A Sermon Delivered
by
C. H. SPURGEON,
at the Music Hall,
"Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many." Matthew 20:28
When first it was my duty
to occupy this pulpit, and preach in this hall, my congregation assumed the
appearance of an irregular mass of persons collected from all the streets of
this city to listen to the Word. 'Twas then simply an evangelist, preaching to many who had not heard the Gospel before. By the grace of
God, the most blessed change has taken place; and now, instead of having an
irregular multitude gathered together, my congregation is as fixed as that of
any minister in the whole city of
And observe,
that my character also has been changed. From being an evangelist, it is now my
business to become your pastor. You were once a motley group assembled to
listen to me, but now
we are bound together by the ties of love; through association we have grown to
love and respect each other, and now you have become the sheep of my pasture,
and members of my flock; and I have now the privilege of assuming the position
of a pastor in this place, as well as in the chapel where I labour in the
evening.I think, then, it will strike the judgment of every person, that as
both the congregation and office have now changed, the teaching itself should
in some measure suffer a difference. It has been my wont to address you from
the simple truths of the Gospel; I have very seldom, in this place, attempted
to dive into the deep things of God. A text which I have thought suitable for
my congregation in the evening, I should not have made the subject of
discussion in this place in the morning. There are many high and mysterious
doctrines which I have often taken the opportunity of handling in my own place,
that I have not taken the liberty of introducing here, regarding you as a
company of people casually gathered together to hear the Word.
But now, since the
circumstances are changed, the teaching will be changed also. I shall not now
simply confine myself to the doctrine of faith, or the teaching of believer's
baptism; I shall not stay upon the surface of matters, but shall venture, as
God shall guide me, to enter into those things that lie at the basis of the
religion that we hold so dear. I shall not blush to preach before you the
doctrine of God's Divine Sovereignty; I shall not stagger to preach in the most
unreserved and unguarded manner the doctrine of election. I shall not be afraid
to propound the great truth of the final perseverance of the saints; I shall
not withhold that undoubted truth of Scripture, the effectual calling of God's
elect; I shall endeavour, as God shall help me, to keep back nothing from you
who have become my flock. Seeing that many of you have now "tasted that
the Lord is gracious," we will endeavour to go through the whole system of
the doctrines of grace, that saints may be edified and built up in their most
holy faith.
I begin this morning with
the doctrine of Redemption. "He gave his life a ransom for many." The
doctrine of Redemption is one of the most important
doctrines of the system of faith. A mistake on this
point will inevitably lead to a mistake through the entire system of our
belief.
Now, you are aware that
there are different theories of Redemption. All Christians hold that Christ
died to redeem, but all Christians do not teach the same redemption. We differ
as to the nature of atonement, and as to the design of redemption. For
instance, the Arminian holds that Christ, when He died, did not die with an intent to save any particular person; and they teach that
Christ's death does not in itself secure, beyond doubt, the salvation of any
one man living. They believe that Christ died to make the salvation of all men
possible, or that by the doing of something else, any man who pleases may
attain unto eternal life; consequently, they are obliged to hold that if man's
will would not
give way and voluntarily surrender to grace, then Christ's atonement would be
unavailing. They hold that there was no particularity and speciality in the
death of Christ. Christ died, according to them, as much for Judas in Hell as
for Peter who mounted to Heaven. They believe that for those who are consigned
to eternal fire, there was a true and real a redemption
made as for those who now stand before the throne of the Most High.
Now, we believe no such
thing. We hold that Christ, when He died, had an object in view, and that
object will most assuredly, and beyond a doubt, be accomplished. We measure the
design of Christ's death by the effect of it. If any one asks us, "What
did Christ design to do by His death?" we answer that question by asking
him another—"What has Christ done, or what will Christ do by His
death?" For we declare that the measure of the effect of Christ's love, is
the measure of the design of it. We cannot so belie our reason as to think that
the intention of Almighty God could be frustrated, or that the design of so
great a thing as the atonement, can by any way whatever, be missed of. We
hold—we are not afraid to say that we believe—that Christ came into this world
with the intention of saving "a multitude which no man can number;"
and we believe that as the result of this, every person for whom He died must,
beyond the shadow of a doubt, be cleansed from sin, and stand, washed in blood,
before the Father's throne.
We do not believe that
Christ made any effectual atonement for those who are for ever damned; we dare
not think that the blood of Christ was ever shed with the intention of saving
those whom God foreknew never could be saved, and some of whom were even in
Hell when Christ, according to some men's account, died to save them.
I have thus just stated our
theory of redemption, and hinted at the differences which exist between two
great parties in the professing church. It shall be now my endeavour to show
the greatness of the
redemption of Christ Jesus; and by so doing, I hope to be enabled by God's
Spirit, to bring out the whole of the great system of redemption, so that it
may be understood by us all, even if all of us cannot receive it. For you must
bear this in mind, that some of you, perhaps, may be ready to dispute things
which I assert; but you will remember that this is nothing to me; I shall at
all times teach those things which I hold to be true, without let or hindrance
from any man breathing. You have the like liberty to do the same in your own
places, and to preach your own views in your own assemblies, as I claim the
right to preach mine, fully, and without hesitation.
Christ Jesus "gave his
life a ransom for many;" and by that ransom He wrought out for us a great
redemption. I shall endeavour to show the greatness of this redemption,
measuring it in five ways. We shall note its greatness, first of all from the
heinousness of our own guilt, from which He has delivered us; secondly,we shall
measure His redemption by the sternness of divine justice; we shall measure it
by the price which He paid, the pangs which He endured; then we shall endeavour
to magnify it, by noting the deliverance which He actually wrought out; and we
shall close by noticing the vast number for whom this redemption is made, who
in our text are described as "many."
My brethren, for a moment
look at the hole of the pit whence ye were digged, and the quarry whence you
were hewn. Ye, who have been washed, and cleansed, and sanctified, pause for a
moment, and look back at the former state of your ignorance; the sins in which
you indulged, the crimes into which you were hurried, the continual rebellion
against God in which it was your habit to live. One sin can ruin a soul for
ever; it is not in the power of the human mind to grasp the infinity of evil
that slumbereth in the bowels of one solitary sin. There is a very infinity of
guilt couched in one transgression against the majesty of Heaven. If, then, you and I had sinned but once, nothing but an atonement
infinite in value could ever have washed away the sin and made satisfaction for
it. But has it been once that you and I have transgressed? Nay, my
brethren, our iniquities are more in number than the hairs of our head; they
have mightily prevailed against us. We might as well attempt to number the
sands upon the sea-shore, or count the drops which in their aggregate do make
the ocean, as attempt to count the transgressions which have marked our
lives.Let us go back to our childhood. How early we began to sin! How we
disobeyed our parents, and even then learned to make our mouth the house of
lies! In our childhood, how full of wantonness and waywardness we were!
Headstrong and giddy, we preferred our own way, and burst through all restraint
which godly parents put upon us. Nor did our youth sober us. Wildly we dashed,
many of us, into the very midst of the dance of sin. We became leaders in
iniquity; we not only sinned ourselves, but we taught others to sin.
And as for your manhood, ye
that have entered upon the prime of life, ye may be more outwardly sober, ye
may be somewhat free from the dissipation of your youth; but how little has the
man become bettered! Unless the sovereign grace of God hath renewed us, we are
now no better than we were when we began; and even if it has operated, we have
still sins to repent of, for we all lay our
mouths in the dust, and cast ashes on our head, and cry, "Unclean! Unclean!"
And ho! ye
that lean wearily on your staff, the support of your old age, have ye not sins
still clinging to your garments? Are your lives as white as the snowy hairs
that crown your head? Do you not still
feel that transgression besmears the skirts of your robe, and mars its
spotlessness? How often are you now plunged into the ditch, till your own
clothes do abhor you! Cast your eyes over the sixty, the
seventy, the eighty years, during which God hath
spared your lives; and can ye for a moment think it possible, that ye can
number up your innumerable transgressions, or compute the weight of the crimes
which you have committed?
O ye stars
of Heaven! the astronomers may measure your distance
and tell your height, but O ye sins of mankind! ye
surpass all thought. O ye lofty mountains! the home of
the tempest, the birthplace of the storm! man may
climb your summits and stand wonderingly upon your snows; but ye hills of sin! ye tower higher than our thoughts; ye chasms of
transgressions! ye are deeper than our imagination
dares to dive.
Do you accuse me of
slandering human nature? It is because you know it not. If God had once
manifested your heart to yourself, you would bear me witness, that so far from
exaggerating, my poor
words fail to describe the desperateness of our evil. Oh! if we could each of
us look into our hearts today—if our eyes could be turned within, so as to see
the iniquity that is graven as with the point of the diamond upon our stony hearts,
we should then say to the minister, that however he may depict the
desperateness of guilt, yet can he not by any means surpass it.
How great then, beloved,
must be the ransom of Christ, when He saved us from all these sins! The men for whom Jesus died, however great their sin, when they
believe, are justified from all their transgressions. Though they may have
indulged in every vice and every lust which Satan could suggest, and which
human nature could perform, yet once believing, all their guilt is washed away.
Year after year may have coated them with blackness, till their sin hath become
of double dye; but in one moment of faith, one triumphant moment of confidence
in Christ, the great redemption takes away the guilt of numerous years. Nay,
more, if it were possible for all the sins that men have done, in thought, or
word, or deed, since worlds were made, or time began, to meet on one poor
head—the great redemption is all-sufficient to take all these sins away, and
wash the sinner whiter than the driven snow.
Oh! who
shall measure the heights of the Saviour's all-sufficiency? First, tell how
high is sin, and, then, remember that as Noah's flood
prevailed over the tops of earth's mountains, so the flood of Christ's
redemption prevails over the tops of the mountains of our sins. In Heaven's
courts there are today men that once were murderers, and thieves, and
drunkards, and whoremongers, and blasphemers, and persecutors; but they have
been washed—they have been sanctified. Ask them whence the brightness of their
robes hath come, and where their purity hath been achieved, and they, with
united breath, tell you that they have washed their robes, and made them white
in the blood of the Lamb. O ye troubled consciences! O ye weary and heavy-laden
ones! O ye that are groaning on account of sin! the great redemption now
proclaimed to you is all-sufficient for your wants; and though your numerous
sins exceed the stars that deck the sky, here is an atonement made for them
all—a river which can overflow the whole of them, and carry them away from you
for ever. This, then, is the first measure of the atonement—the greatness of
our guilt.
"God is love,"
always loving; but my next proposition does not at all interfere with this
assertion. God is sternly just, inflexibly severe in His dealings with mankind.
The God of the Bible is not the God of some men's imagination, who thinks so
little of sin that He passes it by without demanding any punishment for it. He
is not the God of the men who imagine that our transgressions are such little
things, such mere peccadilloes that the God of Heaven winks at them, and
suffers them to die forgotten. No;
till we have first grasped the Scriptural truth of God's immense justice. There
was never an ill word spoken, nor an ill thought conceived, nor an evil deed
done, for which God will not have punishment from some one or another. He will
either have satisfaction from you, or else from Christ. If you have no
atonement to bring through Christ, you must for ever lie
paying the debt which you never can pay, in eternal misery; for as surely as
God is God, He will sooner lose His Godhead than suffer one sin to
go unpunished, or one particle of rebellion unrevenged.
You may say that this
character of God is cold, and stern, and severe. I cannot help what you say of
it; it is nevertheless true. Such is the God of the Bible; and though we repeat
it is true that He is love, it is no more true that He is love than that He is
full of justice, for every good thing meets in God, and is carried to
perfection, whilst love reaches to consummate loveliness, justice reaches to
the sternness of inflexibility in Him. He has no bend, no warp in His
character; no attribute so predominates as to cast a shadow upon the other.
Love hath its full sway, and justice hath no narrower limit than His love.
Oh! then,
beloved, think how great must have been the substitution of Christ, when it
satisfied God for all the sins of His people. For man's sin God demands eternal
punishment; and God hath prepared a Hell into which He casts those who die
impenitent. Oh! my brethren, can ye think what must have been the greatness of
the atonement which was the substitution for all this agony which God would
have cast upon us, if He had not poured it upon Christ.
Look! look!
look with solemn eye through the shades that part us
from the world of spirits, and see that house of misery which men call Hell! Ye
cannot endure the spectacle. Remember that in that place there are spirits for
ever paying their debt to divine justice; but though some of them have been for
these four thousand years sweltering in the flame, they are no nearer a
discharge than when they began; and when ten thousand times ten thousand years
shall have rolled away, they will no more have made satisfaction to God for
their guilt than they have done up till now.
And now can you grasp the
thought of the greatness of your Saviour's mediation when He paid your debt,
and paid it all at once; so that there now remaineth not one farthing of debt
owing from Christ's people to their God, except a debt of love. To justice the
believer oweth nothing; though he owed originally so much that eternity would
not have been long enough to suffice for the paying of it, yet, in one moment
Christ did pay it all, so that the man who believeth is entirely justified from
all guilt, and set free from all punishment, through what Jesus hath done.
Think ye, then, how great His atonement if He hath done all this.
I must just pause here, and
utter another sentence. There are times when God the Holy Spirit shows to men
the sternness of justice in their own consciences. There is a man here today
who has just been cut to the heart with a sense of sin. He was once a free man,
a libertine, in bondage to none; but now the arrow of the Lord sticks fast in
his heart, and he has come under a bondage worse than
that of
O, ye sons of weariness and
woe, this that you feel is God's justice in full pursuit of you, and happy are
you that you feel this, for now to you I preach this glorious Gospel of the
blessed God. You are the man for whom Jesus Christ has died; for you He has
satisfied stern justice; and now all you have to do to obtain peace of conscience, is just to say to your adversary who pursues
you, "Look you there! Christ died for me; my good works would not stop
you, my tears would not appease you: look you there! There stands the cross;
there hangs the bleeding God! Hark to His death-shriek! See Him die! Art thou
not satisfied now?" And when thou hast done that, thou shalt have the
peace of God which passeth all understanding, which shall keep thy heart and
mind through Jesus Christ thy Lord; and then shalt thou know the greatness of
His atonement.
It is impossible for us to
know how great were the pangs of our Saviour; but yet
some glimpse of them will afford us a little idea of the greatness of the price
He paid for us. O Jesus, who shall describe thine agony?
"Come, all ye springs,
Dwell in my head and eyes; come, clouds and rain! My grief hath need of all the
wat'ry things, That nature hath produc'd. Let ev'ry
vein Suck up a river to supply mine eyes, My weary
weeping eyes; too dry for me, Unless they get new conduits, new supplies, To
bear them out, and with my state agree."
O Jesus! thou
wast a sufferer from thy birth, a man of sorrows and grief's acquaintance. Thy
sufferings fell on thee in one perpetual shower, until the last dread hour of
darkness. Then not in a shower, but in a cloud, a torrent, a cataract of grief,
thine agonies did dash upon thee. See Him yonder! It is a night of frost and
cold; but He is all abroad. It is night; He sleeps not, but He is in prayer.
Hark to His groans! Did ever man wrestle as He wrestles? Go and look in His
face! Was ever such suffering depicted upon mortal countenance as you can there
behold? Hear His own words? "My soul is exceeding
sorrowful, even unto death." He rises: He is seized by traitors and is
dragged away. Let us step to the place when just now He was engaged in agony. O
God! and what is this we see? What is this that stains
the ground? It is blood! Whence came it? Had He some
wound which oozed afresh through His dire struggle Ah! no.
"He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood,
falling down to the ground." O agonies that surpass the word by which we
name you! O sufferings that cannot be compassed in language! What could ye be
that thus could work upon the Saviour's blessed frame, and force a bloody sweat
to fall from His entire body?
This is the beginning; this
is the opening of the tragedy. Follow Him mournfully, thou sorrowing church, to
witness the consummation of it. He is hurried through the streets; He is
dragged first to one bar and then to another; He is cast and condemned before
the Sanhedrin; He is mocked by Herod; He is tried by Pilate. His sentence is
pronounced— "Let Him be crucified!" And now the tragedy cometh to its height. His back is bared;
He is tied to the low Roman column; the bloody scourge ploughs furrows on His
back, and with one stream of blood His back is red—a crimson robe that
proclaims Him emperor of misery. He is taken into the guard room; His eyes are
bound, and then they buffet Him, and say, "Prophesy who it was that smote
thee?" They spit into His face; they plait a crown of thorns, and press
His temples with it; they array Him in a purple robe; they bow their knees, and
mock Him. All silently He sits; He answers not a word. "When he was
reviled, he reviled not again," but committed Himself unto Him whom He
came to serve.
And now they take Him, and with
many a jeer and jibe they drive Him from the place, and hurry Him through the
streets. Emaciated by continual fastings, and depressed with agony of spirit He
stumbles beneath His cross. Daughters of
But see the Saviour's
limbs, how they quiver! Every bone has been put out of joint by the dashing of
the cross in that socket! How He weeps! How He sighs! How He sobs! Nay, more
hark how at last
He shrieks in agony, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" O
sun, no wonder thou didst shut thine eye, and look no longer upon a deed so
cruel! O rocks! no wonder that ye did melt and rend
your hearts with sympathy, when your Creator died! Never man suffered as this
man suffered, Even death itself relented, and many of
those who had been in their graves arose and came into the city.
This, however, is but the
outward. Believe me, brethren, the inward was far worse. What our Saviour
suffered in His body was nothing compared to what He endured in His soul. You
cannot guess, and I cannot help you to guess, what He endured within. Suppose
for one moment—to repeat a sentence I have often used—suppose a man who has
passed into Hell— suppose his eternal torment could all be brought into one
hour; and then suppose it could be multiplied by the number of the saved, which
is a number past all human enumeration. Can you now think what a vast aggregate
of misery there would have been in the sufferings of all God's people, if they
had been punished through all eternity? And recollect that Christ had to suffer
an equivalent for all the hells of all His redeemed. I can never express that
thought better than by using those oft-repeated words: it seemed as if Hell
were put into His cup; He seized it, and, "At one tremendous draught of
love, He drank damnation dry." So that there was nothing left of all the
pangs and miseries of Hell for His people ever to endure. I say not that He
suffered the same, but He did endure an equivalent for all this, and gave God
the satisfaction for all the sins of all His people, and consequently gave Him
an equivalent for all their punishment. Now can ye dream, can ye guess the
great redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ?
Rise up, believer; stand up
in thy place, and this day testify to the greatness of what the Lord hath done
for thee! Let me tell it for thee. I will tell thy experience and mine in one breath. Once my soul was laden with sin; I had revolted
against God, and grievously transgressed. The terrors of the law gat hold upon
me; the pangs of conviction seized me. I saw myself guilty. I looked to Heaven,
and I saw an angry God sworn to punish me; I looked beneath me and I saw a
yawning Hell ready to devour me. I sought by good works to satisfy my
conscience; but all in vain, I endeavoured by attending to the ceremonies of
religion to appease the pangs that I felt within; but all without effect. My
soul was exceeding sorrowful, almost unto death. I could have said with the
ancient mourner, "My soul chooseth strangling and death rather than
life." This was the great question that always perplexed me: "I have
sinned; God must punish me; how can He be just if He does not? Then, since He
is just, what is to become of me?"
At last mine eyes turned to
that sweet word which says, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth
from all sin." I took that text to my chamber; I sat there and meditated.
I saw one hanging on a cross. It was my Lord Jesus. There was the thorn-crown,
and there the emblems of unequalled and peerless misery. I looked upon Him, and
my thoughts recalled that word which says, "This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners." Then said I within myself, "Did this
man die for sinners? I am a sinner; then He died for me. Those He died for He
will save. He died for sinners; I am a sinner; He died for me; He will save
me." My soul relied upon that truth. I looked to Him, and as I
"viewed the flowing of His soul-redeeming blood," my spirit rejoiced,
for I could say,
"Nothing in my
hands I bring,
Simply to this cross I cling;
Naked look to Him for dress;
Helpless come to Him for grace!
Black, I to this fountain fly;
Wash me, Saviour, or I die!"
And now, believer, you shall
tell the rest. The moment that you believed, your burden rolled from your
shoulder, and you became light as air. Instead of darkness you had light; for
the garments of heaviness you had the robes of praise. Who shall tell your joy
since then? You have sung on earth, hymns of Heaven, and in your peaceful soul
you have anticipated the eternal Sabbath of the redeemed. Because you have
believed you have entered into rest. Yes, tell it the wide world over; they
that believe, by Jesus' death are justified from all things from which they
could not be freed by the works of the law. Tell it in Heaven, that none can
lay anything to the charge of Gods' elect. Tell it upon earth, that God's
redeemed are free from sin in Jehovah's sight. Tell it even in Hell, that God's
elect can never come there; for Christ hath died for them, and who is he that
shall condemn them? Now I have hurried over this to come to the last point,
which is he sweetest of all. Jesus Christ, we are told in our text, came into
the world "to give his life a ransom for many."
I must now return to that
controverted point again. We are often told (I mean those of us who are
commonly nicknamed by the title of Calvinists—and we are not very much ashamed
of that; we think that Calvin, after all, knew more about the Gospel than
almost any man who has ever lived, uninspired). We are often told that we limit
the atonement of Christ, because we say that Christ has not made a satisfaction
for all men, or all men would be saved. Now, our reply to this is, that, on the other hand, our opponents limit it: we do
not. The Arminians say, Christ died for all men. Ask
them what they mean by it. Did Christ die so as to secure the salvation of all
men? They say, "No, certainly not." We ask them the next question—Did
Christ die so as to secure the salvation of any man in particular? They answer
"No." They are obliged to admit this, if they are consistent. They say,
"No; Christ has died that any man may be saved if"—and then follow
certain conditions of salvation. We say, then, we will go back to the old
statement—Christ did not die so as beyond a doubt to secure the salvation of
anybody, did He? You must say "No;" you are obliged to say so, for
you believe that even after a man has been pardoned, he may yet fall from
grace, and perish. Now, who is it that limits the death of Christ? Why, you.
You say that Christ did not die so as to infallibly secure the salvation of
anybody. We beg your pardon, when you say we limit Christ's death; we say,
"No, my dear sir, it is you that do it." We say Christ so died that
He infallibly secured the salvation of a multitude that no man can number, who
through Christ's death not only may be saved but are saved, must be saved, and
cannot by any possibility run the hazard of being anything but saved. You are
welcome to your atonement; you may keep it. We will never renounce ours for the
sake of it.
Now, beloved, when you hear
any one laughing or jeering at a limited atonement, you may tell him this.
General atonement is like a great wide bridge with only half an arch; it does
not go across the stream: it only professes to go half way; it does not secure
the salvation of anybody. Now, I had rather put my foot upon a bridge as narrow
as Hungerford, which went all the way across, than on a bridge that was as wide
as the world, if it did not go all the way across the stream.
I am told it is my duty to
say that all men have been redeemed, and I am told that there is a Scriptural
warrant for it—"Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due
time." Now, that looks like a very, very great argument indeed on the
other side of the question. For instance, look here. "The whole world is
gone after him." Did all the world go after
Christ? "Then went all
Leaving controversy,
however, I will now answer a question. Tell me, then, sir, whom did Christ die
for? Will you answer me a question or two, and I will tell you whether He died
for you. Do you want a Saviour? Do you feel that you need a Saviour? Are you
this morning conscious of sin? Has the Holy Spirit taught you that you are
lost? Then Christ died for you and you will be saved. Are you this morning
conscious that you have no hope in the world but Christ? Do you feel that you
of yourself cannot offer an atonement that can satisfy God's justice? Have you
given up all confidence in yourselves? And can you say upon your bended knees,
"Lord, save, or I perish"? Christ died for you.
If you are saying this
morning, "I am as good as I ought to be; I can get to Heaven by my own
good works," then, remember, the Scripture says of Jesus, "I came not
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." So long as you are in
that state I have no atonement to preach to you. But if this morning you feel
guilty, wretched, conscious of your guilt, and are ready to take Christ to be
your only Saviour, I can not only say to you that you may be saved, but what is
better still, that you will be saved. When you are stripped of everything, but
hope in Christ, when you are prepared to come empty-handed and take Christ to
be your all, and to be yourself nothing at all, then you may look up to Christ,
and you may say, "Thou dear, thou bleeding Lamb of God! thy
griefs were endured for me; by thy stripes I am healed, and by thy sufferings I
am pardoned." And then see what peace of mind you will have; for if Christ
has died for you, you cannot be lost. God will not punish twice for one thing.
If God punished Christ for your sin, He will never punish you. "Payment,
God's justice cannot demand, first, at the bleeding surety's hand, and then
again at mine." We can today, if we believe in Christ, march to the very
throne of God, stand there, and if it is said, "Art thou guilty?" we
can say, "Yes, guilty." But if the question is put, "What have
you to say why you should not be punished for your guilt?" We can answer,
"Great God, thy justice and thy love are both guarantees that thou wilt
not punish us for sin; for didst thou not punish Christ for sin for us? How
canst thou, then, be just—how canst thou be God at all, if thou dost punish
Christ the substitute, and then punish man himself afterwards?"
Your only question is,
"Did Christ die for me?" And the only answer we can give
is—"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
came into the world to save sinners." Can you write your name down among
the sinners—not among the complimentary sinners, but among those that feel it,
bemoan it, lament it, seek mercy on account of it? Are you a sinner? That felt,
that known, that professed, you are now invited to believe that Jesus Christ
died for you, because you are a sinner; and you are bidden to cast yourself
upon this great immovable rock, and find eternal security in the Lord Jesus
Christ.