Sep 24
22
All error in theology comes from two sources. An attempt to make God less than He is or an attempt to make man more than he is.
Henry Mahan
God is well-pleased, and receives with pleasure, approbation, and delight—all who approach His throne of grace, sensible of their needs—in the name of Christ crucified. Hence faith in Christ becomes the only way of access to God—all other avenues are stopped up! The sword of justice is brandished to keep every other way to the tree of life closed. In Christ, we may come with boldness to the throne of grace; there is no obstacle, no hindrance, in this way. The sword of justice is sheathed, the law magnified, the ransom price paid, the devil dethroned, sin expiated, wrath endured, God well-pleased, sinners redeemed, enemies reconciled—that the Lord God might dwell among them!
William Huntington
THE SECURITY OF THE SHEEP
“My sheep hear My voice and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father which gave them Me, is Greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s Hand.” (John 10:27-29).
There is no stronger passage to be found in the word of God guaranteeing the absolute security of every child of God. They are His sheep, they follow Him, they have Christ, the Father gave them to Christ (John 6:37 John ch 17 vss 2, 7, 9, 12, 24,) and they are in Father’s hand. The sheep of Christ have a double security, they are in the hand of Christ and they are in the hand of the Father. To suggest that any of His sheep could be finally lost is to blasphemy the Lord Himself.
Henry Mahan.
Justification
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Romans 3:28
The greatest sinner, whatever his past sins or present infirmities, or future problems; any son of Adam, Jew or Gentile, black or white, old or young; can be freely and completely justified before the most high God—all his sins pardoned, blotted out and forgotten by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
By faith in Christ that sinner has a perfect holiness before God. To state this so positively upsets many well-meaning religious people. We are told by them that it is dangerous doctrine which may lead men to live in sin while professing to be saved by Christ. They add: A man can be saved by faith in Christ; if he is genuinely convicted of sin, if he has mourned apart, if he has repented sufficiently, if he is scripturally baptised, if he abstains from worldliness, if he holds the correct doctrine, if he does not succumb to any great sin!
Brethren, I don’t know who appointed us guardians of the promises of God or watchdogs of his grace but the scriptures plainly says, ““He that believeth on the Son of God hath eternal life.” I plan to leave it right there, adding nothing and taking nothing away. Jesus Christ is the all-sufficient Saviour and he that believeth on him is not condemned. I also add that this matter of justification by faith is the article by which a church—a minister and a professor of Christianity stands or falls. There is no bridge between merit and mercy. They are as far apart as the poles and never the twain shall meet.”
Henry Mahan
His master-purpose!
(Charles Spurgeon,
“Christ’s Incarnation, the Foundation of Christianity”)Let us gather with grateful boldness around the infant in the manger, and
behold our God! “And thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall
save His people from their sins!” Matthew 1:21
The great object of our Lord’s coming here was not to live, but to die.
He appeared, not so much to subdue sin by His teaching, or to manifest
goodness, or to perfect an example for us to imitate-but “to put away sin
by the sacrifice of Himself.”
The modern teachers of error would thrust the substitutionary sacrifice of
Jesus into the background-but our Lord placed it in the forefront. He came to
take away our sins. Do not think of Jesus without remembering the design of His
coming.
We preach Christ-so do a great many more. But, “we preach Christ
crucified!” 1 Corinthians 1:23. We preach, concerning our
Lord-His cross, His blood, His death! Upon the blood of His cross we lay great
stress, extolling much “the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot.”
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” by putting away
their sin “by the sacrifice of Himself.”
We will not deny, or conceal, or depreciate His master-purpose-lest
we be found guilty of trampling upon His blood, and treating it as an unholy
thing.
“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief!” 1
Timothy 1:15
“I will accept you with your sweet savour.” — Ezekiel 20:41
The merits of our great Redeemer are as sweet savour to the Most High. Whether we speak of the active or passive righteousness of Christ, there is an equal fragrance. There was a sweet savour in His active life by which He honoured the law of God, and made every precept to glitter like a precious jewel in the pure setting of His own person.
Such, too, was His passive obedience, when He endured with unmurmuring submission, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, sweat great drops of blood in Gethsemane, gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to those who plucked out the hair, and was fastened to the cruel wood—that He might suffer the wrath of God in our behalf.
These two things are sweet before the Most High; and for the sake of His doing and His dying, His substitutionary sufferings and His vicarious obedience—the Lord our God accepts us. What a preciousness must there be in Him to overcome our want of preciousness! What a sweet savour—to put away our ill savour! What a cleansing power in His blood—to take away sin such as ours! and what glory in His righteousness—to make such unacceptable creatures to be accepted in the Beloved!
Mark, believer, how sure and unchanging must be our acceptance, since it is in Him! Take care that you never doubt your acceptance in Jesus. You cannot be accepted without Christ; but, when you have received His merit, you cannot be unaccepted. Notwithstanding all your doubts, and fears, and sins, Jehovah’s gracious eye never looks upon you in anger; though He sees sin in you, in yourself—yet when He looks at you through Christ, He sees no sin. You are always accepted in Christ—and always blessed and dear to the Father’s heart. Therefore lift up a song, and as you see the smoking incense of the merit of the Saviour coming up, this evening, before the sapphire throne, let the incense of your praise go up also! “He hath made us accepted in the beloved!” Ephesians 1:6
C.H.Spurgeon
“The Scapegoat”
Leviticus 16:8
The scapegoat beautifully portrays our dear Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. As the slain goat portrays him as the Lamb sacrificed for our sins, the scapegoat portrays him as the sacrifice accepted. The scapegoat is a picture of the complete removal of our sins by Christ. The first goat, the Lord’s goat, the slain victim, gave us a picture of the atonement. The second goat, the scapegoat, gives us a picture of the result of the atonement.
A Fit Man
With all the sins of Israel made his, the scapegoat was taken away by a fit man. That fit man is the Judge of all the earth who must do right, the very justice of God. The scapegoat is borne beyond the camp—beyond all sight—beyond the track of man—to the far borders of an uninhabited land. Released, it disappears in rocks and thickets of an uninhabited desert. Unseen, unknown, forgotten, it departs from mortal view. It is now buried in oblivion’s land.
Full Pardon
There is no brighter picture of the full pardon of all sin in Christ. Christ bore the accursed load of all my sin and guilt away, as far away as the east is from the west; and God’s all-seeing eye cannot find it.
Oh, precious tidings! Oh, heart-cheering truth! Oh, wondrous grace! God the Spirit, by the testimony of the gospel, proclaims this good news and confirms it in the soul by the gift of life and faith in Christ. God has cast our sins, all our sins, behind his back and into the depth of the sea of infinite forgetfulness! As we watch that fit Man and the Scapegoat, Christ Jesus, the horizon recedes. Infinite separation has infinitely separated our transgressions from us! Christ, our Scapegoat, has borne our iniquities away (Psalm 103:12; Isaiah 38:17; Micah 7:19).
Can we recover what the ocean buries? No line can reach to the unmeasured depths. It has sunk downward, never to arise. Deep waters hide it; and it must be hidden. Such is the grave of sin. Our Scapegoat drowned it in a fathomless abyss. The word is sure. “Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea!“
Can that be seen to which the eye of omniscience is blind? Are objects visible which are behind your back? Our Scapegoat has cast our sins behind God’s back! He has blotted out, as a thick cloud, our transgressions (Isaiah 44:22), and can never find them (Jeremiah 50:20).
Not Remembered
That which Christ has taken away, blotted out, and removed by his precious, sin-atoning blood, God cannot and will not remember. He promised, “I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:34). Do you need comfort? Drink deeply from this stream of joy. Lay down in this green pasture of delight. Your sins, so many, vile, and hateful, your Scapegoat has taken away. All your blemishes, defects, iniquities, transgressions, and sins are forever gone! And God your Saviour. God, who cannot lie, says to you, “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee” (Song of Solomon 4:7).
Don Fortner
“He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.”
Hebrews 10:9
In this 10th chapter of Hebrews the Holy Spirit shows us the purpose of God in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He declares that the Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, is the only sin-atoning High Priest there is. The whole chapter is a declaration of the fact that the Son of God has finished His work of redemption and has perfectly fulfilled all that portrayed Him and His work in the Old Testament. That is the doctrine of Hebrews 10.
First, God gave Israel the law, the priesthood, the tabernacle, the sacrifices, and the services of that carnal age, by which they might know and worship Him in type and imagery until Christ came. Then Christ came to do the will of God, to do what those things could only portray and typify, to accomplish the redemption and salvation of God’s elect. Thus, He took away the first that he might establish the second (Hebrews 10:9-22).
Our blessed Redeemer took away the old ceremonies, sacrifices, priesthood, and ordinances of carnal worship, when He came to do the will of God. While they lasted, those things were good. “The law is holy, and just, and good.” During that age of legal, ceremonial worship, those things were both useful and good. But when Christ came, He took them away. He took them away because they were no longer needed. The types served their purpose; but now Christ has come. Who needs a picture? The God-man Himself is here! The Saviour is present with us.
Christ took those things away because the observance of those things now are forbidden. God destroyed the temple, the altar, the priesthood, the ark, the mercy-seat, every particle of law and the carnal worship of that age to keep us from returning to legality, and to keep us from ritualism and idolatry. The destruction of every particle of the Old Testament legal system is a declaration that redemption’s work is done! Christ has finished the work. If we still had those carnal implements of worship, they would only take our minds off of our Lord Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:10-23). When our Lord Jesus took away the types, He brought in and established something far better. He brought in real, perfect, complete, everlasting atonement (Daniel 9:24).
He took away the first that He might establish the second; and this is far, far better. The first was good; but God saved the best until last. Once we have seen Christ, we do not miss Aaron. Once we have experienced the simplicity of the Gospel, we never pine for the complexity and bondage of the law. If ever a sinner enters into the holy place, he will not wish to re-hang the veil! No one who has experienced the liberty and freedom of grace will ever return to the bondage and terror of the law (Galatians 5:1-4).
Here the Holy Spirit gives us both a word of assurance and a word of warning. — “He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.” The assurance is this. — Justice is satisfied! Redemption is accomplished! Sin is pardoned! But, be sure you hear the warning. We dare not seek to re-establish any ordinance of the law, lest we build again that which God has cast down. We dare not seek to establish any ordinance of worship which God has not established in His Word, lest we be guilty of idolatry. We dare not tolerate any notion that the second can fail. — “He shall not fail!” His blood shall not fail to atone! His righteousness shall not fail to satisfy! His intercession shall not fail to prevail! His grace shall not fail to save!
Don Fortner
Here, and here alone
Standing then at the cross of our adorable Lord,
we may see . . .
the law thoroughly fulfilled,
its curse fully endured,
its penalties wholly removed,
sin eternally put away,
the justice of God amply satisfied,
all His perfections gloriously harmonized,
reconciliation completely effected,
redemption graciously accomplished,
and the church everlastingly saved.
Here, and here alone, we see sin in its blackest
colors, and holiness in its most attractive beauties.
Here, and here alone, we see the love of God
in its tenderest form, and the anger of God in
its deepest expression.
Here, and here alone, we see the eternal and
unalterable displeasure of the Almighty against sin,
and the rigid demands of His inflexible justice, and
yet the tender compassion and boundless love of
His heart to the election of grace.
Here, and here alone, are obtained pardon and peace.
Here, and here alone, penitential grief and
godly sorrow flow from heart and eyes.
Here, and here alone, is . . .
sin subdued and mortified,
holiness communicated,
death vanquished,
Satan put to flight, and
happiness and heaven begun in the soul.
What a holy meeting-place for repenting sinners
and a sin-pardoning God! What a healing-place
for guilty, yet repenting and returning backsliders!
What a door of hope in the valley of Achor for the
self-condemned and self-abhorred! What a safe
spot for seeking souls! And what a blessed
resorting-place for the whole family of grace
in this valley of grief and sorrow.
J.C.Philpot