Gospel Thoughts 2

Right now, you may believe on Jesus Christ, and live eternally.  If the Holy Spirit has made you feel yourself a sinner, Christ is just the Savior you need, and you may have Him at once.  God gave His dear Son to die for sinners.  Salvation for sinners, pardon for the guilty, full remission for the ungodly, gracious acceptance for the worst and vilest, this is the Gospel of the blessed God.  Trust your soul in the dear hands that were pierced on Calvary for your sins.  Now just trust Jesus who loved you to death.  Free pardon, gracious Forgiveness is available now.

Trust the merit and power of Jesus' blood.  Fix your trust and hope on what Jesus did for sinners on the tree.  He who Himself had never sinned, for sinners, sin was made.  At Calvary, there is goodness for enemies, mercy for transgressors, kindness for rebels, grace for the godless.  Truly repent of your sins, flee to Christ for refuge, ask for more sanctifying grace.  This is the Gospel in brief - Christ died for sinners, He was buried and rose from the dead on the third day, He died as a Substitute for me.  I trust Jesus, He is now my Substitute. Christ has paid all my debts, and I am clear forever.

Don't seek a righteousness of your own, or endeavor to get rid of your sins' guilt by your own efforts. Self-salvation will not work; it will only bring you to despair.  The more you scrub your sin spots, the blacker and bigger the spots become.  Self-righteousness only leads to deception, disappointment, despair and destruction.  A righteousness must be perfect to be accepted by God, there must be no spot in it, and surely this is not the case with your righteousness.  The threat of eternal damnation is looming, bust still the self-righteous sinner continues to resist the Holy Ghost and reject Christ and His free salvation.

If you seek a righteousness of your own, you are a rival to Jesus Christ Himself. You hold up your two cent rags, and say, "These rags are good enough for me, so they will have to be good enough for God."  An inward self-righteousness is much worse than open sin.  You are perseveringly determined somehow or other to establish a righteousness of your own.  You have spent your whole life in a vain attempt to insult your Maker who died for you, by preparing a righteousness of your own, when your Maker has already wrought a perfect Righteousness for you in every way. Your laborious endeavors to manufacture an imaginary righteousness of your own, after God has appointed Jesus to be your soul's Righteousness.

If you could help save yourself, then Christ's bloody Sacrifice was a gross mistake.  If your works can help save you, then why did Jesus die?  Abhor all ideas of self-salvation. Stop laboring to climb up to Heaven upon the treadmill of your own works.  Sinners are only accepted before God by a Righteousness of Another, even Jesus. A righteousness of your own will never do before a thrice-holy God.  Away with unclean living, fight against inward evil, follow Jesus and ask Him to sanctify you inwardly and outwardly.  Live with Jesus, live for Jesus.  Care about what God thinks; let Jesus run your life.