A lustful look is adultery, a covetous desire is idolatry, wrongful anger is murder. The fountain of his being within must be cleansed. Impure looks, desires and passions are all sins in God's sight. Human nature wants health and wealth, not imputed righteousness and private godliness, and public purity. Human nature says, I don't like the God who made me, I want my own god who I can control and manipulate. There is an Almighty God to whom he is accountable; he begins to sense his sinfulness, danger, and inability. He yearns for Pardon, Justification, Full Acceptance, Adoption, Glory. If I take your property, or your spouse, or your life, you know that is wrong. Self-made religion will only damn his soul.
The guilty man then cries out to God for mercy through Jesus' Precious Blood. How can an ungodly man be just with God? A sinner can only be put right with God by childlike faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The guilty man leaps at these glad tidings, lays hold upon Christ, and Jesus meets his case perfectly.
Now the saved man desires to be right in thought, word, conduct, and motive. He pines to be righteous in his whole life, so that he may please the forgiving Savior. Lord Jesus, please end the reign of sin in my life. He dreads sinning against his God who loved Him so. He follows after integrity, kindness, mercifulness, humility, charity and purity. He ardently longs to be correct in his desires and conduct before God, to do right in God's sight. He now wants to know, obey, and love God. He wants to be righteous before the heart-searching God. Irregular desires and tendencies toward unrighteousness, they are hated by him. Longing after forbidden pleasures, he rejects them with loathing. Sin vexes his righteous soul. He now hungers for godly company and fellowship.
Publish glad tidings of good things to sinners - Reconciliation, Free Forgiveness, Eternal Redemption, Everlasting Life, Grace and Mercy, Acceptance with God, Precious Blood, Full Atonement, Christ's Righteousness freely imputed without works. Tell out the story of Substitution - How a just and holy God cannot pass by sin without a penalty - how that the just God, in the person of Jesus, came here to earth and in His perfect manhood, He took the sins of the whole world upon Himself, and bore them in His own body on the tree, and then He bore the penalty and curse that was due to God's violated law, so that He could freely put away sin, so that God might be just, and yet the Justifier of whosoever believeth in Jesus alone. The offending sinner can only meet the offended God through Jesus' atoning blood. The penalty due to sin is eternal death. Jesus Christ my Substitute poured out His soul unto death and bore the deadly price that is due to my sins. If sin is to be put away, it must be by the Sacrifice of a sinless life. Jesus bore the death penalty which guilty men incurred.
This is the miracle of the Incarnation. The Son of man is come to save that which was lost. He created all the worlds. *Hebrews 1:3* He dwelt in the bosom of the Father, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God. In order to redeem sinful men, the Son of the Highest became the Son of man. Jesus was born of a Jewish virgin, and took upon Himself all the infirmities of our human nature. He was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. The Word condescended to be made flesh.
There is only one just and righteous way to forgive sins, and that is by Jesus bearing the death penalty in the sinner's place. And now whosoever believeth in Jesus is justified from all things, from which the Law could not deliver him. Every one of your transgressions must receive its penalty. The innocent Substitute had to die because sin was laid upon Him. Jesus has fully paid the penalty due to human sin. Jesus saved me from guilt, penalty, the power of sin, and the wrath to come. Jesus' atoning death paid the sin debt of the whole world.
Jesus was Immanuel, God with us. Being found in fashion as a man, Jesus became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. We have all disobeyed the law, and denied God's just claims. Our violation of God's law has brought us under its deadly penalty which is called "the curse." No man has always kept the Law. If you read the Ten Commandments very carefully, you have to say, "I have broken this." Remember that the truth of the Law is spiritual, that means that the Law deals with our desires, thoughts, imaginations, motives, our inward rebellious sinful nature. We are guilty in every way, and guilty every day. By nature, we are all under the curse of the Law's guilt. You may think you have been moral, and outwardly commendable in the sight of man, but the thoughts and intents are what the Lord looks at. You have not loved the Lord God with all your heart, soul, strength, mind, and have not loved your neighbor as yourself.
You have come short of the demands of God's righteous Law, which is Perfection. Only Jesus did that. You are under the curse, that is, the condemnation of the Law. Whosoever believes in Jesus is not condemned. I am in Christ; therefore, I am just in God's sight, because of Jesus' Righteousness. I am now justified eternally by faith in His blood alone. Joy in God through Jesus' Atonement, and rest in His peace. The fact is very clear - Christ has redeemed me from the curse of the Law, being made a Curse for me. Jesus bore my sins, and all the Curse which came with them. This world hated and loathed Jesus Christ without a cause. Away with Him, crucify Him! they cried with a loud voice. Jesus cried out on the Cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" God the Father forsook the man Christ Jesus because He was bearing my sins and their punishment. God the Father made Jesus to be Sin for me. The penal consequences of my sins were brought upon the great Substitute of Calvary, and He vindicated the Law of God with His own life for me. These are the glad tidings of good things which Jesus did for sinners.
