29. Heb. i. 3; ix. 26. Dan. ix. 24.)
because he is sorry for what he did. Today's sorrow will not wipe off the score of yesterday's sins. It is not an ocean of tears that will ever cleanse an uneasy conscience, and give it peace.
Where then must a man go for pardon? Where is forgiveness to be found ? Listen, Reader, and by God's help I will tell you. There is a way both sure and plain, and into that way I desire to guide every inquirer's feet.
That way is, simply to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as your Saviour. It is to cast your soul, with all its sins, unreservedly on Christ, - to cease completely from any dependence on your own works and doings, either in whole or in part, and to rest on no other work but Christ's work, no other righteousness but Christ's righteousness, no other merit but Christ's merit, as your ground of hope. Take this course, and you are a pardoned soul. " To Christ," says Peter, " give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins." (Acts x. 43.) " Through this man," said Paul at Antioch, " is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by Him all that believe are justified from all things." (Acts xiii. 38.) " In Him," writes Paul to the Colossians, " we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." (Col. i. 4.)
The Lord Jesus Christ, in great love and compassion, has made a full and complete satisfaction for sin, by His own death upon the cross. There He offered Himself as a sacrifice for us, and allowed the wrath of God which we deserved, to fall on His own head. For our sins He gave Himself, suffered, and died, - the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, - that He might deliver us from the curse of a broken law, and provide a complete pardon for all who are willing to receive it. And by so doing, as Isaiah says, He has borne our sins, - as John the Baptist says, He has taken away sin, - as Paul says, He has purged our sins, and put away sin, - and as Daniel says, He has made an end of sin, and finished transgression. (Isaiahliii.il. John i. 29. Heb. i. 3; ix. 26. Dan. ix. 24.)
And now the Lord Jesus is sealed and appointed by God the Father to be a Prince and Him, - confide in Him, - commit our souls to Him, - and forsaking all other hope, cleave only to Him, - this is all and everything that God asks for. Let a man only do this, and he shall be saved. His iniquities shall be found completely pardoned, and his transgressions entirely taken away. Every man that so trusts is wholly forgiven, and reckoned perfectly righteous. His sins are clean gone, and his soul is justified in God's sight, however bad and guilty he may have been.*
Faith is the only thing required, not knowledge. A man may be a poor unlearned sinner, and know little of books. But if he sees enough to find the foot of the cross, and trust in Jesus for pardon, I will engage he shall not miss heaven. To know Christ is the cornerstone of all religious knowledge.
Faith, I say, and not conversion. A man may have been walking in the broad way up to the very hour he first hears the Gospel. But if in that hearing he is awakened to feel his danger, and wants to be saved, let him come to Christ at once, and wait for nothing. That very coming is the beginning of conversion.
Faith, I repeat, and not holiness. A man may feel all full of sin, and unworthy to be saved. But let him not tarry outside the ark till he is better. Let him come to Christ without delay, just as he is. Afterwards he shall be holy.
Reader, I call upon you to let nothing move you from this strong ground, that faith in Christ is the only thing needed for your justification. Stand firm here, if you value your soul's peace. I see many walking in darkness, and having no light, from confused notions as to what faith is. They hear that saving faith will work by love, and produce holiness; and not finding all this at once in themselves, they think they have no faith at all. They forget that these things are the fruits of faith, and not faith itself, and that to doubt whether we have faith because we do not see them at once, is
like doubting whether a tree be alive, because it does not bear fruit the very day wTe plant it in the ground. I charge you to settle it firmly in your mind that in the matter of your forgiveness and justification there is but one thing required, and that is simple faith in Christ.*
I know well that the natural heart dislikes this doctrine. It runs counter to man's notions of religion. It leaves him no room to boast. Man's idea is to come to Christ with a price in his hand, - his regularity, his morality, his repentance, his goodness, - and so, as it were, to buy his pardon and justification. The Spirit's teaching is quite different; it is first of all to believe. " Whosoever believeth shall not perish." (John iii. 16.)
Some say, such doctrine cannot be right, because it makes the way to heaven too easy. I fear that many such persons, if the truth were spoken, find it too hard. I believe in reality it is easier to give a fortune in building a cathedral like York Minster, or to go to the stake and be burned, than thoroughly to receive justification by faith without the deeds of the law, and to enter heaven as a sinner saved by grace.*
Some say this doctrine is foolishness and enthusiasm. I answer, this is just what was said of it 1800 years ago, and is a vain cavil now, as it was then. So far from the charge being true, a thousand facts can prove this doctrine to be from God. No doctrine certainly has produced such mighty effects in the world, as the simple proclamation of free forgiveness through faith in Christ.
This is the glorious doctrine that was the strength of the apostles when they went forth to the Gentiles to"preach a new religion. They began a few poor fishermen in a despised corner of the earth. They turned the world upside down. They changed the face of the Roman empire. They emptied the heathen temples of their worshippers, and made the whole system of idolatry crumble away. And what was the
weapon by which they did it all ? It was free forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ.
This is the doctrine which brought light into Europe 300 years ago, at the time of the blessed Reformation, and enabled one solitary monk, Martin Luther, to shake the whole church of Rome. Through his preaching and writing the scales fell from men's eyes, and the chains of their souls were loosed. And what was the lever that gave him his power ? It was free forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ.
This is the doctrine that revived our own church in the middle of the last century, when Whitefield and the Wesleys, and Romaine, and Berridge, and Venn broke the wretched spirit of slumber that had come over the land, and roused men to think. They began a mighty work, with little seeming likelihood of success. They began, few in number, with small encouragement from the rich and great. But they prospered. And why ? - Because they preached free forgiveness through faith in Christ.
This is the doctrine which is the true strength of any church on earth at this day. It is not orders, or endowments, or liturgies, or learning, that will keep a church alive. Let free forgiveness through Christ be faithfully proclaimed in her pulpits, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her. Let it be buried or kept back, and her candlestick shall soon be taken away. When the Saracens invaded the lands where. Jerome and Athanasius, Cyprian and Augustine, once wrote and preached, they found bishops and liturgies, I make no question. But I fear they found no preaching of free forgiveness of sins, and so they swept the churches of those lands clean away. They were a body without a vital principle, and therefore they fell. Let us never forget the brightest days of a church are those when Christ crucified is most exalted. The dens and caves of the earth where the early Christians met to hear of the love of Jesus, were more full of glory and beauty in God's sight than ever was St. Peter's at Rome. The meanest barn at this day, where the true way of pardon is offered to sinners, is a far more honorable place than is the cathedral of Cologne or Milan. A
church is only useful so far as she exalts free forgiveness through Christ.
This is the doctrine which of all others is the mightiest engine for pulling down the kingdom of Satan. The Greenlanders were unmoved, so long as the Moravians told them of the creation and the fall of man ; but when they heard of redeeming love, their_ frozen hearts melted like snow in spring. Preach salvation by the sacraments, exalt the church above Christ, and keep back the doctrine of the atonement, and the devil cares little, - his goods are at peace. But preach a full Christ and a free pardon, and then Satan will have great wrath, for he knows he has but a short time. John Berridge said he went on preaching morality and nothing else, till he found there was not a moral man in his parish. But when he changed his plan, and began to preach the love of Christ to sinners, then there was a stirring of the dry bones, and a mighty turning to God.
This is the only doctrine which will ever bring peace to an uneasy conscience, and rest to a troubled soul. A man may get on pretty well without it so long as he is asleep about his spiritual condition. But once let him
awake from his slumber, and nothing will ever calm him but the blood of atonement and the peace of Christ.* How any one can undertake to be a minister of religion without a firm grasp of this doctrine, I never can understand. For myself, I can only say, I should think my office a most painful one, if I had not the message of free forgiveness to convey. It would be miserable work indeed to visit the sick and dying, if I could not say, "Behold the Lamb of God, - believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." The right hand of a Christian minister is the doctrine of free forgiveness through faith in Christ. Give us this doctrine, and we have power: we will never despair of doing good to men's souls. Take away this doctrine, and we are weak as water. We may read the prayers, and go through a round of forms, but we are like Samson with his hair shorn, our
strength is gone. Souls will not be benefited by us, and good will not be done.
Reader, I commend the things I have been saying to your notice. I am not ashamed of free pardon through faith in Christ, whatever some may say against the doctrine. I am not ashamed of it, for its fruits speak for themselves. It has done things that no other doctrine can do. It has effected moral changes which laws and punishments have failed to work, - which magistrates and policemen have labored after in vain, which mechanics' institutes and secular knowledge have proved utterly powerless to produce. Just as the fiercest lunatics in Bethlehem Hospital became suddenly gentle when kindly treated, even so the worst and most hardened sinners have often become as little children, when told of Jesus loving them and willing to forgive. I can well understand Paul ending his Epistle to the erring Galatians with that solemn burst of feeling, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Gal. vi. 14.) The crown has indeed fallen from a Christian's head, when he leaves the doctrine of justification by faith.
See now how you should ask yourself whether you have really received the truth which I have been dwelling on, and know it by experience. Jesus, and faith in Him, is the only way to the Father. He that thinks to climb into paradise by some other road, will find himself fearfully mistaken. Other foundation can no man lay for an immortal soul than that of which I have been feebly speaking. He that ventures himself here is safe. He that is off this rock has got no standing ground at all.
See too how you should seriously consider what kind of a ministry you are in the habit of attending, supposing you have a choice. You have reason indeed to be careful. It is not all the same where you go, whatever people may say. There are many places of worship, I fear, where you might look long for Christ crucified, and never find Him. He is buried under outward ceremonies, - thrust behind the baptismal font, - lost sight of under the shadow of the church. " They
have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him." Take heed where you settle yourself. Try all by this single test, " Is Jesus and free forgiveness proclaimed here?" There may be comfortable pews - there may be good singing, - there may be learned sermons. But if Christ's Gospel is not the sun and centre of the whole place, do not continue there. Say rather with Isaac, " Here is the wood and the fire, but where is the Lamb ?" Be very sure this is not the place for your soul.
Reader, remember these things, and you will be wise. I have set before you the way of life. I have told you where pardon is to be found. O beware lest an offer being made you of free forgiveness, any of you should come short of it.
III. Let me, in the third place, encourage all who wish to be forgiven.
I dare be sure this paper will be read by some one who feels he is not yet a forgiven soul. My heart's desire and prayer is, that such an one may seek his pardon at once. And I would fain help him forward, by showing him the kind of forgiveness offered to him, and the glorious privileges within his reach.
Listen to me then, while I try to exhibit to you the treasures of Gospel forgiveness. I cannot describe its fullness as I ought. Its riches are indeed unsearchable. (Ephes. iii. 8.) But if you turn away from it, you shall not be able to say in the day of judgment, you did not at all know what it was.
Consider then for one thing, that the forgiveness set before you is a great and broad forgiveness. Hear what the Prince of Peace Himself declares, " All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith-soever they shall blaspheme." (Mark iii. 28.) " Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall become white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." (Isaiah i. 18.) Yes! though your trespasses be more in number than the hairs of
your head, the stars in heaven, the leaves of the forest, the blades of grass, the grains of sand on the seashore, still they can be all pardoned. As the waters of Noah's flood covered over and hid the tops of the highest hills, so can the blood of Jesus cover over and hide your mightiest sins. "His blood cleanseth from all sin." (1 John i. 7.) Though to you they seem written with the point of a diamond, they can all be effaced from the book of God's remembrance by that precious blood. Paul names a long list of abominations which the Corinthians had committed, and then says, "such were some of you, but ye are washed." (1 Cor. vi. 11.)
Furthermore, it is a full and complete forgiveness. It is not like David's pardon to Absalom, - a permission to return home, but not a full restoration to favor. (2 Sam. xiv. 24.) It is not, as some fancy, a mere letting off, and letting alone. It is a pardon so complete, that he who has it is reckoned as righteous as if he had never sinned at all.* His iniquities are blotted out. They are removed from him as far as the east and the west. (Psalm ciii. 12.) There remains no condemnation for him. The Father sees him joined to Christ, and is well pleased. The Son beholds him clothed with His own righteousness, and says, " Thou art all fair, there is no spot in thee." (Cant. iv. 7.) Blessed be God that it is so. I verily believe if the best of us all had only one blot left for himself to wipe out, he would miss eternal life. If the holiest child of Adam were in heaven all but his little finger, and to get in depended on himself, I am sure he would never enter the kingdom. If Noah, Daniel, and Job, had had but one day's sins to wash away, they would never have been saved. Praised be God that in the matter of our pardon there is nothing left for man to do. Jesus does all, and man has only to hold out an empty hand and receive.
Furthermore, it is a. free and unconditional forgiveness. It is not burdened with an " if," like Solomon's pardon to Adonijah, " If he will show himself a worthy man." (1 Kings i. 52.) Nor yet are you obliged to carry a price in your hand, or bring a character with you to prove yourself deserving of mercy. Jesus requires but one character, and
that is, that you should feel yourself a sinful bad man. He invites you to " buy wine and milk without money and without price," and declares, " Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." (Isaiah lv. 1. Rev. xxii. 17.) Like David in the cave of Adullam, He receives " every one that feels in distress and a debtor," and rejects none. (1 Sam. xxii. 2.) Are you a sinner? Do you want a Saviour? Then come to Jesus, just as you are, and" your soul shall live.
Again, it is an offered forgiveness. I have read of earthly kings who knew not how to show mercy, - of Henry the Eighth of England, who spared neither man nor woman; of James the Fifth of Scotland, who would never show favor to a Douglas. The King of kings is not like them. He calls on man to come to Him and be pardoned. "Unto you, Omen, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men." (Prov. viii. 4.) " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." (Isaiah Iv. 1.) "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." (John vii. 37.) " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." (Matt. xi. 28.) O Reader, it ought to be a great comfort to you and me to hear of any pardon at all; but to hear Jesus Himself inviting us, to see Jesus Himself holding out his hand to us, - the Saviour seeking the sinner before the sinner seeks the Saviour, - this is encouragement, this is strong consolation indeed.
Again, it is a willing forgiveness. I have heard of pardons granted in reply to long entreaty, and wrung out by much importunity. King Edward the Third of England would not spare the citizens of Calais till they came to him with halters round their necks, and his own queen interceded for them on her knees. But Jesus is " good and ready to forgive." "(Psalm lxxxvi. 5.) He delighteth in mercy. (Micah vii. 18.) Judgment is his strange work. He is not willing that any should perish. (2 Peter iii. 9.) He would fain have all men saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim. ii. 4.) He wept over unbelieving Jerusalem. " As I live," He says, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways: why will ye die?" (Ezek. xxxiii. 11.) Ah! Reader, you and I may well come
boldly to the throne of grace. He who sits there is far more willing and ready to give mercy than you and I to receive it.
Beside this, it is a tried forgiveness. Thousands and tens of thousands have sought for pardon at the mercy-seat of Christ, and not one has ever returned to say that he sought in vain. Sinners of every name and nation, - sinners of every sort and description, have knocked at the door of the fold, and none have ever been refused admission. Zacchaeus the extortioner, Magdalen the harlot, Saul the persecutor, Peter the denier of his Lord, the Jews who crucified the Prince of life, the idolatrous Athenians, the adulterous Corinthians, the ignorant Africans, the blood-thirsty New Zealanders, - all have ventured their souls on Christ's promises of pardon, and none have ever found them fail. Ah! Reader, if the way I set before you were a new and untravelled way, you might well feel faint-hearted. But it is not so. It is an old path. It is a path worn by the feet of many pilgrims, and a path in which the footsteps are all one way. The treasury of Christ's mercies has never been found empty. The well of living waters has never proved dry.
Beside this, it is a present forgiveness. All that believe in Jesus are at once justified from all things. (Acts xiii. 38.) The very day the younger son returned to his father's house, he was clothed with the best robe, had the ring put on his hand and the shoes on his feet. (Luke xv.) The very day Zacchaeus received Jesus he heard those comfortable words, " This day is salvation come to this house." (Luke xix. 9.) The very day that David said, " I have sinned against the Lord," he was told by Nathan, " The Lord also hath put away thy sin." (2 Sam. xii. 13.) The very day you first flee to Christ your sins are all removed. Your pardon is not a thing far away, to be obtained only by hard work, and after many years. It is nigh at hand. It is close to you, within your reach, all ready to be bestowed. Believe, and that very moment it is your own. " He that believeth is not condemned." (John iii. 18.) It is not said, " He shall not be," or " will not be," but " is not." From the time of his believing condemnation is gone. " He that believeth hath everlasting life." (John iii. 36.) It is not said, " He shall