You must become a debtor to God's mercy alone, and Bow down before God's Wisdom: The Lord Jesus Christ. Do not be offended, do not jump to your own defense. Come to your senses, and listen attentively to the Gospel. JEHOVAH was manifest in the flesh, His name is JESUS CHRIST. He came down to this Earth as a Substitute for sinners, His Holy life is accounted as my RIGHTEOUSNESS, and His suffering and bloody death on Calvary's Cross are the complete and perfect ATONEMENT, and appeases the wrath of God for all my sins. This is Gospel Message of Mercy: The sinner in Christ's place, and Christ in the sinner's place. My sin debts to God are paid in full by Christ Himself, for He offered up Himself as the Lamb of God, and He is my ATONEMENT. The chastisement of my peace was laid upon JESUS.
JESUS is my full ATONEMENT, for He suffered in my place, so that not one sin of mine could be charged against me. JESUS, THE LAMB OF GOD, died in the place of condemned wretches. Christ Jesus is my literal Substitute, my actual Sin-Bearer, my true Atonement who personally bore the wrath of God on my behalf; that is, He suffered all the consequences that my sins deserved. The Precious Blood of JESUS met all the righteous demands of God's law, justice, and vengeance.
God is Just, and He must carry out the eternal Penalty on my sins. But HOW can God be Just, and yet the Justifier of my guilty soul? How can the Almighty be perfectly Holy, and yet at the same time, accept and adopt a guilty unrighteous sinner like me into His family, love, and, kingdom? Only the Precious Blood that was shed on Calvary's Cross can answer these hard questions? The bleeding wounds of the Incarnate Creator answers these questions perfectly. JESUS bore the punishment that my sins deserve. Now don't forget, God also raised JESUS from the dead according to the Scripture to confirm that JESUS' Atonement was accepted and effectual. Salvation, Justification, and Redemption through JESUS' Precious Blood brings about a miracle and an instantaneous change of my Soul's status before God.
Only JESUS can make your Soul right with God. Little children are not aware of the dangers of a hot stove, and lost sinners are blind to the dangers of hell fire. We warn children that the stove will burn them, but often we fail to warn lost Souls that Hell will burn them for all Eternity. Wake up to the reality of your deadly predicament. Consider this: If your Friend takes you out to eat on your Birthday, and offers to pay the bill in full, and you quickly try to help pay or at least to leave the tip. But your Friend says, "Oh no, it is my privilege to pay your bill in full." You say, "Well, can I not at least leave the tip? Can I not have a small part in this?" Your Friend responds, "No, this is my Free Gift to you." There is something innate in human nature that wants to have a part in being set right with God. You say, "I want to have a small part in my salvation as well; I have done this, and I have done that." This is called self-righteousness. You try to do better than you've done before, and try to make some progress in being moral in order that you might finally be justified and accepted before God. You say, "A good God will surely accept a good man doing the best he can." Your conceited pride draws to your own righteousness like a moth to the flame. But your very best will never be good enough to satisfy God's Divine Justice. A RIGHTEOUSNESS had to come down from Heaven to save someone as sinful as you; His Name is JESUS CHRIST. You need a PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS which cannot produced by someone like you: JESUS provided His HOLY RIGHTEOUSNESS which is completely beyond your understanding, ability, and strength.
If you had a horrible negative balance in your bank account, and Someone came along, and not only brought your balance back to Zero, but also freely paid for all your future debts, and transferred all of their assets to your account. This is what JESUS does when He pays your sin debts, and transfers ALL of His Righteousness to your Soul. This is called God's Goodness and Blessedness to the sinner who sincerely believes in JESUS, what the Bible calls unfeigned faith in the Savior. God doesn't just bring your account back to Zero, and say, Go on now and try to do your best to see if you can keep your account at Zero, now that I've got you back to square one. No, God freely provides the sinner All of Christ's RIGHTEOUSNESS; God makes the guilty Soul RIGHTEOUS for JESUS' sake, and God puts the Soul into Christ, and gives the Soul His Holy Spirit. God declares the Soul perfectly and eternally RIGHTEOUS based solely upon the Finished Work of His dear Son: HIS PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS and PRECIOUS BLOOD. The Soul can the only be Justified by that which has been done by JESUS. Salvation is completely outside of me: I must look wholly to JESUS for my Salvation. Religion is man's futile attempt of trying to make himself accepted by God. Religion says, "I do my best, therefore I hope I will be accepted before God when I die." Salvation says, "I am accepted before God now, because I have been freely given Christ's RIGHTEOUSNESS, therefore I love God my Father out of gratitude."
