Plain and Simple 4

My Salvation is complete; the Robe of Righteousness is finished; the Atonement for my sins is fully made; I am reconciled to God through Christ's Precious Blood; I am accepted in the beloved for Jesus' sake.  By nature, we have no love to God, we are His enemies.  We love sin and we ruin ourselves by sinning against God; but God sent His Son that He might make Reconciliation for us, and put away our sins forever.  Evil human nature always tries to deflect when confronted about taking and receiving Jesus Christ, because human nature loves sin.

How can a sinful man be saved, and yet divine justice be satisfied?  God's grace and wisdom has answered this hard question, and God's own Son is the perfect answer.  God became a Jewish man for us, and for our eternal redemption, He bore the whole weight of God's wrath that we deserved.  The Lord is a God of truth, and fakers and dissemblers can have no relationship with Him.  Being guilty, you must take the place of the guilty, for it your proper position, and it is due to the Judge of all the earth that you take it; if you refuse to do so, you are in contempt of Heaven's court.

Men feel their guilt, so they give to charities, go to church, help fight cancer, and other deeds so they can feel better about themselves, but they are still as guilty as ever in the sight of God, because no human works can ever remove guilt and sin from the human soul.  Do-gooders go to Hell, and no-gooders go to Heaven. You are the guilty party. The penalty for your sins against God is eternal death, and Jesus bore it to the utmost on Calvary's Cross.  Jesus bore the full penalty of my guilt.

What does it mean to be *saved*?  To have all your sins forgiven freely and instantly by Jesus, to be accepted in the beloved, to have your sins pardoned forever, to have your sins fully and finally blotted out of God's record book, the imputation of Christ's Righteousness to your soul, to be delivered from the wrath to come.  Jesus is my Sin-Offering and Substitute; He has been punished in my place.  God punished my sins in the person of His dear Son, on my behalf.  Through Christ's bloody death, my sins have been punished.

At the Cross, sinners are saved, and God's Law is vindicated. The wrath of God was concentrated on the Great Sin-Bearer of Calvary.  He took all the punishment my sins deserved.  Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; He came to take away the punishment due to my sins.  Sin brings death and misery, but Jesus came to take death away, removing all the punishment due to our sins, and now whosoever will believe in His Precious Blood, for His sake, will never be punished.

The downfall of most so-called churches today is they will do anything to please the people, anything to get them to come and keep them coming.  Even deceive them if you have to, make it convenient for the people to worship their own god. The priority of most churches today is tickle the ears and entertain lost people.

Are you trying to be your own savior?  Forget trying to help save yourself, turn your eyes to the Cross of Christ, to the full Atonement  He has made for human sin.  Christ paid all the sinner's debt. Jesus discharged and freed me from the wicked confinement of sin's prison house.  God laid all my sins on Christ, with all my guilt and punishment.  Look now to the Son of God who made a full, complete, absolutely acceptable Atonement.  Trust your soul with Jesus, rest on His promises, repose in His Atonement, rely upon His finished work, rejoice in His bleeding Love, look for His coming.  It is a grand thing to rest on the Rock of Ages.  The moment you trust to Jesus, you are safe for time and Eternity.

The part of the Gospel that is the best of all is that a holy God can now have mercy on the guilty.  God gave His Son, Jesus Christ, to offer the full and complete Atonement for human sin.  Salvation by a divine Righteousness; Free and full Salvation by the grace of God. Believing is the sinner ceasing to trust in himself, and implicitly relying on the Lord Jesus Christ Himself for all his Salvation.  The only way you will see the face of God with acceptance and favor is through faith in the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ.  You have no merits to plead before God.  The merits of Christ must be put down (imputed) to your account, and then you shall stand before God accepted in the Beloved, perfect in Christ Jesus.

Has Christ made you accepted in the Beloved?  Only He can do that for you.  The Gospel of Grace suits my case exactly.  Jesus came to save the guilty and the needy, that is the sort of person I am, so I lay hold on His Atonement.  I have a grip on Him, and there I hang, for I have nothing else to which I can trust.  On Christ alone, I hang forever and ever.  I commit myself to this one Ship which God has built to cross the sea of life, death and Eternity, and I believe that the Gospel Ship will surely bring me safely to the golden shore, for Christ Jesus said, "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life."

How can a sinful man be just with God? Jesus said, "I stood in the place of the guilty, and have rendered to God's Law a perfect obedience and to God's divine justice a perfect Atonement."  Jesus faced and answered to divine justice for me.  Christ's obedience and blood is imputed to all sinners who believe in Him alone. God regards those who believe in Jesus as absolutely just through Christ's Righteousness.  This is the heavenly doctrine of Imputation.  Jesus bore the consequences of my sin, so I could be given His Righteousness freely.  He took my sins upon Himself, He took the place of the guilty (that's me), and suffered the deadly penalty which I had incurred with my rebellion.

Mercy is only for the guilty, forgiveness is for the unrighteous, and grace is for the ungodly.  Class yourself among the guilty and ungodly, or God's mercy and forgiveness will never come to you.  The penalty for human sin is a terrible one.  Through the atoning Sacrifice of the Redeemer, we are delivered from the debt of our sins and the eternal death penalty due to our sins.  Jesus clears all who believe in Him for He bore their punishment in His own body on the tree.

All that was necessary to save me from my sins has been endured by the Lord Jesus Christ.  He ransomed me by His bloody death upon the Cross.  Jesus personally bore my sins and suffered the penalty due to the sins I personally committed all my life.  Jesus loved me and laid down His life for me, and now I am bought with a price, with the gold of His Precious Blood.

Jesus said, "I have bore the penalty that was due to your sins.  I have stood in your place, and suffered the wrath which has fully satisfied the claims of divine justice on your behalf; I have paid all your debts, so the Law must let you go free. I was wounded for your transgressions; I was bruised for your iniquities."  The great Sin-Bearer has suffered in the sinner's place, divine justice smote Him, He willingly bore all the sinner's punishment, and now that sin has been punished on Jesus.  God can now be just, and yet be the Justifier of all who believe in His dear Son.

According to the righteous Law of God, every sin must be punished.  Your own conscience tells you that it is impossible that your guilt cannot be put away without its due penalty.  So Jesus came and bore your sins, and the dread penalty that was due to my sins.  The penalty for your sins must fall on Someone, so Jesus took the deadly blow for you.  Faith in the atoning sacrifice will change your heart, so that you will hate the sins you once loved, you will flee the filthy ways that you once delighted in, and abhor the dirty thoughts you once indulged in, and turn to the merciful Savior you once despised.

The blessed fact is that Christ Jesus Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree.  Lay hold on it, feed upon it, live by it.  God in His infinite justice determined that all sin must be punished, so divine Wisdom devised the plan of Substitution, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God in human form, became the Substitute for sinners.  God exacted the ransom price of my sins on Jesus, and now I am forever clear of all liability to the divine Law of God.  Rely upon the merit of Jesus' Blood and Righteousness. I cannot be punished for my sins, for Jesus has bore the punishment of them all. Man transgressed his Creator's commands, and those transgressions must be punished; if he dies in his sins without trusting Jesus Christ, he will lose his soul.

The clarion note of the Gospel trumpet is this - Salvation by grace through faith in the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh.  Salvation by faith, Justification by faith in Jesus' blood.  Cry to God for mercy to be saved, cry to Him for grace to glorify Him in your daily life, and ask Him for strength to live better, higher, purer, nobler for Jesus' sake.  By faith, look to Jesus, the Great High Priest offering up Himself as the spotless Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.