I deserve to die in my sins, but Christ bore my sins in His own body, and then He died in my sins and paid the penalty due to all my sins, that is, divine justice and wrath fell on Jesus for my sake. Because of our sins, we are in debt, but Jesus paid the entire debt for us with His own sinless blood. The human heart is so deceitful and desperately evil, that God Himself had to become a man, bear our sins, and shed His own innocent blood to ransom us from sin's tyrannical rule. Christ offered a perfect Atonement for my sins. Most men today are religion-ated by man, but not Regenerated by the Holy Ghost. There's no hope for me but the atoning Blood of Jesus Christ. Noah was right, and the whole world was wrong. The Gospel is right, the whole Christ-rejecting world today is wrong. God said, "This is my beloved Son, hear ye Him."
In the garden of Eden, man betrayed his Maker. Adam wanted his own way; he didn't like God ruling him, he invited evil into his heart; he was false to his Creator; he tried to hide from God and blame his sins on someone else, just like you. You have often betrayed Christ by neglecting and rejecting Him. You have been tempted, and deliberately chose the evil and knowingly forsook the good. The ransom price for human sin was all paid by Christ Himself. Go directly to Jesus Christ, the Substitute Himself. Christ came to save sinners, I am a sinner, therefore He came to save me. Jesus is God, He is man, He suffered, bled, died, and offered a complete Atonement. Jesus is willing to save you freely. If you want live your own life, you'll wake up in Hell one day.
Jesus offered an Atonement once for all. Jesus offered Himself as an innocent Victim. Heartily trust your soul with Christ. The process of Justification by faith is plain - Christ bore my sins and stood in my place before God. I was a sinner doomed to die, but Christ took my place, He suffered for my sake. I cannot be punished for my offenses that have been punished already in the person of the sinless Substitute. God demands that I keep His law perfectly, but I cannot do it, so Christ did it for me. Whosoever believeth in Christ shall be saved. I believe in Christ, therefore I am saved. He that believeth on Jesus is not condemned. Take Him, trust Him at once. Human nature cannot tolerate the simple pure gospel of Christ. Faith is believing what God says, and then acting upon His words.
Rest perfectly at ease on Christ's bloody sacrifice. Accept His Atonement. Sin can only be taken away by Precious Blood. Priest, altar, sacrifice, victim, Christ was all of these in one Person. Great Atonement, Finished Righteousness. Jesus Christ offered a full Atonement to divine wrath on my behalf. I am trusting only to the Great Atonement which God made in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Only trust to the Savior's work and merit. The essence of genuine faith is this - to rest yourself for eternal salvation upon the Atonement and Righteousness of Jesus Christ. Have done once and for all with your doings and trust in Jesus Christ, and what He did for your salvation. Rely only on the Mediator's Atonement.
The Holy Spirit must apply the truth of the Atonement to the heart and conscience of the guilty sinner. Do not begin to make excuse for your sins. Come to Christ at once. If you are guilty, trust to His Precious Blood. Trust to His power, wisdom, and heart. The heinousness of human guilt is pardoned through faith in His Precious Blood. The matchless Sacrifice of Calvary was for human sin. Christ died in my sins, so I can live in His Righteousness. Whosoever comes to Christ, He will in no wise cast out. There is life in a look at the crucified Savior. Abel chose blood as his way of forgiveness. Cain was too proud to offer a blood atonement for his sins. He preferred his own way of sacrifice, self-sacrifice. Cain hated the obedience of faith. Never boast of your own merits. Rebellious conceit, evil pride, vain glory, self-righteousness, and hatred of the Cross will damn you. An unruly, defiant, trifling, stubborn, froward spirit leads to destruction. Your brief life will soon be over; prepare to meet God by trusting to Christ's Blood.
Cast your anchor in the Atonement. Obedience is faith in action. An ounce of faith is better than a ton of learning. It is better to be Christ's student and patient than a doctor of divinity. Faith is the hand that lays hold on Christ and the mouth that drinks and eats Him. Faith is begotten by the words of God. *Romans 10:17* Faith is trusting in Jesus Christ. Faith is not just believing gospel truths, but genuine faith is resting on Him, depending on Him, lying with all your weight on Christ as your foundation. God is so good, my cup runneth over.
Faith is to take freely what God gives freely. God gives Christ, we take Him. Take the water, put it to your lips, and actually drink. The water is allowed to flow into the mouth, down the throat, and so it is drunk. Take Christ just the same way. Take Christ into the lip and mouth of the mind, the throat of the will, into the stomach of the soul, and then out into body and members of daily life. Faith is the soul's eye by which it sees the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is the soul's ear by which we hear the Lord speak. Faith is the soul's hand which grasps the things which are not seen. Faith is the soul's nostrils which perceives the savor of the Savior. Faith is also the soul's tongue by which we taste the sweetness of Christ Jesus and enjoy Him for ourselves. Faith perseveres in seeking and cleaving to the Lord. Trust only to the Mediator's Blood. Stop ducking, deflecting, and dodging Gospel truth. Beware of yourself, trust to the Mediator's Blood.
Faith sees light in the thickest darkness. Hold fast to Christ and to the Cross. Put sin down, lift Christ up. Tell out the atoning sacrifice in the power of the Holy Spirit. True faith always has trials and temptations. Love and prize Christ as the most precious thing in earth or heaven. Believe on the Son of God, be obedient to Christ. Loathe sin, sin becomes bitter. Holiness becomes sweet. Follow after righteousness and purity. Pine after purity. Rest upon Christ. Love God, love His people. Love God's words, delight in His worship. Heart bent toward Christ's rule and way. Walk with God even when it is getting darker and darker in this world. Bow in patience before God's chastening rod. Thy will be done. The haughty go to Hell.
Resort to Jesus for divine aid. Go directly to Jesus for more faith. Faith must first learn who Christ is, what He has done, then faith believes in Him as the Son of God who was the Sin-Bearer. Faith which is the conduit of grace always lives on the truth of the Gospel in the Scriptures. Faith which begins and ends with Jesus Christ is genuine faith. Ask the Holy Spirit for real faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Make sure of this - trust to Jesus' forgiving blood. Childlike, clear, simple faith makes Christ dear. Lively childlike faith in the Son of God. Trust Christ's promises, not your feelings. Pardon through the Precious Blood of the great Sacrifice. Hang your soul upon the sure nail of Christ's Finished Work. Follow and obey Christ practically in daily life. Aim at purity of heart, and peace of spirit. Cheerful self-denial and separation from the world. True faith leads to obedience and the forsaking of sins.
Jesus took our sins upon Himself by His sinless Substitution. God took sin from off sinners and laid it on His innocent Son. God can now freely forgive and yet not injure His justice. Trust your immortal soul with Jesus. You can only come to Christ by trusting His Precious Blood. Turn your eye to the Cross, trust your soul wholly with Christ. Flee now to Christ for refuge from the wrath to come. Hasten to His blood. A dreadful doom will fall on every soul who dies rejecting Christ. Only the conscious presence of the Holy Spirit enables us to worship with the spirit, that is the main thing, the only important thing.
You are grossly guilty in God's sight - idle, proud, forgetting God, living without love to Christ, lascivious, unthankful, untruthful, and profane. Trust in the atoning sacrifice alone and entirely. Human nature proudly rebels against free salvation by Christ alone. Human nature will not hear of imputed righteousness, its own righteousness is what it loves. Own yourself a sinner - lost, ruined, condemned. The truth of imputed righteousness cannot by endured by the religionist. The Righteousness of God saves you, not your own righteousness. There is no such thing as human righteousness, those two words are a contradiction. A sinner cannot do any good thing in God's sight, as long as he is rejecting God's Son. You have no personal merit, you must be justified by imputed righteousness.
Forgive others freely, continually. To go first to Jesus is to save time. Go straight to Jesus for all your soul's needs. It is vain to trust in man. The way of deliverance lies alone in reliance upon God, immediately and alone. First, believe God's words, believe Jesus to be true, believe Him to be sent of God for your salvation, and then put yourself into His hands. Let your whole life be affected by His truth - mind, thought, desire, speech, and conversation. Genuine faith is the relinquishment of all trust in self, once for all, and the trusting in Jesus forever. Justification by faith is the opposite of human merit.
The first marks of practical obedience is the obedience of the mind, understanding, heart by believing the teaching of Christ, trusting to His work, resting in His Atonement. Deal directly and immediately with the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith alone takes hold of God's divine strength. Faith is the essential point of holiness. Seek faith first to pray. Faith is needed to overcome sins. Believe on Christ Jesus for yourself. Let God be true and every man a liar. Thorough, entire, childlike faith in the Mediator. Christ is All.
