The worldling hates it when you brag about JESUS, and boast in His Precious Blood. If you don't think so, just start bragging about Him at work tomorrow morning, and they will probably call security and have you escorted off the premises. Glorying in Christ Jesus alone gets on the religious man's nerves, for that leaves him and his religiousness out of the picture. The very name of JESUS is offensive and detestable to atheistic sin-loving ears. The very men who hate JESUS will use His worthy name all day long as a curse word. *James 2:7* God's enemies take His name in vain. *Psalm 139:20* God has highly exalted Jesus, and given Him a name which is above every name. *Philippians 2:9* Raving about Jesus nauseates men that love darkness and evil deeds. *John 3:19* Jesus said, If I be lifted up, I draw all men unto Me. When you lift up God Incarnate who was Crucified, Risen from the Dead, and Coming Again, that message will definitely irk and irritate the religionist.
Men are always bragging and boasting about something: men brag on themselves, their sports teams, their children, their parents, their political party, their possessions, their talents, their accomplishments, their occupations, their education. This is pure idolatry. The natural man will brag and boast about anything or anyone, but Christ Jesus, the Crucified Creator. But my soul shall boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. In Christ Jesus I will boast all the day long, and praise His name forever. I will declare what Jesus has done for my soul. *Psalm 66:16* I will extol Him with my tongue. *Psalm 66:17* *Daniel 4:37*
Dear sinner friend, you have broken God's divine law, and you have acted very vilely towards your Creator all through your life; in private and in public; in thought, word, and deed. You have violated divine justice, and sinned against Heaven and God Himself. You are only one big mass of sin in God's sight. You have an appointment with the Almighty, and you won't be late. *Hebrews 9:27* *Romans 14:12* Against God your sin has been committed, against the Majesty of the universe, and in order to wipe away your violations of divine justice, it was absolutely necessary that the penalty should be exacted and the sinful one should die forever. So the God who was offended took the place of the offender in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and died to pay the debt due to His own justice. God must punish you for sinning, He cannot lay aside His justice, but God in Mercy devised a way in which, without any injury to His Holiness, He can have mercy on your guilty soul, because Jesus bore your sins in His own body, and suffered the punishment due to your sins on your behalf.
God is ready and willing to forgive your sins right now. God's only command is, Believe on His Precious Son. Trust Jesus now. Accept Him as making perfect Atonement for your sins by His Substitution. Sin was transferred from the guilty to the Innocent. Jesus Christ has paid all our debts, there is nothing due to punitive divine justice any more forever. Trust in Jesus as having suffered in your place, look to Him for the Payment of your sin debt due from you to the wrath of God. Surrender your lost soul to the Savior, submit to and receive His perfect Righteousness which will cover your soul and make you accepted before God. *Romans 10:3*
The sword of divine vengeance hangs by a thread over the head of every unsaved soul, but blinded sinners ignore God, laugh and mock as if there is no God, no wrath to come, and no appearing before the White Throne Judgment. Divine justice is closing in on them, they are exposed to God's wrath every moment. Only the Holy Spirit can bring a man to understand his danger and guilt, and then to shame, humiliation, repentance, self-abhorrence, and a holy vengeance against his sins. At Calvary, the bleeding love of the Lamb of God made recompense to divine justice. My sins brought down divine vengeance upon the Savior. The uttermost penalty for my sins was exacted upon Jesus.
Jesus received the vengeance due to my rebellion against the majesty and goodness of God. Through the Substitute, God has received the full payment of God's holy demands. God has not spared the guilty, for He laid my guilt on Christ and did not spare Him. Now I am absolved and forgiven for Jesus' sake. The full vengeance of God passed upon the Lamb of God, and therefore it passes over me. Appeal only to God's mercy, not His justice. The Holy Spirit must help the sinner to perceive his deadly guilt and the threatening divine justice of God. Men know there is something coming after death, and that is troubling to them; they dread death, the coming judgment day, and the sentence of divine justice on their sins.
Jesus was the Priest, the Sacrifice, the Altar, and the Victim. On Calvary's tree He offered Himself as the Substitute for human guilt; there He bore the crushing weight of JEHOVAH'S wrath in His own body, on my behalf. On Jesus my sins were laid, He was numbered with the transgressors. Divine Justice fell upon the innocent Victim; Christ has made an accepted Atonement for all my sins. God sent Jesus into the world to save sinners, He became my Substitute to divine justice, I trust Him, He is my Substitute, I am clear before God. I can never be punished for my sins before the bar of Divine Justice. Christ Jesus has already been punished for my sins, my sins are gone. And now since Jesus died for me, God's divine justice cannot put me to eternal death. Jesus paid the debt fully on my behalf. Jesus is real good to guilty sinners.
Religion is like spraying perfume on the rotting corpse of human nature. Religion can never take away a man's sin and guilt. Jesus bore the blows of divine justice for me, and suffered unspeakable agony. Jesus' precious atoning blood perfectly appeases God's wrath and my troubled conscience. By the divine justice of God I was condemned to die forever. My Creator whom I have grievously offended with my sins became a Jewish man, and for my sake He suffered what I ought to have suffered and satisfied divine justice. God punished the Substitute, Jesus endured all of God's wrath for me.
This is the divine plan of Reconciliation - this is how sinners are saved from divine justice - All men are lost and condemned. All men lay under the condemnation and curse of the Law. Jesus came into the world, God in human flesh, He took upon Himself our nature, here He lived for 33 years in poverty, obscurity, sorrow, and persecution. In His bloody death, He bore the burden of my sins. God laid on Jesus my iniquities, and on the Cross Jesus suffered what I ought to have suffered. What God's divine justice must inflict upon sinful men, God inflicted upon Christ Jesus. Now whosoever will come and hide himself in the blood and wounds of Jesus by Faith shall be safe from divine vengeance and recompense. He that believeth in Jesus is not condemned. Come unto Me, Look unto Me, Call upon Me, is the voice that calls from the Cross of Calvary.
Reconciliation by the Precious Blood, by the Substitutionary Atoning Sacrifice of the Son of God is the message of Reconciliation. O sinner, there is free forgiveness through childlike faith in the blood of Jesus. There is mercy, grace, pardon, Heaven, eternal life, for all who will simply believe in Jesus, the great Substitute for human sin. There is no other way of Reconciliation to God under heaven. God manifested His divine Love as well as His divine justice when He gave His Son to die for His enemies on the Cross. Bloody sweat, crown of thorns, spitting, slapping, scourging, bleeding, and suffering. Five bleeding wounds He received on Calvary, His blood for my sins did atone. A man will not look to Jesus until the Holy Ghost makes him uneasy and he becomes troubled about his sins. Trust to Jesus' Atoning Blood now, and be saved from God's divine justice, and then begin boasting in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
