Peace with God through the blood of Jesus.

William Reid; London England, 1860

I. FORGIVENESS OF SINS THROUGH THE BLOOD OF JESUS

The God of love, dear reader, in His written Word, gives an account of the rich mercy He has provided for the guilty, and tells you that you may be saved. His Word assures you that you may be saved from guilt, sin, and wrath. And that Word also informs you that your salvation depends not on anything you may do, but on what God has already done. Good news about God has reached our world, and in believing these glad tidings, you shall be saved.

This is the good news,

“God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” (ROM 5:8).
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” ().
“Christ died for the ungodly,” (ROM ).
“He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,” ().

If, by simply believing the good news about what God through Christ has done for sinners, we become “partakers of Christ” (), and are “accepted in the Beloved,” (), it will become matter of personal consciousness and spiritual joy that “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace,” (). “Be it known unto you therefore, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him all that believe are justified from all things,” ().

I ask you to settle it in your mind that “forgiveness of sins” () lies at the very threshold of the Christian life. It is a blessing needed and obtainable now. You must have forgiveness, or perish for ever; you must have it now, or you cannot have peace.

It is surely a delightful thought that you may have the guilt of all your past sins blotted out at once and for ever! God pardons freely and at once. He does not need any preparation on your part in order to pardon. One who knew the blessedness of enjoying His pardoning mercy testifies:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness;” and this testimony was given on the ground of what he had affirmed in the same letter, that “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin,” ().

He does not say: After you have repented more thoroughly, after you have spent days and weeks in agonizing prayer, after you become more thoroughly instructed in divine things, and after you pass through years of “trouble and sorrow,” then you may dare to hope for forgiveness. No; but, knowing that Christ died to put away sin, you are allowed to, by simply taking the place of a sinner, and accepting of Jesus as your Savior, to believe that, through the all-perfect merits of Christ, you are pardoned that very moment, and enjoy perfect peace with God; for God “justifies the ungodly,” (ROM ).

Peace with God through the forgiveness of all your sins may be obtained at any moment, seeing that you do not have to repent for it, work for it, or wait for it, but simply believe what God says regarding Christ “having made peace by the blood of His cross,” (). “And being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” (ROM )—and being fully satisfied that your sin has been forgiven you in a righteous way, being put away by “the precious blood of Christ,” ()—God being “well pleased for His righteousness’ sake,” ()—“just, and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus,” (ROM )—“peace that passes all understanding” () will spring up spontaneously within your soul, like the fresh, flowing current of a continuous fountain.

For the pardon of your sins, there is no time to be lost, for “the Holy Spirit says, Today,” (); and if you now refuse to listen, and die in your sins before tomorrow’s sun rises, you would inevitably perish eternally, notwithstanding your conviction of sin, and anxieties of soul; for Jesus Himself assures us that “he that believes not shall be damned,” ().

Besides, you can do nothing that will be helpful to yourself, or well pleasing to God, until you have obtained the forgiveness of your sins. And as pardon of sin is the first thing that you feel in need of, so it is the first thing which is presented by the God of love for your acceptance; for God is still to be found “in Christ reconciling sinners unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them,” ().

Also, you will have your whole life and character affected in a most striking way by the scripturalness or unscripturalness of the views you now entertain of “the God of all grace,” (), and the heartiness or hesitance with which you embrace His pardoning mercy.

The most useful life must ever be that which is firmly based on a knowledge of Christ crucified as the sole ground of acceptance with God, and on being justified, and having peace “through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us,” (). It will be found that those who do most for God and their fellow-sinners are such as he. Rev. Robert M’Cheyne, who knew himself to be forgiven by God and safe for eternity—of whom his biographer says, that “he walked calmly in almost unbroken fellowship with the FATHER and the SON”; and who himself thus describes his own undoubted conversion in the only record he has left of it:—

“When free grace awoke me, by light from on high,
Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die;
No refuge, no safety in self could I see—
The Lord our Righteousness (Jehovah Tsidkenu) (5) my Savior must be.
“My terrors all vanish’d before the sweet name,
My guilty fears banish’d, with boldness I came
To drink at the Fountain, life-giving and free—
The Lord our Righteousness (Jehovah Tsidkenu) is all things to me.”

II. HOW OUR SINS ARE TAKEN AWAY BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS

There is every reason why you should now intelligently and believingly behold the Lamb of God, “which takes away the sin of the world,” (). You are not directed in this passage to a Savior who has already “taken away the sin of the world,” but to Him who “takes away the sin of the world.” The meaning plainly is, that Jesus is the God-appointed Taker-away of sin for the world. We find him asserting this, when He says, “The Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins,” (); “All power” (or authority) “is given me in heaven and on earth,” (). Jesus is the only and the all-sufficient, as He is the authorized, Taker-away of sin, for the world at large. The whole world is brought in guilty before God, “for all have sinned,” (ROM ); and the true gospel of God is, that when any one belonging to our sinful world feels his sin to be oppressive, and comes straight to “the Lamb of God” with it, and frankly acknowledges it, and tells out his anxieties regarding it, and his desire to get rid of it, he will find that Jesus has both the power and the will to take it away; and on seeing it removed from him by “the blood of His cross,” (), “as far as the east is from the west,” (), he will be enabled to sing with a grateful heart and “joyful lips:”—

“I lay my sins on Jesus,
The spotless Lamb of God;
He bears them all, and frees us,
From the accursed load.”

You can never make an atonement for your past sins, nor by personal obedience receive the inheritance of glory; but Jesus is willing to take away all your sins, and to give you His own title to the glorious kingdom, if you will only consent to entrust Him alone with your salvation.
“Well,” you may perhaps resolve, “I will go to Him, and cast myself upon His mercy, and if I perish, I perish.” Ah, but you need not go to Him in that spirit, for it throws a doubt upon the all-sufficiency of His completed atonement for sin, and His perfect, spotless life of obedience.

Jesus Himself says, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” (). These being the “true sayings of God,” (), where, my friend, is there the least cause for you saying, with hesitancy and doubt, “If I perish, I perish?” (). The proper thought you ought to have in reference to the glorious Gospel is this—God has so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son to die for sinners, and He assures me that if I, a perishing sinner, believe in Him, I shall not perish, but have everlasting life; I believe His Word, and reckon that if He gave His Son to die for us when we were yet sinners, He will with Him also freely give all such things as pardon and purity, grace and glory; and if, in accordance with His own gracious invitation, I rest my soul upon His manifested love in Christ Jesus, I believe that it will be as impossible for me to perish, as for God to change His nature, or to cancel the word of grace and truth, that the “blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin,” ().
God the Father loved sinners so much as to send Jesus to die for them. Jesus loved sinners so much as to lay down His life for their redemption. The Holy Spirit loved sinners so much that he has written a record of God’s manifested love to them in Jesus Christ, and He Himself has come down in person, to reveal that love to their souls, that they may be saved.

If you, O anxious one, will now agree to God’s method of transferring all that Divine justice demands of you to Jesus, “who was made of a woman, made under the law,” who perfectly obeyed and pleased the Father in His holy life, and in death endured and exhausted the penalty due to sin, you will obtain pardon, peace, grace, and holiness; the full tide of the love of God, which passes knowledge, will flow into your soul, and, in the spirit of adoption, you will cry, “Abba, Father,” (), feel the constraining influence of the love of Christ, and live to the glory of “Him who died for us and rose again.”

That I may make the method of a sinner’s salvation so “plain, that he that reads it” () may have his mind’s eye so full of its meaning, “that he may run” at once to Jesus Christ, as his Divine sinbearer, I will present the following illustration:—

While standing one day on the platform of the Toronto Station of the CPR, I saw a carriage with a sign on it stating that it ran all the way from Toronto to Edmonton. The doors open, and a few individuals were entering. They looked for this particular train as soon as they had passed through the ticket-office, and on seeing “Edmonton” on it, they carried in their luggage and sat down, ready to travel. Having bought tickets, and satisfied themselves that they were in the right train, they were relaxed and confident that they would soon be on their way to Edmonton. I did not see any one of them coming out of the train, and running about in a state of excitement, calling to those around them, “Am I on the right train? Am I on the right train?”
Nor did I see any one refusing to enter, because the train provided for only a limited number of seats. There might be 1,000,000 inhabitants in and around the city; but still there was not one who talked of it as absurd to provide accommodation for only three-hundred people on the train, for experience taught that this was sufficient. Trains leave the city continually all day, and it is found that one train for Edmonton daily is quite sufficient. On the particular day to which I now refer, I noticed that so ample was the accommodation, that one of the passengers had a whole compartment to himself. The carriage is for the whole city, but carries only as many as come.

God, in His infinite wisdom, has made provision of a similar kind for our lost world. He has provided a train of grace to carry as many of its inhabitants to heaven, the great metropolis of the universe, as are willing to avail themselves of His gracious provision.

When we call you by the preaching of the gospel, the meaning is, that all who will may come, and passing through the ticket-office of justification by faith alone, seat themselves in a train marked, “From Guilt to Glory.” Whenever you hear the free and general offer of salvation, you need not stand revolving the question in your own mind, “Is it for me?”—for just as the railway carries all who comply with their printed regulations, irrespective of moral character, so if you come to the station of grace at the advertised time, which is “now,”—for “Behold now is the accepted time,” (),—you will find the train of salvation ready; and the only regulation to be complied with by you, in order to board it, is that you consent to let the Lord Jesus Christ charge Himself with paying for your seat,—which cannot surely be anything but an easy and desirable arrangement, seeing you have no means of paying for yourself.

Now if you came to the railway-station with no money in your pocket, and were running to catch a train about to leave, because you wanted to receive a valuable inheritance left to you by a friend; and if you would meet a kind gentleman at the ticket-office, who offered, “I will pay your fare for you,” you would not feel anything but thankfulness to this stranger.

It is not an easy matter for you, coming to the station of mercy, to submit to the regulation of the gospel, to let Jesus pay your fare for the train of grace, that you may take your seat with confidence, and be carried along the new and living way to everlasting glory?

If we want to know the gospel and be saved, we must know Jesus as our Sin bearer; for Christ crucified is the sum and the richness of the gospel. Paul was so taken with Jesus that nothing sweeter than Jesus could drop from his pen and lips. It is observed that he has quoted the precious name of JESUS five hundred times in his epistles.
“Jesus” was his constant subject of meditation, and out of the good treasure of the heart his mouth spoke and his pen wrote. He felt that Christ was made of God unto him “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption,” (), and glorying in the Lord and in His cross, he determined not to know anything among those to whom he preached and wrote, “save Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” (). That faith which is not built on a dying Christ is but a perilous dream: God awaken all from it that are in it!

“Christ alone is our salvation—
Christ the rock on which we stand;
Other than this sure foundation,
Will be found but sinking sand.
Christ, His Cross and resurrection,
Is alone the sinner’s plea;
At the throne of God’s perfection,
Nothing else can set him free.
“We have all things, Christ possessing;
Life eternal, second birth;
Present pardon, peace, and blessing,
While we tarry here on earth;
And by faith’s anticipation,
Foretastes of the joy above,
Freely given us with salvation,
By the Father in His love.
“When we perfect joy shall enter,
‘Tis in Him our bliss will rise;
He’s the essence, soul, and centre,
Of the glory in the skies:
In redemption’s wondrous story,
(Plann’d before our parents’ fall),
From the Cross unto the Glory,
Jesus Christ is all in all.”

III. THE BLOOD OF JESUS, NOT CONVICTION OF SIN, IS THE FOUNDATION OF OUR PEACE AND JOY

If the Holy Spirit is awakening you to a true apprehension of your danger as a rebel against God’s authority,—a guilty, polluted, hell-deserving sinner,—you must be in a deeply anxious state of mind, and questions as these must be ever present with you:—

“What must I do to be saved?
What is the true ground of a sinner’s peace with God?
What am I to believe in order to be saved?”

Well, in so far as laying the foundation of your reconciliation is concerned, I need to tell you that you have nothing to do; for the Almighty Surety of sinners said on Calvary, “It is finished,” (). Jesus has done all that the Holy Jehovah deemed necessary to be done to insure complete pardon, acceptance, and salvation to all who believe in His name. If you take Jesus as your Savior, you will build securely for eternity. “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ,” (). He is the foundation-stone of salvation laid by God Himself, and on His finished atoning work alone you are instructed to rest the salvation of your soul, and not on anything accomplished by you, wrought in you, felt by you, or proceeding from you.

It is of the utmost importance to be clear as to the fact that it is the work of Christ without you, and not the work of the Spirit within you, that must form the sole ground of your deliverance from guilt and wrath, and of peace with God.

You must beware of resting your peace on your feelings, convictions, tears, repentance, prayers, duties, or resolutions. You must begin with receiving Christ, and not make that the end of a course of preparation. Christ must be the Alpha and Omega. He must be EVERYTHING in our salvation, or He will be nothing.

Be careful that you don’t fall into the common mistake of supposing that you will be more welcome and accepted of Christ if you are brought through a terrible process of “law-work.” You are as welcome to Christ now as you will ever be. Don’t wait for deeper convictions of sin, for why should you prefer conviction to Christ? And you would not have one iota more safety though you had deeper convictions of sin than any sinner ever had. “Convictions of sin are precious; but they bring no safety, no peace, no salvation, no security, but war, and storm, and trouble. It is well to be awakened from sleep when danger is hanging over us; but to wake from sleep is not to escape from danger. It is only to be sensible of danger, nothing more.
Likewise, to be convinced of your sins is merely to be made sensible that your soul is in danger. It is no more. It is not deliverance. Of itself, it can bring no deliverance; it tells of no Savior It merely tells us that we need one. Yet there are many who, when they have had deep convictions of sin, strong terrors of the law, congratulate themselves as if all were well. They say, “Ah, I have been convinced of sin; I have been under terrors; it is well with me; I am safe.” Well with you? Safe?

Is it well with the seaman when he wakes up and finds his vessel going to pieces on the rocks in the fury of the roaring tide? Is it well with the sleeper when he wakes up to the smell of smoke and a roaring blaze beside his bed? Does he say, “Ah, it is well with me; I have seen the flames?”

In this way sinners are not infrequently led to be content with some resting-place short of the appointed one. Anxiety to have deep convictions, and contentment with them after they have been experienced, are too often the means which Satan uses for turning away the sinner’s eye from the perfect work of Jesus, who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree.

Our peace with God, our forgiveness, our reconciliation, flow wholly from the sin-atoning sacrifice of Jesus.
Listen then, O Spirit-convinced soul, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!

In His death on the cross, behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world! In His death on the cross, behold the mighty sacrifice, the ransom for the sins of many!
Behold there the sum of all His obedience and sufferings!
Behold the finished work!—a work of astonishing magnitude, which He alone could have undertaken and accomplished!
Behold our sacrifice, our finished sacrifice, our perfected redemption, the sole foundation of our peace, and hope, and joy. “He His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree,” (). It is not said that our duties, or our prayers, or our fasting, or our convictions of sin, or our repentance, or our honest life, or our generosity and tithing, or our faith, or our grace—it is not said that these bore our sins; it was Jesus, Jesus Himself, Jesus alone, Jesus, and none but Jesus, “bore our sins in His own body on the tree.” Rest, then, in nothing short of peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Christ has done the mighty work;
Nothing left for us to do,
But to enter on His toil,
Enter on His triumph too.
“His the labor, ours the rest;
His the death, and ours the life;
Ours the fruits of victory,

to be continued.
edited by CVD.