Thus is it, in every case, with the sinner. God is "of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look upon iniquity" (Hab. i. 13.); and yet the moment a sinner takes his true place, as one thoroughly lost, guilty, and undone--as one in whom there is not so much as a single point on which the eye of Infinite Holiness can rest with complacency--as one who is so bad that he cannot possibly be worse, there is an immediate, a perfect, a divine settlement of the entire matter. The grace of God deals with sinners, and when I know myself to be a sinner, I know myself to be one whom Christ came to save. The more clearly any one can prove me to be a sinner, the more clearly he establishes my title to the love of God and the work of Christ. "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." (1 Pet. iii. 18.) Now, if I am "unjust," I am one of those very people for whom Christ died, and I am entitled to all the benefits of His death. "There is not a just man upon earth;" and inasmuch as I am "upon earth," it is plain that I am "unjust," and it is equally plain that Christ died for me--that He suffered for my sins. Since, therefore, Christ died for me, it is my happy privilege to enter into the immediate enjoyment of the fruits of His sacrifice. This is as plain as plainness itself. It demands no effort whatsoever. I am not called to be any thing but just what I am. I am not called to feel, to experience, to realize any thing. The Word of God assures me that Christ died for me just as I am; and if He died for me, I am as safe as He is Himself. There is nothing against me: Christ met all. He not only suffered for my "_sins_," but He "made an end of _sin_." He abolished the entire system in which, as a child of the first Adam, I stood, and He has introduced me into a new position, in association with Himself, and there I stand before God, free from all charge of sin and all fear of judgment.
"Just as I am--without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bid'st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come!"
How do I know that His blood was shed for me? By the Scriptures. Blessed, solid, eternal ground of knowledge! Christ suffered for sins: I have gotten sins. Christ died, "the just for the unjust:" I am unjust. Wherefore the death of Christ appropriates itself to me as fully, as immediately, and as divinely as though I were the only sinner upon earth. It is not a question of my appropriation, realization, or experience. Many souls harass themselves about this. How often has one heard such language as the following: "Oh, I believe that Christ died for sinners, but I cannot _realize_ that my sins are forgiven. I cannot apply, I cannot appropriate, I do not experience the benefit of Christ's death"! All this is self, and not Christ; it is feeling, and not Scripture. If we search from cover to cover of the blessed volume, we shall not find a syllable about being saved by realization, experience, or appropriation. The gospel applies itself to all who are on the ground of being lost. Christ died for sinners. That is just what I am; wherefore He died for me. How do I know this? is it because I feel it? By no means. How then? By the Word of God. "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; He was buried, and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." (1 Cor. xv. 3, 4.) Thus it is all "according to the Scriptures." If it were according to our feelings, we should be in a deplorable way, for our feelings are hardly the same for the length of a day, but the Scriptures are ever the same. "Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven."--"Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy name."