Neglect not the grace of God. All fullness dwells in Jesus. Come empty as you are. Jesus never did reject a real despairing sinner, and He never can or will. He cleanses the guilty and receives the lost.

Christ took upon Himself the responsibility for our sins. He stood in the sinner’s place, He was punished as if He committed our sin, though in Him was no sin. The vials of wrath that were due to human sin were poured upon Him. The sword of justice that we should have received was plunged into the Savior’s heart and soul. The Just dies for the unjust, the offended Judge suffers for the criminal’s offenses against His own law. Oh, the matchless plan of Substitution. The Lord takes sinful and lost man as he is, and put Another in his place who is able to bear his sins, and then puts man into the place of Jesus Christ. Hear it again, it puts sinners into the Savior’s place, and God looks the upon Savior as if He had been the sinner, and then upon the sinner as if he is the Perfect One.

There must be a change of places – a transference. Christ and the sinner must change places. He was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. This removes all our attempts to help. Christ’s sweat and bled his soul away to accomplish our salvation. Self-righteous sinners stand back, you are not welcome at the Cross. The beggar says give, but the sinner must ask ‘forgive.’ If you are in extreme danger, conscious of your sin, and fearful of your sordid past and future sin, come now to the Cross and reason with your Crucified Creator.

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God the Father put His dear Son into the sinner’s place. Voluntarily the divine Savior took upon Himself human flesh, and came under the law, and by an almighty act, JEHOVAH laid upon Jesus the iniquity of us all. Christ bore our sins and carried them away. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. His five wounds, striped back, thorn-crowned brow, and marred face tell what He suffered. He was the Substitute, the Sin Bearer, and Sacrifice. The Just for the unjust, God made Christ to be sin for us, Jesus was made a Curse for us. Man was offensive to God, and God must punish him. But Christ stepped in, and bore the consequences due to man's sin. Behold the dear Son of God who took the offender’s place. The Judge stands where the criminal should stand and is numbered with the transgressors.

The wrath of God fell upon the well-beloved Son of God, Jesus suffers that He may reconcile God to sinful man. He healed the breach which sin had caused. The deed is done. The redeemed sinner is no more offensive to heaven. His merits, ours demerits; His beauty, ours foulness. By His obedience unto death the divine Law is vindicated, divine justice is satisfied, and grace is glorified.

The main truth – Christ in the sinner’s place, Christ bearing the sinner’s sin, Christ smitten with the sinner’s stripes, and by His stripes He heals sinners and puts away their sin. Make this precious truth plain to all. Unveil the mystery of the Incarnate God bleeding in the sinner’s place. Sound it in the sinner's ears over and over again, the Precious Blood – spend all your strength, direct their attention to the Lamb of God. He left His heavenly throne and majestic crown, He came to earth especially for you, but in Bethlehem He found no room, the heavenly host sang His praise, He came to earth as a Jewish baby in great humility. He was born in a lowly cattle shed, a manger was His bed, He came down from heaven to earth, He was Lord of all, His shelter was a stable, His cradle was a stall, His whole childhood He honored and obeyed, He was little and weak and helpless, tears and smiles both He knew, He felt sadness and gladness. He had no where to lay His head, His bed was the ground in the deserts of Galilee. With mocking scorn and crown of thorns, they led Him to Calvary. Now His Cross is my only plea.

Faith believes what God has revealed concerning Christ, and trusts in Christ alone. Believe that Jesus was God’s Son, that God sent Him into the world to save sinners. He became the Substitute to divine justice for all. Jesus is my Substitute and I am clear before God. Jesus died for me, now God’s justice cannot put me to eternal death. God’s truth cannot demand a second payment for a debt, which has already been fully paid. Whosoever will trust in Jesus shall be saved, saved the moment He trusts, in Jesus. Those sinners that refuse to trust in Jesus are condemned already, because He hath not believed on the Son of God. Trusting in Jesus, believing in Jesus, that is the root of the matter. To believe in the Son of God is the main point, nothing else.

The plan of Salvation is so very simple: It consists in the Substitution of Christ in the place of the sinner, Christ being treated as if He was the sinner, and the sinner being treated as if He were the Righteous one. God Incarnate bled in the sinner’s place. It is a change of persons, Christ became the sinner, He stands in the sinner’s place and stead, He was numbered with the transgressors; the sinner becomes righteous He stands in Christ’s place, and is numbered with the righteous ones. Christ has no sin of His own, but He takes human guilt, and is punished for human sin. We have no righteousness of our own but we take His divine Righteousness. We are rewarded for His merits, and stand accepted before God as though His Righteousness had been lived out by ourselves. The Innocent Substitute suffered for guilty sinners. God became Incarnate in Christ Jesus, the Incarnate God bore the sin of all sinners and suffered in our place, that God’s justice might be avenged and repaid. Jesus rose from the dead, ascended into heaven. Now pardon free and full is available to every sinner who will simply come and trust in the sufferings of Jesus.

To believe is to trust, to trust Jesus with your whole heart. He who trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ with his whole heart has the promise of eternal life. He laid aside His eternal majesty. God the Just One must punish sin, therefore He must punish you; but Jesus Christ became a man and stood and smarted in the sinner’s place, that whosoever trusteth in Him should not suffer and perish, because God punished Christ in the place of every sinner. Now, you must come and trust Christ, rest upon Him alone.

Christ stepped into the sinner’s place, and God didn’t spare Him. If God finds you without Christ, He will not spare you. Jesus was led away by His enemies; if you die rejecting Christ, you shall be dragged away by hellish demons to the place appointed for you – everlasting hell fire. Deliver Him to the tormentors, depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Jesus was deserted by God – if you reject Christ, you shall be deserted. If God hid His face from Christ, how much less will He spare you.

Christ smarted for your sin. You will think differently of your sin when you realize Christ suffered for your foolishness. Hate the sin that fastened him to the Cross. Good didn’t spare His Son the stripes. Self-righteous sinner, Christ was spit upon in shame for you. If you die in your sins, the whole universe shall hiss at you, and oceans of wrath will roll over your soul in hell. I beseech you by the love of Christ, by His wounds and blood. Do not reject Christ and bring upon your soul the curse and wrath to come.

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Believe the Lord Jesus Christ to be a real Savior of real sinners. Come to Him with all your sins about you. Come to Jesus impure and needing cleansing and He will make you pure. Cast your soul at His dear pierced feet at once. Take the sinner’s Friend to be your friend, because you’re a sinner. Let the Savior be your Savior, because you need saving. The Law-Giver Himself bore the penalty of the law-breakers, God will not spare the guilty, every sin must receive its due penalty. When the innocent Substitute is made to die because sin was laid upon Him, we know by His suffering that sin is exceedingly hateful to God.

God has punished Christ instead of me, and I cannot be punished anymore, I never can be, because Christ died for me. I trusted Him with my whole heart, I threw myself into His arms. With my whole weight I cast myself onto His arms. He is able save to the uttermost the sinner that comes unto Him. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I am a sinner, and my soul rests alone on Him. I have trusted Him; He is true to His word. The blood of Jesus in an instant spoke peace to my needy soul. The Lord Jesus willingly offered Himself to suffer for our sins, and He actually died for us. He died that we might live. Christ was punished for your sins, and now you cannot be punished, for the just God will not punish twice for one offense.

Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God was born of the virgin Mary and became a Jewish man. He lived on earth a life of poverty, suffering and holiness, and at last He was nailed to the Cross, and in deep woe He died for your sins. He was buried, He rose again from the dead, He ascended into Heaven. And now God “commandeth all men everywhere to repent and says to you; “Whosoever believeth on the Son of God shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Believe in Christ, cast your soul on the full Atonement that He has made. Believe that the Man who died on Calvary was God and that He took your sin upon Himself and suffered for it all. Trust Him, and you are free from sin forever. Jesus Christ the Righteous willingly became Sin, so that sinful men could be made the Righteousness of God in Christ. God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven me.

The Lord Jesus, who lived above the sky, came down to be a man and die. And in the Bible we may see, how very good He used to be. He always went about doing good, He was so kind, to cure poor people who were blind, and many who were sick and lame. He pitied them, and did the same. And more than that – He told them too, the things that God would have them do, and so was the gentle and so mild, He would have listened to a child. But such a cruel death He died – He was hung up, nailed, and crucified. And those kind hands that did such goods; they nailed them to the Cross of wood. And so He died and this is why, He came to be a man and die; the Bible says He came from heaven, that we might have our sins forgiven. He knew how wicked man had been, He knew that God must punish sin; so out of pity, Jesus said, “I will bear their punishment, condemn Me instead of them.”

Listen to the wondrous gospel story; Jesus left the realms of glory. As a little baby He was born, He left the excellent glory, in His great and boundless love. He came to a lowly manger and dwelt beneath a humble shed, and among His own a stranger, He had no where to lay His head, He went from city to city, all His life was doing good, He wept over sinners with pity. Love all human love exceeding, brought Him to a cruel death. Even when He was hanging bleeding on the Cross. His last breath spent He it for His murderers, praying for God to forgive them, to the penitent thief He said, “Today in paradise shalt thou live.” Christ Himself came to seek and to save us. He came to die for us, so He could forgive us.

The Law comes to curse me. But the Law has cursed Christ instead of me. The Law cannot curse twice for one offense. The Law is silenced. The Law has received all it can demand and cannot demand anything more. All that God can demand of a believing sinner, Christ has already paid, and nothing can accuse a soul that believeth in Jesus. You were in debt, but Christ your Best Friend paid your debt, no warrant can be served on you. I did not pay it, but it is paid, and I have the receipt. That is suffering in any court of Law. All the penalty that was due to us, Christ has borne it. Christ has suffered the full wrath of God for me.

The Lord Jesus without the gate did bleed for me as my Surety, and on the Cross discharged my debt. We are clear and clean, absolved and delivered, even as if I had never sinned. Jesus voluntarily put Himself into the sinner’s place and bore the sinner’s doom, He was numbered with the transgressors, the justice which smites sin smote Him, the frown that falls on sin fell on Him, Jesus condescended into our place so that He might lift us up into His place, transferring His right to us, as He took our sin upon Himself. The Son of God love His enemies, and died for them. This will arrest the sinner. He stood in the sinner’s place and was put to shame, agony, and death. The sight of the bleeding Savior overcomes evil and carelessness.

God will save only sinners who trust in His Son. Jesus Christ came into this world and took upon Himself our nature. He was found in fashion as a man, He took the transgressor’s place, the sins of the whole world were laid upon Him, imputed to Him, charged to His account and He suffered for them as if they had been His own sins. He was scourged, tormented, crucified, and slain. The stripes He endured were the chastisement due to human sins; the death He died was the death threatened to sinners, and now, whosoever will trust on Jesus benefits from the Redeemer’s substitution. He suffered what we should have suffered. His merits for the obedience which we ought to have rendered. Faith in Jesus makes us righteous through the righteousness of Another, faith in His blood causes us to be accepted in the beloved, perfected in Christ Jesus. By the first Adam we fell, by the Second Adam we rise again. Now we partake of the benefit of Christ’s death by simply believing in Him.

Christ Instead of Me 2

The Lord Jesus Christ put Himself into the sinner’s place and whosoever will trust Him, will be put into Christ’s place by the grace and power of God. The sinner that trusts Christ alone, that man’s sins are not his sins anymore. All his sins are put on Christ forever, and Christ’s Righteousness is eternally placed over that man’s soul. That man’s sin shall never be imputed (charged) to him again. Christ suffered on the Cross, He poured out His own life’s blood, He tasted death for every man. Come and cast your soul on what Christ has done with simple faith, hearty faith, and you will hate the things you once loved. You will then serve the God you once despised. In the Old Testament, the offender brought a lamb to make atonement for his offenses, and in the sinner’s place the innocent lamb was slain. Now the Lamb of God Himself from heaven has taken the sinner’s place, bearing the sinner’s sin, suffering in the sinner’s place and vindicating the divine justice of God, making it possible for God to be Just and the Justifier of him that believeth on Jesus. Sin must be punished, and it was punished in Christ’s bloody death. This is the only hope for sinful man.

Come now, and rely on Jesus who suffered in the sinner’s place, and was punished for the ungodly, bearing their iniquities in His own body on Calvary’s tree. One look at Him, one look of faith, will transfer every sin debt and every sin from your soul to Christ instantly. Jesus will take you out of sin’s prison, and bring you to His house and table. Substitution is the main and central doctrine, that is, Christ died in the sinner’s place. Our very iniquities were laid upon Him. The sins were transferred from us to Christ. His weariness and woe, His thirst and hunger, His pangs and misery, He felt all this throughout His entire life for our sake. Then at the end, up on the Cross, all our sins were laid upon Him. His love constrained Him to take the sinner’s place and suffer what the sinner ought to have suffered. The very pith and marrow of the gospel lies in the one word – Substitution. Christ was made sin for us, He knew no sin, that we might be made the Righteousness of God in Christ.

We can take Christ’s place, because Christ took our place. He died in the place of lost sinners. The place of a sinner is wrath, curse and extreme darkness. Outer darkness will be the lost sinner’s eternal place, darkness is sinner’s present state, the sinner's natural condition is this -- ye were sometimes darkness. So the Savior is made to bleed and die in darkness. Man should abide forever in darkness, misery, despair, and hopelessness, so the Savior hung in the thick darkness on Calvary for three hours; He is denied all comfort, all mercies, He is forsaken by His Father, while He died all alone in the place of sinners. Sin put us in the dark and it put the Lord Jesus Christ in the dark. Our sins made Him hang bleeding from His wounds. The Savior was God and man in one person, dying in the sinner’s place and stead, and He shed His own blood especially for you.

The penalty for sin is eternal death, so Jesus has to die. In the Old Testament, there is no atonement except by the bloody death of a Victim. This was God’s way from the beginning, even in the garden of Eden.  The sentence of God’s law still requires eternal death for sin against God. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Sin necessitates death. The Lord Jesus Christ came to earth to make a reconciliation by His sinless death. The Bible says, “By His own blood He entered in, He must die in the place of guilty men, before He could enter heaven on their behalf. The animal in the Old Testament were slain and their blood was poured out before God, even so must Jesus be slain in the sinner’s place. Trust in this great truth and chief teaching of God’s book. The core doctrine of Christ is Atonement by His bloody death. The Lord Jesus offered up Himself unto God, by the death of the Cross, and bore the horror of bearing human sin. The tempest of sin’s consequence fell upon the head of the Innocent Substitute; the thundercloud of God’s wrath emptied its contents upon Christ’s soul.

Christ Jesus voluntarily put Himself in our place, and bore the wrath we deserved for sinning against the holiness of God. Out of divine and infinite love, Jesus became an offering for our sins. He became the eternal sin-offering. Willingly Jesus became the sin-offering for the sinner, that the sinner might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Who His own self bare our sin in His own body on the tree. Jesus Christ bore all the punishment our soul deserved to have received. God cannot in justice punish the sinner that trusts Christ, for God has punished Christ instead of Him. Christ drank the cup of wrath to the very dregs. There is not a drop of wrath left in the cup for the sinner that trusts Christ, for Christ has drained it. Jesus paid all our sin debts; there is not one of them left in the book of God’s record. Every soul that depends upon Jesus is secure before the courts of heaven, because Jesus stood for Him.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. To believe is to implicitly trust the Lamb of God, not yourself at all. Trust only in Jesus. Rely only upon Him. He occupied the sinner’s place, He endured the sinner’s curse. Christ stood before God as the one sinner of the whole universe, but He never sinned. Jesus stood to answer the summons of the law, and He appeared before God as the Substitute for sinners, the Just for the unjust. Christ was God over all blessed forever, without Him was not anything made that was made, before Him the cherubim cried day and night, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” He was in holiness, but for our sakes, He became poor in the bearing our sin. The soul-saving doctrine is Substitution. Christ dying in the place of sinners, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God. God’s plan of Salvation by the sinless Atonement once offered on Calvary’s cross.

You must be in need of grace, before God will be gracious to you. Until you take the sinner’s place, which is your right place, this is where God’s free favor of God can come and deal with you. The Lord will only give grace to those who need it, and that confess that need. Jesus Christ stood in the sinner’s place, God punished the sinner’s guilt upon Christ instead of upon the sinner, all that the sinner is bidden to do is to trust Christ to save him, and as soon as a lost sinner does that, he is saved immediately and forever.

Christ Instead of Me 1

I am a sinner, Christ died in the sinner’s place; I trust Him, and I am saved. The Gospel of Substitution; Jesus stood in the sinner’s place, and bore in the sinner’s stead what was due to the Law of God on account of man’s sins. God’s plan of Salvation excludes all of our works (Ephesians 2:8-9). God’s Salvation comes to sinners by pure grace alone. It’s not the life we live, it is the sinless life that Jesus gave on Calvary for us. This is God’s way: we cannot be saved by our own obedience; we must be saved by Christ’s obedience alone. Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth, and appeared in human flesh,; He lived a life of holy and perfect obedience to God’s laws; He knew no sin. He was found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.

The Savior’s life and death make up a complete keeping of God’s Law which we have broken and dishonored. God’s plan is this: “I cannot bless you for your own sakes, but I will bless you for Jesus’ sake; looking at you, I must curse you, but because I have laid your curse on Christ, and now, looking at you through Him, I can bless you and accept you. Though you deserve it not, I can now pass by your undeserving life, blot out your sins as a cloud, and cast your iniquities into the depths of the sea through what Christ my dear Son has done. You have no merits, but Christ has divine goodness. You are full of sin and must be punished, but Jesus was punished instead of you, so now I can deal graciously with you.” This is the language of God in human words, “I can only deal with you upon the terms of mercy through the merits of my Son.”

The Gospel comes to a sinner this way: If you will simply believe and trust in Jesus, all His merits are your merits, they are freely imputed (transferred) to you; all the sufferings of Jesus are your sufferings. All of His merits are charged to your account. All your sins are charged and transferred to Jesus’ account. You stand before God as if you were Christ, because Christ stood before God as if He were you. Christ in your place, and you in His place. Substitution, that is the heavenly word! Christ is the Substitute for sinners. Christ suffered for sinful man and took the thunderbolts of divine wrath for the sins of the whole world; Christ was made to be SIN for us. Sinful men that trust in Christ’s works stand in the sunlight of God’s divine favor and love.

The immortal God, the King of heaven, undertook to bear death for man. The Incarnate God stands in the sinner’s place. The well-pleasing Son is made accursed for accursed sinners. He who created all things laid aside His majestic glory and became the Man of sorrows, despised and rejected of men. Though Christ was rich, yet for your sakes, He became poor. The Holy One in the sinner’s place, the Lord of glory in human flesh nailed to the Cross as a criminal. Make Him the cornerstone, foundation and pillar of your hope and salvation, come and lay your sins on Him. You have no righteousness of your own, but Christ’s righteousness can be yours freely. The lamb is offered, and the ass is spared, the unclean animal lives, the clean creature dies (Exodus 13:13).

There must be a change of places, so Christ changes places with the sinner. Christ puts Himself in the place of the sinner. He was numbered with the transgressors. He was put to death as a transgressor. He was crucified between two thieves. He suffered the death of a felon, though in Him was no sin, yet God laid on Him the iniquities of the whole world. All the sins of the world covered Jesus like a lead suit, it weighed Him down on the Cross, He drank the cup of wrath and bore the wrath of God for the sins of mankind, then Jesus cast the stupendous load of the guilt down into the sepulcher, and there He left it buried forever, and rose again from the dead to give us everlasting life freely. Living He loved me, dying He saved me, buried He cared my sins far away, rising from the dead He justified freely forever, One day He’s coming, O glorious day!

Salvation is not by what you do, or what you feel, but all your Salvation must be in the finished work of Another that was crucified and now lives in the power of an endless life on God’s eternal throne. Christ is God, He condescended to become a Jewish man, and took upon Himself the sins of the world, and He was punished for your guilt, so now whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. The Just for the unjust, Jesus died to bring us to God. This is the Gospel – the core, kernel, and marrow of the entire word of God – the Substitution of Christ. The Substitution of Christ for sinners is the Gospel. Believe this truth, cast your soul completely on it alone. Trust in God’s Blood and the power of Christ who lived, loved, bled, died and rose from the dead for sinners that you might escape the wrath to come.