Justified by His Blood, April 6
Justified by His Blood, April 6
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Romans 5:9.
God calls for faith in Christ as our atoning sacrifice. His blood is the only remedy for sin.
It is not God’s will that you should be distrustful, and torture your soul with the fear that God will not accept you because you are sinful and unworthy.... You can say: “I know I am a sinner, and that is the reason I need a Saviour.... I have no merit or goodness whereby I may claim salvation, but I present before God the all-atoning blood of the spotless Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is my only plea.”
God is approached through Jesus Christ, the Mediator, the only way through which He forgives sins. God cannot forgive sins at the expense of His justice, His holiness, and His truth. But He does forgive sins and that fully. There are no sins He will not forgive in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the sinner’s only hope, and if he rests here in sincere faith, he is sure of pardon and that full and free. There is only one channel and that is accessible to all, and through that channel a rich and abundant forgiveness awaits the penitent, contrite soul and the darkest sins are forgiven. These lessons were taught to the chosen people of God thousands of years ago, and repeated in various symbols and figures, that the work of truth might be riveted in every heart, that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.... Justice demanded the sufferings of man; but Christ rendered the sufferings of a God. He needed no atonement of suffering for Himself; all His sufferings were for us; all His merits and holiness were open to fallen man, presented as a gift.
Christ calls upon us to lay our sins upon Him, the Sin-Bearer.... But if we refuse to let them go, taking the responsibility ourselves, we will be lost. We may fall upon Christ, the living stone, and be broken, but if that Stone falls upon us, it will grind us to powder. [103]