You see - you must be saved and pardoned by Blood. God freely pardons sinners like you, because Jesus loved you to death, so He could save you from the eternal death which your own sins deserve. God's pardoning grace is free to the most vile and immoral person, and it's also absolutely free to the most orthodox, loyal, self-righteous, professional religionist. God can love us freely now, because He loved us and gave Himself for us in the person of Jesus Christ. God will never love you because you're good, and not because of anything you are, or do. Human nature doesn't want to deal with God the Creator about its sins. Human nature doesn't want to confess its sinfulness and inability. You can't clean yourself up, you can't make yourself likable so God will accept you. You can't get yourself cleaned up at all; you can't purge yourself of any of your sins, not even one. If you lived a thousand years, you could never atone for just one of your lies. Jesus must purge and put away every one of your sins with His precious blood, and you can't get any glory or credit at all for that. This is the offence of the Gospel.
Come to the Cross with a broken heart and contrite spirit, this is all the work of the word of God and the Spirit of God. You have broken God's law by stealing, lying, and lusting. You have broken God's heart by rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ. But despite what you have done, God is good, and He will still have mercy on your guilty soul, God delights in mercy. The Gospel is hard for a self-righteous man to grasp, because he wants to help save himself by his own doings. Your heinous and perverted sins can now be forgiven freely, because Jesus bled for you. No sinner can ever deserve God's love and mercy. It's not what you've been, or will be: It's all about who Jesus is, and what He has done and will do for you, for His name's sake. It's amazing that a holy God would even love someone like you, but He does for Jesus' sake, not because of anything in you. Human nature will not have Jesus to reign over it. Remember - He who saves you must reign over you. His precious blood cleanses us and then His constraning love rules us. He saves us from our sins, rebellions, revoltings, stubbornness, and love of sin. Redemption by Precious Blood is the sum and substance of the Gospel. You cannot see anything until Jesus is your Light. Look at everything through the Cross and your blinded eyes will be illuminated.
You are in extreme danger while you remain in your Unbelief and Self-Righteousness. Your evil thoughts, hidden sins, impure desires, and vile imaginations defile your soul every day. You have spoken many sinful, unkind, untruthful and proud words. You haven't lived even one day of your life perfectly before your Maker. You have broken all the commandments of God, and rejected God's Son on top of that. “There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not. All we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned every one to his own way. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. There is none that doeth good, no, not one.” A sinner could never atone for a sinner. You need a Sinless Man to pay for your sins with His own Blood, and you know there is only one Sinless Man that shed His blood for sinners in all of human history - that Man is the Lord Jesus Christ. And since you're a sinner for sure, you better trust HIM.
This is the Great secret, the Heavenly News, the Gospel of salvation, that human sin is justly put away forever through Faith in the Blood of Jesus Christ alone. God only forgives sin to purify the sinner. The Atonement of Christ is the death of your sinfulness. The Holy Ghost must first help you understand your need for the Atonement, and the guilt and evil of your sins. Only a sinner needs an Atonement. Human nature loves the forbidden. Our Sin is an evil thing which God hates. The very thought of iniquity is abhorred of God. You're in a whole heap of trouble because you have sinned against God and rejected His Son's Blood and Righteousness. The very thought of sin is hated by God, His nature detests all sin. He who trusts and loves Christ, hates his sins. The love of Christ kills our love for sin. The constraining love of Jesus consumes our sins, and purifies our heart.
The main work of the Holy Spirit is to strip you of Self, and to bring you to receive the simple word of God. Human nature kicks against the Gospel, because it is so very simple. The simple act of trusting Jesus' blood bring free justification instantaneously. Eternal salvation comes by the simple act of trusting in the SAVIOR of sinners. Depend upon Christ alone. Trust ascribes salvation only to HIM who saves; True faith never robs God of His glory. Self-denying grace is what is needed most. Human nature wants to get along with everyone, impress folks, and be accepted by man; but not God. Human nature magnifies human accomplishment. Christ's sinless blood sacrifice is the essence of the Gospel - His blood and merits are fixed and settled forever. The very center of Christianity is Substitution - Christ Himself bleeding and dying for sinners on Calvary's Cross. "But", one may object, "does not Christianity fail at its very foundation by basing everything on substitution?" Substitution will not stand thoughtful investigation. Substitution makes Christ, the Innocent, bear the penalty for the guilty and thus lets the guilty go free. It is diametrically opposed to our every idea of justice, for we believe that justice should protect the innocent and bring the full penalty upon the guilty. Justification by faith in Jesus' blood alone is the vital truth (Romans 3:23-25).
There is no possible way for you to purge away your own sins. Your sins must be put in check. You must be get rid of your sins, just like a dying man must get rid of his cancer. Submit yourself, turn yourself completely over to the Great Physician. Nothing of your own can remove the horrible blot, the fatal stain of sin on your soul. There is no means of removing human sin but One - God's Blood that flowed from Jesus' veins. God delivered up His own Son to death, so the sin of man could be purged and put away forever. The Sacrifice of the Lamb of God is the only hope of guilty sinners. No doings of yours can ever purge your sins; in Christ lies the only help for sinners. Jesus was taken to the Cross, our sins were laid on Him, there He died the Just for the unjust. Jesus was made to be Sin for us, that we might be made the Righteousness of God in Christ. Jesus is the divine Satisfaction for human sin. God's justice was satisfied at the Cross. God's Eyes of divine justice see all the black deeds of your past that no one else knows about.
Man is a very fickle creature; no dependence can be wisely placed in yourself. The more you look at Jesus Crucified, the more you will mourn for your sins. Hate your sins that crucified the good and gracious Incarnate Creator. The stripes and blood of Jesus applied to our heart works Repentance in us, and we hate our sins, because they made Jesus suffer, bleed, die. Look much to Jesus Christ, and you will hate your sins much. Live and look at Calvary. Look to the Cross till all that is on the Cross is in your heart. Look to Jesus until He looks at you. Steadily and fixedly view the Suffering Savior. Jesus suffered in the place of guilty men like you, the Substitution of Christ for the sinner is the essence of the Gospel. The main topic should always be Christ crucified for sinners - this is the chief attraction for sinners who feel and know their guiltiness before God. The core meaning of the Cross is Substitution. The bleeding Substitute bore your guilt, and you don't bear it any more, no condemnation to you any more. You are safe only because Jesus died for you, and you are acceptable before God, because Jesus' Finished Work is accepted by God the Father. The chief delight of God the Father is His dear Son. God is well pleased with His Son, not you. Behold the Savior, trust His pardoning love. Look to Jesus, come to Jesus, rest in Jesus, follow Jesus in gratitude - let that be the complete description of your life. Rest in Christ's Great Sacrifice for sinners more and more every day, rest more implicitly in His Finished Work. Love Jesus best of all. Dwell at Calvary.
Think more and more of Christ Jesus who loved you to death to save you from eternal death. This is the central truth - God was manifest in the flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. The Creator of the universe showed up here on earth as a virgin-born Jewish baby, and then to sinlessly and selflessly live and die for sinners. Faith in Jesus' atoning sacrifice saves sinners from the Lake of Fire. Getting saved makes sinning very complicated. After the New Birth, you begin to worry about and detest your sins. The unregenerate sinner worries about everything but his sins and the salvation of his soul.
First of all - I would persuade you to Think much of Jesus. Read about Him, hear about Him, study about His person, blood, righteousness, finished work, and character. Think much about the Cross - sitting and seeing the Son of God dying for you is the only way to get true Faith. You must first know what to Believe. Read the Bible very carefully and prayerfully. Meditate on the living Christ Himself. Secondly - I would persuade you to Trust Him alone. Jesus is worth trusting, He died for you. Where else can a sinner place his trust? Faith is not merely believing facts, but real Faith is trusting to a living Person. The glance of Trust, look to Christ now and trust Him. Away with your "buts". Whosoever believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ hath everlasting life. Trusting in Jesus' blood is the essence of saving faith. Jesus' blood was shed to pay the penalty of divine wrath due to your sins. Thirdly - I would persuade you to Testify of the Savior. Tell others that He has saved your soul. Make it known publicly that you now belong to Him.
